The Lost Daughter: Maggie Gyllenhaal shows she can direct, too December 18, 2021 Twenty years on from her breakthrough role in Secretary, star Maggie Gyllenhaal directs and writes her first feature. It seems like a natural progression for the actor, who has largely stuck with independent dramas and interesting blockbusters (The Dark Knight, World Trade Center). The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Colman as Leda, an academic in her [...]
Trouble in Mind at the National Theatre is a searing portrait of racism December 18, 2021 Racial tensions reach breaking-point in the National Theatre’s production of Trouble in Mind. It’s the mid-1950s, and race is a hot-button issue in America. Al Manners (Rory Keenan) is a white Hollywood director, suspected of communist sympathies, who is compelled to take a job on Broadway. He intends to direct Chaos in Belleville, a broad [...]
Best of Enemies at the Young Vic: A dense, ambitious political tinderbox December 17, 2021 James Graham is among the best political playwrights working today, responsible for gems including This House, innovative live-streamed election-night saga The Vote, and the screenplay for the lauded TV drama Brexit: The Uncivil War. His plays are painstakingly researched, probing the innards of political life and finding moments of joy, humour or horror amid the [...]
Spider-Man: No Way Home review – Marvel delivers pure cinematic sugar December 17, 2021 Logistics aren’t sexy, but throughout Marvel’s latest Spider-Man adventure I was struck time and again not by the antics of the heroes on the screen but the ones in an office in Los Angeles. How many scheduling clashes must have been overcome, how many legal meetings someone must have sat through, in order for this most [...]
Warner Music buys 300 Entertainment for $400m December 17, 2021 Warner Music has announced the purchase of 300 Entertainment, the label behind artists such as Megan Thee Stallion and Mary J. Blige. Even though both companies did not disclose the deal’s value, sources told Reuters it amounted to around $400m. “[Warner Music] is the perfect home for 300 artists and our team, as we invest [...]
Bloomsbury buys academic publisher ABC-CLIO for $22.9m December 16, 2021 Bloomsbury announced this morning it has acquired US academic publisher ABC-CLIO for $22.9m (£17.3m), pushing shares up 5.72 per cent to 351p. Out of the total deal, $22.3m were given in cash on completion, leaving $0.6m to be paid post completion. The purchase is expected to strengthen Bloomsbury’s academic reach, especially in North America. “ABC-CLIO [...]
Vodafone to auction the world’s first ever text message as an NFT for refugee charity December 14, 2021 Vodafone announced today that it will auction an NFT of the world’s first ever SMS text message – which read ‘Merry Christmas’, and was sent on the network in December 1992.
It’s behind you! Pantomimes and musicals forced to cancel after Covid-19 outbreaks threatens the industry once again December 14, 2021 Ongoing Covid-19 outbreaks across the UK looks to threaten theatres once again, as shows begin to cancel shows just before Christmas.
Lamb film review: Another unsettling horror from A24 December 11, 2021 The term Sheeple is given a whole new context in Lamb, the directorial debut from Valdimar Jóhannsson, co-written with Björk collaborator Sjón. Maria and Ingvar (Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are the owners of a farm in Iceland, whose quiet existence is disturbed when one of their sheep give birth to a human child [...]
Being the Ricardos review: Aaron Sorkin’s I Love Lucy biopic is too tame December 10, 2021 Most people reading this won’t have been born when US sitcom I Love Lucy went off air in 1957. How- ever, it’s an evergreen institution to Americans, entertaining generations (as recently as 2011, 40m people worldwide watched re-runs). A movie about the show, or a biopic of star Lucille Ball, has been rumoured for some [...]