Judy film review: A nuanced portrait of troubled Hollywood icon October 4, 2019 This biopic of screen legend Judy Garland (Renee Zellweger) picks up its star in the late 1960s, and things aren’t going well. Her ex-husband wants custody of her two youngest children, she’s doing shows in grubby venues for $150, and getting kicked out of hotel suites when she can’t pay. Desperate for cash, she agrees [...]
Two Ladies at Bridge Theatre review: A gripping but unremarkable political drama October 3, 2019 Two Ladies begins with a powerful image: FLOTUS Sophia enters with her cream two-piece covered with deep red blood. It’s a clear nod to Jackie Kennedy, and a neat introduction to the theme of Nancy Harris’s new play – the psychology of women who exist a manicured fingernail’s breadth from the most powerful jobs in [...]
Joker review: Joaquin Phoenix carries this supervillain’s dark origin story through its own dopey social commentary October 3, 2019 On social media site Reddit there is a section called “Am I the asshole?”, where concerned users submit situations in which they feel they may have been in the wrong, to seek a kind of masturbatory catharsis from a jury of their peers. There are arguments with strangers, disputes with family members, feuds in the [...]
Nintendo Switch Lite review: The quirky hybrid has become a conventional handheld October 2, 2019 Nintendo has a reputation for updating its consoles mid-generation, not long after launching them, to the extent that it’s become a little risky to be an early adopter. Why spend a few hundred pounds on a device that will be refined into something neater in 12 months, as the Nintendo DS was with the DSi, [...]
What is frankincense? And where does it come from? September 27, 2019 The sun is blazing and the air is hot, dry and dusty. Gazing out over the horizon, there’s nothing but parched, rocky land as far as the eye can see in any direction, except for the strange-looking trees that shoot up from the ground like gnarly, overgrown bushes. You wouldn’t think much could thrive here, [...]
A Doll’s House at Lyric Hammersmith review: Ibsen classic rejuvenated by relocation to India September 23, 2019 There has been a fashion in recent years to take 19th century European dramas and relocate them to modern-day India, where it is imagined that their overt classism, sexism, paternalism, and obsession with family and honour, will seem less anachronistic. The results have been varied – from the fun and frivolity of the Jane Austin-masala [...]
The King of Hell’s Palace at Hampstead Theatre review: a blistering political thriller September 23, 2019 The King of Hell’s Palace is a gripping political thriller, rooted in family drama; an exposé of the corrupt business practices that emerged in China following Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. In the early ‘90s, the Chinese economy was liberalising, consumerism was on the rise, and the clamour for export-led growth encouraged some budding entrepreneurs to [...]
Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy: An existential crisis has never felt so invigorating September 23, 2019 This giant Antony Gormley retrospective feels like the artist’s unified theory of everything. The works are drawn from four decades of output, but feel so indelibly fused with the famous halls of the Royal Academy you can barely imagine them elsewhere. Gormley bends and shapes the gallery to his will like a potter at a [...]
Peckham judged the world’s eleventh coolest neighbourhood September 18, 2019 “This time next year we’ll be in the top ten” Peckham has been named the world’s eleventh coolest neighbourhood in the 2019 Time Out Index. The south London hotspot may still be more globally famous for the antics of Del Boy and Rodney but a new generation of chefs, baristas and bartenders are turning it [...]
Downton Abbey film review: If you’re a fan of period dramas, this may be your Avengers September 13, 2019 Four years on from the final episode, Downton Abbey returns for more nostalgia and vicarious luxury. It’s 1927, and the reason for our return is the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary to the big house. This impending brush with royalty causes no end of chaos among the Downton residents, with the upstairs [...]