Tracey Emin at the White Cube Bermondsey: An agonised howl marks Emin’s return as an artist February 13, 2019 It’s been years since the last major Tracey Emin exhibition, but she returns with an agonised howl of a show exploring the gaping emotional wounds that threatened to destroy her as both an artist and a human being. The White Cube’s first room is dominated by 50 giant selfies of Emin in bed, taken on [...]
All is True review: Kenneth Branagh retells the final scenes of Shakespeare’s ‘small’ life in this cosy but sedate film February 11, 2019 Ever wonder what happened to William Shakespeare when he retired? No one does, mainly because he didn’t write any plays, so quite why Ben Elton thought it’d be a good idea to write a feature length film about the Bard’s latter days in Stratford-Upon-Avon is anyone’s guess. Mostly, Shakespeare just potters around his garden and [...]
Pinter Seven review: Danny Dyer comes home for this triumphant farewell to Jamie Lloyd’s season February 7, 2019 There are many things about the world today that make me think malevolent forces are having a laugh at our expense. Top of that list is the fact that Danny Dyer – the man who referred to aliens as “that mob up there” and the 9/11 hijackers as “them slags” – was a personal friend [...]
Mandela: The Official Exhibition is a comprehensive, if somewhat generic, celebration of the anti-apartheid leader February 7, 2019 One of the most revered and recognisable freedom fighters in modern history, Nelson Mandela’s near-Messianic reputation as a revolutionary political leader is far larger than the man himself. His decades long struggle against apartheid in South Africa defies summary, but Mandela: The Official Exhibition has a go at codifying his entire legacy, squeezing the man’s [...]
Comedian and writer Paul Whitehouse on fishing, mental health and why the BBC needs to take more risks February 7, 2019 Last year, Paul Whitehouse appeared alongside his lifelong friend Bob Mortimer in Gone Fishing, a BBC Two show in which the comedians travelled the riverbanks of the UK in search of rare species of fish. In contrast to an increasingly bleak news cycle, it was relentlessly genial television, uncomplicated, familiar, cheerful and good-natured. Both men [...]
Green Book review: Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen shine in a bromance that’s as insightful as it is charming February 1, 2019 A Best Picture nominee about racism in the USA isn’t usually an uplifting experience. On paper, Green Book, the true story of a New Yorker chauffeur tasked with safely getting an African American pianist from gig to gig in the segregated South, sounds like it could be a long, hard grind. But Viggo Mortensen and [...]
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams at the V&A is a thorough investigation of the haute couture brand, if not the man himself February 1, 2019 By 1955, over half of all haute couture exported from France was designed by Christian Dior. Not bad for someone who started out selling sketches outside his house for 10 cents apiece. Not that you’d know that having been to this exhibition as, unlike the V&A’s blockbuster retrospective on the late Alexander McQueen, this show [...]
Leave to Remain play review: Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke brings sparkle to this relationship drama February 1, 2019 Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke and co-star Matt Jones play a pair of troubled young lovers in this touching, physically impressive play that dwells far less on Brexit than its title suggests. If follows smitten couple Obi and Alex who, after 10 months together, risk being parted when Alex’s company posts him to the Middle [...]
Burning film review: Lee Chang-dong’s Haruki Murakami adaptation is more proof he’s the best director you’ve never heard of February 1, 2019 Lee Chang-dong may be the best director you’ve never heard of. He has made just six films, each of them wonderful and largely unknown to Western audiences, over a peripatetic career that has also included a stint as culture minister in the South Korean government. Burning, adapted from a Haruki Murakami story, is his best [...]
Can You Ever Forgive Me? film review: Melissa McCarthy shines in this odd-couple heist movie February 1, 2019 The normally jovial Melissa McCarthy completely transforms herself to play Lee Israel, a New York biographer who finds a new stream of income forging personal letters from famous writers of the past. It’s a fascinating premise (adapted from the real life Israel’s 2008 memoir), playing out as a simple but well executed heist movie. The [...]