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 [...]
Escape Room is a fun, trashy but ultimately gutless horror flick that deftly tunes into a booming trend January 31, 2019 When future historians look back on the twenty-teens, perhaps on a nostalgia-fuelled talking head show called ‘I Love 2018’, they’ll remark on the popular trends that characterise our present day. “Who remembers flossing?” the cadaver of Victoria Beckham will rasp, what remains of her body elegantly propped up in a Christian Dior gurney and kept [...]
Pierre Bonnard at the Tate Modern review: A beautiful shower of colour, just don’t try to search for deeper meaning January 29, 2019 Walking around this major retrospective of Pierre Bonnard, you quickly discover that his work is dominated by two things. First, there is his relationship with Marthe de Meligny, his wife and muse. She features in most of his paintings, usually standing slightly off-centre, or emerging from one of her many baths. He was a painter [...]
Man Group ends sponsorship of Booker Prize after 18 years January 27, 2019 Britain’s most high profile literary award, the Man Booker Prize, has lost its headline sponsor after Man Group announced on Sunday that it will end its 18 year partnership with the event. Man Group – an asset manager – has sponsored the prize since 2002, contributing £1.6m a year. Read more: Waterstones acquires Foyles bookshops as [...]
Vice movie review: Another Scorsese-esque epic from the maker of The Big Short January 25, 2019 In 2015, Adam McKay went from being known as the man who directed Will Ferrell movies to one of the most stylistically innovative filmmakers in Hollywood. Gigs overseeing Anchorman, Talladega Nights and The Other Guys, plus writing credits on films including Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Ant-Man, somehow gave way to The Big Short, [...]