The Free State of Jones review: This overly long and indecisive war flick goes nowhere and amounts to little September 30, 2016 Matthew McConaughey’s Free State of Jones was one of the surprise disappointments of the summer over in the US. The Oscar winner plays Newton Knight, a disillusioned Confederate soldier in the American Civil War who returns home and rebels against his former comrades, creating a “Free State”. Coming in at a two hours and 20 [...]
Deepwater Horizon review: A relentless onslaught of explosions and grease that will leave you feeling knackered September 30, 2016 For better or worse, Hollywood has always been the ledger of record for America’s historical events, the silvery notebook in which the country’s worst tragedies are catalogued and parsed, not in studious documentary form, but in personal and heroic tales of human survival. A slew of films chronicle the events of 9/11, of Benghazi and [...]
Bedwyr Williams’ The Gulch at The Barbican is brilliantly weird September 29, 2016 You’re greeted at the entrance of the Barbican’s Curve gallery with a polite warning: “If you want to perform – sing, dance, that kind of thing – please be respectful of other visitors”. I wasn’t tempted to burst into song, but it’s a suitably surreal way to enter this brilliantly weird exhibition. This site-specific installation [...]
The Libertine at Theatre Royal Haymarket starring Dominic Cooper fails to deliver on its salacious promises September 29, 2016 The Libertine begins with a promise. Dominic Cooper, as Restoration rake the Earl of Rochester, delivers a swaggering prologue, directly informing the audience that although they may like some of what he does, they will not like him. This speech is an implicit bargain; that he will behave appallingly, and the audience will be thrilled [...]
Floyd Collins at Wilton’s Music Hall review: clever staging and a strong cast can’t mask this poor musical September 29, 2016 Floyd Collins is a musical about a man stuck in a hole, and there were moments during this production that I felt like I was down there with him, waiting interminably in the darkness for the sweet release of death. Despite a strong cast and clever staging, exceptionally poor pacing makes Adam Guettel’s musical – [...]
Interview: Comedian Peter Serafinowicz on his horrifying, mesmerising Sassy Trump creation September 29, 2016 When Donald Trump kicked a crying baby out of one his rallies, Peter Serafinowicz rubbed his hands together and got to work. The comedian’s latest project, a YouTube series called Sassy Trump, takes the Republican nominee’s actual words and redubs them in a sassy voice that perfectly matches the man’s curiously effete mannerisms – his [...]
Swiss Army Man review: Daniel Radcliffe dumps over his wizard legacy from the greatest possible height September 29, 2016 The first thing Daniel Radcliffe did after he finished being Harry Potter was flash his junk in Equus, and ever since then he’s been upping the ante, scaling ever greater heights from whence he can shit on his wizarding legacy. He played a jerk version of himself in BoJack Horseman, he threw Nazi salutes in [...]
Cache of paintings by mysterious artist who shunned fame to go on display for first time September 28, 2016 In the late 1950s, Keith Cunningham was one of the art world’s brightest stars. Critics praised him, galleries vied to show his work, and like his Royal College of Art contemporaries Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, he seemed set for a brilliant career. Then one day, he stopped exhibiting. Cunningham died in 2014, aged 85, [...]
Ember game on iOS is a brilliant Diablo type RPG that delivers Stranger Things-levels of nostalgia September 28, 2016 There is nothing in the slightest bit original about Ember and that is its greatest asset. It’s a dose of nostalgia as intense and satisfying as Stranger Things, aimed at a generation who grew up playing Tolkien-esque swords and sorcery games. It weaves together a tapestry of cliches so pronounced it feels as warm and [...]
Forza Horizon 3 is both a petrol head’s and arcade fan’s dream September 28, 2016 Whether you’re into classic muscle cars, retro rally, or just want to zoom about in a souped-up Ferrari, Forza Horizon 3 is a glorious celebration of racing at its purest. Following its excellent predecessor, developer Playground Games has raised the stakes, somehow breathing even more life into its already robust open-world racing formula. This time [...]