Film review: Cake – the one where Jennifer Aniston feels sorry for herself February 19, 2015 Cert 15 | ★☆☆☆☆ Since Friends, Jennifer Aniston has gone on to build a successful, if not groundbreaking, career as a commercially bankable but critically patronised American sweetheart. But she wants more. She wants respect. She wants awards. She wants – whisper it – to do a McConaughey. Cake isn’t Aniston politely asking to [...]
Something for the weekend February 19, 2015 DRINK! LONDON BEER WEEK Round off the week with round of delicious ales at London Beer Week. A £10 LBW wristband entitles you to discounted pints at a number of watering holes around London. Brewery tours and brewing masterclasses are also on offer. Visit londonbeerweek.com PARTY! CHINESE NEW YEAR Chinese New Year fell yesterday but [...]
Half term! Imagine Children’s Festival 2015 February 13, 2015 If you’re struggling to think of what to do this half term, head down to the Southbank Imagine Children’s Festival. A diverse programme of activities features readings from top authors including Russell Brand, Judith Kerr, Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz and Helen Skelton. For something more lively you can clap along to live performances of Charlie [...]
Film review: Coherence has the kernel of something interesting but doesn’t hold together February 13, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Coherence is soft science fiction slush that simply doesn’t hold together. As four couples meet for dinner, a mysterious comet streaks through the heavens, cracking mobile phone screens, fracturing reality, and encouraging the kind of ill-informed, feng shui and quantum theory-tinged, new age, nonsense-strewn dinner party conversation that makes you hope [...]
Theatre review: How To Hold Your Breath at the Royal Court February 13, 2015 Royal Court | ★★☆☆☆ Zinnie Harris’ How To Hold Your Breath begins with an intimate encounter. A man is alarmed to find the stranger he slept with isn’t a prostitute. She’s offended by his attempt to pay. It’s a zippy opening that makes the rest of the play feel leaden. The action shifts uncomfortably [...]
Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends – art review February 13, 2015 National Portrait Gallery: ★★★★★ Despite enjoying a successful career as a portraitist in the late 1800s, John Singer Sargent was overtaken by the lurch toward abstraction that took place in the subsequent century. His luscious, august paintings of society figures seemed to pull in the opposite direction to those throwing off the figurative constraints of [...]
Film review: Love is Strange is a backwards romance with heart February 12, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Traditional love stories end with a wedding. Love is Strange flips fairy-tale romance on its head, beginning with a marriage and following it up with a sweet, sad separation. Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been together for 39 years, and when a law change in New York [...]
Something for half term February 12, 2015 SOLVE: MUSIC OF FIRE This event features a tour beneath the famous Globe Theatre, where you will encounter mysterious magicians and bizarre puppets who will give you clues about how you can stop the Globe burning down. It culminates with a show at the theatre itself. Ages 6 to 11, 16-20 Feb, shakespearesglobe.com LOL: MINI [...]
Film review: Shaun the Sheep February 6, 2015 Cert U | ★★★★☆ When the farmer in charge of Shaun’s farm goes AWOL, the herd set off on a daring adventure into the world of human beings to find him. At times it’s hard to keep track of which sheep is which, but that doesn’t matter – Aardman’s plasticine world is lit up with an [...]
Art review: Marlene Dumas at Tate Modern February 6, 2015 Tate Modern | ★★★★★ Working from photographs, South African figurative painter Marlene Dumas doesn’t represent life, she gives it. Indeed, it’s tempting to see her paintbrush as a defibrillator, jolting dead images to life. But no-one is being raised here; she doesn’t resuscitate her subjects so much as give them an afterlife, investing the long [...]