Theatre review: A Human Being Died that Night May 29, 2014 Among the secret service personnel working for the apartheid government, no one used the word “kill”. Instead people were “dealt with” or “taken for a drive”. Such linguistic sleights of hand are steadfastly avoided in A Human Being Died That Night, a taut, brilliantly acted play that looks with a scientific eye at the politics [...]
Should have stayed in bed: Sleeping Beauty update is luke-warm May 29, 2014 FILM MALEFICENT Cert PG | Two Stars DISNEY’S live action remake of Sleeping Beauty is an inversion of the fairytale told from the perspective of Maleficent. The cackling horned villain, who spends most of the animated version glowing green and plotting with a raven, is reimagined as a vengeful fairy who curses princess Aurora to [...]
Just the right balance of brains and silliness May 29, 2014 FILM EDGE OF TOMORROW Cert 12a | Four Stars IRON MAN, Saving Private Ryan and Groundhog Day complement each other surprisingly well as inspiration for the latest Tom Cruise blockbusting sci-fi epic, Edge of Tomorrow, in which Hollywood’s smallest titan fights and dies and fights and dies over and over again. Humans are locked in [...]
Where to drink May 27, 2014 London shows no sign of the summer slump as we head towards June, with a variety of bars and clubs launching in all corners of the capital. Jason Atherton’s rise to the top continues quite literally with his new bar at City Social. Situated on the 24th floor of Tower 42 on Broad Street, it [...]
All hail a brilliant double bill May 26, 2014 THEATRE WOLF HALL + BRING UP THE BODIES Aldwych Theatre | By Simon Thomson Four Stars THE UNDERTAKING is epic; two three-hour plays, back to back. But with crackling dialogue, compelling acting, minimalist sets, masterful special effects, extravagant costumes and ersatz crumhorns, the six hours fly by. Adapted from the first two-thirds of Hilary Mantel’s [...]
Godzilla thunders back onto screens May 15, 2014 FILM GODZILLA Cert 12a | By Alex Dymoke Three Stars SKYSCRAPERS haven’t come in for this much abuse since Prince Charles started sounding off about contemporary architecture. Brit director Gareth Edwards’ take on the classic Japanese B-movie doesn’t so much reimagine the original as inject it with growth hormones. It’s a monster of a monster [...]
Cannes 2014: old boys dominate the selection again May 15, 2014 From Cronenberg to Godard, familiar names leave room for only five Palme newcomers TWO DAYS ago, the Cannes Film Festival opened with a right royal stinker. Nicole Kidman’s Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco was met with a galaxy of one star reviews, the consensus being that it surpassed even last year’s Naomi Watts’ Diana [...]
Muddy Waters’ son keeps the blues alive in the City May 15, 2014 Mud Morganfield is back in town for the launch of Blues Kitchen Shoreditch – Alex Dymoke caught up with him FINALLY the square mile finally has a place to exorcise those blues. Last night Mud Morganfield was on hand to mark the opening of the Blues Kitchen Shoreditch, a new restaurant and music venue metres from [...]
How comics reflect a very British psyche May 12, 2014 ARTS COMICS UNMASKED British Library | By Steve Dinneen Four Stars FOR AN art form that is seen as quintessentially American, we Brits have a disproportionately large influence on the world of comics. It wasn’t always so: for decades our publications evolved as largely insular, unmistakeably British alternatives to the musclebound US titles. But in [...]
A violent eruption of camp madness May 1, 2014 FILM POMPEII 3D Cert 12a Two Stars THE DESTRUCTION of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried under the ash of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has long held a grip on the public imagination. Only eight months ago, tickets sold out in advance for the British Museum’s exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, [...]