Film review: A Promise July 31, 2014 ★★☆☆☆ Director Patrice Leconte’s A Promise is an implausible, often ridiculous period drama revolving around a predictably doomed love affair. Richard Madden stars as brooding Friedrich, an ambitious clerk in a steelworks in early 20th century Germany. He catches the eye of the boss Herr Hoffmeister, played by an austere Alan Rickman, who recruits Friedrich [...]
Film review: Guardians of the Galaxy July 31, 2014 ★★★★★ The Guardians of the Galaxy marketing team have been flogging their horse so long and hard it’s a wonder it’s not already dead. With hype so merciless and protracted, the latest Marvel movie seemed destined to disappoint. Factor in that it’s based on a relatively minor branch of the Marvel comics universe and stars [...]
Theatre review: A Streetcar Named Desire July 31, 2014 ★★★★★ Is there room in that hot, sweaty, studio-flat for more than one great performance? Gillian Anderson runs away with it in this, Benedict Andrews’ brilliant, sultry, disorientating, modern dress production. There are strong supporting turns from Vanessa Kirby and Ben Foster but Anderson owns the stage with a captivating interpretation of the fantasist Blanche [...]
Review: The Purge 2 July 24, 2014 What would happen if, for one night a year, you were able to kill whoever you wanted and get off scot free? That was the shaky premise behind last year’s The Purge. It’s set 20 years into the future where crime is so rife that the US government sanctions an annual 12-hour period for the [...]
Review: The Importance of Being Earnest July 24, 2014 Lucy Bailey’s reimagining of The Importance of Being Earnest at The Harold Pinter Theatre sees an am-dram company rehearsing a chaotic version of the titular play. The result is a terrible production about a terrible production of a brilliant play – an unfortunate irony that would probably have raised a wry smile from Wilde himself. [...]
Review Disobedient Objects at the V&A July 24, 2014 The balaclava, the placard, the loudspeaker – the instruments of protest are well-established. Except they aren’t. As this exhibition at the V&A shows, the methods and means by which people have made their voices heard have been unimaginably varied. Think protest, and most people think violence, but the overriding impression given by the objects on [...]
Theatre Review: Medea July 24, 2014 A WOMAN driven by rage and jealousy to slaughter her children in a chillingly premeditated act of murderous revenge. In Greek tragedy, Medea is the ultimate portrayal of female wickedness – in Carrie Cracknell’s production at the National, it is not the wickedness but voicelessness which strikes us. “How could it end in any way [...]
The 2014 Commonwealth Games, and five other reasons Glasgow is still city of culture July 23, 2014 The Commonwealth Games opened in Glasgow last night and over the next two weeks tens of thousands of Londoners will make their way to the cultural heart of Scotland. They come as Scotland edges ever closer – according to the polls – to independence, giving the international showcase even more significance. But unlike other cities [...]
Battersea Power Station hosts London’s latest pop-up cinema July 17, 2014 The sun has definitely got his hat on, so it’s perfect weather for heading south of the river to watch a film outdoors in the shade of London’s most iconic derelict building. Boutique cinema franchise Everyman has set up a nine metre screen in front of an army of pastel beanbags for the city’s [...]
Review: Gilbert and George White Cube July 17, 2014 Famously, Gilbert and George have lived in the same house for 45 years. That house is on Fournier Street, the link between Old Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane, and a great vantage point from which to witness the changing face of London. Over the past two decades the area has turned from grungy, deprived backwater [...]