Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit at Tate Modern – a house of horrors October 3, 2024 Were you to stumble upon the works of Mike Kelley in, say, an abandoned warehouse rather than the galleries of the Tate Modern, you would fear for your safety, if not your sanity. Strolling through works collected from the late 1970s up until Kelley’s suicide in 2012 is like happening upon the headquarters of some [...]
No more Noma: What’s next for Copenhagen’s food scene October 3, 2024 For decades, Noma has been one of the most coveted restaurants on the planet. It birthed ‘new Nordic’ cuisine in 2003 and stamped the small Danish capital on the gastronomic map, winning the world’s best restaurant award multiple times and holding Michelin stars since 2008. Its stratospheric success was led by head chef and co-founder [...]
Cush Jumbo: On playing Hamlet and choosing which cake to eat October 3, 2024 There are two types of people: those who already know about Cush Jumbo, one of the finest British actors of her generation, and those who are soon to find out. The star of wildly successful TV shows including The Good Wife, Criminal Record and Deadwater Fell, Jumbo cemented her A-List credentials when she became the [...]
The eternal jobstopper? The future of face tattoos October 3, 2024 Jamie McPhee’s first face tattoo was a little star under his eye. He just fancied it. After the star under his left eye, he got a star under his right eye – the asymmetry was bugging him. Before you could say, “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Jamie?” he had a skull and crossbones [...]
‘I didn’t give a f**k what Ofcom thought’ – in conversation with Grace Campbell and Hannah Crosbie October 1, 2024 Wine writer Hannah Crosbie interviews her friend and comedian Grace Campbell in Soho’s Bar Crispin about the changing face of social media, the pull of TV and getting high in Edinburgh. Hannah Crosbie: So the last time we saw each other was that hilarious night at the Edinburgh Fringe. We went to Noodles & Dumplings [...]
When viral fame fades: From Binley Mega Chippy to the Spudman October 1, 2024 In March 2022, I visited fish and chip takeaway Binley Mega Chippy in my hometown of Coventry 10 minutes after it had opened for dinner, joining a growing queue of people snaking out across a tarmac car park on the side of a busy A road. A line of cars waiting for a parking spot [...]
Donald Trump is wrong: AI is NOT a threat to speechwriting September 30, 2024 “He goes click, click, click, and like 15 seconds later he shows me my speech, written so beautifully.” This is Donald Trump on Logan Paul’s podcast, describing his first encounter with ChatGPT. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And so quickly… It’s a little bit scary… So one industry I think that will be gone [...]
My Old Ass review: The big questions of early adulthood September 27, 2024 The premise for breezy coming-of-age comedy My Old Ass is familiar but under the direction of filmmaker Megan Park (The Fallout) there’s a lot that feels fresh. Maisy Stella plays Elliott, an 18-year-old girl on a camping trip with friends who decides to try mushrooms. While high, she is greeted by her 39-year-old self (Aubrey [...]
The Penguin review: HBO batman spin-off series is criminally good September 27, 2024 The streaming feeding frenzy that consumed Covid-era Hollywood may have died down, but studios still make big bets on familiar names. The latest is HBO’s The Penguin, a TV spin-off of 2022’s The Batman which continues the story of Oswald Cobb, played by Colin Farrell. In the aftermath of the film’s events, Gotham City’s criminal [...]
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is hellishly good September 26, 2024 Mike Mignola’s Hellboy stories have an odd legacy in the comic book movie boom. Guillermo Del Toro’s brace of 2000s adaptations, starring Ron Perlman as a monster-busting demon, were cult favourites but never quite blockbuster material. A 2019 reboot starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour was a notorious flop; now the creator of the comics wants [...]