Lightyear review: Enjoyably nostalgic flight from the past June 17, 2022 Just when you thought Hollywood couldn’t find a new way to rehash old material, here comes a new category of film entirely. Lightyear is a spin-off of Toy Story, but one that imagines Buzz Lightyear as a real person. As the film explains in its opening moments, this is the movie that the toy was [...]
Eurovision ‘to begin discussions with BBC’ as UK set to host next year’s contest due to Ukraine war June 17, 2022 The United Kingdom will likely host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) because of the ongoing war in Ukraine, it has been announced. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) issued a statement this morning saying it will “begin discussions with the BBC” about broadcasting the event from the UK, as this year’s runner up to the [...]
3 Tips For The Best Remote Interview You’ve Ever Had June 13, 2022 The kitchen table, a hastily cleared corner of the living room, or for the lucky ones, a spare bedroom where we could set up a desk and second screen (the unlucky ones got an ironing board). We all made do during the pandemic when it came to working from home. Now though, as remote and [...]
Leave No Traces review: A laboured Polish language Oscar hopeful June 11, 2022 True crime has enjoyed a wave of popularity in the streaming age, inviting viewers to piece together what happened as the clues come in. While Leave No Traces doesn’t have quite the same mystery, it does show how impactful cinema can be derived from real events. Set in 1983, Poland’s submission for this year’s Best [...]
Swan Song review: A finely coiffed LGBTQ+ comedy June 11, 2022 There has been a rise in the number of LGBTQ+ stories being told in movies and TV, but generally they have been about younger characters coming of age in the modern world. New comedy-drama Swan Song puts the spotlight on a different age bracket, crafting a small tale with a lot of heart. Udo Kier [...]
Hustle review: Adam Sandler finds his acting hat again in sports drama June 11, 2022 Every now and again, Adam Sandler remembers he can act. Before it became a social media punchline, 2019’s Uncut Gems contained the best performance of the comedy giant’s career, almost making you forget all about the hideous Netflix comedies that have made him millions. Happily, this week sees the arrival of more serious Sandler in [...]
Jurassic World: Dominion ends franchise that’s ready for a meteor strike June 10, 2022 The Jurassic World trilogy ends not with a roar but with a squeak. Dominion calls upon the stars of Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park to capitalise on the current trend for legacy sequels (it’s arguable that 2015’s Jurassic World, a movie that was both a remake and reboot, started the fad). But the wholesale shake-up [...]
The Glass Menagerie: Amy Adams plays it straight in underwhelming show June 10, 2022 The Glass Menagerie heralded the arrival of Tennessee Williams. It was the first of his “plastic” memory plays, mining the rich seam of material from his own unhappy adolescence. Over the following two decades he would perfect the formula, creating some of the great American plays, but The Glass Menagerie remains among his best known [...]
Laurel’s review: Partying poolside, I forgot how hungry I was June 9, 2022 It’s long been a trope of the London restaurant scene to deck out pokey shoebox venues – no doubt rented at extortionate cost – as if they are luxurious, hedonistic beach clubs. God knows how many thousands of tonnes of sand is dumped over car parks round the back of the Roundhouse in Camden and [...]
Walking in London: Now is the time to rediscover the capital, by foot June 9, 2022 One of the perverse effects of lockdown was to get people walking more. Public transport was off-limits, but exercise and a change of scenery was necessary to stave off cabin fever, so citizens of the capital found themselves strolling the city streets in a way they hadn’t before, with many taking the opportunity to look [...]