Top chef Francesco Mazzei chats to his friend and neighbour, the fashion designer Ozwald Boateng, over pasta and fresh truffle at his Savile Row restaurant Sartoria December 6, 2018 Starter Truffle doughnuts Francesco Mazzei: Do you remember how we met? It was at a lunch with Prince Charles at Highgrove about 10 years ago. This is a great story. You went up to him and he said, “I think you need a new suit…” I said, ‘Fuck!’ I couldn’t believe it. Ozwald Boateng: I [...]
A Christmas Carol review: The Old Vic’s revival stars Stephen Tompkinson as the miserly Scrooge December 6, 2018 Matthew Warchus’ joyous adaptation of A Christmas Carol returns to the Old Vic, only this time with Stephen Tompkinson in the miserly lead role, rather than Rhys Ifans. Warchus is no stranger to adapting literary classics for the stage, having masterminded Matilda and The Lord of Rings previously. For Dickens’ greatest morality tale, he enlists [...]
Sorry to Bother You review: Boots Riley’s provocative and ambitious satire about corporate greed is unforgettable December 6, 2018 Musician Boots Riley bursts onto the film scene with this hilarious and horrifying satire of American consumerism. Lakeith Stanfield is superb as Cassius, who takes a job as a telemarketer and finds success by using a ‘white voice’ (David Cross) to put customers at ease. What follows is a surreal, captivating journey into the heart [...]
The Old Man and the Gun review: Robert Redford bows out on a high in this future classic crime caper December 6, 2018 Dir. David Lowery (12A) Robert Redford announced he’s retiring from acting during the summer, which means this festival favourite is his final performance. It’s fortunate, then that this film is perfect for his own brand of enigmatic charm. Presented in a retro style, evoking the stylish 70s dramas of Redford’s heyday, everything about it is [...]
Anna and the Apocalypse review: A festive merger of zombies, Christmas and high-school musicals November 30, 2018 A zombie high-school musical set in a provincial Scottish suburb at Christmas, Anna and the Apocalypse occupies a vanishingly thin sliver of a Venn diagram of mostly maligned sub-genres, but manages to be more entertaining than the sum of its body parts. Plucky heroine Anna (Ella Hunt) is about to graduate, with her plans to [...]
Dick Whittington at Lyric Hammersmith pantomime review: wholesome fun for children and utter filth for adults November 30, 2018 Dick Whittington at the Lyric Hammersmith is just the smutty, heart-warming silliness you need to kick off the festive season. Like all good panto, it works on two levels, with wholesome fun for children and utter filth for adults. In writer-director Jude Christian’s production Dick Whittington (Luke Latchman), a good-natured simpleton from Cardiff, somehow bumbles [...]
The Wild Pear Tree film review: A languorous exploration of cultural change in modern Turkey from Palme d’Or-winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan November 30, 2018 There are two Turkeys in The Wild Pear Tree. One – the film’s backdrop – is the shabby provinces, where the summit of prestige is a career as a teacher. The other, lying at the story’s edge, is the cosmopolitan realm of high culture and aspirations. Sinan (Aydın Doğu Demirkol) is trapped in between. After [...]
Déraciné review: A virtual reality puzzler about haunting a boarding school November 30, 2018 From the studio that created Dark Souls, a twisted Gothic action RPG so infamously challenging that it’s become gaming shorthand for punishing difficulty, comes Deracine, a ponderous virtual reality puzzler set in a Victorian boarding school, in which you take on the role of a mischievous fairy playing tricks on the residents. Headset on, you [...]
Ralph Breaks the Internet review: Heart and jokes combine to make this video games drama a hit November 30, 2018 Wreck-It Ralph became a surprise hit two years ago thanks to its nostalgia-tingling portrayal of retro video games. Now the reformed bad guy, voiced by John C Reilly, is back and heading into The Internet in order to save the game of his best friend, Vanellope (Sarah Silverman). With a host of online obstacles in [...]
Roma film review: Alfonso Cuarón’s follow-up to Gravity is a meandering, neorealist valentine to the Mexico City November 30, 2018 Alfonso Cuarón is that rare thing, a director who has achieved the holy trinity of relevance, critical acclaim and widespread popularity. His last film, Gravity, was a CGI spectacular with a $100m budget. What better way to follow it than with a meandering, neorealist valentine to the Mexico City of his youth? Roma’s unhurried, ethereal [...]