Why going all-inclusive in the Maldives gets the best of paradise May 6, 2025 Ruth Jessop was surprised when she feel for all-inclusive life in the Maldives I’m sitting on a tiny seaplane with twelve other people. We’re packed in tightly: there’s barely enough room to stand up, and most of us are knocking elbows with the other passengers, and jetlagged. The journey to the Maldives has been long [...]
Krapp’s Last Tape review: Stephen Rea is sublime May 6, 2025 Krapp’s Last Tape | Barbican | ★★★★☆ Should you have been waiting in earnest for Krapp to show up – not unlike a character in a different Samuel Beckett play – this is your week. At the York Royal Theatre, Gary Oldman takes on the role of the ageing Krapp, reminiscing over audio diaries he [...]
Giant play review: Roald Dahl show is great but not perfect May 3, 2025 Giant play review and star rating: ★★★★ Roald Dahl defied the image we cherish in our minds. He was charismatic, but in a way that masqueraded his poisonous views. He was also an anti-Semite, writing in the New Statesman in 1983 that “there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe [...]
Inside the Wes Anderson exhibition at the Design Museum: ‘fans will be blown away’ May 1, 2025 The Wes Anderson exhibition at London’s Design Museum opens in November Somewhere in Kent, on the edge of a field, stands a warehouse full of old props from Wes Anderson films. Ahead of the launch of the new Wes Anderson exhibition at the Design Museum this November, curator Johanna Agerman Ross got to do what [...]
The Friend review: Naomi Watts stars in celebration of pets May 1, 2025 Dogs are a guaranteed tear-jerker. Cities can be blown to pieces in action movies, but the unwritten rule is that the cute dog must make it out ok. In dramas, they often help us understand the human experience, something that is illustrated beautifully in comedy-drama The Friend. Naomi Watts plays Iris, a teacher and writer [...]
Michael B Jordan is sublime in Southern Gothic horror Sinners May 1, 2025 Star Michael B Jordan and director Ryan Coogler have risen together to the top of the Hollywood mountain, making hits such as Creed, the Black Panther films, and their breakthrough 2013 drama Fruitvale Station. Their latest doubles down on that collaboration, as Coogler sees double in the magnificent horror Sinners. Set in 1930s Mississippi, it [...]
The Accountant 2 review: Ben Affleck returns for fun sequel May 1, 2025 Ben Affleck’s action thriller The Accountant may not be an obvious choice for a sequel, given the film came out nine years ago and was a modest but not runaway success. However, the film’s popularity on streaming has led to the former Batman getting another outing as autistic criminal accountant Christian Wolff. Picking up years [...]
Why Thunderbolts is the best Marvel movie in ages April 30, 2025 It’s a time of great peril in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The world’s biggest film franchise has struggled ever since Avengers: Endgame, a fact highlighted by March’s Captain America: Brave New World. The drab action thriller that illustrated every superhero trope audiences have tired of. As the MCU looks to reset, could their saviours come [...]
Freaky Tales review: Pulp pleasure for Grindhouse lovers April 30, 2025 It’s a busy year for the internet’s daddy Pedro Pascal. Currently wowing audiences in the second season of The Last Of Us, he’s soon to try and revive the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of the new Fantastic Four film. In between all these big budget efforts, however, is the flawed but charming cult actioner [...]
The Penguin Lessons: Steve Coogan stars in lovable crowd pleaser April 30, 2025 Cinema has an inexplicable fascination with Penguins. From award-winning docs like March Of The Penguins to animation like Happy Feet, there’s something about these flightless birds that sells a movie as well as any A-lister. New drama The Penguin Lessons will certainly hope that continues to be the case, as it pairs Steve Coogan with [...]