Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse at the Royal Academy review January 28, 2016 Royal Academy | ★★★★★ At the turn of the century the concept of the modern garden – a tended, cultivated individual plot to be enjoyed as a respite from urban life – increased in popularity throughout Europe and the US, with fervent intellectual interest in botany. The Royal Academy captures the artistic reaction to this in [...]
Herons at the Lyric Hammersmith review: a soaked stage sets the scene for this brutal play January 28, 2016 Lyric Hammersmith | ★★★★☆ It’s testament to Billy Matthews’ excellent performance in Herons that, just a few minutes into the play, I wanted to clamber up on to the flooded stage and punch his character in the face. He plays Scott, a feral, hateful teen who wages a warped campaign of bullying and wild aggression against [...]
Spotlight film review: a real-life story that’s as slow and forceful as a steamroller January 28, 2016 15 | Dir. Tom McCarthy | ★★★★☆ The Da Vinci Code was ridiculed for the moment Tom Hanks cried, “I need to get to a library. Fast!” In Spotlight, a trip to the library is a genuinely exciting proposition. It’s a nuts-and-bolts examination of the Boston Globe’s exposé of systematic child abuse within the Catholic [...]
Getty Images Year in Focus 2015: “The best images of the year” reviewed by our Picture Editor January 28, 2016 The Getty Images Gallery | ★★★★★ Getty Images’ Year in Focus 2015 retrospective showcases the best work by the picture agency’s staff photographers who operate at risk and under high pressure across news, sport, entertainment and portraiture. Refugees arrive in Europe (Source: Getty Images) The escalation of the refugee crisis over the last year makes for [...]
Robert De Niro in Dirty Grandpa, Paul Sorrentino’s Youth and Patricia Riggen’s The 33 reviewed January 28, 2016 Dirty Grandpa 18 | Dir. Dan Mazer | ★★★☆☆ Robert De Niro plays a recently widowed army vet who tricks Zac Efron into driving him to Florida to chase young women. Who'd have thought that De Niro would spend the latter half of his career dropping N-bombs and making dick jokes? But while it's not [...]
The Picture of Dorian Gray at Trafalgar Studios review January 22, 2016 Trafalgar Studios | ★★★☆☆ This year is the 125th anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. When it was first published, its sexual ambiguity and frequent drug use caused outrage among Victorian society – but then, what didn’t? – and the text was hastily censored by the author. This version, adapted by [...]
The Big Short interview with director Adam McKay: “Outrage with banks comes naturally… they’re street hustlers” January 22, 2016 The Oscar-nominated director of financial film The Big Short, Adam McKay, wasn't afraid of throwing the cat among the pigeons when I caught up with him yesterday. On the eve of his latest film's release he launched a stinging attack on Wall Street, branding bankers “street hustlers” and labelling the SEC’s response to the crisis “disgusting”. [...]
Our Brand is Crisis review: Sandra Bullock props up this darkly comic political satire January 22, 2016 Dir. David Gordon Green | ★★★☆☆ Retired political campaign strategist turned kooky pot-spinning hermit Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) is coaxed back into the electioneering racket for one last, career-defining escapade. Her mission? Transform the fortunes of a down-in-the-polls Bolivian presidential hopeful, whose previous corruption-sullied term still sticks in the memory of the downtrodden electorate. A [...]
The 5th Wave review: This hollow sci-fi action flick is a weak emulation of The Hunger Games January 22, 2016 Dir. J Blakeson | ★★☆☆☆ Chloe Grace Moretz made her name as Hit Girl, the sweary child assassin in Kick-Ass, who was just as comfortable dropping c-bombs as she was dropping actual bombs. Now, she’s old enough to be getting her nun-chucks into some bad-ass lady roles, but instead she’s stuck with soppy teenagers like Cassie [...]
Room review: a woman and her son are held captive by her psychotic abuser January 14, 2016 Dir. Lenny Abrahamson | ★★★★☆ Based on the book by Emma Donoghue, Room is a screenplay adaptation of the gut-wrenchingly bleak story of Joy (Brie Larson), a young woman kidnapped and imprisoned by her psychotic abuser. She shares the tiny, soundproofed space with her spirited and oblivious five-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay), whose severely limited understanding of [...]