Film review: Minions June 25, 2015 Cert U | ★★★☆☆ A large part of the Despicable Me franchise’s $1.5bn success, loveable sidekicks the Minions were bound to get their own spin off. This prequel follows the yellow babbling hoards as three of their number look to find an evil leader to serve, inadvertently causing chaos along the way in 1960s London. [...]
Film review: Slow West June 25, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ In an era when capes and dinosaurs rule the box office, is there room for the Western in mainstream cinema? In recent years the genre has been adapted by more left-field filmmakers such as The Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, both of whom brought their own auteurish instincts to bear [...]
Theatre review: The Motherf***er With the Hat is a wickedly comic, foul-mouthed romp that packs a sentimental punch June 25, 2015 Lyttelton Theatre | ★★★★★ The Motherf***er With the Hat is where you might end up if you commissioned Quentin Tarantino to write an episode of Eastenders. The plot makes the play sound like a far grimmer affair than it really is. Recovering alcoholic Jackie has just been released from prison for drug dealing. [...]
Perfect Saturday June 25, 2015 BREAKFAST AT FARM GIRL Get your Saturday off to a wholesome start at Farm Girl on Portobello Road. Australian Rose Mann’s cafe has just opened and will be serve up nutritious delights including superfood smoothies and chicken fried in coconut oil. Visit thefarmgirl.co.uk PRIDE PARADE IN THE AFTERNOON No city does Pride like London. Tens [...]
Something for the weekend June 18, 2015 SING! BLUR IN HYDE PARK See the britpop quartet perform their full roster of 90s classics as well as some tracks from their well-received latest album. They never disappoint in front of a large crowd. Saturday, get your tickets now from bst-hydepark.com. FEAST! LOBOS TAPAS New Borough tapas restaurant promises to deliver a perfect blend [...]
Theatre review: We Want You To Watch June 18, 2015 NT Temporary Theatre | ★★☆☆☆ We need to talk about pornography. Since the internet allowed it to profligate, it has become as instantly accessible as television. Acts of reprehensible violence, criminal outside the medium, are available for easy consumption. In We Want You To Watch, dance-performance duo RashDash and playwright Alice Birch have collaborated to [...]
Film review: Entourage is a harmless cinematic victory lap June 18, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ What better way to end a series about Hollywood than with a movie adaptation? Movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his trio of friends are trying to keep Chase’s directorial debut from spiralling out of control while managing their own frantic personal lives. From the start, Entourage falls into the [...]
Film review: Accidental Love June 18, 2015 Cert 15 | ★☆☆☆☆ Accidental Love was supposed to be David O Russell’s follow-up to 2004’s I Heart Huckabees, but he bailed on the project in 2010, perhaps after finally getting around to reading his own script. The story is daft: when Alice (an insignificant Jessica Biel) gets shot in the head by an errant [...]
Film review: Mr Holmes is an elementary character study of elderly Sherlock June 18, 2015 Cert PG | ★★★★☆ A century and a quarter after his literary debut, Sherlock Holmes has never been more popular. Given the renewed interest caused by two hit TV series and a Guy Ritchie movie franchise, it was only a matter of time before we got a film adaptation of A Slight Trick of [...]
Film review: The Look of Silence June 12, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★★ In Joshua Oppenheimer’s acclaimed 2012 documentary The Act of Killing, genocidal amateur dramatics played out against paradisal Indonesian landscape in a spectacle so bizarre and disturbing it felt instantly classic. In that film, ageing, unrepentant perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide re-enacted their murders in the style of their favourite [...]