Theatre review: Rules for Living March 27, 2015 National Theatre | ★★★★☆ So this is it: the final curtain for Sir Nicholas Hytner, the revitalising creative director of the National Theatre. That he would bow out with Rules for Living, a new play from young writer Sam Holcroft and directed by stalwart Marianne Elliot, exemplifies the combination of steady-handedness and risk he has [...]
Art review: Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery March 27, 2015 Lisson Gallery | Until 9 May This new solo show by one of Britain’s most famous sculptors marks his return to painted works. A triptych of silicon and resin pieces dominates one room; raised red and burgundy bringing to mind torn flesh. The works are in part a continuation of Kapoor’s long-term fascination with [...]
Film review: Blind is divisive but gripping March 27, 2015 Cert 18 | ★★★★☆ Films about the blind, like films about the deaf, are faced with a formal problem: how do you convey the subjective experience of blindness without showing the viewer a blank screen for two hours? Compellingly, the Sundance-winning Blind gets around the problem by focusing on the flights of imagination that can [...]
Film review: Get Hard is a technically well-tooled comedy March 27, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★☆☆ In Get Hard, James King (Will Ferrell) is a rich, clueless trader whose life falls apart when he’s convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in San Quentin State Prison. With 30 days to get his affairs in order James hires Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart), the manager of his local [...]
Film review: Cinderella is kitsch, colourful and just about adequate March 26, 2015 Cert U | ★★★☆☆ The idea of remaking Disney classics is interesting, and when done with spirit and creativity the results can be worthwhile – just check out Glenn Close in 101. Director Kenneth Branagh’s pastiche of the 1950 animated classic Cinderella is not a slavish reproduction, but it’s sufficiently similar that it still seems [...]
Something for the weekend March 26, 2015 DRINK! SUNDAY LOVE Head to The Old Queen’s Head on Essex Road, Islington on Sunday night for one last chance to keep the weekend alive. Admission £1. UNWIND! KING’S CROSS FETE King’s Cross may usually be a transport hub but this Saturday it’s a family destination, with everything from live music to oversize chess. Free. [...]
Return of the photo maestro: Elliott Erwitt comes back to London March 23, 2015 Elliott Erwitt bore witness to some of the 20th century’s most important events. He photographed Marylin Monroe, Jack Kerouac and Che Guevera. He was present at President Kennedy’s funeral and on the set of numerous classic movies during the 50s and 60s. But he’s equally well known for his photographs of ordinary people. Some of [...]
Theatre review: The Broken Heart ensnares gut and mind March 20, 2015 Sam Wanamaker Playhouse | ★★★☆☆ What a piece of work the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is. In little over a year, it has become a priceless gem in London’s theatre crown. While the Globe deftly cycles through crowd-pleasing Shakespeare, the Playhouse breathes life into his relatively neglected contemporaries and successors, writers who often vocalise present day concerns [...]
Art review: Borderlands March 20, 2015 Gallery for Russian Arts and Design | ★★★★☆ Contemporary Russian and Ukrainian artists come together to reflect on the military conflict in eastern Ukraine and what it might mean for the future of the region. Artists from Kiev and Moscow have used video, photography and sculpture – including a brick rendering of the recently redrawn border of [...]
Film review: Mommy March 20, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Consider this sequence in Mommy. Steve, a hyperactive teen fresh out of a correctional facility, walks sulkily down a corridor behind his mother Diane. Cut to a point-of-view shot – presumably Steve’s – of Diane’s bum wiggling as she sashays along. In one neat edit we learn many things about this [...]