Art review: Peter Kennard May 15, 2015 Imperial War Museum | ★★★★☆ In the cathedral of militaria that is the Imperial War Museum, a dash of pacifism can help keep things in perspective. Photomontage artist Peter Kennard spent the last 50 years making provocative collages denouncing conflict, greed and corporate misdemeanours. Kennard’s work is caustic and confrontational, the stuff of [...]
Theatre review: Death of a Salesman May 15, 2015 Noel Coward Theatre | ★★★★☆ Incredibly, this year is the centenary of Arthur Miller’s birth, and he’s still America’s most famous playwright. It’s incredible because Death of a Salesman – his Pulitzer Prize-winning opus on the American Dream – still reverberates around the claustrophobic walls of our 9-to-5 culture. Through Willy Loman, an everyman [...]
Film review: Pitch Perfect 2 still hits the right notes May 15, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ If you haven’t heard of Pitch Perfect, it’s probably because you’re not a girl under the age of 25. But this comedy about rival acapella choirs became a cult hit in 2012, largely due to breakout performances from the sickeningly talented Anna Kendrick and offbeat Australian comedian Rebel Wilson. Simply [...]
Film review: The Tribe May 15, 2015 Cert 18 | ★★★☆☆ That this daring film got an international release at all is one of several impressive things about it. For not only is it sickeningly violent and utterly pessimistic, but it also plays out entirely in Russian Sign Language – without subtitles. Don’t bring a date. The plot is mercifully [...]
Mad Max: Fury Road is the best action film of the year – film review May 14, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★★ Mad Max: Fury Road is the most surprisingly brilliant, gloriously demented film of the year. It’s a carnival of the grotesque that combines Hollywood sheen with a heart of pure, unadulterated pulp. What’s just as extraordinary is that the only other movies director George Miller has worked on since the millennium [...]
Something for the weekend May 14, 2015 MUNCH! CROSSTOWN DOUGHNUTS Mmmmm doughnuts! And not just any doughnuts. This new shop in Soho takes an already indulgent treat to the next level with flavours including salted camarel with banana cream and Belgian chocolate truffle. 4 Broadwick Street, Soho, visit crosstowndoughnuts.com LISTEN! LSO IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE See one of the greatest orchestras in the [...]
Frida Kahlo’s life in things: New exhibition celebrates the most famous female artist of all time May 12, 2015 When Frida Kahlo wasn’t breaking ground as a leading member of the Mexican avant garde art movement, she was sleeping with Trotsky, befriending Picasso and entrancing the world with her androgynous charisma. Her life was every bit as earthily sexual as her paintings: one of the first artists to have a reputation that truly preceded [...]
David Price: Dreamland May 8, 2015 Art First, Soho | ★★★★☆ Dreamland is the name of the abandoned amusement park in Margate where painter David Price moved his studio three years ago. It’s also the name of his latest exhibition, in which he reimagines Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s etchings of ancient Rome as a corrupted theme park. For Price, the [...]
Harry Cory Wright: Anglia – art review May 8, 2015 Eleven Gallery | ★★★★☆ East Anglia isn’t known for its magisterial landscape – endless flat, wild land is hardly the stuff of picture post-cards. What it does have is space: space for light to meld and dance. Space to explore. And as the work of Harry Cory Wright shows, there are rich pickings for [...]
Film review: Girlhood May 8, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★★☆ Girlhood’s title has been changed for the English release – perhaps to cash in on the popularity of Boyhood – but the original French name, which translates as “gang of girls”, is more appropriate. For this is a film about the adolescent need to belong, and it’s one of the [...]