Film review: Birdman December 19, 2014 Cert 15 | ★★★★★ Until now, Alejandro González Iñárritu was a filmmaker with heft but little humour. His last two films, Babel and Biutiful, seemed to set a trend for po-faced films about metaphysical problems with portentous one-word titles. All the stranger to relate, then, that in Birdman he’s made one of the funniest and [...]
Film review: Big Eyes December 19, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★★☆ The death of Tim Burton as a creative force has been greatly exaggerated. The hype surrounding Big Eyes is loaded with phrases like “return to form” and “best film in years”, which does a disservice to his last movie, the wonderful Frankenweenie, released in 2012. There’s no doubt, though, that [...]
Theatre review: City of Angels at the Donmar Warehouse December 19, 2014 Donmar Warehouse | ★★★★☆ Screenwriters get a famously rough ride in Hollywood. After giving birth to their characters and nurturing them into fully-grown, relatable beings, they hand them over to directors who chop, cut and abuse them like neglectful foster parents. In 1989, Larry Gelbart took the roiling resentment that had built up over years [...]
Film review: Dumb and Dumber To December 19, 2014 Cert 15 | ★½ I like to think there’s a knowing subtext to Dumb and Dumber To. It reintroduces central characters Harry and Lloyd – Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey – at a psychiatric care home, where Lloyd has been in a catatonic state since the end of the last movie. Harry visits him once a [...]
Exodus: Gods and Kings – film review December 19, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ Many great directors have earned a place in history by tackling the juicier parts of the Bible, but with Exodus, Ridley Scott may have bitten off more than he can chew. As with Darren Aronofsky’s Noah earlier this year, it seems to mistake an epic running time for epic cinema, clocking [...]
Henry IV Parts 1 and 2: An RSC hit at the Barbican December 18, 2014 Barbican | ★★★★☆ The Henry IV plays occupy an odd place in Shakespeare’s canon. They have the dimensions of a soap opera, spanning the breadth of society for the entire duration of a reign. They’re tonally inconsistent, flashing from palace to pub, and sparse of incident. Tense battles conclude with the blackest of comedy, [...]
Unbroken film review: Angelina Jolie’s debut feels like torture December 18, 2014 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Unbroken is the inspirational story of one side-parting’s survival against the odds. Global conflict, aviation disaster, regular beatings from a sadistic Japanese prison guard nicknamed “the Bird” – the list of hardships endured by this hairstyle makes for harrowing reading. The hardy parting even survives 40 days at sea in a [...]
Julie Verhoeven: Whiskers Between My Legs – art review December 12, 2014 ICA | ★★★★☆ Confrontational feminist art It’s Christmas! And that can only mean one thing at the ICA – bitingly confrontational feminist art from the brilliant Julie Verhoeven. Don’t be fooled by the title; Whiskers Between My Legs is at no pains to pussyfoot around the subject of women’s portrayal in the media. The [...]
Film review: Electricity December 12, 2014 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ For a supermodel looking to venture into acting, there will always be a plum role as a hottie in a Hollywood blockbuster. But in her transition to the screen Agyness Deyn has taken the path of greatest resistance. The sometime model built her rep as an actress with brave performances in [...]
Theatre review: Treasure Island December 12, 2014 Olivier Theatre | ★★★☆☆ The National Theatre employed the services of a “comedy consultant” for its lavish new Treasure Island adaptation. Whatever he did, it didn’t work – the jokes let down an otherwise impressive production that kids will enjoy (if not love) and adults will tolerate. Too often laughs are grasped at clumsily, upsetting the [...]