Art review: Tony Bevan: Trees and Archives at Ben Brown Fine Arts December 5, 2014 Ben Brown Fine Arts | ★★★★★ Yorkshire-born painter Tony Bevan, 63, is renowned for bloodshot portraits mapped with veins that contort, twist and strain toward the subconscious. His latest exhibition (a show of 15 new paintings of trees and archive grids) is a departure in terms of subject matter but not in terms of theme. [...]
Black Sea film review: Jude Law’s absurdly overcooked accent isn’t the worst thing in this submarine borefest December 5, 2014 Cert 15 | ★☆☆☆☆ Maybe three miles under the sea, locked in a rusty tube with a dozen sweaty blokes, is the only place Jude Law can be trusted not to get anyone pregnant. That’s the only reason I can think of for why he agreed to this sub-Guy Richie, substandard, submarine borefest. It’s [...]
Theatre review: 3 Winters December 5, 2014 Lyttelton Theatre | ★★★★☆ In Britain, it can be difficult to understand the seismic societal shifts that characterised much of modern European history. From 1945 to 2011, Croatia moved through monarchy and communism to capitalism, on the way fragmenting from Yugoslavia in a brutal succession of wars. London-based Croatian playwright Tena Stivcic’s new play follows a [...]
Film review: St Vincent December 5, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ It isn’t clear whether those rumours of Bill Murray turning up randomly at house parties are true. But on this evidence, you probably wouldn’t want him to crash yours. In St Vincent, Murray reconfigures his surly persona to play Vincent MacKenna, a feckless drunk and reckless gambler who’s struggling to keep [...]
Photography review: Royal Photographic Society at the Science Museum December 4, 2014 Science Museum | ★★★★☆ The Royal Photographic Society has been in existence for over 150 years, and over the course of that time it has amassed a collection of over a quarter of a million photographs. Drawn By Light, the new exhibition at the Science Museum, selects just 200 of these images, ranging from [...]
Something for the weekend December 4, 2014 FOR A BARGAIN ADAMS ANTIQUES FAIR Still got presents to buy? Pick up something unique at 2014’s final Adams Antiques Fair at the Royal Horticultural Halls. With 140 stalls specialising in linen, jewellery and ceramics, you’re sure to find the perfect gift. £4, visit adamsantiquesfairs.com. FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT ROXX PARTY Roxx’s Rolling Stone pop-up [...]
Film review: Concerning Violence November 28, 2014 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ The first revelation in Concerning Violence is that Lauryn Hill’s been doing more with her days than massacring her back catalogue and signing up to tax evasion schemes. She provides the soulful voiceover for this documentary about the end of colonial rule in Africa, drawing on text from pioneering anti-colonial [...]
Photography review: Guy Bourdin: Image-Maker November 28, 2014 Somerset House | ★★★★☆ Guy Bourdin: Image-Maker at Somerset House begins with a largely unpublished series of surreal fashion images charting a road trip from London to Brighton with a car-load of Charles Jourdan shoes and a pair of mannequin legs. The legs strut across the frames, both a presence and an absence, suggesting [...]
Photography review: Conflict, the Photography November 28, 2014 Tate Modern | ★★★★★ In Tate Modern’s sprawling new exhibition marking a hundred years since the beginning of the First World War, conflict, time and photography add up to a moving meditation on the nature of remembrance. Curator Simon Barker smartly decides to arrange exhibits according to proximity to the conflict, rather than chronologically. [...]
Art review: Post-Pop: East Meets West November 28, 2014 Saatchi Gallery | ★★★★☆ “Have you sold your soul, have you sold your soul, have you sold your soul?” It’s hard to imagine the current crop of Turner Prize nominees making a statement as baldly political as this. While the art of the moment seeks refuge in the obscure, the artists in the Saatchi [...]