Film review: Paddington is sweet as marmalade November 27, 2014 Cert PG | ★★★★☆ Paddington Bear is back and he’s looking… scary. With mangey, greying fur and little sharp teeth, it’s easier to imagine him ripping the throats out of livestock in Alaska than nibbling marmalade sandwiches in west London. Appearances, though, can be deceiving. In spirit, Paddington Bear is cuddlier than [...]
Something for the weekend November 27, 2014 AMERICAN TREATS: THANKSGIVING AT THE MAZE GRILL With Josper-grilled turkey, honey roast parsnips and delicately spiced pumpkin soup, Gordon Ramsay is beating the yanks at their own game with the Thanksgiving menu at his Maze Grill restaurant. Three courses £35; gordonramsay.com/mazegrill ROMANTIC FUN: SOMERSET HOUSE ICE SKATING Christmas wouldn’t be christmas without skating at Somerset [...]
Tony Bevan at Ben Brown Fine Arts: The tree of life, death and the mind November 23, 2014 Painter Tony Bevan speaks ahead of his show at Ben Brown Fine Arts. Tony Bevan established a name for himself with blood-coloured self-portraits that snarled and gurned and twisted into the white of the canvas. Meeting him today, you’d be forgiven for asking, where are the devilish flared nostrils, the vast egg cranium [...]
Photography review: World Press Photo 2014 November 21, 2014 Royal Festival Hall | ★★★★☆ The World Press Photograph of the Year has been running since 1955, with the numbers of entries increasing steadily. For this year’s competition a record-breaking 5,754 photographers from 132 countries submitted 98,671 pictures, with subjects ranging from the Boston Marathon bombing to the collapse of the Rana Plaza in [...]
Theatre review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers November 21, 2014 Olivier Theatre | ★★★☆☆ The dirtiest thing in the Annawadi slum is the language. Above the din of arriving and departing planes (Annawadi is located right next to Mumbai airport) millions of slum-dwellers bicker, joke and philosophise in words as colourful as the advertising hoardings above their heads. American author Katherine Boo depicted [...]
Film review: Get On Up November 21, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ Many films don’t feature a single scene in which two female characters talk about something other than a man. I’m not sure this film features a single scene in which any two characters talk about something other than James Brown. Like many biopics, Get On Up subscribes to [...]
Film review: The Homesman November 21, 2014 Cert 15 | ★★★☆☆ Many an American fictional character has dreamed a dream of loading up the wagon and heading way out west to roll the dice on the frontier. It says much of The Homesman’s contrarian spirit that it does the reverse. In his second directorial outing, Tommy Lee Jones trudges backwards [...]
Film review: The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part I November 20, 2014 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ So what happens now The Hunger Games are over? The previous two instalments of the franchise revolved around these Battle Royale-style tournaments, in which two “tributes” from each district of dystopia Panem fought to the death in a grisly reality TV show devised by a fascist regime as a pretty [...]
Something for the weekend November 20, 2014 For a festive treat: winter wonderland Ice rink? Check. Fun fair? Check. 200 fairy-lit Bavarian wooden chalets? Check. Winter Wonderland, London’s most extravagantly christmassy spectacle, returns to Hyde Park today. Open every day from 10am-10pm. For a Christmas ride: Tally ho! cycle tour Tally Ho! have organised a cycle ride around all London’s best Christmas [...]
Photography review: Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize November 14, 2014 National Portrait Gallery | ★★★★☆ The National Portrait Gallery’s immensely popular Taylor Wessing portrait prize exhibition is back. This week it was announced that the winning image was fashion photographer David Titlow’s atmospheric portrait of his baby son interacting with a dog. The judges selected the image from over 4,000 submissions from 1,793 photographers. [...]