The Oscars according to City A.M. February 27, 2014 JUDGING PANEL: ANNABEL PALMERSTEVE DINNEENALEX DYMOKE BEST PICTURE • NOMINEESGRAVITY DALLAS BUYERS CLUB12 YEARS A SLAVETHE WOLF OF WALL STREETPRISONERS• WINNER12 YEARS A SLAVE SIMON THOMSON: "Steve McQueen directs with utter surety and the delicacy with which the film is composed, and the natural beauty of its Louisiana setting, reinforces the pervading sense of grinding terror. [...]
Vampire films never get old… or do they? February 20, 2014 FILMONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVECert 15 | By Steve DinneenThree Stars ONLY Lovers Left Alive is a movie with vampires in it, but it’s not really a vampire movie. It hemorrhages introspection and indie sensibility rather than horror panache. There’s hardly any blood in it. If I were the kind of writer who used bad puns, [...]
Internet dating – literally… February 13, 2014 FILM HER Cert 15 | By Alex Dymoke Five Stars HER is set in a hazily utopian Los Angeles of the not too distant future. At night the city is lit up like the milky way. During the day it looks like a Google advert, with streets full of serene, handsome people gliding along in [...]
Review: King Lear February 11, 2014 Sam Mendes’ recent musical production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory only really gathered pace after the interval. It was as if the director couldn’t be bothered with all the establishing stuff and was just waiting to get inside the wacky psychedelic funhouse that is Wonka’s factory, with all its potential for spectacular set pieces [...]
Where to drink February 10, 2014 London has always been on the vanguard of multiculturalism, and that extends to venues to quench your thirst. Andina opened in Shoreditch and has already won a devoted Peruvian and hipster fanbase with its bar. Martin Morales, former DJ and music exec and founder of Soho’s Ceviche, has opened a restaurant inspired by Andean cuisine [...]
Review: Out of the Furnace February 7, 2014 One star Christian Bale may be the king of actorly metamorphoses, but his character in Out of the Furnace is just how I imagine he is in real life: dour, depressing and humourless. All of which are adjectives that apply to the film as a whole. Two hours of muscle-flexing, fighting and staring into the [...]
Where to drink January 24, 2014 Bars and clubs continue to open as London recovers from the post-Christmas blues. Chakana is a new Incan-themed nightclub next to Selfridges, spearheaded by Nick House (Steam and Rye, Mahiki), who recruited international clubland superstars Andrew Dax (London, Ibiza), Corrado Mozzillo (Italy) and Augusto Rosillo (Argentina) to create a nightlife experience akin to Tarantino’s From [...]
Coen brothers deliver the goods January 23, 2014 FILM INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Cert 15 | By Alex Dymoke Four Stars INSIDE Llewyn Davis is an offbeat, directionless sulk through the unforgiving streets of early 60s New York. These 60s don’t so much swing as shiver: winter-time Greenwich Village is wan, washed-out, freezing. The aspiring musicians who shuffle through it aren’t carried forth by [...]
The Wolf of Wall Street is a joyous tale of decadence January 16, 2014 FILMTHE WOLF OF WALL STREETCert 18 | By Steve DinneenFour Stars THE WOLF of Wall Street is a film about awful people doing awful things in a company where being awful paid unbelievable dividends, for a while at least. Thankfully, in the hands of septuagenarian director Martin Scorsese, this doesn’t translate into an awful film; [...]
Brutal slavery epic is destined for awards January 9, 2014 FILM 12 YEARS A SLAVE Cert 15 | By Simon Thomson Five Stars STEVE McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave is a brilliant film, but its brutality makes for difficult viewing. That might be the point. Based on a memoir of the same name, the book’s subtitle offers a succinct, albeit bloodless, summary of the film: [...]