A journey into the colourless void of Midwest America December 8, 2013 FILM NEBRASKA Cert 15 | By Steve Dinneen Three Stars ALEXANDER Payne’s last three films – About Schmidt, Sideways and Descendants – have been bittersweet explorations of disappointment; a glimpse at the places we could all end up if life doesn’t go our way. Nebraska, his latest Oscar-baiting, black and white opus continues the theme, [...]
Thompson and Hanks shine in awards-baiting Disney biopic November 28, 2013 FILM SAVING MR BANKS Cert PG | By Simon Thomson Four Stars SAVING Mr Banks is the true story of how, over two weeks in Los Angeles, Walt Disney persuaded P.L. Travers to turn her children’s book series, Mary Poppins, into a film. Starring double-Oscar winners Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Disney, [...]
Awkward laughs prove to be just what the doctor ordered November 28, 2013 THEATRE IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY) St James Theatre | By Simon Thomson Four Stars IT’S THE dawn of the electrical age in a spa town near New York, and the enterprising Doctor Givings is treating hysterical patients. With vibrators. This is the West End transfer of Sarah Ruhl’s Tony-and-Pulitzer-nominated comedy In [...]
Where to Drink: Warm your cockles this Christmas with a cocktail or craft beer at one of these new bar openings November 28, 2013 THE PARTY train is chugging full steam ahead as Christmas approaches. Perhaps Nick House and Kelly Brook have been inspired by the season for their new City venture, Steam and Rye, which takes cues from the Roaring Twenties and the Wild West. The massive venue is spread over three floors. The main room resembles Grand [...]
Hungry for more? You will be November 21, 2013 FILM HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE Cert 12a | By Simon Thomson Three Stars THE HUNGER Games: Catching Fire is a story of survival and defiance in a dystopian future, where children are forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of a ruling class, which uses the spectacle to hold the masses in fearful [...]
Less than the sum of its parts November 17, 2013 FILM THE COUNSELLOR Cert 18 | By Simon Thomson Two Stars GREEDY and ambitious, a successful lawyer ignores the warnings of his friends in the criminal underworld, and becomes involved with a Mexican drug cartel. When a shipment goes missing, suspicion falls on the counsellor (Michael Fassbender), and the perfect life he has built comes [...]
Where to drink November 17, 2013 LONDON bears many nightlife gifts in the run up to Christmas. Pleasure seekers can revel in Mason House, a 5000 sqft high-end nightclub on Argyll Street that has been designed to resemble a Masonic Temple. Guests enter the club through the crypt before arriving in an atmospheric main room fitted with neon installations, banquet seating, [...]
The Butler is classy – but too eager to teach November 14, 2013 FILM THE BUTLER Cert 12a | Three stars THE Butler examines African-Americans’ struggle for civil rights in the 20th century through events in the life of White House butler Cecil Gaines, who served seven presidents, from Eisenhower to Reagan. It is essentially Forrest Gump, with moral didacticism instead of heart-warming whimsy. It is clear from [...]
A brilliantly acted revival at The Clare November 14, 2013 THEATRE THE ISLAND The Clare at the Young Vic | Four stars DUST swirls under bright lights as you enter The Clare Theatre at The Young Vic. Two men – The Island’s only characters – shovel piles of sand into wheelbarrows, only to walk to the other side of the stage and tip it all [...]
An ugly, nasty Brit-flick with no redeeming features at all November 14, 2013 FILM DOM HEMINGWAY Cert 15 | One star SAFECRACKER Dom Hemingway (Jude Law pictured) has spent 12 years in prison. On his release he teams up with his friend Dickie (Richard E Grant) to retrieve the money he’s owed for keeping schtum. Along the way he settles old scores, seeks new employment, and tries to [...]