2:22 A Ghost Story review: Can Cheryl act? She certainly shouts convincingly February 2, 2023 2:22 A Ghost story review and star rating: ★★★☆☆ Should X Factor and Girls Aloud’s Cheryl be cast as a lead in a major West End play when she hasn’t any acting experience? The question of ‘stunt casting’ – employing a celebrity that isn’t known for acting to sell tickets – is age old. Elvis [...]
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons review: Jenna Coleman can’t make lemonade from this February 1, 2023 Review and star rating: ★★★☆☆ You’ve got 140 words a day to communicate with, the same as the number of characters in a tweet. How about that? This is the premise for Lemons Lemons Lemons, a show as abstract and provocative as its title suggests – but its contents can’t quite make lemonade. It’s a [...]
Bret Easton Ellis at the Southbank Centre this week: How to get tickets January 30, 2023 Bret Easton Ellis has been getting cancelled since long before the phrase “cancel culture” existed. His third novel, American Psycho, was so controversial it was dropped at the eleventh hour by his publisher and was subsequently sold shrink-wrapped in some countries. Then, in 2019, he published White, a meandering series of essays targeting things like [...]
Why We’re Just Normal Men is the best comedy account on Twitter January 30, 2023 It has taken me almost a year to come across the best comedy account left on Twitter. While the glory days of conceptual Twitter comedy appear to have passed, sometimes an account appears on your radar that still has the ability to floor you. We’re Just Normal Men is one of those accounts. Classics accounts [...]
I’m sorry but the internet is at it again. The real reason OnlyFans users are posting unsolvable riddles on TikTok January 30, 2023 The internet has been at it again. The lucrative sliver of Venn diagram between OnlyFans and TikTok has figured out that posting nonsense pseudo-riddles is a great way of amplifying engagement. Now there are loads of them, including the one explained below. As I bravely reported a few weeks ago, a (presumably) 26-year-old nursing assistant [...]
Gerard Butler new film Plane is a big dumb action movie January 26, 2023 Amidst all the complicated emotions of Oscar season, it’s a nice change of pace to see something as straightforward as Plane, starring Gerard Butler, on the release slate. The all-action Scot plays Brodie Torrance, a pilot in charge of a routine flight that’s forced to crash land on an island near the Philippines. While Plane [...]
The best shows to see at Vault Festival, London’s answer to the Edinburgh Fringe January 26, 2023 After a two year hiatus, the UK’s second biggest festival is underway beneath Waterloo Station. Adam Bloodworth spicks out the top shows T he UK’s second biggest festival has opened its doors in a hundred-year-old vault under Waterloo Station. The Vault Festival programmes features over 500 performers spanning comedy, theatre and circus, with shows running [...]
The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg’s brilliant love letter to cinema January 26, 2023 A Best Picture Oscar nomination this week will be a welcome relief for The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s new family drama. When it debuted in the US last year, it became the Hollywood legend’s worst performing film, and an undeserved flop as audiences stayed away from prestige movies. Will the Oscar bump see a happier ending [...]
Sound Of The Underground review: Travis Alabanza’s Royal Court drag play is a meta triumph January 26, 2023 Sound of the Underground review and star rating: ★★★★☆ “The drag brunches are very heavy.” It’s one of the drag confessions in Sound Of The Underground, Travis Alabanza’s Royal Court play, a provocative, emotional testament to the artform. Performed in a non-queer space to largely wealthy West London audiences, Alabanza understands the power of this [...]
Minecraft makeover: This is what Sadiq Khan looks like with a perfectly square head January 26, 2023 Have you ever wondered what London’s long-standing mayor Sadiq Khan would look like with a perfectly square head? Now you can find out for sure after he was brought to life as a character in the video game Minecraft. With his grey hair, the faintest hint of 5 o’clock shadow and those kind, slightly sleepy [...]