Denial review: A cast of top notch character actors lend heft to this gripping courtroom drama January 26, 2017 Once, TV used to aspire to film, but TV has got so good lately that we might have come full circle. Denial from Mick Jackson, a director primarily known for his TV work – and The Bodyguard, incongruously – has stripped this courtroom saga back to its mahogany rafters until it resembles a gripping Sunday [...]
Dirty Great Love Story review: This loved-up play is a little too on the nose January 26, 2017 We all know how it goes – boy meets girl, boy screws girl, boy and girl variously fall in love and drift apart before finally ending up together. It’s a story as old as the monetisation of human intimacy. Dirty Great Love Story tells it without any flash – our boy is Richard, a lovable [...]
Sing is an utterly charmless and joke-free comedy about some singing animals January 26, 2017 Matthew McConaughey voices a koala in this charmless children’s film about animals singing covers of pop songs. There really isn’t a whole lot more to unpack. Just farmyard karaoke cut with a thin plot about a theatre going out of business. No allegory, no fable, subtext nor message to decipher beyond “a pig in a [...]
Us/Them review: two-person show about the Beslan hostage atrocity is a minor revelation January 26, 2017 This two-person show explores the incomprehensible horror of terrorism in the eyes of a child. A pair of unnamed teenagers begin by recounting a normal day at school, bragging about how their town, Beslan, is superior to nearby Chechnya, where the women all have moustaches. Their tale darkens as the infamous hostage situation unfolds, with [...]
Christine film review: Rebecca Hall shines in a film that peers behind the gruesome headlines of the Christine Chubbuck case January 26, 2017 “If It Bleeds, It Leads” is the darkly prophetic slogan at the centre of this drama, about real life TV reporter Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) whose work pressures and mental health issues led her to commit suicide on camera in 1974. Even a cursory search for Chubbuck’s name makes for unpleasant reading, the stuff of [...]
Car manufacturing hits its highest level in 17 years – as auto makers slash investment January 26, 2017 UK car manufacturing hit a record high in 2016, new figures have shown – just as car manufacturers slashed the amount they invested in the UK. Figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed the UK made 1.7m vehicles in 2016, up 8.5 per cent on the year before and [...]
Resident Evil 7 review: A gruesome return to form for the horror series January 25, 2017 Were it physically possible for a human skeleton to crawl out of a body through the mouth so that all the flesh peeled down to form a bloody skirt made of guts, and for that skeleton to run around the room getting tangled up in bunting and pulling bookshelves down on itself, then Resident Evil [...]
US giant Ford criticised after Mustang sports car scores just two stars in crash tests January 25, 2017 US car giant Ford has been criticised by industry body Thatcham Research after its Mustang sports car achieved just two stars in official European crash tests. The Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) puts all new cars through thorough crash tests and awards them a star rating out of five. Recent changes have made it [...]
Best Burns Night suppers in London: from the City to Mayfair, we find the best haggis, neeps and tatties January 25, 2017 Seven of the best Burns Night suppers: Don’t miss out on the most Scottish night of the year, with haggis and whisky aplenty at these top restaurants. 1 Lombard Street You can celebrate the life and times of Rabbie Burns right in the heart of the city with an extra special night at 1 Lombard [...]
Black Roe review: A masterclass in Hawaiian poke January 24, 2017 Hey, have you heard about the cool new thing? It’s poke, man, Hawaiian raw fish cubes in a spicy salsa marinade atop a sticky short-grain rice clod. Think ceviche meets sushi by way of bibimbap. You can hardly move for people eating the stuff, elbows jutted out, a bowl in each hand, frantically scooping it [...]