Jane Horrocks’ love letter to post punk and new wave is a brilliant vanity project March 17, 2016 Young Vic | ★★★★☆ Jane Horrocks’ If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me is the kind of midlife crisis I hope I have one day. The star of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Absolutely Fabulous has been recording music with producer Kipper, because why the hell not? And why not perform it at [...]
Tom Hiddleston shines in High Rise, a stylish adaptation of JG Ballard’s architectural dystopia March 17, 2016 Dir. Ben Wheatley | ★★★★☆ "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.” The opening sentence of JG Ballard’s High Rise is up there with the English literary canon’s very best. It’s all [...]
10 Cloverfield Lane review: a pared-back, genre-hopping success March 17, 2016 Cloverfield was a lurching, visceral monster movie that played on our post-911 fears of sudden, inexplicable horror occurring in our cities, its grainy hand-held footage recalling the language of 24-hour news channels. Eight years later its follow-up – “stable-mate” might be a better term – is every bit as skin-crawling, but for very different reasons. [...]
Bill Murray’s film Rock the Kasbah is ill-conceived, poorly-executed March 17, 2016 In Rock the Kasbah’s universe, all we need to do to end the troubles in the Middle East is send Bill Murray out there to tell them all what’s what. Murray essentially plays himself playing a struggling talent manager, whose paltry existence on the periphery of the industry is propped up by hustling X-Factor wannabes. [...]
Motown the Musical’s songs deliver, but the lack of story lets it down March 17, 2016 Shaftesbury Theatre | ★★☆☆☆ If you don’t like at least one song released on the Motown label between 1960 and 1975, you’re utterly joyless and there’s something wrong with you. Berry Gordy’s hugely successful label discovered a young Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson among literally hundreds of others. Many of their hits [...]
Use new boy Drinkwater as inspiraton, England boss Hodgson advises Euro 2016 hopefuls March 17, 2016 England boss Roy Hodgson insists the door remains open on Euro 2016 selection and has urged tournament hopefuls to use Danny Drinkwater as their inspiration after yesterday handing the Leicester midfielder his maiden senior international call-up. Manchester United academy product Drinkwater was named in a 24-man squad for England’s friendlies against world champions Germany in [...]
Six Nations 2016 betting: Scoring in England Grand Slam win will be elementary for Anthony Watson March 17, 2016 Not many punters would have confidently backed England’s World Cup flops for a 2016 Six Nations Grand Slam at 6/1 after their dismal display in the tournament. Now they head to Paris for Saturday's final match no bigger than 2/7 to complete their first clean sweep since 2003. An away trip to France is never [...]
Formula One: Bernie Ecclestone backtracks on claims F1 has never been worse and predicts Ferrari will rivals Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton March 17, 2016 Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has performed a U-turn on the eve of the new season, insisting he was wrong to complain that the sport was “the worst it has ever been”. F1’s long-standing commercial rights holder spoke out last month, saying that he would not pay to take his family to watch grands prix because [...]
England vice-captain Buttler desperate to avoid another white-ball tournament damp squib March 17, 2016 England vice-captain Jos Buttler insists he is desperate to avoid another ignominious tournament exit as his side bid to ignite their World Twenty20 campaign against South Africa in Mumbai tomorrow. Buttler was a member of the England team which failed to reach the knockout stages of the 2014 World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, while he remains [...]
Aston Villa chief executive Tom Fox leaves Premier League’s basement club March 17, 2016 Aston Villa are searching for a new chief executive after Tom Fox stepped down from the role with immediate effect. The former Arsenal director becomes the second high-profile departure from Villa Park this week following former sporting director Hendrik Almstadt who left the club by mutual consent on Tuesday. Read more: Aston Villa reveal £27.3m loss as [...]