A Bigger Splash sees a manic, nude Ralph Fiennes on the form of his life February 12, 2016 Dir. Luca Guadagnino | ★★★★☆ This sun-drenched comedy-thriller was one of the highlights of last year's Venice Film Festival. Tilda Swinton plays Marianne, a global rock star whose quiet life on an Italian island with her lover (Matthias Schoenaerts) is shattered by the arrival of Harry (Ralph Fiennes), Marianne's record producer ex, and his newly discovered [...]
Chinese Super League spending: Wayne Rooney could follow Ramires with Premier League stars targeted by football’s future superpower February 12, 2016 Jiangsu who? Following Chelsea’s Ramires £21m move to the Chinese city of Nanjing to play for the Super League club Jiangsu Suning, many football fans have been left to ask who and why? The Nanjing club is hardly the best known, nor the most successful, in China. Last season they could only finish ninth in [...]
Arsene Wenger claims Arsenal “don’t have a problem” with ticket prices and urges fans against walkout protest February 12, 2016 Arsene Wenger has claimed Arsenal do not have a problem with high ticket prices, despite the fact the club sells the most expensive tickets in the country. Premier League rivals Liverpool backed down over a planned increase in prices after fans walked out of Anfield in protest last week, yet the Arsenal manager urged fans [...]
Six Nations 2016: Is George Ford and Owen Farrell pairing best bet for England v Italy? February 12, 2016 Instead of pitting George Ford and Owen Farrell against each other for a starting spot as England’s fly-half, Eddie Jones deployed the pair in a 10-12 axis against Scotland in their successful Six Nations opener. The head coach played Ford and Farrell at fly-half and inside-centre respectively and the presence of two decision makers within [...]
Lord Coe accuses Nestle of hypocrisy and vows to fight Swiss-based firm over IAAF sponsorship deal February 11, 2016 Lord Coe last night accused Nestle of hypocrisy and vowed to fight the decision of the Swiss-based food and drinks giant to terminate its sponsorship of crisis-hit athletics world governing body the IAAF. Nestle argued that it feared its sponsorship of the governing body’s Kids’ Athletics programme would damage its reputation after leading IAAF officials [...]
Sunderland and England winger Adam Johnson sacked after admitting child sex charge February 11, 2016 England winger Adam Johnson was last night sacked by Sunderland after his plea of guilty to one count of sexual activity with a child and one charge of grooming. Blacks Cats boss Sam Allardyce had earlier confirmed that Johnson would not be involved in the club’s Premier League fixture against Manchester United at the Stadium [...]
Zoolander 2 wrote its own eugoogly when it put cameos before comedy February 11, 2016 Dir. Ben Stiller | ★★★☆☆ Over the last 15 years, Zoolander has boiled down in the public consciousness to its very essence, becoming less a movie than a handful of fondly remembered quotations. Its pop-cultural caché is so high that it’s easy to overlook its simple premise: the endearing, Chaplin-esque stupidity of its narcissistic leads. This [...]
Kate Moss, Cara Delevigne and Lily Cole are in Vogue at the National Portrait Gallery February 11, 2016 The National Portrait Gallery | ★★★★☆ The National Portrait Gallery’s Vogue 100 exhibition is an epic stroll through a century of photography from fashion’s undisputed powerhouse. The trail leads backwards, opening with vast prints of the most recognisable faces from today’s magazines; Cara Delevingne gives way to Lily Cole, who gives way to Kate Moss. The [...]
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies review – plus the rest of this week’s biggest film releases February 11, 2016 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (15) | ★★☆☆☆ Dir: Burr Steers Rarely has a film been more self-explanatory than this horror comedy which re-imagines Jane Austen's classic in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, with both the Bennet sisters (including Lily James's Elizabeth) and Mr Darcy (Sam Riley) now highly trained to fend off the [...]
Battlefield at the Young Vic draws effective parallels between Syria and the Mahabharata February 11, 2016 Young Vic | ★★★☆☆ Can a 2,500-year old story tell us something new about the human condition? That was presumably one of the considerations of 90-year old playwright Peter Brook and his long time collaborator Marie-Helene Estienne when they returned to an Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Having already told the story through their nine-hour 1989 [...]