The films, theatre and art shows to see in 2019, from Toy Story 4 and Avengers: Endgame to Van Gogh & Britain and Tom Hiddleston in Betrayal January 3, 2019 Toy Story 4; Dir: Josh Cooley; June Despite Disney’s emphatic assurances that we’d seen the last of Buzz and Woody, here comes Toy Story 4, an inevitable sequel to the classic animated trilogy about a bunch of dolls who occasionally come to life to torment deserving humans. Most of the original cast has been lured back [...]
Maurizio Sarri has not had the instant impact Chelsea expect of new managers with the club one point worse off than last year January 3, 2019 Chelsea's blueprint for success under Roman Abramovich's ownership has been dependent on new managers and signings having an immediate impact, with the high turnover of personnel a trade-off in the pursuit of instant results. But after a promising start, those instant results have begun to desert manager Maurizio Sarri, with the Blues one point worse [...]
Chris Tremlett: Honours are there for the taking for England in 2019 with the World Cup and Ashes approaching January 2, 2019 England begin 2019 in a great place: full of confidence and with honours there for the taking. The tour of the West Indies, which starts this month, is followed by the 50-over World Cup and the Ashes, which are both on home soil. It is a combination which presents a brilliant opportunity. Having beaten India [...]
Manchester City are ready to halt the Liverpool juggernaut and get their Premier League title defence back on track January 2, 2019 It was at this stage last season that Liverpool ended Manchester City's unbeaten run in the Premier League with a 4-3 win at Anfield. Until then City had looked unstoppable, but they came undone when visiting Anfield on 14 January and have been unable to beat Liverpool in three attempts since. Thursday night's trip to [...]
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse review: The missing link between comics and live action superhero films December 21, 2018 My love affair with comics started not with the works of Stan Lee or Alan Moore or even Tim Burton, but with Saturday morning cartoons; X-Men: The Animated Series; Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends; Silver Surfer. And while the often brilliant spandex movies that have been churned out on an industrial scale over the last [...]
Ollie Phillips: Johnny Sexton’s outstanding Ireland and dominant Saracens lead my 2018 roll of honour December 20, 2018 There is only one place to start a look back at rugby in 2018 and that’s with its best side. Ireland have been the undoubted stars of the last 12 months. They may not have overtaken New Zealand as No1 in the world rankings, but their first ever home win over the All Blacks last [...]
Welcome to Marwen review: A visual triumph but a soggy, mawkish film December 20, 2018 Welcome to Marwen takes some of the most impressive character animation since Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa and welds it to a film so saggy and lacking in introspection that even those glorious visuals soon lose their lustre. It tells the true story – insert your own inverted commas – of Mark Hogancamp, a reclusive artist suffering [...]
Cardiff City v Manchester United: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hopes to spark happy new era at old stomping ground December 20, 2018 When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer parted ways with Cardiff City in September 2014, the Norwegian could not have envisaged the circumstances of his return. Solskjaer, in his own words, “stepped aside” at Cardiff due to a “difference in philosophy” with owner Vincent Tan, but the brutal reality is that he had failed during his nine-month spell [...]
Sweat at the Donmar Warehouse review: This Pulitzer winning play is a comprehensive dissection of de-industrialised American heartlands December 20, 2018 Following the US Presidential election in 2016, a slew of reporters were hastily dispatched to the backwaters of de-industrialised America to discover why large sections of the working class population there thought Donald Trump was the answer to their problems. They needn’t have made the trip. This play by Lynn Nottage, first performed in 2015, [...]
The Favourite: Olivia Colman is extraordinary as Queen Anne in this provocative period drama December 20, 2018 Anyone remember Queen Anne from history class? Me neither, but if Olivia Colman’s blistering portrayal of her is anything to go by, I can see why. The last of the Stuarts, she spent her final days in the early 18th century severely depressed following the death of her husband and 17 children, and hobbling about [...]