Anna and the Apocalypse review: A festive merger of zombies, Christmas and high-school musicals November 30, 2018 A zombie high-school musical set in a provincial Scottish suburb at Christmas, Anna and the Apocalypse occupies a vanishingly thin sliver of a Venn diagram of mostly maligned sub-genres, but manages to be more entertaining than the sum of its body parts. Plucky heroine Anna (Ella Hunt) is about to graduate, with her plans to [...]
Dick Whittington at Lyric Hammersmith pantomime review: wholesome fun for children and utter filth for adults November 30, 2018 Dick Whittington at the Lyric Hammersmith is just the smutty, heart-warming silliness you need to kick off the festive season. Like all good panto, it works on two levels, with wholesome fun for children and utter filth for adults. In writer-director Jude Christian’s production Dick Whittington (Luke Latchman), a good-natured simpleton from Cardiff, somehow bumbles [...]
The Wild Pear Tree film review: A languorous exploration of cultural change in modern Turkey from Palme d’Or-winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan November 30, 2018 There are two Turkeys in The Wild Pear Tree. One – the film’s backdrop – is the shabby provinces, where the summit of prestige is a career as a teacher. The other, lying at the story’s edge, is the cosmopolitan realm of high culture and aspirations. Sinan (Aydın Doğu Demirkol) is trapped in between. After [...]
Déraciné review: A virtual reality puzzler about haunting a boarding school November 30, 2018 From the studio that created Dark Souls, a twisted Gothic action RPG so infamously challenging that it’s become gaming shorthand for punishing difficulty, comes Deracine, a ponderous virtual reality puzzler set in a Victorian boarding school, in which you take on the role of a mischievous fairy playing tricks on the residents. Headset on, you [...]
Ralph Breaks the Internet review: Heart and jokes combine to make this video games drama a hit November 30, 2018 Wreck-It Ralph became a surprise hit two years ago thanks to its nostalgia-tingling portrayal of retro video games. Now the reformed bad guy, voiced by John C Reilly, is back and heading into The Internet in order to save the game of his best friend, Vanellope (Sarah Silverman). With a host of online obstacles in [...]
Roma film review: Alfonso Cuarón’s follow-up to Gravity is a meandering, neorealist valentine to the Mexico City November 30, 2018 Alfonso Cuarón is that rare thing, a director who has achieved the holy trinity of relevance, critical acclaim and widespread popularity. His last film, Gravity, was a CGI spectacular with a $100m budget. What better way to follow it than with a meandering, neorealist valentine to the Mexico City of his youth? Roma’s unhurried, ethereal [...]
Disobedience film review: Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams shine in Sebastián Lelio’s lesbian drama November 30, 2018 Chilean-Argentine director Sebastián Lelio chooses an unlikely setting for his first English language film: the austere surrounds of a North London orthodox Jewish community. It begins with something of a mission statement: an ageing rabbi, in what turn out to be his final sermon, asks what it means to be disobedient. The angels cannot deviate from [...]
Why everybody should be doing the conservation work workout November 30, 2018 If we compress human evolution into 24 hours, then for around 23 hours and 58 minutes – over 99 per cent of our existence – we lived, worked and thrived in the great outdoors. In this mostly challenging environment, despite the lack of medicines, technology, communications and our relative weakness to many predators, we became the world’s [...]
Ollie Phillips: Autumn internationals showed that northern hemisphere sides are edging towards becoming World Cup favourites November 29, 2018 The autumn internationals came to their conclusion last weekend and what stood out for me was just how strong the northern hemisphere sides are at the moment. Ireland and Wales won all four of their matches, England claimed three out of four – losing the other by one point to New Zealand – while Scotland [...]
Germany could face a tough draw in the Euro 2020 qualifiers after being demoted to pot two following abysmal year November 29, 2018 With the inaugural Uefa Nations League campaign over for the majority of countries, attention this weekend turns back to the more familiar European Championship qualification process. The Nations League has handed some countries an advantage for the Euro 2020 qualifiers, with group winners Holland and Switzerland now guaranteed to be seeded, but others have dropped [...]