Film review: Suite Francaise March 13, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ Suite Francaise is a handsome adaptation of the Irène Némirovsky novel Dolce, written during the Second World War before she was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. The unfinished work was eventually published by Némirovsky’s daughter in 2004, and became a critical and commercial phenomenon. While the film doesn’t live up to [...]
Savage Beauty: A triumphant celebration of Alexander McQueen’s life work March 13, 2015 Victoria and Albert Museum | ★★★★☆ First things first: right the wrong. New York may have held the first major posthumous Alexander McQueen exhibition, but London was the city whose rhythms and edges gave life to the designer’s clothing. Savage Beauty opens with a room entitled “London”, which reaffirms the UK capital as the “epicentre” [...]
Exhibition review: Beard is not to be missed if you like facial foliage March 6, 2015 Somerset House | ★★★★☆ Beards are big. Literally. You can’t walk down Kingsland Road without being tickled by the bristles of a hirsute gentleman. And now you can’t walk through the grand exhibition space of Somerset House without a beard to the retina. Style photographer Mr Elbank has a new exhibition showcasing the magnificence [...]
Theatre review: Game is nasty and brutish – but effective March 6, 2015 Almeida Theatre | ★★★★☆ Game at the Almeida is a disturbing collage of contemporaneousness that aims a poison-tipped dart at a number of hot-button issues ranging from the shortage of affordable homes to our reality TV obsession. Writer Mike Bartlett and designer-directors Sacha Wares and Miriam Buether have gone to extreme lengths to realise their [...]
Film review: Unfinished Business is a bit like watching paint dry March 6, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Unfinished Business might sound like a badass film in which Charles Bronson guns down the fat-cats whose corporate greed killed his daughter, but sadly it’s about Vince Vaughn (pictured), Tom Wilkinson and James Franco’s little brother trying to score a contract to sell metal shavings to a multinational conglomerate. It’s not [...]
Film review: Still Alice March 6, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ For all the horror genre’s attempts to scare us with demonic possession and serial killers, real terror rarely lies in external threat but in the machinations of the mind. By that logic, Still Alice is one of the most haunting films released in years, as it charts one intelligent, vivacious woman’s [...]
Flower power: Get ready for the new season in floral prints and pastel shades March 5, 2015 Christian Dior jumpsuit, £4,700, dior.com Giorgio Armani dress, £18,440, armani.com; BLK DNM shirt, £195, net-a-porter.com; Jimmy Choo flats, £375, jimmychoo.com Peter Pilotto dress, £1,500, harveynichols.com Marni dress, £1,170, 26 Sloane Street, SW1X 9NE Kate Spade top, £395, katespade.co.uk; Brooks Brothers shirt, £95, brooksbrothers.com; Hudson jeans, £250, Selfridges.com; Jimmy Choo flats, [...]
City A.M. partners with Crowdnetic to launch crowdfunding site CityAMCrowdwatch.com March 5, 2015 City A.M. has partnered with Crowdnetic for the launch of its suite of UK crowd finance data. It features information on private UK-based companies publicly raising capital online through securitiesbased crowdfunding portals. Through CityAMCrowdwatch.com, investors can track a comprehensive listing of UK private offerings from leading platforms including Property Moose, Angels Den, Crowd for Angels, Fireflock, [...]
Theatre review: Closer is going through the motions February 27, 2015 Donmar Warehouse | ★★★☆☆ Patrick Marber’s Closer, which debuted at the National Theatre in 1997, is a caustic, bitter, sometimes hilarious exploration of modern relationships and the perils of lust. Those parts of us we keep hidden away – petty jealousies, nagging doubts that the grass is greener somewhere else – are laid bare, opened [...]
Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime at the Wellcome Collection – art review February 27, 2015 Wellcome Collection | ★★★★☆ After a £17.5m rebuild, the Wellcome Collection reopens with another stomach-churning exhibition for the “incurably curious”. The Institute of Sexology made visitors blush with an extensive collection of risqué artefacts, while Death: A Self-Portrait chilled them to the bone with ghoulish exhibits. Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime has more in [...]
