By: Steve Dinneen

Life&Style Editor I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, wine, going out, culture, technology and travel. I'm also the head judge of our Toast the City awards that celebrates hospitality in the Square Mile. Find me on X @steve_dinneen

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After the Rehearsal / Persona review: An emotionally wrought, powerhouse of an Ingmar Bergman double-bill

September 28, 2017

The biggest cheer at the end of this exceptional double bill wasn't for the three actors who had endured an unusually intense evening, but for the tall, handsome, grey-haired form of Ivo van Hove, the Dutchman who might just be the best theatre director working today. He certainly earned the plaudits for this super-stylish, emotionally [...]
Iconoclasts at the Saatchi Gallery review: This repeatedly fascinating collection of pieces is in search of a unifying theme

September 28, 2017

Iconoclasm is an apt subject for an exhibition in 2017, when nary a venerated institution remains unscathed. But if you’re hoping for a coherent argument about its place in the modern artistic canon, you will leave the Saatchi Gallery disappointed. If, however, you’re happy to simply enjoy the works of 13 vastly different artists without [...]
iPhone 8 review: Eclipsed by the iPhone X, is Apple’s “other” iPhone at risk of being forgotten about?

September 27, 2017

The iPhone 8 is a conundrum: it’s an excellent phone, a hero handset, but one that’s destined to be the bridesmaid and never the bride. Launched on the same day as the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing iPhone X, the iPhone 8, which looks virtually identical to every premium Apple handset since 2014, is the plain sibling, [...]
Basquiat: Boom for Real at the Barbican charts the astonishing ascendancy of New York’s hippest 80s scenester

September 21, 2017

His works fetch more at auction than those of any other American painter – one sold this year for £85m – but Jean-Michel Basquiat remains an outsider in the world of contemporary art, written off by many as little more than a precocious street artist with connections. And, in this country at least, you could [...]
Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain review: A wonderful collection of objects that find beauty in the everyday

September 14, 2017

If we could all find someone to look at us the way Rachel Whiteread looks at an empty loo roll, the world would be a happier place. Few artists find quiet beauty in everyday things like she does. While her contemporaries like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were creating sculptures filled with live flies or [...]
Mother! film review: Darren Aronofsky’s brutal new film is as dark as it is hilarious

September 14, 2017

Nobody who’s seen Requiem for a Dream or Black Swan expects an easy ride from Darren Aronofsky, but his latest film still manages to blindside you, setting up what first appears to be a gentle farce before sucker-punching you with some of the most gleefully heinous imagery you’re likely to see this year. It follows [...]
It 2017 film review: New version of the Stephen King classic starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the killer clown buckles under the weight of expectation

September 7, 2017

Tim Curry made such a lasting impression as Pennywise in the 1990 version of Stephen King’s It that it’s easy to forget what a terrible, steaming heap of garbage the rest of it was. The made-for-TV miniseries was a clown-car of a show, with pieces falling off left, right and centre – awful pacing, bad [...]
Atomic Blonde film review: Charlize Theron dazzles in this exercise in style over substance by director of John Wick

August 11, 2017

Every few years a movie comes along that rewrites the rule-book for the Hollywood blockbuster, sending out tonal and stylistic ripples for decades to come. There was Die Hard with its dry, flawed protagonist John McClane, the Bourne series’ perpetual-motion shaky-cam, the Matrix’s use of bullet time. And in 2014 there was John Wick. Combining [...]
Shin Godzilla film review: A delightfully silly, politically astute return to the schlocky origins of the world’s favourite monster

August 11, 2017

He may be approaching retirement age, but 63-year-old Godzilla can still bring home the bacon. A big-budget Warner Bros movie pitting him against fellow monster King Kong is currently in the pipeline, and Bryan Cranston’s 2014 reboot made more than $500m at the box office. Shin Godzilla – or “Godzilla Resurgence” as it’s translated for [...]
Project Mayhem theatre review: Dalston immersive event has a violent charm but lacks narrative ambition

August 9, 2017

The first rule of this immersive theatre production is: I’m not allowed to reveal the name of the source material. The second rule of this immersive theatre production… You get the picture. Project Mayhem, as it’s not-very-subtly named, is the latest show by Secret Studio Lab, a company that sounds like, but is not, a [...]

Commonwealth Games: How ‘Commy G Lite’ is opportunity for smaller brands

Commonwealth Games: How ‘Commy G Lite’ is opportunity for smaller brands

Volkswagen California 2026 review: plenty of room at the Hotel California

By: Steve Dinneen

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