Marvel What If…? episode 5 review – an undead adventure September 9, 2021 There have been some interestingly complex questions in the first half of What If…?, Marvel’s cavalcade of hypotheticals. What would happen if Peggy Carter became the hero Steve was meant to be, or if the original Avengers were killed before they started? This week, things are a bit simpler, and this is reflected in episode [...]
Respect, the explosive biopic of Aretha Franklin, has it all September 9, 2021 The music biopic is a subgenre fraught with obstacles. First, you have to find the right lead – a Janis Joplin film has been in development for years with everyone from Amy Adams to Pink attached. Secondly, you have to secure the back catalogue – last year’s Stardust failed to capture the spirit of David [...]
From The Vine star Joe Pantoliano on lockdown, mental health and filming in Italy September 8, 2021 The name Joe Pantoliano will be familiar to many movie fans, but if it isn’t, his performances certainly will be. He had memorable roles in The Goonies, Midnight Run, Bad Boys, and The Fugitive; as well as being a part of the breakthroughs of The Wachowski Sisters and Christopher Nolan. That’s before you get on [...]
From The Vine review is the cinematic holiday we all need September 8, 2021 This remains an unpredictable time for the box office, with our collective trauma seeming to be reflected in the films we have made hits. Horrors like Candyman and A Quiet Place: Part II have thrived, while we’ve also lined up for some vicarious city destruction in Godzilla Vs Kong and Fast and Furious 9. Those [...]
Mixing It Up at hayward Gallery is a sprawling, unruly exhibition September 8, 2021 Collective exhibitions are tricky things. The work of each artist demands attention all of its own, but needs to be in dialogue with those around it. The best have a solid theme to tie all the unruly ideas into something approaching a thesis, such as Among the Trees, an exhibition all about… well, trees, which [...]
Opportunity International opens outdoor photo exhibition September 6, 2021 Opportunity International last week opened its new outdoor photo exhibition by award-winning photographer Kate Holt in the Southwood Garden of St James’s Church, Piccadilly. Featuring a series of lifesize photographs of the refugees Holt encountered in Uganda, the exhibition invites visitors to “spend an evening walking amongst the remarkable individuals,” which Opportunity International says it [...]
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was worth the wait September 3, 2021 A new hero emerges in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with opponents both on the screen and in real life. Shang-Chi has endured pushback from China, a large market and a country understandably sceptical about a comic book with a history of disrespectful depictions of Asian people being adapted. While work has been done to modernise [...]
Rockets and Blue Lights at National Theatre review September 3, 2021 First performed in March 2020 at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Rockets and Blue Lights ran for just three weeks before the pandemic yanked down the curtain. Now this strange, urgent, flawed, exasperating and occasionally brilliant play finally opens in London on the National Theatre’s Dorfman stage. Winsome Pinnock’s play focuses on the legacy of [...]
Cinderella review – Amazon’s enthusiastic but forgettable fairytale September 3, 2021 An unspoken rule of Hollywood is that a new version of Cinderella has to be attempted at least once a decade. Brandy (97’s Cinderella) and Drew Barrymore (Ever After) gave it a go in the 90s; while Anne Hathaway (Ella Enchanted) and Hilary Duff (A Cinderella Story) gave the tale a modern spin in the [...]
Wildfire film review – an understated family affair September 3, 2021 Generating some buzz through last year’s festival circuit, Wildfire comes to cinemas followed by sadness both on and off screen. Just as the sisters in the story live with loss in their lives, a dedication at the end alludes to the passing of star Danika McGuigan shortly after the film’s completion, aged just 33. There’s [...]