Just Mercy review: A worthy but powerful legal drama buoyed by strong performances January 17, 2020 If our Netflix habits over the past couple of years are anything to go by, we bloody love a courtroom procedural. The People v. OJ Simpson; When They See Us; Making a Murderer – the list goes on. Basically, if you get your kicks from someone digging out a vital piece of paper from a [...]
Bad Boys For Life review: Will Smith serves up a dish of steaming hot nostalgia January 17, 2020 Once a guarantee of box office success, Will Smith today finds himself on rocky ground. Last year’s Gemini Man bombed, his Netflix movie Bright was critically savaged, and even the success of Aladdin can be put down to nostalgia rather than star-power. The A-lister and sometime YouTuber looks for redemption in his third Bad Boys [...]
Bombshell film review: Kidman, Theron and Robbie shine in this timely #metoo drama January 17, 2020 The co-writer of excoriating financial drama The Big Short serves up another examination of the state of the United States, this time taking aim at the media. Bombshell centres on the Fox News sexual harassment scandal that erupted just four short years ago – so recently that it seems a little early for an autopsy [...]
Phone zombies, an interactive ‘brain’ and milk bottle art at Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights festival January 17, 2020 Those who have taken a walk around Canary Wharf in the last week or so will have noticed some strange-looking structures popping up in the area’s streets, squares and parks. Last night the purpose of all this finally came to light – literally, as the sculptures burst into vibrant illumination to mark the beginning of [...]
The best films, art and theatre from now till Easter, from Andy Warhol to Margot Robbie January 10, 2020 Birds of Prey With the best will in the world, DC’s comic caper Suicide Squad was not a good movie. It was, in fact, a proper stinker, and the fact it grossed three quarters of a billion at the box office says more about the likes of you and I than it does David Ayer’s [...]
Uncut Gems movie review: Adam Sandler decides to show up again in this gem of a movie January 10, 2020 Those who only know Adam Sandler as the guy who makes fart jokes on Netflix will be in for a huge surprise in this tense thriller, from the directors of 2017 indie hit Good Time. He transforms himself as Howard, a Manhattan jeweller who finds himself on a downward spiral regarding his decisions surrounding a [...]
Review: Why Sam Mendes’ 1917 is the first unmissable film of the twenties January 10, 2020 The set-up for Sam Mendes’ first film since Bond is straightforward enough: young soldier Tom (Dean Charles-Chapman) and his friend William (George MacKay) are tasked with crossing No Man’s Land to deliver a message that could save the lives of thousands. Once that mission begins, however, we are taken on a spectacular war thriller, masterfully [...]
Cyrano de Bergerac review: An astringent and moving adaptation December 19, 2019 Cyrano de Bergerac opens to a stark stage, with plain walls and harsh neon lighting. We are, it would seem, beyond any normal sense of time, but, as the play begins, we learn that this is actually 1640s Paris. James McAvoy takes to the stage as the titular Cyrano, man of many talents: wordsmith, master [...]
Teenage Dick at the Donmar review: High school reimagining is a hit December 19, 2019 Teenage Dick transposes Shakespeare’s murderous monarch Richard III from Plantagenet England to the halls of a modern American high school; the perfect setting for a twisted tale of ambition and resentment. Roseland High School junior class secretary Richard’s desire for respect and attention is frustrated by his physical disability in a community that worships sporting [...]
Can The Rise of Skywalker reawaken Disney’s Force? December 19, 2019 These are dark times for the Disney Empire. The unified celebration that greeted its first two Star Wars entries (The Force Awakens and Rogue One) descended into rebellion with the release of The Last Jedi, one of the most divisive films in recent memory. Then came Solo, the first Star Wars movie to lose money. [...]