Brilliant performance art poorly presented September 26, 2013 ART ANA MENDIETA: TRACES Hayward Gallery | By Joseph Funnell Three Stars I REMEMBER the first time I saw a work by Ana Mendieta. It was a film of the performance Chicken Piece, where the artist stood naked holding a recently decapitated chicken that violently flapped as life drained from its wings. It was shocking. [...]
Also out this week September 26, 2013 FILM: AUSTENLAND (Cert 12a) Twilight author Stephanie Meyer’s first foray into film production is sweet but witless. ART: VAN GOGH IN PARIS (Eykyn Maclean Gallery) Van Gogh’s Paris paintings are brighter than most of his more famous works. ART: PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA (David Zwirner) Photographer DiCorcia examines the unease that accompanied the end of the Bush [...]
A fun but shallow spectacle September 22, 2013 THEATRE A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Noël Coward Theatre | By Xenobe Purvis Three Stars THE Michael Grandage Company turns to Shakespeare with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the fourth in a series of productions. The play, which has suffered a history of hackneyed interpretations, is given a contemporary twist in Grandage’s hands, set in the hedonistic [...]
An extraordinary, enchanting exhibition September 22, 2013 ART RICHARD SERRA: DRAWINGS FOR THE COURTAULD The Courtauld | By Joseph Funnell Four Stars BEST known as a small treasure-trove of impressionist/ post-impressionist masterpieces, there is something a little extra-ordinary going on at the Courtauld Gallery. Atop its spiralling staircase we are confronted with an enigmatic set of forms that comprise a new body [...]
Where to drink September 22, 2013 LONDON is most definitely on the move, with a plethora of openings across the city. For adventurous spirits, head to Islington, where new cocktail bar Hoxley & Porter launched last week. Fashioned to resemble a deluxe train carriage from the halcyon days of African exploration, the room is one of a kind, featuring a dark [...]
Film review: Rush September 20, 2013 AMID the resigned sighs of many Formula One fans throughout the world, Sebastian Vettel is currently cruising his Red Bull towards a drearily comfortable fourth straight world title. Two consecutive wins have put the relatively young German 53 points clear of Fernando Alonso, whose attitude towards his Ferrari increasingly resembles my own sentiment whenever I [...]
A right royal mess of a biopic September 19, 2013 FILM DIANA Cert 12a | By Daniel O’Mahony One star OLIVER Hirschbiegel’s film is an excruciating, tacky attempt to tell the story of the last two years of Diana, Princess of Wales’ life, starring Naomi Watts as the press-hounded princess. It revolves around her love affair with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews) and the [...]
Tatum can’t save presidential flop September 12, 2013 FILM WHITE HOUSE DOWN Cert 12a | By Simon Thomson Two stars WHITE House Down could have been the biggest movie of 1996. Wedged in between Nicolas Cage’s The Rock and Harrison Ford’s Air Force One, the premise of terrorists attacking the seat of American government would have blown the minds of the movie-going public. [...]
Where to Drink September 12, 2013 From NYC to London EVERY so often in a major metropolitan centre, one venue will achieve supremacy as the foremost spot to see and be seen in, and Ian Schrager’s new hotel, nestled in Fitzrovia on Berners Street, bears all of the hallmarks of one such opening. Famed for founding the zeitgeisty Studio 54 in [...]
A well-produced morality play for the modern age September 12, 2013 THEATRE THE RITUAL SLAUGHTER OF GORGE MASTROMAS Royal Court | By Xenobe Purvis Four Stars PLAYWRIGHT Dennis Kelly creates a morality play for the modern age in The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, his enthralling debut at the Royal Court. Its premise is simple: an affable everyman is offered the opportunity to succeed, a Faustian [...]