The Motive and The Cue, National Theatre, review: Mark Gatiss is the best bit May 3, 2023 The Motive and The Cue review and star rating: ★★★ If the London theatre scene has an A-List, a good chunk of that list compromises the cast and crew of The Motive and The Cue. Written by Harry Potter & The Cursed Child’s Jack Thorne, directed by the titan that is Sam Mendes, and starring [...]
Guardians of The Galaxy Volume 3 review: Effective but over-stuffed finale May 3, 2023 Guardians of The Galaxy Volume 3 review and star rating: ★★★★ 2014’s Guardians of The Galaxy was seen as a massive gamble for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It made some risky decisions, namely focussing more on lesser known characters, and bringing in a more unknown director, but the decisions paid off, as three movies and [...]
Printworks: London has the power to bring us back, says founder May 2, 2023 Printworks, one of London’s most important cultural venues, closed yesterday. Its foundertells Adam Bloodworth his hopes for the future It’s not an exaggeration to say there is nothing like Printworks. For music fans, the venue feels Cathedral-like, with its towering ceilings, but also because of the relationship people have with the building. In the 6,000-capacity [...]
Printworks: London nightlife venue to become offices as new plans revealed April 28, 2023 The Printworks London nightlife and culture venue in Canada Water is to become a net-zero office space, new architectural plans have revealed. British Land, the commercial property owners behind Printworks, have unveiled an ambitious repurposing project for the land, which was formerly a printing press, and is the last major unconverted industrial building in central [...]
Polite Society review: A bold and interesting film debut April 28, 2023 Bridgerton actor Priya Kansara plays Ria, a young woman from a traditional British-Asian family with the less-than-traditional dream of being a stunt woman. Older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) helps her with her passion, but that bond seems to be in jeopardy when she embarks on a whirlwind romance with the family-approved Salim (Akshay Khanna). Enlisting [...]
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: Another cosy British drama April 28, 2023 Having stolen art to highlight the plight of the elderly in The Duke, Jim Broadbent is back being a lovable eccentric in this adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. He plays the title role of Harold, a retired man lacking purpose until he receives a letter from an old friend in [...]
Air film review: Ben Affleck’s feel-good Nike movie April 27, 2023 Good Will Hunting besties Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reteam for the story behind the Air Jordan shoe, a product that still is the gold standard among sneaker heads but had a rocky road to infamy. This biopic follows Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), an executive at the struggling Nike brand who believes he has found basketball’s [...]
How to blow up a Pipeline review: Vital but underdeveloped climate drama April 27, 2023 Headlines about how doomed we all are due to climate change have sadly started to have less of an impact, as we all get more fatigued by the endless bad news. Thankfully, creatives have been trying to make the same points in different ways. Netflix satire Don’t Look Up imagined the life of a beleaguered [...]
Dixon and Daughters at National Theatre: A harrowing tale of abuse April 27, 2023 It’s easy to get sniffy about soap operas but there’s an undeniable value to those nightly instalments of drama that shine a powerful light on the minutia of modern life. Dixon and Daughters, a new play by Deborah Bruce, brings to mind the very best of soap opera, from its domestic setting to the complex [...]