Portrait of a Lady on Fire review: Banishing men makes for a revolutionary period piece February 28, 2020 There’s something strange about Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the enlightenment era French-language romance set on an island off the coast of Brittany, and it took me a while to work out what it was. It’s about three young women: Héloïse, a lonely debutante; Marianne, the bohemian artist hired by Héloïse’s mother to paint [...]
David Hockney at National Portrait Gallery review: Lacklustre retrospective is in need of a bigger splash February 28, 2020 David Hockney’s latest exhibition, Drawing from Life at the National Portrait Gallery, claims to be a major retrospective of the veteran artist’s work. Let’s just say at the outset: there’s nothing major about this exhibition. Drawing from Life’s bait is the lure of previously unseen works, notably a large double portrait (triple if you include [...]
Downhill film review: Awkward Hollywood remake of Force Majeure gets lost in translation February 28, 2020 This remake of European drama Force Majeure stars Will Ferrell as a man whose relationship with his wife (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) disintegrates after he ditches her and their kids to escape an oncoming avalanche. The original film was a profound look at the questions we’d rather not ask ourselves. The American version retains none of these [...]
Colour out of Space film review: Nicolas Cage cuts loose in this montage of madness February 28, 2020 In these uncertain times, it’s comforting to know some things can still be relied upon – in this case Nicolas Cage’s ability to one-up his own bonkers persona. Based on the HP Lovecraft novel of the same name and directed by Richard Stanley, the man who got fired from 90s car-crash The Island of Dr [...]
Focus on Isle of Dogs: Dog days are over for once-neglected peninsula as new development abounds February 28, 2020 There are two questions that residents of the Isle of Dogs are often asked. First, why is it called the Isle of Dogs? The boring explanation is that it’s a corruption of a more sensible water-related name like the Isle of Ducks. The grim one is that it was so called because of the sheer [...]
The Invisible Man review: A brilliant self-contained horror story February 27, 2020 It is absurd to think The Invisible Man was conceived as a foundational part of a ‘Classic Monsters’ shared universe, the beginning of a franchise that might sit alongside Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. The project was unveiled with a now-infamous, heavily photoshopped picture of celebrities including Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe and Tom Cruise, who were to [...]
A Number at the Bridge Theatre review: Caryl Churchill’s sci-fi drama asks what it means to be human February 27, 2020 A second Caryl Churchill play opens in as many weeks, with the Donmar’s production of political dystopia Far Away followed by this sci-fi drama, which somehow condenses more than 2,000 years of ontological philosophy into a razor-sharp 60 minutes. The two-man production opens with a father and son (Roger Allam and Colin Morgan, respectively) embroiled [...]
Dark Waters review: Mark Ruffalo’s Virginia lawyer takes on Teflon in this gripping thriller February 27, 2020 Dark Waters is a frustrating watch. Todd Haynes’ gripping thriller tells the true story of a Virginia lawyer taking on the powerful manufacturers of Teflon, who over the course of several decades dumped vast quantities of a dangerous chemical into rivers and landfill, poisoning an entire town with the toxic byproduct of producing non-stick frying [...]
Lair of the Clockwork God review: Point-and-click meets platforming in this genre-melding comedy adventure February 27, 2020 You might think that Lair of the Clockwork God, a game that’s one half classic point-and-click adventure, and the other half a modern indie darling platformer, would tend to pull the player in two painfully opposing directions. These are seemingly irreconcilable genres of the past and present, a square peg and a round peg, violently [...]
Is the flip-phone making a comeback? February 27, 2020 Cancelled due to coronavirus fears, Mobile World Conference was scheduled to be taking place in Barcelona this week. But despite the cancellation of the conference itself, the event continues to be the industry’s leading stage for product announcements online, with manufacturers who had been primed to reveal new devices instead turning to livestreams and remote [...]