Film review: Melissa McCarthy is hampered by her co-stars in Spy June 5, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Bounteous as Melissa McCarthy’s comedic gifts no doubt are, do they justify a resuscitation of the spy-spoof genre? In a word: no. In Spy she plays a desk-bound CIA operative working in partnership with field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) with whom she is not-so-secretly in love. Despite finishing top [...]
Theatre review: Temple tells the Occupy protest story for the Netflix generation May 29, 2015 Donmar Warehouse | ★★★★★ Temple, Simon Russell Beale’s new Protestants vs protesters play about the decision to evict the Occupy squatters from St Paul’s is nuanced and satisfying theatre for the Netflix generation. At its peak, in October and November of 2011, the anti-capitalist protest camp surrounding St Paul’s dominated the news, leading [...]
Bold Tendencies: Richard Wentworth May 29, 2015 Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park | ★★★★☆ Sure, the days are getting longer and the weather is hotting up, but nothing signals the beginning of summer in south London like the opening of Frank’s Cafe in Peckham multi-storey car park. While most come for the booze and the views, influential young curator Hannah Barry has turned [...]
Film review: San Andreas May 29, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ KABOOM. Was that the sound of tectonic plates ripping, or was it a giant penny dropping in the mind of a Hollywood producer: destroy some buildings, throw Dwayne Johnson into the wreckage and voila, no need to shell out for a screenwriter. Who needs a script, seems to be [...]
Film review: In Danny Collins Al Pacino learns how to grow old gracefully May 29, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro slog it out in 2008’s Righteous Kill, you’d be forgiven for thinking Pacino was finished. Gone. Destined to live out his days impotently raging at the dying of the light, playing wrinkled, rattly-boned versions of the live-wires he once infused with febrile intensity. [...]
What was in the 2015 Queen’s Speech, bill-by-bill May 28, 2015 A full employment and welfare benefits bill aiming to create 2m more jobs and 3m more apprenticeships An enterprise bill to cut red tape and help small and medium-sized businesses resolve late payment disputes A personal tax allowance bill raising the personal allowance to £12,500 and linking future increases to the minimum wage A finance bill [...]
Film review: Poltergeist reboot is bereft of inspiration May 22, 2015 Cert 12a | ★☆☆☆☆ Since its release in 1982, countless films have borrowed from Poltergeist’s slow-burning scares. Who knew that carefully stacked kitchen furniture could be so frightening? Or television static? In this Sam Raimi produced reboot, the franchise seeks to redress the balance by appropriating imagery from every horror movie between then and [...]
Theatre review: World Factory May 22, 2015 Young Vic | ★★★★☆ If you’re wary of audience interactivity in theatre, cast your doubts aside for World Factory, an innovative and thoroughly well-researched exploration of the global textile industry, which remains not only comprehensive and coherent, but genuinely enthralling from start to finish. We take our seats around communal tables, upon [...]
Theatre review: High Society marks end of Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic reign May 22, 2015 Old Vic | ★★★★☆ High Society is the final show of Kevin Spacey’s eleven-year tenure at the Old Vic, and in the circumstances feels like a valedictory party. Adapted from a Cole Porter musical film starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, it is a gleeful mélange of sizzling one-liners and ravishing tunes, [...]
Film review: Clouds of Sils Maria May 15, 2015 Cert 12a | ★☆☆☆☆ Clouds of Sils Maria takes the acting profession so seriously the entire script could be printed off and submitted to Private Eye’s Luvvies column. Juliette Binoche plays a fading Hollywood star, Kristen Stewart her assistant, and together they hit every cliché short of air-kissing and telling each other they’re marvelous. [...]
