Arts
The psychopath who wrecked New York
Robert Gore-Langton on the man who wrecked New York
A must-see for Westminster obsessives: Riverside Studios' Bloody Difficult Women reviewed
Bloody Difficult Women is a documentary drama by the popular journalist Tim Walker, which looks at the similarities between Gina…
Liam Scarlett's enduring legacy: Royal Ballet's Swan Lake reviewed
Without fanfare or apology, the Royal Ballet appears to have rehabilitated Liam Scarlett, but what a tragic balls-up it has…
Felt like being caught on the moors in a storm: Keeley Forsyth, at the Barbican, reviewed
It took a moment to realise Keeley Forsyth was there. There were already three musicians, faint figures on a dark…
Spot-on in almost every way: Scottish Opera's A Midsummer Night’s Dream reviewed
Scottish Opera’s new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems to open in midwinter. Snow falls, fairies hurl snowballs…
Fun, good-natured and schmaltzy: Phantom of the Open reviewed
Phantom of the Open is a comedy-drama telling a true story that would have to be true as no one…
Valuable reassessment of British art: Barbican's Postwar Modern reviewed
Notoriously, the past is another country: what’s more, it’s a terrain for which the guidebooks need constantly to be rewritten.…
Unhurried and accomplished whodunit: ITV's Holding reviewed
A couple of years ago, I happened to read Graham Norton’s third novel Home Stretch. Rather patronisingly, perhaps, I was…
Great musicals
It’s strange how literature finds its way into other mediums. The current French film festival includes a film of Balzac’s…
Fabulously boring: Weather Station's How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars reviewed
Grade: C– Anyone remember that TV advert for Canada from the 1980s – a succession of colourful images, including a…
Renaissance radical: Carlo Crivelli – Shadows on the Sky at Ikon Gallery reviewed
‘Camp,’ wrote Susan Sontag, ‘is the paintings of Carlo Crivelli, with their real jewels and trompe-l’oeil insects and cracks in…
What’ll happen next – or what’s happened so far – is anybody’s guess: The Ipcress File reviewed
ITV’s new version of The Ipcress File began with a close-up of a pair of black-rimmed glasses just like those…
Stands alongside Under Milk Wood: Shedding a Skin, at Soho Theatre, reviewed
Shedding a Skin opens with an office nightmare. Amanda is a mixed-race employee in a predominantly white firm who gets…
New Marr is very much the same as the old Marr: LBC's Tonight With Andrew Marr reviewed
Andrew Marr got his voice back this week. That may come as a bit of a surprise to everybody who’s…
Astonishing, if unnecessary, grandstanding: Barbara Hannigan's La voix humaine reviewed
I think it was when she leaned forward and balanced on one leg that Barbara Hannigan jumped the shark. It…
A compelling, if flawed, example of the new American noir: Red Rocket reviewed
Mikey (Simon Rex) first appears striding down a road in utterly wrecked jeans and shirt. He is carrying nothing and…
Film's most unforgettable scene
Fifty years since The Godfather’s release, Thomas W. Hodgkinson revisits the film’s most unforgettable scene
Tinkling irrevelancies?
So Opera Australia is in quest of a new artistic director to replace Lyndon Terracini. It’s a good moment to…
Paul Bettany's Warhol is a tour de force: The Collaboration, at the Young Vic, reviewed
The Collaboration is set in the 1980s when Andy Warhol teamed up with the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat to create bad…
Too neat but it has hooks aplenty: Avril Lavigne's Love Sux reviewed
Grade: B Yay, life just gets better and better. World War Three and now this. More petulant popcorn pre-school punk…
Beautiful and revealing: The Three Pietàs of Michelangelo, at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, reviewed
The room is immersed in semi-darkness. Light filters down from above, glistening on polished marble as if it were flesh.…
Enthralling and unusual – even if you don't care about Kanye: Netflix's Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy reviewed
The most disappointing pop performance I’ve ever seen – and in the course of my 15-odd years as a music…
Humourless and stale: The Batman reviewed
The latest Batman film, The Batman, may be a reboot, or even a reboot of a rebooted reboot that’s been…
The genius of Iannis Xenakis
This year is the centenary of the birth of Iannis Xenakis, the Greek composer-architect who called himself an ancient Greek…
Some of the best social commentary around: Celebrity Book Club with Steven & Lily reviewed
When I was ten years old I had a babysitter who was a beautiful graduate student at an Ivy League…
