Arts
The triumph of bedroom pop
A short history of lo-fi, by Robert Barry
Anne-Marie Duff
Melbourne was just stirring into public cultural life when the hotel quarantine mishap led to that last alarming lockdown that…
Australian Love Stories: Celebrating love in all its guises at the NPG
The National Portrait Gallery seems to be floundering. That may be unfair but the announcement of the next exhibition left…
Perfect English songs in fresh new colours: Roderick Williams sings Butterworth
Another week, another online concert; and since orchestral music seems likely to be confined to screens and stereos for a…
Even Adrian Lester's sweetness, grace and nobility can't rescue Almeida's Hymn
The Almeida is fighting back against lockdown with a sprawling family drama about two long-lost siblings. Adrian Lester plays Gilbert…
Why I'm obsessed with this podcast's merciless little romps: Browned Off reviewed
Everything is too long these days, isn’t it? Every series is at least two episodes too long, podcasts go on…
'I like upsetting people': Steven Wilson interviewed
Michael Hann talks to the cult rock star Steven Wilson about why it’s harder to write a pop song than prog
Contains nothing you couldn't get from Wikipedia or YouTube: Netflix's Pelé reviewed
Pelé is a two-hour documentary about the great Brazilian footballer — the greatest footballer ever, some would say — who…
The Sistine Chapel as you've never seen it before
Rosie Millard gets her gloved hands on one of the world’s most lavish – and expensive – art books
Bloodlands is well worth watching – just don't expect Line of Duty
To begin on a cheerful note, it’s certainly been a good week for fans of slow-burn British crime dramas with…
The Dig
It was gratifying to see such a quiet and impeccably made film as The Dig make it to independent cinemas…
Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo
Second thoughts are sometimes better thoughts. The NSW government had second thoughts about closing down the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo…
Why is the smoky, febrile art of Marcelle Hanselaar so little known?
I first became aware of the work of Marcelle Hanselaar in a mixed exhibition at the Millinery Works in Islington.…
Epic prog rock without the widdly-woo solos: Mogwai at the Tramway reviewed
You very possibly know the music of the Glaswegian band Mogwai, even if you don’t think you do. You might…
The funniest current affairs show since Brass Eye: Into the Grey Zone reviewed
It was something a friend said to me about The Revenant, Leonardo diCaprio’s bloody-minded and brutal Oscar vehicle: ‘The problem…
Horrible – but in a very fun way: I Care a Lot reviewed
I Care a Lot is a deliciously dark comic thriller that You’ll Enjoy a Lot. It’s heartless. It’s vicious. It’s…
This fabulous play is like a Chekhov classic: The One Day in the Year reviewed
The One Day In the Year is an Australian drama about the annual commemoration of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915.…
Our love affair with the Anglo-Saxons
Dan Hitchens on our love affair with the Anglo-Saxons
Impossibly exciting: Sky Atlantic's ZeroZeroZero reviewed
ZeroZeroZero is the impossibly exciting new drugs series from Roberto Saviano — the author who gave us perhaps my all-time…
The two composers who defined British cinema also wrote inspired operas
It’s my new lockdown ritual. Switch on the telly, cue up the menu and scroll down to where the vintage…
Das Rheingold
You could hardly ask for a more exorbitant return to mainstage theatre than a production of the first part, the…
Robyn Nevin
The Adelaide Festival program describes her, accurately, as ‘our finest stage performer’. Robyn Nevin is appearing there (2 Feb-14 Mar)…
Perfect to fall asleep to: Good Grief reviewed
Good Grief is a new drama starring Sian Clifford who shot to fame as the older sister in Fleabag. The…
Makes me nostalgic for an era when music was more than a click away: Teenage Superstars reviewed
In Teenage Superstars, a long and slightly exhausting documentary about the Scottish indie scene of the 1980s and ’90s, there…
From bad joke to 21st-century classic: the best recordings of Korngold’s Violin Concerto
Erich Korngold was what you might call an early adopter. As a child prodigy in Habsburg Vienna, he’d astonished the…
