Arts
Incoherent and conspiracy-fuelled: Adam Curtis’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head reviewed
‘History,’ wrote Edward Gibbon, ‘is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.’ In…
Predictable, repetitive and exploitative: Run Hide Fight reviewed
In this line of business you receive many emails from PRs ‘reaching out’ about their particular film, which I really…
This is cinema as car ad, says Geoff Dyer: News of the World reviewed
It’s a premise with plenty of previous. Children whose parents were murdered by Indians on the frontier of the American…
These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai are extraordinary
These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai point to him as the father of photography and modern animation, says Laura Gascoigne
It’s not easy running a stately home: Duchess podcast reviewed
The Duchess of Rutland, Emma Manners (née Watkins), grew up on a farm in the Welsh Borders before becoming proprietress…
It’s a sin
It’s easy to forget what Russell T. Davies has achieved to date. Twenty-odd years ago, Queer As Folk altered a…
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli
For 60 years, in an idyllic location at Kirribilli, the Ensemble Theatre has been providing entertainment in an intimate format.…
The music we need right now: James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio reviewed
The two most depressing words in contemporary classical music? That’s easy: holy minimalism. I know, I know. Lots of people…
The Icelandic version was better – and had better knits: Rams reviewed
Rams is an average film with a better film trying to get out, and you may already have seen that…
A criminally underrated songwriter: Matthew Sweet’s Catspaw reviewed
Grade: A– The early 1990s were a lovely time for rock music: Beck, Sparklehorse, Sugar, Green on Red and Royal…
From ancient Greece to TikTok: a short history of the sea shanty
From ancient Greece to TikTok: Alexandra Coghlan on the pulling power of shanties
You'll wish you were gay: Channel 4's It's a Sin reviewed
To promote his new drama series about Aids in the early 1980s, Russell T. Davies insisted in an interview that…
Enjoyably tasteless: Power – The Maxwells reviewed
This year marks three decades since Robert Maxwell fell naked to his death from the deck of his yacht, The…
Gripping – if you skip the non-stop Yentobbing: Dancing Nation reviewed
Thank God for the fast-forward button. Sadler’s Wells had planned a tentative return to live performance last month but the…
Netflix should turn this into a series: Southwark Playhouse’s Fabulist Fox Sister reviewed
The Fabulist Fox Sister is a one-man show about the three American women who are credited with inventing the trade…
On The Beach
The aftermath of Australia Day seems like an appropriate time to watch On the Beach, for a belated first time,…
Elijah Moshinsky
Earlier this month, the opera world sadly absorbed the news of the death of Elijah Moshinsky. Born in Shanghai in…
Is the hottest new podcast, The Apology Line, worth sticking with?
With the arts world still largely in hibernation, the launch of a big podcast is as close as we get…
How Facebook became a freedom-gobbling corporate monster
Southwark Playhouse is beating the latest lockdown with a zingy new musical about social media. The performers, Francesca Forristal and…
John DeLorean: man of mystery – and full-blown psychopath
DeLorean: Back from the Future was one of those documentaries — for me at least — that takes a story…
The rise of bad figurative painting
Galleries are awash with gimmicky paintings that look like they’ve been designed by algorithm. Dean Kissick on the rise of zombie figuration
Remarkably moving: The Dig reviewed
Just before the outbreak of the second world war a discovery was made in a riverside field at Sutton Hoo…
Proudly ridiculous and wholly glorious: KLF's Solid State Logik reviewed
Grade: A What a miracle the KLF were: an elaborate practical joke at the expense of the music industry, seemingly…
Another cracking take on the opera film: Marquee TV’s Turn of the Screw reviewed
I’m still waiting for the Royal Opera to step up. Nearly a year into the Covid crisis and what do…
The Investigation
Slowly, after what seemed like infinite, malingering delays, virus-driven, the world of arts and entertainment is starting to open again…
