Although it’s almost as long as a reception, C’est la Vie will put a smile on your face. This lighthearted French comedy looks at weddings from a harried wedding planners’ perspective. Max (Jean-Pierre Bacri) has been a planner for 30 years. Having organised hundreds of events, he’s close to throwing in the towel. Today however,…
Slow to ignite, The Witches is an uneven adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel of the same name. It’s 1967. Eight year-old Hero Boy (newcomer Jahzir Bruno) loses his parents in a car accident and goes to live with his Grandma (Octavia Spencer) in rural Alabama. Clearly hit hard by their passing, he says little and…
I am faced with a predicament that I can’t say I have confronted too many times after a few decades of reviewing. I have just seen a compelling piece of theatre, which I am about to highly recommend, but I will resist going into detail about the plot. I choose not to do so because of political…
Virtuoso bassist and singer-songwriter Stephen Bruner aka Thundercat returns with his first solo material in two years, The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam. Having already made outstanding contributions to not one, but two, of the greatest albums of 2015 – To Pimp a Butterfly and The Epic – by fellow Los Angelians Kendrick Lamar…
In Green / We Dream is the debut album by soul-jazz-funk trio Parlor Greens, but the players involved are far from rookies. The band is essentially a Colemine Records supergroup, which features Adam Scone on organ (Scone Cash Players, The Sugarman 3), Jimmy “Scratch” James on guitar (True Loves, formerly Delvin Lamar Organ Trio), and…
Based on fact comes The Fencer, a story about a man trying to escape his past. Fleeing from Stalin’s secret police in the early 1950s, an ambitious young fencer finds himself teaching small town children in a godforsaken Estonian coastal village. Endel Nelis (Mart Avandi) arrives in Haapsalu having fled from Leningrad. His riding instructions…
A brief sexual encounter between Jay (Maika Monroe, from The Guest) and Hugh (Jake Weary) has terrifying consequences. An unwanted and malevolent presence begins following Jay everywhere and seems intent on killing her. The problem is that only she can see this mysterious and relentless boogeyman, and it can even change shape. Jay’s sister Kelly…
When a successful New York advertising executive suffers a great tragedy he retreats from life. While his concerned friends try desperately to reconnect with him, he seeks answers from the universe by writing letters to Love, Time and Death. “These three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love. We wish…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 4 February 2022. The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his…
A bland first act opens up to a brilliant second, akin to a caterpillar metamorphosing into a radiantly colourful butterfly … in the MTC’s production of Born Yesterday, a screwball romance. This American stage classic starts with uncouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock settling into a swank Washington hotel suite, ready to grease the palms of…
