The sensitive and affecting film Adam takes a close up look at two women from a poor Casablanca neighbourhood caught in an emotional maelstrom. Abla (Lubna Azabal) is a dour widowed mother who can’t get over the untimely death of her husband. Meanwhile, Samia (Nisrin Erradi) faces the imminent birth of a child alone and…
Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly. So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White’s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories. Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative – the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. She constructs colourful stories. She spots…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 16 September 2022. Until recently known as Mandolin Orange, Watchhouse has long been on many a roots, country and folk fan’s radar. As a duo, formed in North Carolina in 2009 by Andrew Marlin and fiddler Emily Frantz, Mandolin…
Tessa Ensler (Sheridan Harbridge) is a successful barrister. She knows the tricks of the trade and defends her clients – many alleged sexual offenders – vehemently. She relishes the game … circling witnesses until she is ready to pounce, having lulled them into a false sense of security. She is good … very good. Those who know her,…
Some names need no introduction. And when it comes to the world of fashion, Pierre Cardin is one of those. But what’s behind the name motivates filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes in their documentary The House of Cardin. This reverential doco sources both archival footage and contemporary interviews, including with Cardin himself (he…
The latest Marvel superhero movie (its 14th title) has a strong set up, cutting edge effects and a traditional good versus evil storyline. Doctor Strange deals with alternate dimensions and what is known as the multiverse (I take that to mean multiple universes). It is the story of an arrogant, self-centred, world-famous neurosurgeon, Dr Stephen…
Here we go again… More than ten years later and Mamma Mia! the Musical is still delighting fans. Despite the fact that many audiences members were born well after ABBA’s heyday, the pop anthems interwoven with a sweet story of love and family still generate smiles, whoops and applause after every performance. If you’re not…
In the vein of Black Hawk Down (2001), 13 Hours is a war thriller based upon fact dealing with events in Libya leading up to and on 11 September 2012 – the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. Directed by Michael Bay, it focuses upon a crack security team of six who fight to defend the American…
If you’ve ever seen Karel Reisz’s superb The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981); or Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), you may find something familiar in Nicolas Bedos’ La Belle Époque. This brilliantly conceived drama of love and loss is inventive, poignant and compelling. Bedos is an actor who’s turned to directing. That…
Veronica Roth has well and truly broken out of her YA phase with some recent releases that challenge genre tropes, like Poster Girl and Chosen Ones. Her latest novella When Among Crows is more down the line urban fantasy but is no less enjoyable. In it, Roth draws on the mythology of Poland and its…
