Coming up with fresh movie ideas is difficult at the best of times, but to do so in the animated medium and with aplomb is particularly challenging. Yet, some filmmakers seem to be able to produce time and again. Fortunately, I am pleased to say Inside Out is yet another fine example of a picture…
This contemporary retelling of Gustav Flaubert’s 1856 tragic tale Madame Bovary is something of a dull affair despite its lashings of sex, infidelity and comedy. The film is based on the popular graphic novel written in 1999 by Posy Simmonds, who previously wrote Tamara Drewe, which was filmed starring Gemma Arterton. Arterton appears here again…
A confronting new play from the co-artistic director of the Owl and Cat Theatre, Thomas Ian Doyle, RIOT concerns a 30-year-old bisexual anti-establishment druggie whose life is just drifting. Jim (Jonathan Peck) works in a fast food restaurant because he needs the money. Otherwise, he wouldn’t, as the job means nothing to him. His former…
This French Chinese co-production is a beautiful and moving film, with a lot of heart and charm, and it has broad appeal. When her workaholic parents have to go on trips, young Ren Xing (Xin Yi Yang) is reluctantly left in the care of her estranged grandfather Zhu Zhigen (veteran Chinese actor Li Baotian, from…
The psychedelic rock train is really hard to slow down right now as West Coasters Froth have just delivered a sophomore album in Bleak that is another shining moment for the genre. There is only so much you can do with the fuzzy pop delivery but Froth hit the right groove and like clouds lifting…
Dan Evans did something that no-one else has ever done – he let me enjoy a work from the ancient Greek tragedies. Mention Socrates or Euripides, Medea or Oedipus and I’ll run a mile, but at the premiere of Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Any More I was enthralled by the story of the man who…
I was blindfolded, led into a room and told to sit, before the door was locked behind me. But no, I wasn’t being kidnapped. It became evident that a bed was in the room … and others were in there with me. But no, I wasn’t about to have a Christian Grey moment. Rather, I…
I really enjoyed Nicky Pellegrino’s The Food of Love Cookery School so I was excited to receive her newest novel, One Summer in Venice. The blurb ticks a few boxes for me – food and Italy, for starters. Have a read: ‘This isn’t a mid-life crisis OK? For a start I’m not old enough yet…
Are you a couch potato? The kind of TV viewer who likes everything laid out neatly for you? If you said yes, then Dig is probably not for you. This US series from the producers behind Homeland is an almost literal labyrinth of a show. For a start, there are three apparently disparate storylines set…
Do you want to see a damning indictment of and expose on Scientology, the work of L. Ron Hubbard and the church’s Chairman of the Board, David Miscavige? Then here you have it. Following Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, his investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic church, Academy Award-winning director…
