Waldemar Januszczak is my favourite TV art critic (James Fox is second in case anyone cares). In The Art Mysteries, Januszczak showed just how much can be done in a 30-minute documentary. Each of the four episodes featured a painting by a giant of post impressionism: Van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin and Cezanne. Januszczak delved into… Read More
It’s the fourth and apparently final outing for Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom – the George Martin to Steve and Rob’s John and Paul. Once again, the result is a series of gorgeous backdrops for Rob and Steve to needle each other and do their impressions. If you didn’t like the original Trip… Read More
Is there much left to say about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Every industry loves a bit of navel gazing, and no-one gazes at his own navel as much as Quentin Tarantino. I watched this at home on New Year’s Eve with family and friends and we hadn’t realised it was so so so… Read More
Nick Mohammed has come up with a little gem here. If you liked W1A and Twenty Twelve then this ensemble sitcom set in the cyber warfare division of GCHQ will be up your street. David Schwimmer is great as the NSA liaison officer, though he plays it exactly as you’d expect David Schwimmer to play… Read More
Government wobbles in face of regional anarchy caused by natural phenomenon… Cobra, Sky’s oddly prescient Whitehall-and-beyond drama, promised more than it ultimately delivered. The idea was good, and there were some plausible plot lines along with some very implausible ones. But after five good tension-building episodes, the final part seemed rushed with major incidents glossed… Read More
Northern Exposure as directed by Tarantino. It’s frankly astonishing that I’m still watching this after 19 episodes. Tin Star’s third series will be the last and thank god for that. Tim Roth is the only thing keeping this cliché-ridden wannabe noir from sinking under the weight of its own ridiculousness. Series 1 relied far too… Read More
If you know Julia Davis’s work then you know that you either love it, are baffled by it, or quite possibly deeply repulsed. Sky Atlantic/HBO’s Sally4Ever is the darkest of her programmes that I’ve seen. The story of Davis’s manipulative sociopath Emma and her reluctant partner Sally, is so excruciating that you will spend large… Read More
War is horrific, but hard to make shocking on a small screen these days. Yet the random and rapid loss of life in World of Fire, the BBC’s hyped primetime WW2 drama, still jolts. Writer Peter Bowker (Blackpool) focuses on life in Warsaw, Berlin and Paris in the first years of the war. Three A-listers… Read More
I’ve just binge watched the show that everyone’s talking about (but apparently almost noone is watching). It’s Arrested Development meets Billions, written by Jesse “Peep Show” Armstrong. An ageing Murdoch-style media mogul patriarch and his horrendous extended family of misfits jostle for position and shaft each other regularly. The storylines are simplistic, but Succession is… Read More
Clever BBC police drama in the vein of Bodyguard/Line of Duty (though with no connection to either). Much smarter than Bodyguard, less procedural than LoD, but didn’t get the publicity of either. Asks challenging relevant ethical questions about truth, evidence and the greater good and, at just six episodes, it’s tightly plotted. Hope there’s a… Read More
Is it a pastiche? Is it a homage? Is it just derivative? Whatever the (clearly deliberate) links to Taxi Driver and especially King of Comedy, Joker remains a powerful film anchored by Joaquin Phoenix’s painfully physical portrayal of Batman’s cackling nemesis. It’s not a film you forget, and brings an extra dimension to Heath Ledger’s… Read More
What better book to read on a long flight to the Caribbean to talk about cocktails, than gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s fictional account of a young reporter’s rum-fuelled experiences in 1950s San Juan, Puerto Rico? A longer book, that’s what. I’d read the whole thing and we’d barely cleared European airspace. But it was… Read More
Less travel book and more reportage as Theroux engages with the problems of race in America’s south. There’s real insight into the systemic problems that mean many poor families struggle to survive. Theroux talks to farmers, social workers, pastors and authors – all the while debunking some of the myths of the south. Anyone interested… Read More
1932 was a prolific year for one of the most prolific artists of all time. Astonishingly, almost all the works on display in this simply yet effectively curated exhibition come from that one year. Many of the works seems familiar, thanks to PP’s overexposure, but standing in front of the real thing is still an… Read More
Yet another remastered recut version of Blade Runner. Thirty-something years after the original release, this Ridley Scott sci-fi noir classic holds up astonishingly well both in plot and (even more amazingly) in style. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen. 9/10
This one-shot meta movie is good enough that you forget about the cinematic wizardry. Michael Keaton is, as usual, the master. Forget Alejandro Iñárritu’s showing off and enjoy the story. 8/10
Finally it’s over – the last film is the worst. I didn’t mind the first, I tolerated the second, but this is woeful – hard to believe that the brains behind the Lord of the Rings could come up with this. And What did Billy Connolly think he was doing?! 4/10
Ambitious sci-fi that’s complicated but beautiful and charming. And lets not forget that rare thing – a totally genuine A-list cameo that’s uncredited. 9/10
An interesting, but ultimately unsatisfactory telling of the Turing story with Benedict Cumberbatch once again cast as “an intelligent person”. Too Hollywood for me (yes, I know it’s a British film), but a bit dumbed down and a lost opportunity. 7/10
Wonderful. This unimaginably ambitious film is a masterpiece. Director Richard Linklater of course takes credit, but the cast are also amazing – Patricia Arquette perhaps being the pick of the bunch. If I had to criticise it, I found the ending rather strange, but then I don’t know how you end a film like this… Read More