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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 25 April 2025
It’s been nine years since Ben Affleck’s original portrayal of Christian Wolff in The Accountant, who’s not only an accountant but also a super-efficient assassin working for the...
Helen Hawkins
Friday, 25 April 2025
The Finborough has once again performed the miracle of creating a whole world in its intimate space: this time, inter-war France, where two young girls meet and form a strong...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Documentaries about sports stars are now a dime a dozen, but you can only be as good as your subject matter. We know Andrew Flintoff (usually known as Freddie) is a larger-than-...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 24 April 2025
“They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do.” These lines from Philip Larkin’s 1975 poem, “This Be the Verse”, sum up the emotional fuel of many recent...
Katie Colombus
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Had I read the contextual blurb about Jenny Hval's latest album first, I might have assumed it was a perfume company collaboration. The album is named after a fragrance created by...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It’s easy to see metaphors about the status of modern Georgia, once again threatened by the Russian boot, in its recent...
Pamela Jahn
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It doesn't take much to get lost in a film by Miguel Gomes. In fact, it's required. Multiple layers, timelines, and...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
There’s always been a goofy charm about Billy Idol. As an implausibly chiselled Adonis shining out from the deliberate...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Greg Davies doesn’t spare himself in his new show, Full Fat Legend, his first tour in seven years after having been busy...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 21 April 2025
In a programme note for the St John Passion at the Barbican, the Academy of Ancient Music’s chief executive called their...
Ibi Keita
Monday, 21 April 2025
Sweden’s most gloriously unhinged export is back, and Viagr Aboys might just be Viagra Boys at their most fun, feral and...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 20 April 2025
It would have been hard to pick up a copy of the album credited to and titled 1001 Est Crémazie in 1975. Just 500 copies...
David Nice
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Never make your mind up too soon about any large-scale work by a genius. Back in 2010, I had my doubts about James MacMillan...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 19 April 2025
As well as generating a ceaseless stream of albums, whether live, studio or culled from his copious archives, Neil Young has...
First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'
Christopher Gray
Saturday, 19 April 2025
When I arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in April 2023, it was a daunting prospect to be taking over the reins of a...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO)Here are three orchestral suites taken...
Kieron Tyler
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 18 April 2025
As if penguins didn’t have enough to fret about with impending tariffs on exporting guano to America, here comes Steve...
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disc of the day
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Flintoff, Disney+ review - tumultuous life and times of the great all-rounder
John Dower's documentary is gritty, gruelling and uplifting
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache
Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
film
The Accountant 2 review - belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter
Horror, humour and mind games combine in Gavin O'Connor's sequel
April review - powerfully acted portrait of a conflicted doctor in eastern Georgia
Dea Kukumbegashvili's second film is stylistically striking and emotionally raw
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Miguel Gomes on his latest exotic opus, 'Grand Tour'
The Portuguese director's comic melodrama takes a fantastical journey through Southeast Asia and the history of cinema
new music
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic
classical
Bach St John Passion, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - conscience against conformism
In an age of hate-fuelled pile-ons, Bach's gospel tragedy strikes even deeper
MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine Christ
Young Irish baritone pulls focus in blazing performance of a 21st century classic
First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'
A showcase for contemporary choral works appropriate to this time
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
theatre
The Inseparables, Finborough Theatre review - uneven portrait of a close female friendship
De Beauvoir's novel gets an often charming but undemanding staging
Personal Values, Hampstead Theatre review - deep grief that's too brief
New play about two sisters, death and hoarding is well written, but feels incomplete
Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you up
Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigenia in Splott
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes
Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
latest comments
I think the series portrays a parallel vision...
Corrected, with thanks.
Yep. It's an incredible album.
Hi Robert,If I may make a correction to your...
the review doesn't match the score. you only have...
This rock solid testimony from his other son...
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...
Very illuminating and evocative assessment of an...