Film Reviews
We the Animals review - lyrical story of brotherly love and family traumaWednesday, 12 June 2019
“When we were brothers we wanted more: more volume, more muscles, us three, us kings.” So begins documentary-maker Jeremiah Zagar’s faithful but watered-down adaptation of Justin Torres’s autobiographical coming-out novel, set in the 1990s. Read more... |
Bob Dylan Special - Rolling Thunder Revue, NetflixTuesday, 11 June 2019
Tomorrow, Martin Scorsese delivers, via Netflix, two hours and 22 minutes of screen time devoted to Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, following on from the release last week of the latest Bootleg Series boxed set, 14... Read more... |
Dirty God review - an important piece of filmmakingSaturday, 08 June 2019
With the continued prevalence of acid attacks in the UK, it was only a matter of time before they became the subject of a film. Thank goodness, then, it's handled with such unflinching care as it is in Dirty God. Read more... |
Eating Animals review - a compelling tale of imminent disasterSaturday, 08 June 2019
Eating Animals begins as a David and Goliath tale of independent farmers versus industrial farming. Frank Reese specialises in rare-breed turkeys and chickens. He calls his farm the "Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch" because, for him, his traditional way of farming is akin to a religious experience. Read more... |
X-Men: Dark Phoenix review - a grand finaleFriday, 07 June 2019
One day, when superhero films are as rare as westerns, we will appreciate the brilliant talent applied to the best of them. X-Men: Dark Phoenix moves with a classic’s smooth conviction from its very first scenes. Read more... |
Late Night review - Emma Thompson star vehicle needs a serious rewriteThursday, 06 June 2019
“Get me rewrite!”: That’s likely to be a common reaction to Late Night, the well-meaning but surprisingly slipshod star vehicle for Emma Thompson set in and among the writing world of a New York late-night chat show that is hitting the skids. Read more... |
Gloria Bell review - dancing away the heartacheThursday, 06 June 2019
With Gloria (2013), A Fantastic Woman (2017) and Disobedience (2018), Chile’s Sebastián Lelio has earned a deserved reputation as a sympathetic director of women. Read more... |
Sundance London 2019 review - psychotic maniacs and old-fashioned weepiesSunday, 02 June 2019
This fifth edition of Sundance’s London offshoot covered the first moon landing in Apollo 11, probed philosophical pranksters The Satanic Temple in Hail Satan? and took a trip through the alt-right... Read more... |
Godzilla: King of the Monsters review – spectacular stupiditySaturday, 01 June 2019
Just how many cinematic universes can one planet stand? Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island’s Apocalypse Now/ape mash-up suggested there might be useful room for old-school creature features amidst the superhero surfeit. Read more... |
Freedom Fields review - Libya’s next freedom fightersSaturday, 01 June 2019
Set in the months and years after the Libyan revolution, Freedom Fields follows several women aiming to compete in international football. The documentary finds the players excitedly preparing for their first overseas tournament. Read more... |
Thunder Road review - potent and poignant debut featureThursday, 30 May 2019
This is a painful and poignant study of character-disintegration, and a triumph for its writer, director and star Jim Cummings. He plays small-town police officer Jim Arnaud, a man trying to do his best while a rising sea of troubles threatens to drown him. Read more... |
Booksmart review - teen sex comedy with shallow feminist credentialsWednesday, 29 May 2019
The release of Booksmart is perfectly scheduled for half term, this high school buddy comedy is guaranteed to tempt youngsters away from their exam revision. It’s fast and funny and packed with squirm-inducing sex gags and a peppy soundtrack. Its heroes are Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and her best friend Amy (Kaitlyn Deaver), the class swots who forswore all extra-curricular fun in order to study hard and get into top universities. Read more... |
Haley Fohr: Salomé, Brighton Festival 2019 review – potently camp debauchMonday, 27 May 2019
Haley Fohr’s disquiet at the “wildly outmoded” sexual politics of this notorious 1923 Wilde adaptation led her to cut its intertitles, relying only on sometimes delirious imagery and her throbbing live score. Read more... |
Cannes 2019: Matthias & Maxime review - a gently charming new dramaSaturday, 25 May 2019
It has been ten years since Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan first debuted I Killed My Mother at the Cannes Film Festival. Read more... |
Too Late To Die Young review - an absorbing, Chilean coming-of-ageSaturday, 25 May 2019
Chilean Dominga Sotomayor’s third feature is a beautifully crafted example of the kind of Latin drama that is slow-burn and sensorial, conveying emotion through gestures and looks rather than dialogue or action. Nothing much seems to be happening, but before you know it you’ve been completed sucked in. Read more... |
Cannes 2019: Parasite review - hilarious and horrifyingFriday, 24 May 2019
Like Snowpiercer before it, Bong Joon-ho’s rage-fuelled satire Parasite puts class inequality squarely in its sights. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Mansfield Park, Guildhall School review - fun when frothy, c...
Let’s call it Jane Austen fit for the West End, but with opera singers. The fact that it also serves as a fun ensemble piece for students is also...
Chuck Prophet, Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks review - the...
Forty years ago, Chuck Prophet was the Keith Richards-like guitar hotshot in Green On Red, peers of R.E.M. and among the raw country-punk...
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Vi...
Stonehenge is about 5,000 years old; three photographic artists currently exhibiting in the visitor centre are all under the age of...
Album: Anoushka Shankar - Chapter III: We Return to Light
Chapter III: We Return to Light is an unashamedly gentle and soothing escape from a hectic world. The last in a travelogue ...
Oscars 2025: long day's journey into 'Anora'
Amid these troubling times, can we not all live in the world of the 2025 Oscars' runaway success story, an ever-smiling Sean Baker? That thought...
Hylozoic/Desires: Salt Cosmologies, Somerset House and The H...
The railways that we built in India may be well known, but I bet...
Album: Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
Folk rock has long been one of Jethro Tull’s strongest suits. Ian Anderson’s integration of...
Alterations, National Theatre review - high emotional costs...
Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it’s still unusual for revivals of black British classics to get the full...
Uprising, Glyndebourne review - didactic community opera sup...
The score is effective, and rewarding to perform, but derivative. The libretto uses every cliché, or truism, about save-the-planet youth activism...