Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2021

This Man Keeps Getting Struck by Lighting

“Don vs Lightning,” directed by Johnny Burns and Pier van Tijn, is a short film based on the true story of an elderly Scottish man who has survived strange lightning strikes several times—and counting. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/34dtAgt

Jana Horn: the enigmatic Texan songwriter guided by her faith

Recorded after she made peace with ‘ugliness and imperfection’ in music, Horn’s debut album is a skeletal marvel that evokes Yo La Tengo and soft country shuffles When Jana Horn wrote her song Jordan, she didn’t know what it was about. She had spent two days at her brother’s house following a breakup, ruminating over two chords, when a line came to her: “They called me to Jordan.” She followed the thread. “I had no idea what I was doing, but it felt really important, like I had to finish the story,” she says, calling from the last day of class in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is a postgrad fiction-writing student and teacher. It became a five-minute narrative about someone who heeds that call and embarks on the long, trying journey by foot. On arrival, he is instructed to bomb the city where his family lives, but chooses death instead. Horn delivers this potent tale over those two colourless acoustic chords, her affectless, curious delivery evocative of Phil Elverum , or a twi

Top 10 books about self-improvement | Anna Katharina Schaffner

In time for new year resolutions, a cultural historian chooses some of the best guides to making a better life, dating back to some of our earliest literature It is easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we must also take self-help more seriously. Valued at $11bn (£8bn) worldwide, self-help is a major global industry. It both reflects and generates many of our prevailing ideas about the self and about the cultures in which we live. The self-help industry not only seeks to shape the way in which we think, feel and behave, but also provides many of the core metaphors on which we rely to talk about our inner lives. Many of those metaphors, not least that of the mind as a computer that might require reprogramming, are at best unhelpful. Critics of self-help believe that its current popularity is part of an all-pervasive neoliberal imperative to maximise efficiency. They see it as a sinister plot to direct all responsibility for

Naked Singularity review – John Boyega offers fig leaf for bizarre legal drama

The actor toils as a crusading lawyer but not even the looming apocalypse can inject this strange film with excitement The prospect of John Boyega playing an idealistic New York public defender in a John Grisham-style thriller is a very appealing one. But his talent deserves better than this clapped-out vehicle, a movie that constantly feels like it’s about to run out of narrative gas. The big gimmick here is a freaky sci-fi backdrop to the legal drama: unbeknown to the characters, the universe is about to implode (something to do with black holes causing ripples in space). It begins 10 days before what is described as “the collapse”. Boyega is a lawyer called Casi who is only three years into his career but already burned out and disillusioned by the US justice system. You can spot he’s a good guy by his brown corduroy suit – Hollywood’s liberal crusader uniform. The people Casi represents don’t stand a chance. Take his latest client, a drug user who got clean while out on bail; Ca

A Christmas Carol is not cosy, and its angry message should still haunt us

Dickens’s novella has become a festive staple but it was intended as a polemic about the treatment of the poor ‘I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea,” begins Charles Dickens in the preface to the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It is a story so inescapable in British culture that nearly everyone knows about miserly Ebenezer Scrooge learning the value of compassion and kindness after being visited by three ghosts in the early hours of Christmas morning. As well as the popular film adaptations that unfailingly appear on TV over the festive season, stage productions this year include a Jack Thorne adaptation starring Stephen Mangan at the Old Vic , a Mark Gatiss version at the Nottingham Playhouse and an adaptation at the Sherman theatre in Cardiff set in Wales and with a gender-swapped Scrooge . Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/344sW4L

Britney Spears reveals conservatorship has left her scared of music business

Singer also says not releasing new music is a way of hitting back at those who took advantage of her Britney Spears has said the years she spent under conservatorship have left her scared of the entertainment industry. The singer revealed her reasons for not being ready to return to the music business after her conservatorship was terminated in November in an Instagram post. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3py6lpl

Post your questions for Elvis Costello

As he releases new album The Boy Named If, the veteran songwriter will answer your questions on his decades-spanning career Next month marks the return of one of the UK’s most enduring and versatile singer-songwriters: Elvis Costello , whose new album with his band The Imposters, The Boy Named If, is out on 14 January. Alongside the release, he’ll answer Guardian readers’ questions, which you can post in the comments section below. Initially rooted in the righteous anger of the punk scene and the populism of pub rock, Costello has been a fount of strident, melodious songwriting since his breakthrough in 1977. Oliver’s Army, Pump It Up and I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea are defining moments in the new-wave era, while ballads such as Alison remain equally celebrated. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3sBfL5l

Gabriels: the gospel-soul trio set to be 2022’s word-of-mouth hit

Jacob Lusk was an American Idol contestant who had never found his true musical identity. Now, his astounding voice powers a trio who are steeped in the richness of Black musical history Jacob Lusk is getting a kick out of being the singer in Gabriels , the soulful, cinematic trio whose scant handful of London club shows this autumn were the buzziest gigs of the season. “This is the most authentic myself I’ve ever been,” he says down the phone from his home in California. “I can do whatever I wanna do, wear whatever I wanna wear, be who I actually am. I’m embracing me, more than I ever have before.” He is being embraced in return. At those shows, Gabriels were greeted with a fervour befitting Lusk’s own roots in spiritual music. It felt like watching a first kiss, but between a band and an audience. “That’s not a bad analogy. To be honest, it seemed more communal than anything. The audience gave us quite a bit of energy as well, so it felt more like a love fest than a show. ‘Hey, we’

Keri Hulme, New Zealand’s first Booker prize-winning writer, dies aged 74

Author won the prize in 1985 for her first novel, The Bone People, which was described as a ‘unique example of Māori magical realism’ Acclaimed author and poet Keri Hulme, who was the first New Zealander to win the Booker prize, has died aged 74. The reclusive writer, who won the prestigious literary prize in 1985 for her first novel The Bone People, died on Monday at her home in Waimate in New Zealand’s South Island. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qqQrwp

Old dads learn new tricks from Australian children’s cartoon Bluey

Online fans admire equal parenting and innovative play practised by canine protagonist’s father, Bandit A bright blue anthropomorphic dog may not have been the hero that dads had asked for – but he was the one they clearly needed. After years of being depicted as affable morons in children’s media – from Peppa Pig’s daddy to the accident-prone father in the interminable Biff, Chip and Kipper books – a new community of dads has formed around the children’s animated show Bluey, and more particularly Bluey’s father, Bandit. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3Jn8zzT

Paul Bettany: having Johnny Depp texts read aloud in libel trial was ‘an unpleasant feeling’

The British actor, whose messages to Depp regarding the latter’s wife Amber Heard were publicised during a trial in 2020, has commented on the process The actor Paul Bettany has spoken for the first time about having the text messages exchanged between himself and Johnny Depp concerning Amber Heard read out at Depp’s libel trial. Bettany, who is currently promoting A Very British Scandal , told the Independent it was “a really difficult subject to talk about” and said he was concerned doing so would “just pour fuel on the fire”. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mCS0pL

Jean-Marc Vallée, director of Dallas Buyers Club, Wild and Big Little Lies, dies aged 58

The Canadian film-maker died suddenly at the weekend according to his representative Jean-Marc Vallée, the Canadian director best known for his work on Matthew McConaughey drama Dallas Buyers Club , has died aged 58. Vallée’s representative, Bumble Ward, said he died suddenly over the weekend in his cabin outside Quebec City. His two sons survive him. Jean-Marc stood for creativity, authenticity and trying things differently. He was a true artist and a generous, loving guy. Everyone who worked with him couldn’t help but see the talent and vision he possessed. He was a friend, creative partner and an older brother to me. The maestro will sorely be missed but it comforts knowing his beautiful style and impactful work he shared with the world will live on. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ptIM0U

Tributes paid after trailblazing BBC radio DJ Janice Long dies at 66

Former Radio 1 and Top of the Pops regular is remembered as a ‘broadcast legend and music lover’ Warm tributes have been paid to the trailblazing radio DJ and regular Top of the Pops presenter Janice Long, who has died at the age of 66. Long was an infectiously cheerful and knowledgable voice on a number of BBC stations for 40 years. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3z0vyvL

Strictly special proves hit with Christmas Day TV audience

Dancing show is most-watched programme apart from Queen’s message, as BBC dominates top 10 Strictly Come Dancing’s Christmas special proved a ratings hit, claiming the most viewers of any programme apart from the Queen’s festive message. The Strictly special, which was won by the pop star Anne-Marie, was watched by an average of 5.8 million viewers, according to overnight figures from the BBC. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3sAM6JM

Nourish your mind: the 31-day short film diet for January

Brighten up the dark days of winter with this collection of compelling one-a-day shorts – from big-name directors such as Jane Campion to Beyoncé and Chris Ware January can feel like the longest month: a full 31-dayer to begin with, of course, but also inordinately stretched by its sense of constant renewal. New resolutions to be kept, new standards to be met, new taxes to be filed – and that’s before we factor in Omicron, which looks set to make it an especially testing start to the year. All in all, it’s a good time to investigate new ways to entertain ourselves and nourish our minds. Cue the 31-day short film diet, a sequel to last January’s much-loved literary diet . This one-a-day starter pack – to form a different, more pleasurable kind of new year habit – is aimed at enriching our lives, not depriving it of small joys. Most of us don’t think of ourselves as regular watchers of short films per se , though we can be without realising it: what is a YouTube cat video, after all,

Fiction to look out for in 2022

With a host of phenomenal debuts on the way, plus some dazzling new work from the likes of Douglas Stuart and Hanya Yanagihara, 2022 is positively groaning with great novels Nonfiction to look out for in 2022 Whether it’s a hangover from a pandemic-disrupted few years, a sign that writers had particularly productive lockdowns, or perhaps it’s the many centenaries coming up – Ulysses , The Waste Land and Jacob’s Room – but 2022 is positively groaning with great novels. We’ll leave the Observer ’s peerless debut feature to cover new novels from the UK and largely focus on books published in the first half of the year. Prepare your hearts, for Douglas Stuart is back. After the extraordinary success of Shuggie Bain , his second novel, Young Mungo (Picador, April), is another beautiful and moving book, a gay Romeo and Juliet set in the brutal world of Glasgow’s housing estates. Also following up a painfully affecting predecessor is Hanya Yanagihara , whose To Paradise (Macmillan,

‘A blast of joy, energy and invention’ – in praise of Richard Rogers

The Observer’s architecture critic pays tribute to a charismatic trailblazer whose courage and vision changed British architectural practice for good One way to understand Richard Rogers is as a man who wanted everything. He wanted beautiful new buildings, a fair and civilised society and success for himself and his friends and collaborators. He was generous and tough, romantic and political. He wanted to be in the middle of it all. Such wishes made for a lifetime of majestic achievement, an impact as great as any British architect has ever made. Two documents from his early life sum him up. When he was born, his cousin Ernesto Rogers, a fine Milanese architect, wrote him a letter: don’t eavesdrop behind the door of life, it advised, break through it. As a student at the Architectural Association in London, R got a damning report from one of his teachers. His drawing was bad, it said, his method of work chaotic, his critical judgment inarticulate. Continue reading... from Culture

The King’s Man review – Ralph Fiennes is stranded in crass no man’s land

Matthew Vaughn’s laddish origin story for the Kingsman franchise finds the first world war masterminded by a shadowy villain with a Scottish accent This superfluous Kingsman origin story sees writer-director Matthew Vaughn sketch a blueprint for the suited and booted secret spy organisation. The third film in the franchise, it begins with Ralph Fiennes’s Orlando Oxford, an aristocrat and widowed war veteran who regrets his part in plundering Britain’s colonies. A self-declared pacifist, he discourages his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) from enlisting in the army – but the first world war has broken out and a global disaster must be stopped. Orlando is flanked by arse-kicking comrades played by Djimon Hounsou and Gemma Arterton (the only woman in the film offered anything resembling a speaking role). The tone lurches awkwardly from sweeping colonial melodrama to grim battle epic, camp, pseudo-Bond caper and crass, unfunny farce. All exist on a spectrum of tedious laddishness, from Rhy

Laura Cumming’s best art of 2021

The blockbuster battled on, British Caribbean art came home, and from Iran to Nero’s Rome, art transported us far and wide Mark Kermode’s best films of 2021 Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full here This was the year of the great exhibition – in spite of the plague. Galleries offered online shows when they couldn’t open and riches when they could, no matter the havoc of cancelled loans, insurance hikes and unreliable transport. Schedules were dextrously shifted and blockbusters extended, so judiciously that Tate shows ran longer and the Royal Academy’s magnificent Late Constable continues straight through until next year. Still, one curator confided, 2021 was like playing poker while also juggling eggs. Terrific surveys of female artists continued apace, though still not fast enough to make up for lost time. The wild and stirring genius of the Scottish painter Joan Eardley was celebrated in multiple centenary shows across Scotland. Swiss modernist Sophie Taeuber-Arp’

Christopher Eccleston: ‘I am anything but macho’

The actor, 57, on having a breakdown, aiming high and moving through life gently My first memory is cycling to the top of the path outside my childhood home, on a yellow kids’ bike with fat grey tyres. I turned on to the road and said aloud: “I’m me, doing this, now.” I was heading away from the home and people I loved, off on my own adventure. The love I felt as a child was unconditional, especially from my mother. I loved Dad deeply, but was wary of him. It was idyllic, our gang of kids playing out on a Salford council estate. My children are middle-class Londoners, but I sit on the porch and let them play in the street just like I did. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qmaFqV

The Matrix Resurrections review – Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss spark in utopian reboot

A sunny new world beckons for Neo and Trinity in this self-aware but smart fourth instalment of the sci-fi classic Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is the designer of The Matrix , a popular video game set in a virtual reality. His bosses have ordered a sequel; at an ideas meeting, his colleagues throw around a few ideas. PVC. Guns. Trans allegory. There is much winking and nudging in Lana Wachowski’s follow-up to the groundbreaking sci-fi films she co-created with her sister Lilly. Wachowski understands that in the 20 years since, their legacy has been boiled down to a catalogue of memes with lucrative franchise potential. Yet her newest chapter manages to be self-aware (at times overly so) without being entirely cynical. Those foggy on the details of the trilogy’s plot will benefit from the exposition-heavy first act. Plagued by memories of his past, Anderson – also known as Neo – must once again choose whether to take the red pill offered by hacker Bugs (Jessica Henwick, whip-smart),

Rose Ayling-Ellis’s Strictly Come Dancing win gives deaf children huge confidence boost

It is hoped that the EastEnders actor’s victory in the dance contest will give the public a better understanding of deafness When Scarlet Davies first saw deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis on Strictly Come Dancing , she felt inspired. “Rose has had such a massive impact on young people,” said the 15-year-old, who is also deaf. “She reinforces the message that we shouldn’t let other people dictate to us because of our deafness.” Davies, who lives in Hertfordshire with her family and wants to be a teacher, said Ayling-Ellis made her “feel that I don’t need to worry about my deafness getting in the way of my future. She also makes me believe that I can do anything in life and my deafness will never stop me.” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3sws4zQ

Bring me sunshine: ‘new’ Morecambe and Wise Show episode brings Christmas cheer

Eric and Ernie, John and Paul, Jennifer and Dawn ... ‘Lost’ tapes by comedy duo highlight creative power of friendship The lost episode of the Morecambe and Wise Show screened this Christmas dates from 1970, just as the comedy duo had made it to BBC One. They would go on to be Britain’s most popular entertainment act, with their Christmas special seven years later drawing over 20 million viewers – by some estimates an extraordinary 28 million. Of course, that was in the days of only three TV channels, and no internet or smartphones. The viewing figures this time round will be considerably smaller. But what of the comedy itself? How will it have aged? Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3swUtG5

Fiona Maddocks’s best classical music of 2021

Conductors came and went, while the return of live performances – from the Albert Hall to urban sheds and rustic glades – felt like a gift as never before Susannah Clapp’s best theatre of 2021 Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full here We hoped this would be the year everything would come right: that concert venues would buzz with capacity crowds; that musicians would be back in full-time work; that soloists might again travel without fear of quarantine and testing (quite aside from the unresolved difficulties caused by Brexit) – above all, that Covid-19 would vanish. Instead, Omicron gallops ahead and even optimists must accept we’re not there yet. For all the cancellations and underlying mood of chaos, countless musical events touched lives. The BBC Proms, cautiously but definitively, were back, with premieres from Charlotte Bray, Shiva Feshareki, Britta Byström, Grace-Evangeline Mason, George Benjamin and more. Highlights included John Wilson and his lithe Sinfonia

Bambi: cute, lovable, vulnerable ... or a dark parable of antisemitic terror?

A new translation of Felix Salten’s 1923 novel reasserts its original message that warns of Jewish persecution It’s a saccharine sweet story about a young deer who finds love and friendship in a forest. But the original tale of Bambi , adapted by Disney in 1942, has much darker beginnings as an existential novel about persecution and antisemitism in 1920s Austria. Now, a new translation seeks to reassert the rightful place of Felix Salten’s 1923 masterpiece in adult literature and shine a light on how Salten was trying to warn the world that Jews would be terrorised, dehumanised and murdered in the years to come. Far from being a children’s story, Bambi was actually a parable about the inhumane treatment and dangerous precariousness of Jews and other minorities in what was then an increasingly fascist world, the new translation will show. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3HaOTx7

Susannah Clapp’s best theatre of 2021

Little Amal stirred hearts, Chaucer hit Willesden, Cush Jumbo was a perfect prince, and once again James Graham said it all Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full here It was a year of promises and postponements, of dodgy mask-wearing in the stalls – and of sudden soarings. It was no surprise that Rebecca Frecknall ’s spectacular production of Cabaret , with Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne, should prove one of the big excitements of the year – and one of the most expensive. But who in the Pre-Puppet Era (before The Sultan’s Elephant and War Horse ) would have thought that a three-and-a-half-metre-tall creature made of wicker and fabric would prove such a powerful reminder of how the theatre can stir hearts and stretch eyes? Little Amal , the child-refugee puppet who walked from the Syrian-Turkish border to Manchester, was pelted with stones in Greece, danced in Trafalgar Square, became an ambassador for political change – and for the imagination. She was a reminder o

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint review – a glittering half-hour nugget

You’ll be in thrall to Mark Gatiss’s smart, snappy and utterly hammy ghost story within seconds. What a creepy Christmas gift to us all Oh, the warm, expansive joy to be had from a chilly, compact ghost story! And A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint (BBC Two), an MR James short story adapted by aficionado Mark Gatiss into a glittering half-hour nugget, is an absolute treat. These two masters of their forms can nudge even the most committed sceptic into willingly suspending their disbelief for a tight 30 minutes, especially when the plot runs like clockwork and is as stuffed with actors as a stocking is with gifts. There is Rory Kinnear as Edward Williams, the curator of a university art museum who spends most of his days politely declining offers of unsuitable Delftware from local ladies. We are in Victorian Times so he has a Victorian Moustache and sometimes plays Victorian Golf, wearing Victorian Plus Fours. His friend Binks (John Hopkins) likewise (I assume there was a terr

Rowan Moore’s best architecture of 2021

From affordable housing to an Oxford quad, beauty and practicality cut through debates over cladding, billionaires – and a mound Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full here What can be said of a world where one billionaire wants to build a giant tulip-shaped tower of little practical use and another wants to house thousands of students in windowless rooms in a block with all the charm of an Amazon distribution centre? The first, designed by Foster + Partners for the Brazilian Jacob Safra, was supposed somehow to boost confidence in the City of London by building what would have been only the world’s second highest flower-themed absurdity, a taller Lotus Tower having already been built in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The second, Munger Hall , is the dormitory for the University of California, Santa Barbara, where in return for donating $200m of the $1.5bn cost the 97-year-old Charlie Munger is insisting that 94% of residents have no natural light in their rooms. At least the Bri

The Humans review – Thanksgiving family drama turns apocalyptic

An eerie set and creepy camerawork ramp up the paranoia in Stephen Karam’s supremely effective adaptation of his play S tephen Karam has adapted his award-winning 2016 Broadway play for the cinema, and directs: the result is like an expressionist horror by Polanski. In theory, it’s about a family gathering for a Thanksgiving lunch, the sort of event that can usually be expected to bring about the phased disclosure of all the characters’ individual secrets and micro-tragedies. This feels more serious. These people look like the last group of humans left alive after some apocalyptic catastrophe, the remnants of homo sapiens being watched and examined at a distance by aliens. The grimly damp and undecorated duplex in which they have assembled could almost be a mass hallucination, triggered by a trauma worse than anything they’re talking about. Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and Richard ( Steven Yeun ) are a young couple who have put themselves under great financial strain to rent a place in

‘I was lost in a world of crystal skulls’: readers on the books they got for Christmas

Our readers pick the presents that changed their lives, from Roald Dahl box sets to tales of Sydney street gangs • Alison Flood on Like This Poem: ‘This genius anthology probably set the course of my life’ • David Barnett on Usborne’s The World of the Unknown: ‘Even the cover was terrifying’ • Rebecca Liu on Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus: ‘An emotional bootcamp of sorts’ • Sam Jordison on The Colour of Magic: ‘I was swept up in the misadventures of Rincewind’ What a festive joy it has been to read about the books you remember getting for Christmas – and also to see how many of you, like me, adored Kaye Webb’s I Like This Poem . Whether it was the Rupert annuals received yearly by LancsLionheart , or the boxed set of Roald Dahl’s children’s books which auspom started on Christmas Day and worked through over the rest of the holidays, it just goes to show that there’s nothing better to find under the tree than a book. For LawrenceWindrush , a 14-year-old in 1980, it was h

Nirvana seek to dismiss sexual abuse lawsuit concerning Nevermind cover

Lawyers describe Spencer Elden’s claim of child exploitation as ‘not serious’ and says it fails to meet statute of limitations Lawyers working on behalf of Nirvana have filed to dismiss a lawsuit made against the band by Spencer Elden, who appeared as a baby on the cover of their album Nevermind. In the lawsuit filed in August , Elden claimed he was the victim of child sexual exploitation and that the cover artwork was a child sexual abuse image. “Defendants knowingly produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer,” the lawsuit read. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qhrYtg

‘I was blown away by the work I saw’: the Turner prize and the rise of neurodiverse art

Six years ago, they were told they shouldn’t be in the same building as ‘artists of calibre’. But, with a Turner nomination under their belt, life is changing for the Project Art Works collective and other neurodiverse artists ‘Everyone’s done brilliant, not just me.” I’m chatting to Lucy, an artist with Project Art Works , about the Hastings-based collective’s Turner prize nomination (they lost out to Belfast’s Array Collective in the end). Today she’s in the character of Listey Cat; Lucy’s work revolves around her love of animals, which often manifests in the form of the bright, elaborate costumes she makes and has worn to give gallery tours. “It’s given us more independence and we get to work with other artists,” she says, of the collective. “I feel lucky and chill. It’s therapeutic.” Founded in 1996, Project Art Works collaborates with neurodiverse artists and those with complex support needs, providing them with studio space, materials and facilitators. Tom, who works with lea

Kate Winslet: ‘I feel way cooler as a fortysomething actress than I ever imagined’

The star of one of 2021’s biggest TV hits, Mare of Easttown, talks about weepy reunions with Leonardo DiCaprio, binging Ted Lasso and middle-aged women taking over our screens Kate Winslet will be ready in a sec. “I’m just going to put some more eyedrops on my stye,” she says. Blame her intense crime drama Mare of Easttown , one of the TV hits of the pandemic. “It was quite a stressful job, and about nine weeks in I got three styes in my left eye, the third of which turned into a solid little marble and had to be cut out. But I pushed on. On with the show!” In it, she plays DS Mare Sheehan, who is raising her grandson, coping with her son’s suicide, and trying to solve the murder of a young mother in a working-class Philadelphia suburb. All without makeup: Mare is more likely to reach for a Cheeto topped with a squirt of spray cheese than anything in the Max Factor range. “The discussion about how Mare looked blew my mind,” says Winslet. The 46-year-old actor is speaking by phone fro

Coldplay dismay fans with news they will stop recording in 2025

Chris Martin says band will continue to tour in interview with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 Fans have reacted with dismay to the news that Coldplay will stop recording music as a band in 2025, although quiet glee was also detected among some detractors. The band’s frontman, Chris Martin, shared the “huge revelation” with the BBC Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley on a special show to be broadcast on Friday from 7pm. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/30RkrZo

Japanese gems, maligned boybands and ‘the Dan’: the best old music Guardian writers discovered this year

In a good year for rummaging through back catalogues, our writers have been delighted by everything from a A1’s embrace of soft rock to the Marvelettes’ ageless glee Marcia Griffith’s debut solo album – released between her UK hits as one half of Bob and Marcia and her membership of Bob Marley ’s backing vocalists the I-Threes – is the kind of record you can’t believe you haven’t already heard, or at least heard of: surely people should have been banging on for years about something this good? Griffith’s tough-but-tender vocals are incredible, and while the sound seems to pitch her as something more than a straightforward reggae artist, it was made the year after Bob Marley’s breakthrough album, Catch a Fire, had proved Jamaican artists could reach a wide international audience. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3z6ys2l

Spider-Man: No Way Home: Strange blunders, Spider-splicing and sizzling supervillains – discuss with spoilers

What was the sorcerer thinking? Has Sony marked its turf? And where does Green Goblin rank among the great villains? When is a movie that’s only good, rather than great, the best thing you’ve seen all year? When it’s a fan event on the scale of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which unites everyone who ever loved the big-screen franchise (going back to 2002’s Spider-Man ) for a gorgeously nostalgic feelgood romp. This is the climax to Jon Watts’ “Home” trilogy, following the excellent Spider-Man: Homecoming and its 2019 sequel Far From Home . But while it nicely rounds off the character arc of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, it also restores a sense of wellbeing to the Sony-owned Spider-flicks that came before it, and may just turn out to be the future. So what did we learn from our latest trip into Spider-Man’s rapidly expanding world? Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/30REG9m

The book I got for Christmas: ‘I was swept up in the misadventures of Rincewind’

Our series continues as Sam Jordison remembers the ‘profound impact’ Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic had on him There are two ways of looking at the fact that I was given The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett one Christmas when I was about 11. The first: my parents thought that because I was reading a lot of fantasy novels, I was going to love this one. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3msjDSB

83 review – cricket crowdpleaser puts a new spin on the underdog movie

India’s stunning 1983 World Cup triumph is retold in endearing style by a sports film with a sharp anticolonialist drive Previously a fashioner of star vehicles for Salman Khan, director Kabir Khan anchors this nimble and big-hearted biopic of the India cricket team’s improbable 1983 World Cup triumph in a smiling performance from new-generation hunk Ranveer Singh as captain Kapil Dev. Dev’s wobbly English, which makes him a laughing stock among his teammates, seems to stand for the group’s inferiority complex. But inside this awkwardness is an obduracy and capacity for improvisation that becomes the guiding light of their victory run. As he blurts out on the team bus: “Taste the success once, tongue want more!” India, who had only won a single World Cup match before the tournament, were deeply unfancied outsiders. So Khan frames the arrival in England of Dev, and other now legendary cricketers such as Sunil Gavaskar (played by Tahir Raj Bhasin) and Roger Binny (Nishant Dahiya), in

Eric Clapton to waive legal costs against woman who attempted to sell single bootlegged CD

The artist’s management have issued a clarifying statement after the singer attracted criticism over the David v Goliath win Eric Clapton has waived the legal costs that a German court ordered a 55-year-old woman to pay, over a single CD containing a bootleg copy of a 1980s concert she attempted to sell. The musician’s management has also issued a clarifying statement in response to widespread social media criticism over Clapton’s decision to take legal action in the first place, saying Clapton was not involved in the specifics of the case and she “is not the type of person Eric Clapton, or his record company, wish to target”. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yZyOHN

The book I got for Christmas: ‘An emotional bootcamp of sorts’

Continuing our series of Guardian writers revealing their most memorable gift books, Rebecca Liu recalls being given a stack of dating guides as an 18-year-old whose ‘lessons’ were hard to unlearn Please share your most memorable bookish presents below and we will publish a selection later this week Christmas was not traditional in my family growing up, so presents were intermittent. But the year I turned 18, I was welcomed into adulthood by a bumper stack of bestselling 90s dating books: Why Men Love Bitches and Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus (and lesser-esteemed related reading, Why Men Marry Bitches and When Mars and Venus Collide). I had not known, until then, that I came across as the loneliest teenager in the world. Written in a tone that swung between “all-knowing best friend” and “extremely mean personal trainer telling you the suffering means it is working”, these books – overwhelmingly targeted at women – took the reader to an emotional bootcamp of sorts, tellin

The Best Feel-Good and Feel-Bad TV of 2021

Some of these programs relaxed me, made me laugh, or made life feel a little more dumb—in the best way—for an evening or two. The others were great precisely because they reminded me of how shitty things were. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3qlWJxn

Gulliver Returns review – nonsensical animated take on Swift’s classic

A kids’ version of the 18th-century satire could have been ripe for laughs – but this is subpar knockabout stuff Size really doesn’t matter in this nonsensical kids’ animation reimagining Gulliver’s Travels. Because according to its version of Swift’s 18th-century satire, although Lemuel Gulliver did once visit a land called Lilliput, the people there were not in fact very small. However, after he left, the Lilliputian king – a right royal nincompoop – decreed that Gulliver was a giant. So when he returns to Lilliput as a man of average stature he is arrested as an imposter. Which makes zero sense and the movie only gets sillier from there. Wayne Grayson voices Gulliver, a silver-tongued smarmy swashbuckler who sails the seas indulging in a bit of light plundering. One day he gets word from his mates on the island of Lilliput – who he once helped out of a jam – that they are under threat from an armada launched by neighbouring Blefuscu. So Gulliver rushes to Lilliput where he is sent

Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator review – ghoulish satire of human greed

Xbox One, Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, PC; Strange Scaffold Our compulsion for profit is smartly skewered by this simple game set in a trading-market where the currency is body parts It’s been a bumper year for the slavering ghouls that run some of the games industry’s biggest publishers, who have found fresh ways to extract value from players through NFTs and cryptocurrency while producing little of value. Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, with its economy of dripping kidneys and fresh-plucked nerve clusters, feels downright wholesome by comparison, a truly rustic post-capitalist digital hellscape. It’s a premise as old as time: buy low, sell eyes. And spleens. More of a frantic clicker-game than a strategy sim, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator is only slightly more complex than a screensaver, though still chemically compulsive. Days are split between navigating a fleshy stock market, and trying to outbid cyborgs and dogs with names like Chad Shakespeare on t

Post your questions for Andy Serkis

Ping-pong balls, Star Wars and giant apes: what do you want to ask the king of motion capture? Andy Serkis has starred in some of the biggest film trilogies – as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings , Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Supreme Leader Snoke in the latest Star Wars – without actually physically appearing in them at all. Serkis is responsible for the voice and motion capture of the computer-generated characters we see instead. Motion capture means acting on set, covered in Lycra and special motion capturing ping-pong balls, so that the Hollywood super-computers can turn his human form into a gold ring-loving monster, super-intelligent ape or Force-sensitive genetic strandcast male humanoid created during the reign of the Galactic Empire to lure the unwary to the Dark Side. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mnadHS

Girls5Eva review – Tina Fey’s gags are so good they should be revered

There are shades of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in this hilarious show about a one-hit-wonder girl band reuniting after 30 years. No wonder, given it’s by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock If you didn’t know beforehand, it would not be long before you realised that Girls5Eva (Sky, Now) came from the school of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, who gave us those perennial delights, 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The new show, about a manufactured 1990s girlband of the same name (“We’ve been best friends ever since we auditioned for a man in a New Jersey hotel room!”), is the brainchild of Kimmy writer and producer Meredith Scardino, in collaboration with Fey and Carlock. It provides a similar cocktail of laughs. There are parodies (this time mostly of music videos rather than TV shows or characters), “proper” jokes so densely packed you’re still unearthing more on third and fourth viewings, call backs, and throwaway gags so good they would be revered treasures anywhere else. The

The book I got for Christmas: ‘Even the cover was terrifying’

Continuing our series of Guardian writers revealing their most memorable gift books, David Barnett remembers how Usborne’s The World of the Unknown: Ghosts scared him for years Please share your most memorable bookish presents below and we will publish a selection later this week Christmas when I was a child was always about Event Books. Not paperback novels; those would be bought after Christmas with the book tokens I always received both on the big day and for my January birthday, feasting on the gems in the January sale at Smiths in Wigan – not WH, but an independent, family-owned bookshop. But under the tree would be big rectangular packages – the requisite comic book annuals, of course, and occasionally the Guinness Book of Records, but also a big old hardback book, often obtained cheap from remaindered shops, obscure volumes of science fiction or fantasy art with a nominal narrative thread loosely connecting the images, or Reader’s Digest explorations of uncanny phenomena.

Claire Foy says sex scenes leave her feeling exposed and exploited

Actor plays Duchess of Argyll, subject of infamous 1963 divorce case, in upcoming BBC drama Filming sex scenes has left the actor Claire Foy feeling exposed and exploited, she has said, ahead of the airing of the latest adaptation of A Very British Scandal, in which she stars as a duchess whose private life became the subject of salacious gossip during her divorce proceedings. Foy plays Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll, who was famed for her charisma, beauty and style and who suffered the publication of explicit photographs after her husband sought a divorce on the grounds of adultery. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ecq6fN

Sex and the City stars respond to sexual assault allegations against Chris Noth

Statement came as CBS said Noth will no longer be part The Equalizer ‘effective immediately’ following allegations by two women The leads of Sex and the City’s recent reboot And Just Like That have responded to sexual assault allegations made by two women against their fellow castmate, Chris Noth. Cynthia Nixon – who plays Miranda in the series and its reboot – shared a statement on social media, signed by herself, Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte). Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3Ff8tIc

Snow joke: why the Christmas No 1 single is still big business

Tis the season for novelty hits, charity records and, now, songs about baked goods. But though everyone wants a festive No 1, they rarely stay up longer than the tinsel For a nation so obsessed with the Christmas No 1 – as much part of the festive season as overboiled sprouts and Lynx Africa – Britons are awfully sanguine about what they put at the top of the charts each year. Since the chart began in 1952, only 12 Christmas No 1s have had some clear and unambiguous connection to the season: two of them have been versions of Mary’s Boy Child and three have been Do They Know It’s Christmas? While we have our platonic ideals of what a Christmas No 1 should sound like – somewhere between Mariah Carey and Slade and slathered in sleigh bells – the history of UK Christmas No 1s tells a different story. The Britain reflected in our seasonal chart toppers is one that is nostalgic, silly and generous. And it is inconstant: at Christmas, Britain wants only something to make it feel good, an

The 50 best TV shows of 2021, No 2: The White Lotus

An immaculate social satire featuring scabrous character studies, a murder-mystery and a shocking revenge scene 50 best TV shows of 2021: the list More on the best culture of 2021 ‘Wave like you mean it,” the hotel manager tells his staff as they line up on the beach waiting for the next boatful of guests to arrive at the luxurious White Lotus resort. With that line, Mike White’s immaculate six-part creation is set. On to the beach come the clientele, awed by the beauty of their surroundings but already taking the humans on the shoreline for granted – checking that their needs (wants) have been anticipated, extracting further efforts from those they are sure exist only to serve, and soon demanding (in what in Shane’s case will evolve into a series-long war of attrition with the manager, Armond) apologies and upgrades whenever minor mistakes are made. The White Lotus had many superficial similarities with previous glossy hits such as Big Little Lies . It looked gorgeous, had an ar

We Wish You a Mandy Christmas review – Diane Morgan does proper belly laughs

Camp, retro and enjoyable for a glass or two, this Christmas Carol revamp is full of surreal gags, with Johnny Vegas and John Cooper Clarke offering ghostly support Mandy (BBC Two) is a curious creation, and this is a curious Christmas special. Diane Morgan’s short, tart comedy series arrived in the middle of 2020 with a sideways pout, an outstanding roster of northern royalty guest stars and six episodes that barely stretched to 15 minutes each. The first series was best watched in one sitting: lumping it all together gave it more heft than watching it in short snatches. By the end of the series, I started to feel as if I got the tone and had locked on to the dry, edge-of-surreal mood of it. Morgan is, of course, a brilliant comedy performer. From Philomena Cunk half-arsing her way around Britain, to Liz puncturing the middle-class uppityness of her fellow parents in Motherland, her characters possess the ability to turn a deadpan line or a withering putdown into a lethal weapon. Ma

Some Wintry Funnies

These gags about the holiday season are best enjoyed in front of a roaring fire, with a hot beverage in hand. (But hunched over on the subway is fine, too.) from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3J82Q0w

‘Boyz II Men make my ears bleed’ … Brian Baumgartner’s honest playlist

As Kevin in the US Office, he performed in a Police covers band, but what does the actor and writer rock out to when the cameras aren’t rolling? The first album I ever bought Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I had a little record player, and I remember playing the album over and over and over. I liked it, but it was everywhere. To answer with Michael Jackson, does that make me fall somewhere on a political spectrum? But it was the bestselling album of all time, which I guess makes me a cliche. The song that is my karaoke go-to At this point, given its connection to my character in The Office [Kevin Malone, who plays the drums and sings in a Police covers band Scrantonicity], it would have to be Roxanne. In a hugely public setting, that has become the one that I have to sing. But I would do it as me, not as Kevin. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3e56cTY

Strictly exclusive! Winner Rose Ayling-Ellis on the glitterball, Giovanni and the joy of being deaf

The EastEnders actor talks about the triumph and tears of the final, the secrets of her show-stopping routines – and why victory means so much When she was a small child – too young to remember, though her mother has told her this story – Rose Ayling-Ellis was once so delighted to be at the park, she excitedly climbed on to a bench and started dancing. People stopped and, unable to resist her infectious happiness, clapped and cheered along. Two decades later, millions more were clapping and cheering (and, I suspect, sobbing at times) as Ayling-Ellis and her partner, Giovanni Pernice, became 2021 Strictly Come Dancing champions in the most emotional and joyous finale I can ever remember. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3pbcZlg

The 50 best TV shows of 2021, No 3: Mare of Easttown

Kate Winslet mesmerises as a grieving detective in a whodunnit that blindsides the viewer from start to finish 50 best TV shows of 2021 More on the best culture of 2021 Kate Winslet was reticent, morose and utterly mesmerising as Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, the detective carrying the weight, not just of her own family trauma, but of her entire town in Mare of Easttown . She had lost so much: her husband Frank and her son Kevin, who had recently killed himself. What’s more, her grandson Drew could be taken away by his recovering addict mother. At one point Mare’s mum tells her: “That’s what I wish for you, Marianne – that you could forgive yourself for Kevin. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault.” “Yeah,” replies Mare. “I’m going to use the bathroom.” Mare was also investigating the murder of young mother Erin McMenamin and the kidnappings of two other possibly connected women. Everyone was in the frame: Erin’s violent dad, her ex-boyfriend, the dodgy deacon, the uncle, even M

The 10 best jazz albums of 2021

An enthralling live set from Pat Metheny, Ches Smith’s fascinating blend of avant garde and Vodou and octogenarian Charles Lloyd’s fresh takes on Leonard Cohen and the Beach Boys stood out in a strong year More on the best music of 2021 More on the best culture of 2021 This international quartet of contemporary jazz mavericks was invited by German virtuoso pianist/composer Michael Wollny to play four unrehearsed free-jamming nights at Berlin’s A-Trane club, and to massage a studio album from the best takes. It’s sometimes horn-led and jazzy (saxophonist Émile Parisien’s influence), explosively abstract, avant-funky or gracefully choirlike, but there isn’t a cliche in earshot. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3FdOeKG

Eve Babitz, chronicler of 1960s and 70s Hollywood excess, dies aged 78

Babitz’s witty dispatches from Los Angeles featured everyone from Jim Morrison to Steve Martin and made her a cult figure to a generation Eve Babitz, the Hollywood bard, muse and reveller who with warmth and candour chronicled the excesses of her city in the 1960s and 1970s and became a cult figure to generations of readers, has died. She was 78. Babitz biographer Lili Anolik confirmed that she died of complications from Huntington’s disease on Friday afternoon, at a Los Angeles hospital. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yIyMDU

Il Divo singer Carlos Marín dies at 53 after being taken to hospital

Baritone had been performing with the band in the UK in December before tour postponed due to illness The Il Divo singer Carlos Marín has died aged 53, the group has announced. The baritone’s bandmates – David Miller, Sébastien Izambard and Urs Bühler – paid tribute to him on Sunday. In a statement on Twitter, they said: “It is with heavy hearts that we are letting you know that our friend and partner, Carlos Marín, has passed away. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/30KsmI6

Strictly Come Dancing 2021 final watched by 11 million people

Rose Ayling-Ellis becomes first deaf winner to lift BBC One show’s glitterball trophy after performance with partner Giovanni Pernice An average of 11 million people tuned in to watch soap star Rose Ayling-Ellis make history as the first deaf winner of Strictly Come Dancing. The EastEnders actor took the glitterball trophy in the BBC One show alongside her partner, Giovanni Pernice, defeating the Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite and his partner, Johannes Radebe, the first all-male pairing on the show. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3pai1yz

Spring Awakening review – desire and dread in coming-of-age musical

Almeida theatre, London Rupert Goold’s production of the alt-rock musical has a talented young cast and some striking moments but the songs are often banal It is audacious of Rupert Goold to stage a flamboyantly morose alt-rock musical about teenage repression and rebellion for a Christmas show. Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play – banned or censored across the ages – it does not have many fuzzy edges and its staging now feels more refreshing for it. Set in a provincial German town dominated by a cheerless Lutheranism, the story revolves around adolescents dealing with sexual desire, homosexuality, rape, suicide and back-street abortions. Their teen angst was originally set to song by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, partly sparked by the aftermath of the Columbine shootings, and became a big hit on Broadway in 2006. At the Almeida, London , until 22 January Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/32iTr5k

Peggy for You review – Tamsin Greig’s charisma cannot save dated drama

Hampstead theatre, London Alan Plater’s 60s-set play honouring agent Peggy Ramsay hasn’t aged well – her once maverick ideas now look outmoded Henry Livings felt that “all plays about writers should be burned, with the exception of Present Laughter.” So Alan Plater says in the prelude of this play, all about the life of writers, which premiered at the Hampstead theatre in 1999 . Despite Plater’s knowing irony, Livings’ words haunt this revival and fatally prove his point. Peggy Ramsay , the legendary play agent who represented everyone from Joe Orton to Edward Bond and Plater himself, is its central, indomitable force. Tamsin Greig, as Peggy, plays her as a posh, flouncing and vaguely rakish woman with a witty intelligence. But even Greig’s charisma cannot save this play from its dated ideas and sleepy drama. Peggy for You is at Hampstead theatre, London , until 29 January. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3J6EJzE

Bob’s Burgers bans actor over alleged involvement in Capitol attack – report

Jay Johnston ‘blacklisted’ by Fox and no longer allowed to voice character Jimmy Pesto Sr, the Daily Beast reports While conservative Fox News hosts continue to downplay the extent of the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January – and their links to the president who incited it – another part of the Fox media empire appears to have cracked down on a personality alleged to have taken part: the actor and comedian Jay Johnston. According to a report by the Daily Beast , the Bob’s Burgers cast member has been “blacklisted” by Fox over his reported presence among supporters of Donald Trump who sought to violently overturn the presidential election. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3E47hFX

Nine Days review – profound supernatural drama

Souls vie for a chance of life on Earth in this powerful debut feature from Japanese Brazilian director Edson Oda Severe behind his wire-rimmed spectacles but more emotionally engaged than he would care to admit, Will (Winston Duke) bears a great responsibility. Over the course of a nine-day selection process he interviews prospective “souls”, all vying for a single opportunity – to be born and to embark upon a life on Earth. This inventive, daringly spiritual feature debut from Japanese Brazilian writer - director Edson Oda combines a Shyamalan-esque high concept with a dusty lo-fi aesthetic that calls to mind Being John Malkovich . Will watches the lives of his selections unfold on VHS cassettes and a bank of portable televisions; the colour palette is heavy on 1950s municipal filing cabinet green. Pitted against Will – an individual slightly broken by his own experience of life – is Emma (a thrilling Zazie Beetz), an instinctively curious and empathic soul. With its score of spira

Rod Stewart and his son plead guilty to battery in 2019 Florida altercation case

The singer entered the plea to ‘avoid the inconvenience’ of a high profile court trial. Neither will do jail time or pay any fines British rock icon Rod Stewart and his son have pleaded guilty to battery in an assault case stemming from a New Year’s Eve 2019 altercation with a security guard at an exclusive Florida hotel. Court records released on Friday show that the singer and his son, Sean Stewart, 41, entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of simple battery. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/32gCZmp

The Baby-Box Lady of America

With the help of safe-haven laws, which allow parents to anonymously surrender their babies, Monica Kelsey has installed more than ninety baby boxes—mailbox-like receptacles for infants—in five states. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3EakM7b