Reviews

Girl is a powerful film about trans teenager’s struggles

19 March 2019
The story is a compelling tale of Tara’s battles at a top ballet school alongside her fight to live an authentic life. It’s a masterful study, argues?Laura Miles

A documentary that exposes horrors of domestic abuse in Tory Britain

05 March 2019
This Dispatches documentary is a gruelling look at a refuge for women fleeing domestic abuse.

Foxtrot film doesn’t dance to the Israeli state’s rhythm

05 March 2019
It was funded and then boycotted by the Israeli government, but Nick Clark argues that it reduces the occupation of Palestine to a story-telling device

And the Rest of Me Floats

26 February 2019
This is a bold and vibrant piece of theatre that feels like a celebration of gender fluidity.

Story of race in the US leaves audience floundering

26 February 2019
Race and class in Trump’s America form the spine of this well-directed play.

Resist the attempts to turn the screws on drill musicians

26 February 2019
The ruling class say violence happens because of music, but they are deflecting blame from themselves, argues?Love Music Hate Racism’s Zak Cochrane

Diane Arbus used her photographs to tell stories

19 February 2019
Diane Arbus’s portraits grab your attention and challenge you.

Jeff Koons’s art is glitzy, but does it still have power to shock?

19 February 2019
A new exhibition featuring 17 famously grotesque pieces by Jeff Koons jostles with antiquity at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, writes?Kate Douglas

Nominations at the Oscars respond to #MeToo era

28 January 2019
This year’s Oscars will take some living up to the hype.

Dismissed for decades, now Pierre Bonnard takes centre stage

28 January 2019
The French painter is typecast as being a bit lightweight, but a new exhibition at Tate Britain reveals a melancholy and tender artist, writes?Ben Windsor

Reviews round-up—True Detective, Toro y Moi album and more

15 January 2019
The latest series of HBO’s True Detective rests on a strong performance by Mahershala Ali.

Stan and Ollie delivers dash of slapstick and tenderness

14 January 2019
A strong cast of actors fill the shoes of Laurel, Hardy and the people around them in John S Baird’s account of the duo’s twilight years, writes?Pat Carmody

Siblings reunite, but this isn’t a happy-ever-after story

07 January 2019
In the early 1980s Bobby, Eddy and David, identical triplets, had fifteen minutes of fame. They were on every US chat show couch and even had a cameo with Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan.

Revolutionary France brought to life in BBC’s Les Miserables

07 January 2019
A new adaptation of the lengthy literary classic revives forgotten characters and eschews music in favour of narrative thrust, writes?Dave Sewell

The 12th Man - a tale of defiance with a touch too much nationalism

01 January 2019
The 12th Man is a tale of violence and pain against a picturesque backdrop.

Honest and all-too-possible story of abusive relationship

01 January 2019
An Impossible Love is a challenging and believable portrayal of a woman’s life torn apart in slow motion by an abusive partner, writes?Sadie Robinson

Von Trier gives gore-filled middle finger to his haters

11 December 2018
Be prepared for an utterly nightmarish descent with director Lars Von Trier’s The House That Jack Built.

Bothering the bosses with magical realism and strikes

07 December 2018
Sorry to Bother You is heralded as a left wing cult classic full of laughs and sharp obervations. It deserves at least some of that reputation, says Shay Carroll

A vision focused on ordinary people

04 December 2018
This is the first major retrospective of the work of Martin Jenkinson. He built his career on documenting the lives of ordinary people.

Let’s get medieval—Ribera and the Art of Violence

04 December 2018
Jusepe De Ribera has a grisly reputation but, argues?Ben Windsor, a new exhibition shows he did more than just glorify the violence around him