He did, however, write the finest Christmas story since the Nativity in A Christmas Carol and create one of the richest repentant villains in Ebenezer Scrooge. The story has been regularly adapted for stage and television and spawned around 20 films with the central role taken by the likes of […]
Daily Archives: December 3, 2017
117 posts
British choreographer Frederick Ashton was a founder of the company in the 1930s but his true destiny was creating dance. He developed the “English” style of ballet, sadly absorbed today in the global virtuosity that is so hugely admired – and enjoyed – around the world but, lo and behold, […]
Bricusse’s adaptation is more faithful than Thorne’s and Nikolai Foster’s lavish production more atmospheric than Warchus’s. Jasper Britton is a splendid Scrooge, less emotionally damaged but more sinister than Ifans. The conviviality of the Cratchit and Fezziwig households provides the essential contrast to Scrooge’s isolation, something lacking at the Old […]
Here, five young men, one mixed-race woman and a middle-aged female impersonator tour Malaya entertaining the forces during the 1948 state of emergency. The variety show format enables Nichols to do what he does best: embed social and political comment in popular entertainment. The diverse routines give the stylish Simon […]
If the rubbish is British, the answer usually has something do with tax breaks, lottery funding or the undemanding audience for cheap films about dead Essex gangsters. But the story of inept US melodrama The Room is a lot more interesting. The film cost Tommy Wiseau, its bizarrely accented writer, […]
So perhaps it was time for a fresh way to bring Scrooge and Tiny Tim to the big screen. The Man Who Invented Christmas does to the festive favourite what Goodbye Christopher Robin did to Winnie the Pooh. It offers a behind the scenes look at its creation. Sadly, in […]
It’s a good one for young viewers to take home, but perhaps director Stephen Chbosky followed it too slavishly when adapting RJ Palacio’s bestselling children’s novel. The hero of this family tearjerker is Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), an awkward 10-year-old who suffers from facial deformities as a result of a […]
U2 Songs Of Experience – 4/5 (Interscope) Indeed Bono has scarcely sounded more youthful than he does on the opening quartet of tracks, the agile Lights Of Home and Get Out Of Your Own Way both highlights. The big preachy number American Soul, featuring a “you are/rock ’n’ roll” chant that […]