Tuesday 10 May 2016

Critical Week: The art of fashion


A couple of great documentaries were screened to London press this week, starting with The First Monday in May, which explores the build-up to the Met Gala in 2015, at which Rihanna (above) reigned supreme. It's a riveting look backstage! Just as skilful and inventive, but in a completely different style, Author: The JT LeRoy Story reveals the fascinating layers of truth behind Laura Albert's elaborate fiction, posing for 10 years as a young gay male writer.

Also this week, we had a couple of sequels: Seth Rogen and Zac Efron reunite in the witty but not quite as funny sequel Bad Neighbours 2 (aka Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising), while Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska reteam for the much better eye-popping sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass (Depp and Wasikowska were joined by Sacha Baron Cohen, Tim Burton and director James Bobin for an especially lively press conference on Sunday). And there was also Ewan McGregor in the skilful thriller Our Kind of Traitor, Tina Fey in the excellent wartime comedy-drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Ethan Hawke in the moody Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue, Penelope Cruz in the artfully moving Spanish drama Ma Ma, and the colourful and very nutty animation of The Angry Birds Movie.

The big press screening this week is for X-Men: Apocalypse, which has had mixed reviews from its fan screening earlier this week. We also have Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys, Rossif Sutherland in River, Iggy Pop in Blood Orange and smaller independent films called Steel and Godless, whatever they are. I'm also attending a bit of theatre this week, and will write about that here too.

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