Critical Week: Look over there

While critics have had plenty to watch, the cinemas still feel oddly quiet this summer, with fewer big releases than usual due to last year's strikes. And longer-gestating blockbusters are also still caught in the fallout from the pandemic. But there were two studio films screened this week. Zachary Levi stars in the lively kids' movie Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is colourful, funny and very silly. Also pretty silly, Deadpool & Wolverine teams up Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for more fast-talking, hyper-violent, highly referential meta-jokiness. It's a lot of fun, but a bit uneven.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Echo • Didi
Mothers' Instinct
Deadpool & Wolverine
ALL REVIEWS >

Further afield was the offbeat comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in a quirky crisis of the Jewish faith. Christianity features heavily in Mysterious Ways, a moving and intimate Kiwi drama about a vicar and his rugby coach boyfriend. The bracingly authentic Swedish drama Paradise Is Burning focusses on three sisters trying to survive on their own. Gorgeously shot and edited, the Mexican doc The Echo is so beautifully assembled that it feels like a narrative drama about agrarian life in a small village. And the powerful, urgently important narrative doc No Other Land follows two journalists, Palestinian and Israeli, as they cover the harrowing destruction of homes and lives in the occupied West Bank.

This coming week I'll be watching animated adventure Oz: Voice of the Forest, psychological thriller Detained, French coming-of-age drama Red Island, Finnish drama Sebastian, Chinese mystery thriller Only the River Flows and the Saint Helena doc A Story of Bones. I also have stage shows Amaze and Frankie Goes to Bollywood this week.

Critical Week: Grandma's got a gun!

Summertime always brings a slow-down in press screenings, which is a relief after the flurry of London film festivals in June. But there are some great movies out there, plus blockbusters that aren't always quite as great but are good fun to watch on a big screen that's been packed out with cynical critics and gung-ho influencers. The mix of groaning and cheering is a lot of fun. The best I saw this week was the action comedy Thelma, starring June Squibb as a sparky 93-year-old (take that, Joe Biden!) who takes matters in her own hands when she's scammed out of some cash. Fred Hechinger is terrific as her worried grandson. And then there's Twisters, the thinly written almost 30-years-later sequel that's tangentially connected to the rather forgettable 1996 hit. Glen Powell is even more magnetic than the impressive tornadoes, with solid sidekicks Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Crossing • Thelma
Scala!!! • Shayda
ALL REVIEWS >

More arthouse offerings included The Outrun, a kaleidoscopically immersive memoir about addiction starring the always excellent Saoirse Ronan and set in gorgeous Orkney Isles landscapes. Hayley Bennett stars as Widow Cliquot in a lavishly produced but rather stilted biopic about the early 19th century Champagne innovator. And Louise Brealey brings an engaging edge to the offbeat Welsh drama Chuck Chuck Baby, which is wonderfully infused with pop tunes. I also saw two shows live on-stage: National Youth Dance Company's Wall at Sadler's Wells and Jack Tucker's Comedy Standup Hour at Soho Theatre.

Things are still quieter than usual coming week, but I'll be watching Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine, Zachary Levi in Harold and the Purple Crayon, New Zealand drama Mysterious Ways, Swedish drama Paradise Is Burning, Mexican doc The Echo and Palestine doc No Other Land.

Stage: Get to the punchline

Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour
with Zach Zucker, Dylan Woodley
direction & sound Jonny Woolley
Soho Theatre, London • 15-27.Jul.24 ★★★★★

Fans of Stamptown host Jack Tucker will love the chance to see a full hour (or most likely more) of him on his own in this almost panic-strikingly hilarious show. As played by Zach Zucker, Jack is an exploding bundle of nervous energy who struggles against all manner of distractions as he tells random jokes before laboriously arriving at a surreal or even downright stupid punchline. But we may never get to the end of a joke, and he certainly won't finish within his allotted hour. There isn't a moment of this show that doesn't feel like it's spiralling far out of control. It's a work of genius.

While referencing his New York roots, Jack makes riotously timely comments about America's politics, Britain's recent election and England's performance in the Euro 2024 final, plus some wicked Brexit references. But mainly he tries to tell extended standup-style jokes about everyday things like airplanes, smartphones and bees. And he's continually interrupted by his own stream-of-consciousness as well as the ongoing antics of roller-skating opening act Dylan Woodley. On press night, a trumpeter mercilessly stole the show every time he appeared. Jack's interaction with the audience is a barrage of lightning-quick throwaway gags that continually catch us by surprise. And every malapropism is so impeccably targeted that we quickly realise that chaos is clearly the entire point of the show.

Hugely likeable even when playing an idiot like Jack, Zucker is pathologically talented comic who expertly combines his razor-sharp timing with clowning physicality. He interacts with the crashing sounds and shifting lights with gleeful precision. And yet everything feels improvised, as if an under-rehearsed show is being pulled apart at the seams. Obviously, this can't happen by accident, and even when it feels like it has perhaps genuinely gone off the rails, he still manages to be hilarious. While continually checking his notes, the pace of his gags is so fast that it's not possible to keep up, so the laughs pile up like a car crash on a motorway at rush hour. "It's a hurricane up here," Jack shouts. "Or maybe a him-icane!"

As with Stamptown, the stage is a scene of total carnage by the end of the show, while the increasingly disheveled Jack is covered in confetti and sweat (and other things). Most impressive is how Zucker maintains Jack's relentless awkwardness, simulating failure and pandemonium while delivering one expertly aimed zinger after another. And there's a vulnerability even to his obvious lies that makes us want to give him a hug. Not a single thing has gone the way he planned it, and yet the mayhem comes together perfectly. Yet another triumph.

For info, SOHO THEATRE > • STAMPTOWN >

photos by Dylan Woodley & David Monteith-Hodge • 16.Jul.24

Dance: All for one and one for all

National Youth Dance Company
Wall
by Oona Doherty
dancers Aleesha Moyo, Anya Rakshit, Aoibh Ryan, Ayuna Berbidaeva, Charly Knights, Daisy Bilsland, Ernie Shorten, Francis Henry, Frank Thorpe, Fue Akama, Georgia Coulson, Gilbert Dicks, Jacob Lincoln, James Airey, Kitty Newton, Lina Kasasa, Luis Green, Luke Pele, Matthew Atkinson, Meeri Niva, Megan Chaytor Wilson, Megan Georges, Monét Brooks, Morgan Heimsot, Otis De Ville Morel, Phoebe Mufushwa, Rosa Boadle-Soumah, Roselynn Gumbo, Rowan Williams, Ruben Morais, Venus Shury, Wray Maxwell-Mulligan
music Mark Leckey, Luca Truffarelli, Shamos
costumes Ryan Dawson Laight • lighting John Gunning
Sadler's Wells, London • 13.Jul.24 ★★★★

Rippling with youthful energy and passion, the talented National Youth Dance Company is on a national tour this summer with their show Wall, which made its London debut at Sadler's Wells. It's a fascinating, visually stunning hour-long piece that continually provokes thought as it explores ideas relating to community and culture. Created in a series of workshops with 32 dancers aged 16-25 from 21 cities, it's a conversation that reflects different backgrounds, touching on common feelings shared by teens across generations. And Oona Doherty's choreography vividly offers these performers a chance to demonstrate their skills, tenacity and resilience.

The show emerges around verbatim recordings, music and spoken word art that are reflected on a video screen above the stage, white lettering sometimes vibrating on a black screen, plus a stunning moment of bright whiteness. The words include music lyrics and vox pop clips in which people share honest views about what it means to live as a young person in Britain. As ideas of national identity swirl around, many of the comments touch on immigration, from opinions about refugees to first-person comments about how it feels to live in a country other than the one you were born in.

While these words and sounds engage our brains, the dancers perform hugely expressive movements, both as a large group and in individual break-out solos. Movements are repetitive, sometimes almost painfully so, and often heart-stopping in the way they show this widely varied group of performances interconnect and support each other. With open emotionality, they are telling their own stories, both collectively and individually, through words and dance. So the performances feel almost startlingly intimate, energised from within as dancers cycle through fluid movements, whether huddled together, in a line or going against the grain.

The stage is wide open, without any curtains or set aside from the video screen hanging above the dancers' heads. Coming from the sides and accented by spots, the lighting cleverly isolates performers in the blackness, highlighted by the blues and golds in their streetwear-style costumes. With a range of physicalities, each individual performer is able to shine within the group, with standout moments like a gorgeous solo by Ayuna Berbidaeva, a wheelchair user from Siberia, and a staggering section in which the dancers fall and stand up again nearly 100 times. And it ends with a triumphant party, sending us into the street with hope for the future.

For details on the tour, which runs until 29th July:
NATIONAL YOUTH DANCE COMPANY >

photos by Manuel Vason • 13.Jul.24

Critical Week: Everybody wants to rule the world

While the television is covered with major sporting events at the moment, the gloomy weather is driving people into the cinemas. And there are plenty of things worth seeing. As usual, I'm a bit ahead of the pack on many of the films I saw this week. But I never heard about a press screening for Despicable Me 4, so I bought a ticket and was happy to find it the best in the franchise so far. It's still fast and blissfully nutty, but there's a smart edge to it this time. I also caught the British animated adventure Kensuke's Kingdom, based on the beloved Michael Morpugo novel about a young boy stranded on an almost deserted island. It's beautifully designed and well-written.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sisi & I • Problemista
Despicable Me 4
Fly Me to the Moon
ALL REVIEWS >

In live-action, there was Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum subtly falling for each other in the Apollo 11 comedy-drama Fly Me to the Moon, which is colourful and very charming. Jacques Audiard's new film Emilia Perez won multiple prizes at Cannes, notably for the staggering central performances in a bold, moving story about violence and transformation. Sandra Huller is as terrific as always in Sisi & I, as the handmaiden to the Austrian empress; the film is witty, inventive and involving. The Korean horror Sleep begins as a sharply well-made light drama about sleep-walking before turning genuinely freaky. And from Iran, My Favourite Cake is a warm and hugely involving late-in-life romance with a big emotional kick. On stage, I attended the opening cabaret of this month's London Clown Festival at Soho Theatre and Dorian: The Musical at Southwark Playhouse.

This coming week I'll be watching Glen Powell in Twisters, Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, June Squibb in Thelma and the British drama Chuck Chuck Baby, plus two stage shows: National Youth Dance Company at Sadler's Wells and more of Jack Tucker at Soho Theatre.

Stage: I'm gonna live forever

Dorian: The Musical
music & lyrics Joe Evans
book & direction Linnie Reedman
with Alfie Friedman, Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson, George Renshaw, Leeroy Boone, Megan Hill, Rhys Lambert
choreography Korinna Kokkali • lighting Adam King
sets & costumes Isabelle Van Braeckel • sound Mike Thacker
Southwark Playhouse, Borough • 4.Jul-10.Aug.24 ★★★

Adapting Oscar Wilde's classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray for the social media age, this new musical comes with a heavy dose of gothic design, arch drama and rock opera-style songs. It feels strangely constrained by the small theatre space in the large room at Southwark Playhouse, and the direction doesn't properly take into consideration the fact that two-thirds of the audience must watch the backs of characters' heads during momentous conversations, simply because they don't move. But this mixed bag is sold by the gifted cast, who properly pour themselves into their roles. Their singing is often impressive. And the show looks properly lush.

While the florid set and costumes reside in a parallel 19th-meets-21st century universe, the story and dialog have been cleverly updated to the present day, offering telling new insights into Wilde's vivid themes. It's a fable about artistic ambition and the quest for eternal youth, as young Dorian (Friedman) begins to go viral with his music, then is promoted by publicist Victoria (Lewis-Dodson) and literally immortalised by photographer Baz (Boone). But he makes a bargain with the devil, remaining youthful as a picture in the attic begins to reveal Dorian's twisted soul. He also discovers he is unable to love, despite crushes on both opera singer Sibyl (Hill) and his music producer Harry (Renshaw).

Lewis-Dodson & Friedman

Sex, drugs and violence feature along the way, played out in stylishly choreographic ways, but nothing quenches the longing in Dorian's sold-out soul. Embellished with layers of colour, patterns and tactile textures, everything is achingly picturesque, lit up in strikingly vivid hues to match a range of power ballads. And the actors ripple with charisma. Lewis-Dodson has the strongest voice, gloriously belting out her numbers while giving Victoria an enjoyably sarcastic tone. And Hill delivers beautifully in two intertwined roles. Meanwhile, Friedman, Renshaw and Boone look gorgeous and fill their songs with yearning emotions that we can clearly see, even if the lyrics never quite let us in.

Friedman & Renshaw

There is real power in Wilde's story, and it adapts very nicely to the social media setting. So there's a lot to like in this production. The way everything is positioned at the point between heaven and hell, angels and devils, love and death, is fascinating. But the show's staging undermines its impact, distracting us with heightened design elements and awkward in-the-round angles. The clever Club 27 references don't quite work as written here, because they oddly undermine the effect of the passage of time. And because the songs lack hooks, they never quite catch hold. That said, there's passion surging through this adaptation, and the actors bring the larger messages home with a kick.

Friedman & Boone

Hill

For information, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE >

photos by Danny Kaan • 10.Jul.24

Stage: Just clowning around

London Clown Festival
host Riss Obolensky
with Piotr Sikora, Paula Valluerca, Nancy Trotter Landry, Neil Frost, Frankie Thompson
band Sarah Woolfenden, Dan Lees, Tom Penn, Julie Nesher
Soho Theatre, Jackson's Lane and other venues
8-25.Jul.24 ★★★★

London Clown Festival brings three weeks of riotous physical comedy to venues across the capital ahead of the Edinburgh Fringe, and it kicked off with a lively two-hour cabaret featuring a number of notable acts playfully interacting with the audience in the upstairs studio space at Soho Theatre. The results were a bit uneven, as these kinds of programmes usually are, but the general atmosphere was hilarious, especially as the performers unapologetically went for it. And being press night, this included some pointed interactions with critics in attendance.

Obolensky

The energetic host for the evening is Michael (Obolensky), an Aussie drag king who proudly notes that his stand-up comes from 1989 and wears a tie emblazoned with the word "creep". He introduces the excellent four-piece live band for the show, then launches into a bit involving an HR complaint line, helping the audience sort out their workplace gripes through improvised song in various genres. It's very, very silly, and continues in between the acts throughout the night. The first performer is the band's trumpeter Sarah Woolfenden, who does amusingly absurd new age-style beat poetry to set the mood: "We know not what will happen".

Furiozo

Then it's the fabulous tough guy Furiozo (Sikora), who wordlessly mimes a riotous crime caper with the help of a few audience members. This includes a robbery, elaborate chase and jailhouse escape, all of which play out in very funny ways thanks to Furiozo's warm-hearted undercurrents. (Furiozo performed a variation of this routine in January at Stamptown.) He's followed by another of my favourites of the night, Madame Señorita (Valluerca), who strides out with diva-like confidence and Celine Dione-style delusion to sing a sultry song in Spanish that's punctuated by conversations with audience members she thinks she recognises. The deadpan delivery, visual sight gags and soapy side stories she creates are hilarious.

Woolfenden, Suki Tawdry, Frost

The next two acts are downright surreal, more slapstick performance art than comedy. Suki Tawdry (Trotter Landry) shyly takes the spotlight and enters into all-out war with the microphone stand while the band fills in the gaps. Then she struggles with a stack of papers before mumbling a poem and fleeing the stage. Neil Frost bounds out to perform a Shakespeare tribute, battling a wig and cape that simply won't stay on as he prances and poses around the stage to the music, pausing to shout "Shakespeare!" and taking audience requests, with similarly messy results.

Madame Señorita, Thompson

And finally there's the hugely talented Frankie Thompson, who performs a fiendishly witty CCTV camera romance to Every Breath You Take, then launches into an uncanny verbatim performance to spoken word recordings of people saying "horrible things". This includes recounting a meeting with Margaret Thatcher, baking the perfect scone and more vile Thatcher musings. Strikingly physical and unnervingly in synch, she ends the show on a very strong note indeed.

For details, LONDON CLOWN FESTIVAL >

Soho Theatre, 8.Jul.24

Critical Week: It wasn't me

It's been a momentous week in the UK, with a general election on Thursday that delivered on its expectations to completely upend the nation's government. On the 4th of July, no less. Meanwhile in the movies, Eddie Murphy returned for a fourth time for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, an overly retro sequel that feels like a movie we saw 40 years ago (we did). But Murphy is still great on-screen in this role. Also on Netflix, Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron reteamed for A Family Affair, which is as silly as it looks, and also an amusing guilty pleasure.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kill • The Conversation
Orlando, My Political Biography
Unicorns • The Nature of Love
ALL REVIEWS >

I saw two horror creep-outs: Mia Goth is back for MaXXXine, the third film in Ti West's series about young women seeking fame, this time a pornstar going mainstream while yucky violence breaks out all around her. Also very yucky, Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage in perhaps his most bonkers role yet (which is saying a lot). It's a relentlessly unsettling freak-out. And I was also delightful stressed out revisiting one of the finest thrillers ever made, Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 gem The Conversation, followed by a terrific Q&A with legendary sound and film editor Walter Murch.

Three films use surrealism to address big themes: Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars in the eerie dark drama Tuesday, as a mother confronting death (in the form of a parrot) about her daughter's life. Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn lead the offbeat and intense Mother Couch, about a woman who forces her adult children to grapple with her mortality. And Paul Raci is a guru teaching The Secret Art of Human Flight in an quirky comedy-drama that's bleakly emotive. And then there were father and son Stellan and Gustaf Skarsgard teaming up for the gloomy and haunting Scandinavian mystery What Remains, and fiercely inventive Chinese drama Black Dog, which deservedly won a couple of prizes at Cannes. I also attended Carlos Acosta's breathtaking stage production of Carmen at Sadler's Wells.

This coming week isn't looking quite as crazy as this one was. I'll be watching Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in Fly Me to the Moon, Sandra Huller in Sisi & I, Korean thriller Sleep, Iranian drama My Favourite Cake and the British animated adventure Kensuke's Kingdom. In live theatre, I'm attending Dorian: The Musical and the opening cabaret for Soho Theatre's Clown Festival.

Dance: Raging bull

Acosta Danza
Carlos Acosta’s Carmen
choreography Carlos Acosta • music Georges Bizet
with Laura Rodríguez, Alejandro Silva, Enrique Corrales, Carlos Acosta, Denzel Francis, Raúl Reinoso,
Zeleidy Crespo, Patricia Torres, Daniela Francia, Adria Díaz, Jennifer Suárez, Amisaday Naara, Frank Isaac,
Leandro Fernández, Brandy Martinez, Elizabeth Tablada,
Brian Ernesto, Chay Deivis, Liana Taly
sets and costumes Tim Hatley • lighting Peter Mumford
Sadler's Wells, London • 2-6.Jul.24 ★★★★★

Expanding on his one-act production, Carlos Acosta creates a full-length ballet based on Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen, infusing the action with Cuban flavours to create a thoroughly mesmerising romantic thriller. Inventive and colourful, this is the story told with humour, intensity and big emotions. And it's also very, very sexy thanks to the talented young performers, Acosta's expressively physical choreography and Tim Hatley's terrific costumes.

After a prologue introduces a demonic bull (Acosta) who is pulling the strings and recounting the story, things kick off with a flurry of burlesque in a bar, as dancing soldiers strip down to their underpants, much to the delight of the women around them. Carmen (Laura Rodriguez) engages in a witty to and fro with officer Don José (Alejandro Silva), which escalates to passion after Carmen is arrested and put under José's watch. Her skills at seduction allow her to escape, and then her head is turned by handsome toreador Escamillo (Enrique Corrales), although she rejects his advances. Carmen is just playing with both José and Escamillo, but they clash over their infatuation with her.

Each element works together gorgeously to convey this narrative and the internal wranglings of the characters. The costumes are particularly vivid, catching colours and lights in striking ways that wash the stage in shades of red and black. With clever touches, the set is dominated by an enormous circle in which video projections create both earthy backdrops and otherworldly glimpses of what beyond. And Acosta's bull towers over everything.

The dancing itself is simply transcendent, performed to perfection by gifted dancers who infuse personality and passion into each movement. Soaring, spinning and striking spine-tingling poses, this multi-ethnic cast has real power, bringing each encounter to life with an earthy honesty that extends from fingers to toes. As a result, the intense internal battles going on within each of the characters is clearly visible, expressed with a lyrical fluidity that rattles our bones.

Bizet's familiar music is given a Latin twist that adds a wonderful spark of additional energy. Delicate ballet numbers morph into brutal fights, as a series of solos and duets allow the dancers to deploy their physical strength in ways that reveal deep yearnings and intentions. This is hugely involving theatre, haunting and moving as the feisty Carmen and her besotted men circle around each other, unaware that there's a menacing force beyond them controlling their destiny. Essential.

For more info, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Johan Persson & Cristina Lanandez • 2.Jul.24