Dance: Tempting and triumphant

London City Ballet
Resurgence
choreography Ashley Page, Kenneth MacMillan, Arielle Smith, Christopher Marney
dancers Alina Cojocaru, Cira Robinson, Álvaro Madrigal Arenilla, Arthur Wille, Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Isadora Bless, Nicholas Vavrečka, Miranda Silveira, Bárbara Verdasco, Jimin Kim, Nicholas Mihlar, Ayça Anil, Ellie Young
music Jennie Muskett, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, John Adams, Gabriel Fauré
lighting Andrew Murrell • projection Duncan McLean
costumes Emily Noble, Stevie Stewart
Sadler's Wells, London • 11-14.Sep.24 ★★★★

Almost 30 years since it was disbanded in 1996, London City Ballet returns to the stage at Sadler's Wells with an eclectic array of dance. And the programme also includes short documentary films that, like the dance pieces, explore the company's history and look forward to the future. In some ways, this feels like a graduation performance, with students showing off their serious skills on a blank stage that shifts with coloured lights and expressive costumes. It's also a joy to watch, uniformly fluid and buoyant, with moments of sharp impact.

Nearly forgotten, Ashley Page's Larina Waltz was created in 1993 to showcase principal couples during a tribute to Tchaikovsky. The old school choreography is fizzy and bouncy, as five pairs take turns in the spotlight, leaping and twirling, then coming together to make a group impact. Kenneth MacMillan's Ballade is a gorgeous piece for guest artist Alina Cojocaru and three men who are sitting around a table. The guys take turns making her float weightlessly around the stage as they lift her into the air and elegantly pass her between them. The narrative loosely offers each as a possible partner, but there's never a sense of competition, as the tone remains light and playful, and ends on a sweet note.

Arielle Smith's Five Dances is an evocative series of performances that are marked with shifting colours and light, as six dancers appear in various groupings, sometimes in couples or alone. The first piece is classical, and the movement becomes increasingly modern through each dance, creating visceral shapes as the performers run, leap and, in the articulate Arthur Wille's case, slide. The music also becomes increasingly rhythmic, adding kinetic energy to the physicality. There are also some terrific sight gags and group formations, culminating in a fabulous final leap. Concerto (Second Movement) is another piece by MacMillan, as Joseph Taylor and Isadora Bless tentatively approach, then he supports her, lifts and places her in a variety of beautiful positions. It's lyrical and intriguing.

Finally, Eve is choreographed by the company's artistic director Christopher Marney. It begins with a clever use of projection before leading into a new take on Eve's interaction with the serpent. Cira Robinson is spinning alone on stage when the shadowy serpent (Álvaro Madrigal Arenilla) begins bargaining with her. Tender and sensual, their full-bodied dance reveals a fascinatingly complex connection as the story develops vividly. This includes the sudden appearance of an apple, as well as a group of dancers in skin-toned costumes who envelop her. And an inventive use of shadows create moments of dramatic intensity.

While everything here is performed with stunning levels of skill, there's an almost stubbornly dated feeling to the entire programme, partly because of the simplicity of the stage design and also because each number is so resolutely binary, with men leading each dance as they show off their women. But there are breathtaking elements scattered throughout, and hints that the tables are turning. 

For details: LONDON CITY BALLET >

photos by ASH • 12.Sep.24

Critical Week: Let it all go

I've been working very long hours on a TV crew these days, so haven't had a lot of time to keep up with film releases. So I only managed to see four movies in the past seven days! (But I am very much enjoying working on set each day.) One of the big releases this week, Speak No Evil stars Scoot McNairy and James McAvoy (above) in a hugely unsettling thriller that starts light and almost comical before twisting the suspense to nail-biting levels in the final act. And then Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield came along for a Q&A with director John Crowley for We Live in Time, a powerfully involving emotional drama that feels bracingly authentic. It's bound to get awards-season attention.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
My Old Ass • In Camera
Speak No Evil • Winner
My Favourite Cake
ALL REVIEWS >

The biopic Winner is the third movie in recent years to tell the story of the whisleblower Reality Winner, this time with a snappy comical edge. Emilia Jones is excellent in the title role, and the film properly gets under her skin. And Dead Teenagers is the third scary film in writer-director Quinn Armstrong's Fresh Hell trilogy, this time cleverly twisting the teenage summer movie into something meta and genuinely creepy.

I'll have a little more time to attend screenings this coming week, so I'm planning to see the animated adventure Transformers One, Will Ferrell's documentary Will & Harper, reform school drama Nickel Boys, British comedy-drama Portraits of Dangerous Women, New York comedy Notice to Quit and British horror Inherit the Witch, plus anything else I can find time to see. 

Critical Week: Say no more

Working long days as part of a TV series crew doesn't leave a lot of time for watching movies, so I've only seen a handful of films this week - either late at night or on days off. Alicia Vikander stars as Katherine Parr in Firebrand opposite Jude Law as a particularly corpulent Henry VIII. It's a very well made film, if a bit on the dry side for such a, ahem, beefy tale. Michael Keaton is back 35 years later for more ghostly hijinks in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as are Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara. Tim Burton brings a robust energy to the film, although as before there's not much to it.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Apollo Thirteen: Survival
His Three Daughters
ALL REVIEWS >

Ian McKellen gleefully munches the scenery as the title character in The Critic, set in London's theatre world in 1934, with strong support from Gemma Arterton and Mark Strong. The dialog crackles, but the plot gets bogged down in corny twists. Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark are excellent as always in the British folk horror thriller Starve Acre, which is superbly creepy and very yucky, if never terribly scary. And I revisited one of my very favourite films for its 50th anniversary: Young Frankenstein is perhaps Mel Brooks' finest movie, a warm homage that's packed with classic hilarious moments featuring the ace Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle and Madeline Kahn. I could happily watch this movie every day, forever.

This coming week, I'm watching James McAvoy in Speak No Evil, whistleblower biopic Winner, Scottish thriller Kill and teen anime Trapezium, plus anything else I can find time to watch while working long days. 

Critical Week: Sibling rivalry

I'm working long days at the moment on a TV crew, so haven't had time for many films. But I still managed to see quite a handful over the long weekend. His Three Daughters is a sharp, involving drama starring Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne as estranged sisters dealing with their fading father. Dennis Quaid takes on the biopic Reagan with an intriguing performance. But the film is far too simplistic to do this complex man justice, relentlessly painting him as a saint.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Mandoob (Night Courier)
Black Dog
PERHAPS AVOID:
Reagan
ALL REVIEWS >

British political comedy The Whip is an enjoyable bit of low-key wish-fulfilment as a group of scrappy underdogs take on the government. Mandoob (The Courier) is a beautifully made film from Saudi Arabia about a guy trying to make ends meet and getting into some trouble on the way. And I saw the first two movies in the Quinn Armstrong's Fresh Hell horror trilogy: The Exorcism of Saint Patrick is a thoughtful, provocative, clever exploration of conversion therapy, while Wolves Against the World is a choppier, more experimental take on racism. These of course sat well with the FrightFest movies I watched last weekend!

This coming week, I'm watching Ian McKellen in The Critic, Alicia Vikander in Firebrand, Matt Smith in Starve Acre, Emile Hirsch in Dead Money, comedy-drama Off Ramp and the final Fresh Hell movie Dead Teenagers. 

FrightFest: London scares me

And the 25th FrightFest comes to a close on this bank holiday Monday with Demi Moore's Cannes hit The Substance, after five days of colourful movies, filmmakers and cast members in Leicester Square. The festival also has events that run through the year. Here are four final highlights...

EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Scared Sh*tless
dir Vivieno Caldinelli; with Steven Ogg, Daniel Doheny 24/Can ****
Witty and gleefully gruesome, this comical horror movie revels in its practical on-set effects, as a creature causes all manner of grotesque nastiness as it emerges through toilets in an apartment block. Brandon Cohen's riotous script and Vivieno Caldinelli's amusing direction are packed with surprises that keep us both laughing and squirming, more than delivering on the promise of that rude title. And as outrageously ghastly as it gets, the tone remains amusingly offbeat.

ENGLISH PREMIERE
The Substance
dir-scr Coralie Fargeat; with Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley 24/Fr ****
A parable about body image, this stylish film gently introduces its fantastical premise, then cranks things way over the top. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat may hit the themes a bit forcefully, while indulging in outrageously excessive imagery, but there's a knowing method to this madness. Even the movie's most bonkers moments come with both pointed commentary and emotional undercurrents. Frankly, more movies need to wake audiences up like this... FULL REVIEW >

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
The Dead Thing
dir Elric Kane; with Blu Hunt, Ben Smith-Petersen 24/US ***.
Moody and mysterious, this dramatic horror opens as an introspective exploration of yearning before shifting into something much darker. It's beautifully shot and edited to evoke emotions that remain very deep under the slick, serene surface, and the increasingly creepy plot goes in directions that create some cool physical acting and effects trickery, plus echoes of big ideas as well. So as things begin to get scary, director-cowriter Elric Kane has already drawn us into the story.

WORLD PREMIERE
Members Club
dir-scr Marc Coleman; with Dean Kilbey, Perry Benson 24/UK ***
Camp, messy and outrageously grisly, this British working-class horror comedy starts as a silly riff on The Full Monty and quickly descends into bonkers hellish mayhem. While it's consistently witty and gleefully nasty, the story feels somewhat simplistic, which leaves the pacing rather slack. It doesn't help that the story is flatly ridiculous. But there are very funny touches along the way, and some cool character-based thrills as well... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews of these and other festival films will be linked at the site's FRIGHTFEST PAGE >
For festival info, FRIGHTFEST >

FrightFest: London freaks out

Each year at FrightFest, it's fun to see how many different kinds of films can be made under the genre banner, from wildly supernatural nuttiness to darkly emotional thrillers. Here's another cross-section of highlights for Sunday, including three world premieres...

UK PREMIERE
7 Keys
dir-scr Joy Wilkinson; with Emma McDonald, Billy Postlethwaite 24/UK ****
Skilfully shot and edited, this British dramatic thriller is vividly centred around a young couple who behave transgressively as they travel around London. Writer-director Joy Wilkinson beautifully captures the inner lives of two strangers as they get to know each other in other people's homes. And along the way, several superbly orchestrated set-pieces inventively mix romance and suspense. Although it's increasingly difficult to hope for a happy ever after... FULL REVIEW >

WORLD PREMIERE
Derelict
dir Jonathan Zaurin; with Suzanne Fulton, Mike Coombes 24/UK ***.
Flickering between black and white and colour, this moody British thriller builds a strong sense of violent tension, even if the splintered filmmaking style prevents us from getting involved in the story or characters. But while it feels over-serious and overlong, director-cinematographer Jonathan Zaurin gives the film a striking visual style, skilfully shot and sharply augmented by a beefy piano-based score and powerfully internalised performances from a solid cast.

WORLD PREMIERE
Fright
dir-scr Warren Dudley; with Gwyneth Evans, Jill Priest 24/UK ***.
Designed like a 1930s melodrama, this British thriller features striking black-and-white cinematography, a florid orchestral score and accents that could cut glass. In other words, it looks and sounds fabulous. It also builds a strongly involving tension through the internalised feelings of the feisty young central character. Writer-director Warren Dudley is essentially making a pastiche here, but this is also an engaging mood piece that's thoughtful, emotionally engaging and even cathartic.

WORLD PREMIERE
Ladybug
dir Tim Cruz; with Anthony Del Negro, Scout Taylor-Compton 24/US ***
Packed with creepy and insinuating touches, this thriller builds a sense of impending nastiness right from the opening scene. Filmmaker Tim Cruz creates a haunting atmosphere that takes its time revealing the story's complex web of secrets. So while the script moves in fits and starts, peppered with moments that perhaps don't quite ring true, there's more than enough going on here to hold the attention. So the ghostly goings on become involving and, yes, haunting.

For info, FRIGHTFEST >

FrightFest: London is uneasy

The 25th FrightFest continues to take over Leicester Square, providing grisly fun for audiences over the long weekend. Here are highlights for Saturday...

ENGLISH PREMIERE
Strange Darling
dir-scr JT Mollner; with Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner 23/US ***.
After an opening caption states that this is the true story of a serial killer's rampage, this thriller unfolds in a wonderfully lurid style over six chapters that arrive out of sequence. With saturated hues and heightened performances, the film is grippingly over-the-top right from the start, impressively crafted by writer-director JT Mollner. So even it never feels very substantial, the film's twisty, playful touches keep us on our toes, messing with our expectations... FULL REVIEW >

UK PREMIERE
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
dir Andre Ovredal; with Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi 23/Ger ***.
A rarely filmed section of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is the basis for this thriller, which is set on an ill-fated journey at sea plagued by something that's both murderous and unnatural. Norwegian director Andre Ovredal keeps the film grounded through quirky character touches while emphasising the dark and stormy menace. So the film becomes a claustrophobic slasher horror as it goes along, pitting a diminishing number of crew members against a monster... FULL REVIEW >

UK PREMIERE
Video Vision
dir-scr Michael Turney; with Andrea Figliomeni, Chrystal Peterson 24/US ****
Snappy dialog and a witty use of forgotten video formats add a sharply entertaining spark to this offbeat horror movie about a demon-possessed videotape player. And while the direction is fairly simplistic, there are terrific camera effects along the way that give the film a woozily disorienting tone, pulling us in because the characters are strongly well-developed. Filmmaker Michael Turney also gives the audience some genuinely nasty grisliness for good measure. Plus a storming theme song.

WORLD PREMIERE
Traumatika
dir Pierre Tsigaridis; with Rebekah Kennedy, Emily Goss ***.
Opening with a caption about childhood trauma, this horror movie submerges the topic in a demonic context that's full of jolts and grisly surprises. Instead of building suspense, director Pierre Tsigaridis deploys grubby production design, nutty editing and a super-heightened sound mix to keep us off-balance. So the main tension is the wait for the next moment of hyper-grisliness. Rather than a coherent, involving narrative, this is an enjoyably bonkers collection of nightmarish scenes... FULL REVIEW >

For info, FRIGHTFEST >