Blu-ray: Sweet Thing

★★★★ BLU-RAY: SWEET THING A stirring comeback for writer-director Alexandre Rockwell

A stirring comeback for writer-director Alexandre Rockwell

The independent filmmaker Alexandre Rockwell has flown under the radar since he made his name with the Cassavetes-vibed 1992 New York comedy In the Soup. He recently explained that his career was sabotaged by Harvey Weinstein, who was jealous, Rockwell suspects, of his close friendship with Quentin Tarantino. The intervening years haven’t been fallow, but Rockwell’s 10th feature, the lyrical childhood mini-odyssey Sweet Thing (2020), represents a major comeback.

Iliza Shlesinger, Eventim Apollo review - feminism, the internet - and bras

★★★★ ILIZA SHLESINGER, EVENTIM APOLLO US comic's acerbic take on being a woman

US comic's acerbic take on being a woman

Iliza Shlesinger is an American writer, performer and presenter whose film work includes roles in Pieces of a Woman and Good on Paper, the latter which she also wrote and produced. She's also an established stand-up comic, with five Netflix specials to her name. For her latest stand-up show, Back in Action, she was on a fleeting visit to London as part of an international 70-date tour, delayed by COVID, before she performs some dates in the US.

'Night, Mother, Hampstead Theatre review - despair in sotto-voce

★★★★ 'NIGHT MOTHER, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Despair in sotto-voce from Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing is hurting and hurtful in revival of Marsha Norman's piercing 1983 drama

‘Night, Mother remains a play of piercing pessimism, something that’s not necessarily the same as tragedy, though the two often run congruently. The inexorability of the development of Marsha Norman’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner certainly recalls the tragic arc of drama, but its sense of catharsis remains somehow limited.

Invasion, Apple TV+ review - sci-fi epic or a pile of space junk?

Grandiose space-invader series is dreary and uninvolving

Conceived on a global scale to depict the enormity of an alien menace from outer space, Apple's new series Invasion has grand ambitions, but crash-lands like a pile of space junk. After a few hours of this, waiting for something to happen, you’ll be yearning for a trawl through Netflix or Walter Presents.

Album: Young Thug - Punk

★★★ YOUNG THUG - PUNK Different eras of Young Thug come together nicely

Different eras of Young Thug come together nicely on long-awaited new album

From underground curiosity to cult icon, now label head and superstar, Atlanta’s Young Thug has continued to reinvent himself, as well as rap at large, for the better part of a decade. After being announced over two years ago, his new album Punk is finally here.

White Noise, Bridge Theatre review - provocative if not always plausible

★★★ WHITE NOISE, BRIDGE THEATRE Provocative if not always plausible

Suzan-Lori Parks has tweaked her Off Broadway play to mixed results

"I can't sleep": So goes the fateful opening line of White Noise, the Suzan-Lori Parks play disturbing enough to spark many a restless night in playgoers who are prepared to take its numerous provocations on board. To do so requires various suspensions of disbelief, one quite substantial, on the way to a finish that, in Polly Findlay's Bridge Theatre UK premiere, comes at least 20 minutes earlier than I recall from this play's Off Broadway debut in spring 2019. 

Yoko Ono, Mend Piece, Whitechapel Gallery review – funny and sad in equal measure

★★★ YOKO ONO, MEND PIECE, WHITECHAPEL Funny and sad in equal measure

A sign of the times in broken crockery

Its more than 50 years since Yoko Ono first presented Mend Piece at the Indica Gallery, London in the exhibition through which she met John Lennon. The piece is currently being revisited at the Whitechapel Gallery and, in the intervening years, its meaning has subtly shifted. Strewn over four tables are dozens of broken cups and saucers along with everything you need to attempt a botched repair – glue, sellotape, scissors and string.