overnight reviews

Music Reissues Weekly: The Devil Rides In - Spellbinding Satanic Magick & The Rockult

THE DEVIL RIDES IN - SPELLBINDING SATANIC MAGICK Pop & rock embrace the dark side

When pop and rock embraced the dark side

Just over two weeks before Christmas 1967, The Rolling Stones issued Their Satanic Majesties Request. The album’s title appeared to serve time on the peace-and-love, flowers-for-everyone good vibes of the psychedelic era. A year later, the Stones’ next LP, Beggars Banquet, went further. It opened with "Sympathy for the Devil." “Just call me Lucifer…or I'll lay your soul to waste,” sang Mick Jagger.

Joan, ITV1 review - the roller-coaster career of a 1980s jewel thief

★★★★ JOAN, ITV1 Brilliant performance by Sophie Turner as 'The Godmother'

Brilliant performance by Sophie Turner as 'The Godmother'

If you’re looking for an advertisement for how crime doesn’t pay, Joan will do very nicely. Written by Anna Symon, this six-part series is based on the memoirs of real-life jewel thief Joan Hannington, whose light-fingered accomplishments earned her notoriety back in the Eighties. Some apparently referred to her as “The Godmother”, though they don’t here.

National Ballet of Canada, Sadler's Wells review - see this, and know what dance can do

Yet again, Crystal Pite proves herself a ferocious creative force, alongside fellow Canadian exports James Kudelka and Emma Portner

What to expect of the National Ballet of Canada since its last London visit 11 years ago? Dance with an eco-message, a world-peace message, or more visible diversity on stage?

Monet and London, Courtauld Gallery review - utterly sublime smog

★★★★ MONET AND LONDON, COURTAULD GALLERY Utterly sublime smog

Never has pollution looked so compellingly beautiful

In September 1899, Claude Monet booked into a room at the Savoy Hotel. From there he had a good view of Waterloo Bridge and the south bank beyond. Setting up his easel on a balcony, he began a series of paintings of the river and the buildings on its banks. So entranced was he by the river that, over the next three years, he came back twice to continue working on a series that would mushroom to over 100 canvases.

Joker: Folie à Deux review - supervillainy laid low

★★ JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX Joaquin Phoenix’s clown crim faces a long stretch in the slammer

Joaquin Phoenix’s clown crim faces a too-long stretch in the slammer

“Psychopaths sell like hotcakes,” William Holden observed in Sunset Boulevard in 1950, and those individuals have been doing good business for Hollywood before and since.We root for them and we don’t root for them at the same time, which is perhaps why not everyone in Hollywood has agreed with the hotcake thing. 

A Tupperware of Ashes, National Theatre review - family and food, love and loss

★★★★ A TUPPERWARE OF ASHES, NATIONAL THEATRE Family and food, love and loss

Tanika Gupta’s new play is a beautifully heartfelt mix of comedy and tragedy

Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Losing her car keys; burning rice in the pan; mixing up memories; just plain blank episodes. At various times, she relives distant moments in her life with her husband Ameet, who died more than 20 years ago. Very soon she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

The Battle for Lakipia review - why post-colonial Kenya is a land of unease

Tensions run high between white farmers and the indigenous people

The Battle for Lakipia is a beautifully filmed and thoughtfully directed documentary that was made over a two-year period. Its focus is the conflicting claim to Kenyan land made by white ranch owners of English descent and the indigenous pastoralist people. In the 60 years since Kenya gained independence from Britain, tensions between the descendants of colonial Europeans and Kenyans have flared up periodically, and in recent years climate change has added fuel to the fire.

The Old Man and the Land review - dark secrets of a farming family

Film meets radio in an experimental agro-drama

The Old Man and the Land depicts a worn-out sheep farmer going about his dreary business as the seasons pass, darkly and dankly. He does it because he’s always done it, and because he doesn’t trust his 42-year-old daughter, Laura, despite her farming skills, or his 40-year-old son, David, the farm’s heir but an alcoholic and drug user who is unsuited to the work, to take it over.

BBC Singers, BBCSO, Jeannin, Barbican review - from stormy weather to blue skies

BBC SINGERS, JEANNIN, BARBICAN Uplifting centenary party for the great choral survivors

An uplifting centenary party for the great choral survivors

“Bold, ambitious, and good for the sector.” So said Charlotte Moore, the BBC chief content officer, who currently earns £468,000, in March last year as she defended plans to close the BBC Singers as part of a package of swingeing musical cuts masked – as usual – as a high-principled strategic rethink.