Tucked review - dispiriting British drag queen drama

Danny la Rue's ghost returns to haunt Brighton's piers

It would be great to herald this low-budget drama about an elderly drag queen and his friendship with a young gay singer-songwriter as a little gem of British indie cinema. But Tucked, which aims to be an odd-couple tale of heart-warming redemption, is pretty dispiriting with its slow pace and predictable plot. 

Cannes 2019: Sorry We Missed You review - essential Loach drama

New film shows the real cost of zero-hour contracts and fear-inducing big data

Who would have thought that Ken Loach could make a film more heart-wrenching than I, Daniel Blake? His new feature, co-written with his long-standing collaborator Paul Laverty, is a raw, angry and utterly uncompromising drama, showing that, for all the appeal of the gig-economy, the reality is much grimmer.

Vox Lux review – music biz drama with big ideas

★★★★ VOX LUX Natalie Portman stars as a curdled pop diva born out of tragedy

Natalie Portman stars as a curdled pop diva born out of tragedy

Common to the recent spate of films about aspiring singers, the theme of fame’s corrupting influence is hardly new. However, actor-turned-filmmaker Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux daringly freights this biographical sub-genre with cosmic significance, as he did the history movie with his 2015 directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader.

Tolkien review - biopic charms but never wows

★★★ TOLKIEN Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins star in a biopic that charms but never wows

 

Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins offer relatively passionless romance

Finnish director Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien follows the same formula of many literary biopics, with a tick-box plot of loves, friendships and hardships that forged the writing career of one the 20th Century’s greatest fantasy writers.

The Glass Piano, Print Room at The Coronet review – fascinating story undermined by absurdism

★★ THE GLASS PIANO, PRINT ROOM AT THE CORONET A fascinating story undermined by absurdism

The production's levity eviscerates the underpinning emotional realities

Often the greatest works of dramatic absurdism spring from the worst extremes of human experience, whether it’s Ionesco’s Rhinoceros responding to fascism, or Havel’s The Garden Party satirising the irrational cruelties of Prague’s Soviet occupiers.

Wilderness, Hampstead Theatre review - stark portrait of modern divorce

★★★★ WILDERNESS, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Stark portrait of modern divorce

Strong performances and snappy lines make this bleak drama sing

“We don’t love you any less.” A natural sentiment to express to your child when you’re separating from your partner, but the very fact of saying it plants doubts in the child’s mind as to whether you really mean it. As the audience of Wilderness at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, a new play written by Kellie Smith and directed by Hampstead regular Anna Ledwich, we feel Alistair’s doubts and fears keenly – mostly because we are him.