DVD/Blu-ray: Ash Is Purest White
Love in a gangster milieu, set against the changes of the Chinese century
Chinese director Jia Zhangke has made a masterful career from following the changes that his native land has undergone in the 21st century, catching the speed of its transition from old ideological order to the relentless dynamism of subsequent economic development – and, most importantly, the human consequences of the process.
CD: Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
Exploring the depths of Californian noir on ultra-accomplished rap album
Don't let the presence of nerds' favourite Madlib on production duties fool you: this is a big bad bastard of a West Coast rap record. It's a cocaine-wholesaling, n-wording, gun-toting, dog-eat-dog-ing, murderous bastard of a rap record, in fact. The narratives are of jail cells, money laundering, betrayal and domination. When talk turns to politics, it's couched in terms of brutal power, paranoia and “puppetmasters”.
The Captor review - Stockholm syndrome silliness
Wild Bill, Episode 1, ITV review - an American in Lincolnshire
Rob Lowe plays top cop in goofy crime drama
All is not well in Boston, Lincolnshire. Unemployment, immigration concerns, Brexit frustration, and the highest murder rate in the country. How do you solve the problems of contemporary Britain? Send in an American. And not just that. Bill Hixon (Rob Lowe) is the best: educated to Doctorate level, with the accolade of being America’s top Metropolitan police chief three years running.
Cannes 2019: Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood review - sun-soaked black comedy
25 years after Pulp Fiction's Cannes premiere, Tarantino wrestles with one of Hollywood's most notorious moments
Moments before Quentin Tarantino’s blistering, outrageous work screened at Cannes, a message was delivered on behalf of the director, asking reviewers to avoid spoilers. It’s easy to see why. There’s a lot of pleasure in the film’s initial shock value, So yes, let’s avoid spoilers. But the surprises aren’t what make this film so good. Tarantino has form when it comes to handling ensemble pieces, but not since Pulp Fiction has it been so richly rendered.
Hatton Garden, ITV review - ancient burglars bore again
The infamous pensioners' heist doesn't improve on a fourth telling
Have we passed peak Hatton Garden? It’s now four years since a gang of old lags pulled off the biggest heist of them all. They penetrated a basement next door to a safe-deposit company, drilled through the wall, and made off with many millions quids’ worth in diamonds, cash and the like. All but one of them ended up in prison, where they will probably see out their days, being all of them well past pensionable age.
Blu-ray: The Woman in the Window
Fritz Lang conjures a homicide that enmeshes a timid professor with another man's slinky mistress
The Woman in the Window (1944) was the first of the two riveting film noirs in which Fritz Lang directed Edward G Robinson as a timid New York bourgeois, Joan Bennett as the alluring woman ill-met on a street, and Dan Duryea as the dandified sleaze who manipulates her.
Cannes 2019: Too Old to Die Young - nightmarish LA noir
'Neon Demon' director Nicolas Winding Refn turns to TV with Miles Teller
This year, Cannes has been adamantly defending traditional cinema, with more than a few jibes at Netflix (who remain persona non grata at the festival), but that hasn’t stopped them screening two episodes of Nicolas Winding Refn’s new Amazon TV series, Too Old To Die Young. Refn has gone on record stating that his latest project is still cinema — a 13-hour film that shows all the verve and ambition you’d expect from the Danish auteur.
The Firm, Hampstead Theatre review - ferociously funny exploration of gang culture
Roy Williams revival looks beyond the headlines to see the codes, complexity and camaraderie of crime
We are living in a time when gang culture rips and roars its way down London streets, and through newspaper headlines, at increasingly alarming levels. Recent news reports revealed how a surge in knife and gun crime is leading to more young black men being murdered in the capital than anywhere else in the country, with problems increasingly amplified by social media and drugs money.