Sex Education, Series 2, Netflix review - the teen sex show we deserved
Happy Valentines: this humdrum holiday is the perfect occasion to stream the most affirming sex comedy in years
The L Word: Generation Q, Sky Atlantic review - is the new Word as good as the old Word?
Despite new themes and fresh characters, it's still soap
The L Word originally ran for six seasons between 2004 and 2009, and its then-revolutionary depiction of the lives of a group of lesbians in Los Angeles won it both a fanatical audience and acclaim for its game-changing content, exploring such topics as same-sex marriage, gay adoption and female sexuality which weren't being seen elsewhere on TV.
Tomasz Jedrowski: Swimming in the Dark review – of hypocrisy, both personal and systemic
Political parable on the collapse of communism in Poland turns on nostalgia for an illicit first love
Conjuring up nostalgia for a past readers never had is, perhaps, the litmus test for any good coming-of-age story. Writers have the hard task of making the general particular – because growing up, in one way or another, is universal whereas how and when and where we do is not. They also have the equally, if not harder, task of making the particular general – blurring that focus enough for the rest of us to share in their vision. A bit like using a state-of-the-art camera to take an early photograph; a twenty-first century Stieglitz.
DVD: The Cakemaker
Israeli debut is a sensitive study of grief - and the joy of culinary creation
The Cakemaker is Ofir Raul Graizer’s debut feature, and the film must somehow reflect the parabola of the Israeli-born director's life: it’s set between Berlin and Jerusalem, the two cities apparently closest to him, and one of its main subjects – alongside weightier themes such as grief and loss – is food, especially the r
DVD/Blu-ray: Buddies
The first feature to address evolving AIDS pandemic retains real laconic power
The acclaim of being the first to represent the mid-1980s AIDS pandemic in cultural form was a plaudit that none of those concerned would ever have wished for. With New York as its epicentre, and almost nothing known about the disease that was hitting at the heart of the city’s gay community, such early attempts were tentative, the boundaries between personal and political still rough.
CD: Renée Zellweger - Judy
The film star does a fine job interpreting a host of Garland classics
Renée Zellweger already has strong musical cinema form, Her role as Roxie Hart in Chicago garnered her second Oscar nomination. However, playing and singing Judy Garland is a whole different ball game.
CD: Tove Lo - Sunshine Kitty
Forthright relationship-centred lyricism combined with elegant electronic pop to winning effect
Swedish singer Tove Lo appeared at a time when female physical sexuality was being used as a raw, blunt weapon in pop, when porno chic reached an apex in music videos. Half a decade ago was the time of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”, thus Lo’s overt displays of sexual bravado seemed part of the same and she had big hits with songs such as “Habits (Stay High)” and “Talking Body”. Her output since, however, has proved her sensual agenda to be more than a passing foible.
Torch Song, Turbine Theatre review - impressive return for Harvey Fierstein's seminal gay drama
Matthew Needham in lithe drag queen form opens new London venue
London’s latest theatre opening brings a stirring revival of Harvey Fierstein’s vital gay drama, which premiered as Torch Song Trilogy in New York at the beginning of the 1980s, the playwright himself unforgettable in the lead, before it opened in London in 1985 with Antony Sher.