29th Nov2014

Paddington – Film

by timbaros

images-296Paddington Bear is now Paddington the Movie, and it’s very warm and fuzzy.

Paddington the Movie has been a long time coming. It’s the first film incarnation of Britian’s best loved bear, having been in book form since 1958, and it was also a 1975 television series. Paddington Bear has always been known as a stuffed animal collected and loved by many generations over the past 60 years. Now the bear film hits the big screen and it’s like Paddington Bear has turned life like!

In the beginning of the film, we see the bear (not named until he gets to London) in his natural habitat, with his family, in the hills of Peru. A terrible earthquake takes place and their habitat is destroyed, along with some of his family members. So his aunt, who is off to the bears retirement home, puts him on a boat bound for London, with bottles of marmalade for food, and in case of an emergency, a sandwich of marmalade under his hat. He’s going to London to look for an explorer who had visited Peru many years ago and told the bears that they would be welcome in London anytime.

The bear makes his way from the ship and into London via in a garbage bag, and finds himself at Paddington Station. He’s jostled and practically stepped on by daily commuters (just like the rest of us are), but he’s eventually picked up by the Brown family, including Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville), Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins), and their two children Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin). The don’t know what to call him but in the background there is a sign that reads ‘Paddington’ – so that is what they call him – Paddington. Mr. Brown is very reluctant to take this bear home but Mrs. Brown, and the children, talk him into it to let him stay at their house for just one night. Upon arriving at their three story Notting Hill home where housekeeper Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) maintains the household, Paddington creates a right mess his first night at the Brown’s house. He’s not sure how to use the sink and eventually floods the bathroom, causing water to cascade down the staircase and into the family’s kitchen. It’s not a good start for Paddington. But Mrs. Brown is on his side and she wants him to find the explorer so she talks Mr. Brown to take him to the Royal Geographical Society to look in their archives for M. Clyde, the famous explorer who many years ago had visited Peru. Told by the front desk that there is no record of him, Mr. Brown dresses as a cleaning woman to infiltrate the research room to get the information. But soon enough him and Paddington are caught and they make a lucky escape. As Mr. Brown and Paddington (and the children) bond, Paddington continues to look for the explorer, and one night when he overhears the Brown’s saying the he is causing too much of a mess in their home, he knocks on every M. Clyde door in town. But he’s not the only one looking, he’s also being chased by Millicent (a very mean Nicole Kidman) – a taxidermist at the Natural History Museum who wants to add him to her collection – stuffed. Will Paddington find the explorer in the hopes he will give him a home? Will he get kidnapped by Millicent and end up on her wall? How can anyone not be charmed and warmed over by his loveable face is beyond me!

Paddington the Movie does not disappoint on all levels. It’s funny, cute, loveable, charming, and a film for all members of the family. It also includes musical interludes from the era when Paddington was ‘born,’ music that is West Indian in flavour. And Ben Whishaw’s voice is perfect as Paddington (not quite grown up yet quite too young). And there are quite a few cameos in the film, including Matt Lucas as a cab driver and Peter Cipaldi as the Brown’s nosey next door neighbor. And even though a couple of the scenes in the film are a bit ridiculous (Bonneville dressed as a woman as mentioned above, and a long street chase where Paddington is returning the wallet of a man who happens to be a pickpocket), overall it’s a great film. But’s it the spirit of Paddington that this film is based on, and Producer David Heyman (Gravity) and Writer and Director Paul King successfully bring Paddington’s spirit to the film, a film to be enjoyed by all ages up to and after Christmas.

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29th Nov2014

Run – Theatre

by timbaros

B3dL60NCYAARNOb.jpg-largeFour interns start new jobs at an unnamed investment bank. They work long, hard and crazy hours, perhaps too long and too hard as one of the interns dies from exhaustion.

Run, now playing (up until Saturday) at the New Diorama Theatre in Regents Place, is based on the true story of 21 year-old Moritz Erhardt from Germany. He was interning at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and worked 72 hours straight, and was found dead in the shower at his Bethnal Green flat.

Playing the four interns in the bare bones production of Run are Al Jarrett, whose character got the internship because his uncle works at the bank; Joseph Sentance plays a smart recent Cambridge graduate new to London; Beatrice Scirocchi’s character is a cold backstabber from Bosnia who will stop at nothing to get ahead; and Charlotte Watson plays a prim and proper professional, yet haunted by the death of her younger brother years ago from a heart murmur.

The four interns are thrown into an office environment, an environment that is new to them. Some of them thrive, while one of them makes an almost career-ending mistake, yet they are all interning for the same reason – to get a permanent job at the bank, and they will do whatever it takes to get the job done. In Watson’s character’s case, she looks like she will be the one who will outshine the others, but when she starts taking pills to stay awake, she literally (and figuratively) runs herself into the ground, extremely exhausted, yet she still goes back to work on very little sleep. And ultimately, ending with tragic consequences.

Run is all about the story, and the acting. And wow – all four actors are excellent. Jarrett gives an impassioned speech when he’s reprimanded by his boss – it’s a speech that will leave you breathless. Scirocchi is cold as ice because she wants a job very bad and will even turn on her fellow interns to get what she wants. Sentance is perfect in his role – he’s a natural on the small stage, and no doubt he’s bound for bigger and better things. Yet it’s Watson’s performance you will remember hours and perhaps days after you see the show. She literally runs herself down right before our very eyes, she’s tired and she knows and feels it, yet she still works far into the night, at her desk, typing away, eyes glossed.

Run is an incredible piece of work in a very tiny theatre. Kudos to the Engineer Theatre Collective who actually spoke to many people working and/or interning in the financial sector to put this show together. It’s an exhilarating piece of work, stripped right from today’s headlines. Drop your plans for tonight or Saturday and go see this show.

Tickets can be bought at:
http://newdiorama.com/whats-on/run

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23rd Nov2014

Vote for us in the National UK Blog Awards!

by timbaros

TheEntertainmentWebsite.com is up for a National UK Blog Award. It’s a real honour just to be nominated – but it will an even greater honour and accomplishment if we place at least in the top ten! So please please please vote here:

http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/candidates/theentertainmentwebsite/

Every vote counts, and please share this with your friends, neighbours, co-workers – everyone! Many Thanks!

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23rd Nov2014

Ghost Stories – Theatre

by timbaros

Ghost-Stories_2836007bWe are advised that Ghost Stories contains moments of extreme shock and tension and that it is unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15. Also, the theatre strongly recommends those of a nervous disposition to think very seriously before attending.

Well, I wouldn’t go that far in saying that Ghost Stories is the scariest show in town (that gong would go to Henry IV Part 1 purely because it is so boring), but Ghost Stories will take you on a ride where a few times you might jump up off your seat but there is absolutely no extreme shock and tension anywhere in the show.

It starts promising enough with our narrator (who runs down a dark aisle hitting punters on the shoulder as he heads to the stage) Professor Goodman (he’s not a real professor but is actor Paul Kemp) who shows the audience a photograph. It’s a simple photograph taken many many years ago of two couples standing and basically having their picture taken. But Professor Goodman explains that there’s more to the photograph then meets the eye. As he zooms in on the photograph, we see a leg and foot behind one of the men, and also one eye peering out from behind the same man’s right hand. It’s a very eerie and unsettling moment for the audience as it is hypothesized whether there is such a thing as ghost. So Ghost Stories starts promising enough and segues into three ghost stories that happened to real people. These ghost stories are re-enacted and are intended to scare the audience even more.

The first story involves Tony Matthews, a security guard who is all alone in a remote location. He radio’s a fellow security guard who’s in another building – a new security guard who happens to Russian who doesn’t speak English well. But things start happening to Tony. The lights flicker and there is a knock on his door. He goes out to investigate and to make sure the locks on an adjacent building are locked. The audience sees an apparition of a little girl, but Tony doesn’t see it. He goes back inside to radio the Russian but can’t get through – the radio strangely has stopped working. He goes back outside and one of the locks from one of the doors has come undone, so enters the room. And in this room is where he experiences the ghost face to face.

The second story is scary as well but is not pulled off. A young man, Simon Rifkind (Chris Levens) is late getting home after a night out and he suddenly hits something in the road. It’s effectively a prop on the stage that looks like a car, very effective. He stops, but decides to drive on. He’s not too sure what he hit but he’s happy with his decision to leave the scene of the crime. But then his car break down, leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. He call for help, which is on it’s way. He waits in the car and there is a knock on the window. He can’t see what it is, neither can we. But after a few minutes he is face to face with what appears, to the audience, a fake monster on the top of his car.

The last story has Mike Priddle (Gary Shelford) as a father in his soon to be new baby’s room. He’s a businessman, always on his mobile phone. And when he sends a text, he goes ‘swoosh’ and glides the phone in the air, which gets annoying by the second time he does it. Anyway, yes, you can see this one coming, he sees ghosts in the room, not just ghosts but something that levitates in the crib, and then he too come face to face with an apparition.

As Ghost Stories goes into it’s last story, it becomes less and less scary. Sure, the first story was scary, and the second just a bit, but by the third story we become more immune to the surprises that take place, and by the time the show is over Professor Goodman is taken off the stage by a ghost and lies in a hospital bed, to be taken care of by Dr. Rifkind. But then he’s not in bed, he’s back on the stage.

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15th Nov2014

Gerontophilia – DVD

by timbaros

g6Gerontophilia is defined as a person who has a sexual preference for the elderly. It is also the name of a new film written and directed by the controversial filmmaker Bruce LaBruce.

Looking more mainstream than any of his previous films, but at the same time still sticking to a controversial theme, Gerontophilia is LaBruce’s best work to date.

Pier-Gabriel Lajoie is beautifully cast as Lake, a handsome and sexy 19-year old young man. After his unstable and alcoholic mother lands a job at a care home for the elderly, she brings Lake on board to work as an attendant to the patients. His duties include helping the men do things they can’t do for themselves, including bathing.

Lake does have a girlfriend, the gorgeous Desiree (Katie Boland, who lights up the screen everytime she is on). She’s a die-hard feminist who herself has a job in a bookstore where her much older boss takes a liking to her and even invites her to his place for dinner. She’s also been known to kiss a girl or two in her time. In the midst of a passionate make out session with Lake, she discovers a book of etchings under Lake’s pillow, etchings of older naked men. She confronts Lake about it, and he confesses that he never really knew that he was attracted to old men until he started working at the care home.

Lake establishes a friendship, then relationship, at the care home with Mr. Peabody (a very good Walter Borden). The relationship is a sexual one, and for Lake, it turns into an emotional one as well, enough of one that he decides to take Mr. Peacock away from the care home to help grant him one of final wishes, to see the Pacific Ocean.

They then, with Desiree’s blessing, hit the road to fulfill Mr. Peacock’s dream. It’s a road trip where they meet various people, especially other men, who happen to take a shine to Mr. Peacock’s witty charm and genuine smile. This makes Lake very jealous, but they continue on their trip until it comes to a sudden and unexpected end.

LaBruce has given us a very unconventional love story that is both believable and beautiful. It’s the acting, however, that stands out over other gay-themed films. Lajoie is excellent as the young man who is confused about his feelings for much older men but who slowly embraces it. Lajoie’s scenes with Borden are the best part of the film as the scenes are both tender-hearted and emotional, and very realistic. Borden is superb as well. His background is mostly from the Canadian stage, but it is in this film that Borden earns his marks. The ultimate praise goes to LaBruce – he has finally grown-up by making a grown-up film. It’s definitely worth a watch.


08th Nov2014

Interstellar – Film

by timbaros

Matthew helmetThere’s a lot of hype surrounding the new film Interstellar, which opened on Friday.

It’s directed by Christopher Nolan, the man who brought us the billion-dollar grossing films (each!) The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Returns. He also brought us 2000’s smart and highly intellectual film Memento and 2010’s highly confusing Inception. Also upping the hype around Interstellar is that it stars recent Academy Award winners Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, multiple Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain, as well as Oscar winners Michael Caine, Ellen Burnstyn, and in an uncredited/unbilled but pivotal role in the film, Matt Damon. Also by the look of the trailer, it looks visually and expirementally stunning. It’s on the path to be this year’s Gravity.

Interstellar is a lot of things. But according to Nolan, it hinges on the provocative question of humanity’s place in the stars. Interstellar means ‘occurring or situated between stars,’ and that’s basically what the movie is all about. It’s also about Black Holes, distance galaxies, uninhabitable and habitable planets, spaceship travel, and what drives the plot is the relationship a father has with his daughter.

Set in the near future when an agricultural crisis has hit Earth and there is not enough food to eat and the population is slowly dying. The land is very dry and there are massive sandstorms that engulf the planet. With the possibility of the extinction of humans, a dangerous and daring mission takes place to look for planets outside of the universe where humans can move to, survive, and most importantly, reproduce. It’s a mission that goes above and beyond the barriers of time and space, defying not only gravity, but inter-galaxy travel as well. It’s an experimental mission that’s not only very dangerous, but life altering as well.

Cooper (McConaughey) is a former test pilot and engineer who’s now a farmer because that is what is needed in this decaying, dry new world. The only crop that is left on earth is corn, so this is what he grows at his vast farm, with the help of his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow) and his two children – teenage son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy). Cooper hears of some sort of experimental space project going on in his area, so he drives off attempting to find it, at the same time finding Murph in the back of the car when she was told to stay home. She’s as much of a space geek as her father.

They find the compound, or actually the compound finds them, and they both get whisked into the underground bunker. It’s actually a fortress made up of scientists and engineers, let by Professor Brand (Caine). He leads the project for the search of a planet in perhaps another universe that can sustain the human race. A project which includes a newly built spaceship.

So Cooper (without the blessing of his daughter) and Brand’s scientist daughter Amelia (Hathaway) and two others blast off into space, into the darkness, on a mission that seems impossible. But what Cooper doesn’t know is that 13 other astronauts had previously attempted the mission, and all have not been heard from since. And to add drama to the story, Amelia was in love with one of them.

It’s the space mission (and Cooper and Murph’s relationship) that drives Interstellar. And what a drive it is. Nolan takes us into space and beyond like no other filmmaker has. We are transported into another universe, through blackholes, to other planets. One planet has waves the size of the Empire State Building, while another is caked in ice, where they find one of the 13 astronauts alive – Dr. Mann (Damon). And this is when Coopers’ and Amelia’s mission strays off it’s course, in a detrimental way. One hour on this planet equals 20 years on Earth, so the more time spent there, the more time Coopers children grow up, and old, without him.

What Interstellar tries to do is use the magnitude and grandeur of space as a backdrop for exploring the relationships that Cooper has with his children, especially his daughter. It’s also about all kinds of things – our lives on earth, what will happen when our earth can no longer sustain us, who are are, and it makes us look at the relationships we have. It basically asks us to examine, all this, and more, in its 169 minutes. London born Nolan successfully puts the audience into space, and McConaughey successfully makes us believe that he’s got the passion to be in space, but Interstellar leaves us mere mortals behind in a film that is a bit overhelming, mind bending, demanding and a bit confusing. And the sound quality is not the best, the music and noise at times drowns out what the characters are saying in a few crucial scenes. And with two recent air space accidents in the last couple weeks, no one is really in a rush to get to space. Written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, Interstellar is a movie bigger than what it can handle, and what we can handle.

08th Nov2014

Chef – DVD

by timbaros

851433-chef-movie-posterChef, now playing in cinemas, is a real treat, from start to finish.

Jon Favreau, who also wrote, produced and directed, plays Carl Casper, a chef in a popular Los Angeles restaurant. He’s in control of his kitchen, and proud of the food that he makes for his customers. However, one day a restaurant critic (Oliver Platt – who actually looks like a restaurant critic), eats in the restaurant and then proceeds to give it a bad review, lambasting Casper’s cooking, Not happy with this, Casper, at the urging of his son Percy (Emjay Anthony), opens an account on Twitter and starts tweeting bad things about the critic, picking up hundreds of followers in the meantime. Casper decides to give it another go with the critic, so via Twitter he invites him to the restaurant to eat a new menu he plans to prepare. However, this doesn’t go well with the owner of the restaurant (Dustin Hoffman), who says they will stick to the menu they’ve got and that if Casper doesn’t like it, he can walk away. Casper does walk away, much to the dismay to the rest of the restaurant staff, including Martin (a very well-cast John Leguizamo) and sous chef Tony (Bobby Cannavale). But Casper can’t stay away from the restaurant for two reasons, he’s dating the restaurant’s hostess (an unglamorous Scarlett Johannson) and he feels the needs to get even with the restaurant critic. So Casper decides to go to the restaurant the same night the critic is there, and, in front of all the customers and staff, yell at him and tells him he doesn’t know what good food is. After his rant, he is banned from the restaurant forever.

Deciding what to do next, besides spending lots of time with his son, his ex-wife Inez (an always good Sofia Vergara – who’s becoming quite the screen goddess) urges him to come with her and their son to Miami while she is on a business trip to take some time away and mellow out. While there, he comes up with the idea of a new business – a food truck selling Cuban food. He buys a run down and dirty food truck, and with the help of his son, fixes it up and calls it ‘El Jefe.’ Martin flies in and wants to be a part of the new business so together they create delicious Cuban food, especially Cubanos – a Cuban Sandwich of cheese and ham. With his son, they take the food truck on a road trip back to Los Angeles, stopping in various cities along the way. Thanks to Emjay, they have quite a following on Twitter and Instagram and it’s with social media where they pick up loads of customers along with way, with queues stretching down blocks in every city. Arriving back in Los Angeles, they’re a hit and have a new business.

While the story of Chef is very predictable and could’ve been guessed without me writing about the entire plot, it’s, of course the food that plays a starring role in the film. Beginning in the restaurant to Casper making a delicious meals at his home, the food looks vibrant and succulent and delicious. And the Cuban sandwiches want to make you have one after the movie, so if anyone knows where I can get one in London, please write in! The cast is very good, and credit is due to Favreau who wore four hats in the movie (5 if you count his cooking in the film, well I presume it was him cooking) and for creating what is a simple film into such a delight. The rest of the cast is fine, with Leguizamo and Vergara bringing a va va va voom Latin spice to the movie. All in all, Chef is a pretty good movie. Please go see it, and you will definitely want to eat after.


01st Nov2014

Memphis the Musical – Theatre

by timbaros

Memphis, 2014, Credit: Johan Persson/Memphis was the birthplace of, and a magnet for, so many world famous musicians and singers, including Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett. It is also the place where Elvis Presley lived, and died. Memphis is so synonymous with music that it’s only fitting that a musical would come along with the same name – Memphis.

Just opened at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London’s West End, Memphis the Musical is a look at a time when Memphis the city was not what it is today – sixty years ago it was very very different. Blacks were still seen as second class citizens, nightclubs and cinemas were racially segregated, and inter-racial marriage was illegal. Radio stations also discriminated – each played music for a specific audience, and racial integration was purely not allowed. This is explored in Memphis the Musical when white musician Huey (Killian Donnelly) falls in love with black female singer Felicia (Beverly Knight).

Huey works as a stock boy in a department store. He visits Delray’s – a black rock and roll bar where he is the only white person – and falls in love with the music, as well as taking a shine to Felicia, who sings at the club her brother Delray (Rolan Bell) owns. Back at the store Huey asks his boss if he can play music over the store’s loudspeakers. His boss agrees, and soon enough customers like what they hear and buy the records in droves. But the boss doesn’t like the fact that Huey played black music, so he gets fired.

Having realized that he really loves this music, Huey applies for a job as a DJ at various radio stations in town but at one station he sneaks into the DJ booth and plays the music that he thinks people want to hear – the black music. The music, and him, are a hit, and his romance with Felicia heats up, much to the dismay of Delray, and Huey’s racist mother Gladys (Claire Machin).
Huey wants to play Felicia’s first song at his radio station, but before he is able to he gets into a row with his mom, and the record breaks, and Felicia runs out and they realize that keeping their relationship together is going to be difficult. Things get more complicated for them when they are seen kissing by a group of white men, who proceed to beat them up, rendering Felicia’s face very bloody. It’s expected that everything works out between them and they live happily ever after. But it’s the journey of getting to the expected that makes Memphis the Musical worth watching.

From the art deco department store to Huey’s living room, to the interiors of Delray’s to the lone radio DJ booth on stage – it’s a set that works very well on the small stage. The backup dancers do their damndest to entertain us – and they do. There’s lots of them on stage at the same time, and it’s amazing that they don’t hit each other while swinging their arms and legs. And it wouldn’t be a very good musical without the excellent music, done by Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, who collaborated with Joe DiPietro. Both Bryan and DiPietro won Tony Awards for this show’s music when it premiered first on Broadway in 2010. However, it’s Knight who gets top billing, and she doesn’t disappoint. Knight, who last year starred in the West End’s Bodyguard, shows us here that she has perhaps found another calling – from being a top pop singer to being West End’s newest diva. This girl can sing! The stage is hers and hers alone. She is able to belt out blues, rock and gospel and still amaze. Donnelly, who was the only good thing in the very dull The Commitments, looks very comfortable in his role as Huey. But he appears to be just going through the motions. Sure he can sing the socks off of us, but he looks like he’s not making much of an effort. He’s a natural on stage but he needs to be more than that, he needs to take it a few notches higher. But at the end of the day it’s Knight’s show, so go see and hear the West End’s newest Diva – Beverly Knight – she’s fabulous.

01st Nov2014

The Curing Room – Theatre

by timbaros

RLP_0207Seven men, stripped naked, perform in the shocking and brutalistic The Curing Room, now at The Pleasance Theatre.

These men, all English actors, are literally exposed in the 90-minute play that will shock some, enthrall others, but will leave the audience gasping at what their characters endure in the course of the show. The Curing Room is not for the faint at heart, it includes scenes that you will have never seen performed on a theatre stage before. It’s a form of theatre that pushes the boundaries between the actor’s confidences and the audiences comfort levels.

It is 1944. Seven Soviet soldiers have been captured and imprisoned by the Nazis. They are held in a sort of ‘Curing Room’ – a room used to store and preserve meat. All of their possessions have been taken away, including their clothes, and they are totally abandoned by their captors. It’s just seven men, on a bare stage, who have to endure the pain and agony of being cold and hungry and facing certain death in a room that is several hundred yards below ground. And as these soldier’s don’t have their uniforms, they still follow the military structure that they were trained to do. But their dire circumstances lead several of them to defray from this and survival becomes the only thing that counts. And this survival includes hunger. Tempers flare, they fight, they tell stories, they sleep, they get sick. And after one of the soldiers dies, the rest of them have no choice but to resort to cannibalism. They initially wrestle with their conscience whether this is the right thing to do, but as they get weaker they realize this is the only way to survive. One by one they die, but will anyone be alive when it is time to be rescued?

The Curing Room stars seven men who are very brave to be naked on stage for the entire length of the show. But the intent is to see beyond the nudity and focus on what the men are going through. A few of the actors stand out – mostly Harvey Robinson as Senior-Lieutenant Harvey. He shows the most emotion and determination of all the men, but will be survive? Robinson looks like he will be perfect on Game of Thrones – he’s got that steely, rough nordic look and excellent acting ability. Newcomer Matt Houston as Private Georgi is a revelation. He’s young, tall and thin yet he comes into his own and turns out to be one the smartest. He’s excellent. Thomas Holloway as Private Yura is also very good. He’s a bit slow and is always asking about his mother, not realizing that she’s probably dead. Joao De Sousa has superbly directed a play, written, invented and created by David Ian Lee that succeeds in being horrific, violent, brutal yet different, imaginative and groundbreaking.

The rest of the casts names need to be included in this review just because of their willingness to go expose themselves and their emotions on a theatre stage : Will Bowden, John Hoye, Rupert Elmes, and Marlon Solomon. The Curing Room is a bold and shocking play. It tells a story that many of us know about from history – mainly how the Nazi’s imprisoned Jewish people, and others, and left them to die. And cannibalism was rampant in WW2 as forced starvation was a policy inflicted upon the people of the Soviet Union by Stalin. As horrific as it sounds, it’s reality.

The original version of my review appeared on http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/10/30/the-curing-room-review/page/1/