29th Sep2019

Hotel Mumbai (Film)

by timbaros
Hotel Mumbai

Hotel Mumbai

The true story of the Mumbai 2008 terror attacks is told in the gripping film ‘Hotel Mumbai.’

I guarantee you you won’t exhale until the film is over. ‘Hotel Mumbai’ is heart racing – when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks that lasted four days across Mumbai. People were going about their daily business while the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which was hit the hardest, was getting ready for another work day. Then bam, 18 terrorists took to the streets of Mumbai and indiscriminately started shooting at people. Hotel Mumbai re-enacts these chains of events and is as realistic as it gets.
Dev Patel stars as Arjun who works at the hotel as a waiter in order to feed and take care of his young family. Armie Hammer plays David, married to British-Muslim heiress Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi). They, along with a few hundred other people, are trapped in the hotel while terrorists roam the hallways looking for more westerners to kill, and this is after they shot up the train station as well as a cafe killing most of its patrons. These scenes are harrowing – you know what’s coming but don’t really expect it when it does. And when the film moves to the hotel and the terror the people are going through it feels very palpable and very real. While David and Zahra’s nanny (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) hides in a closet in their suite with their newborn baby (the only unrealistic scene in the film as the baby is not quit quiet and it’s strange two of the terrorists don’t hear the baby), many other hotel guests are hiding in several secure pockets in the hotel, not knowing what is going on and why no authorities have entered the hotel to rescue them.
Directed by Anthony Maras and co-written by Maras and John Collee, ‘Hotel Mumbai’ vividly tells the tragic story when 174 people were murdered, hundreds more wounded, in the worst terror attack ever in India.
Category : Film
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29th Sep2019

The Shiny Shrimps (Film)

by timbaros

THE_SHINY_SHRIMPS_Locker_Room-Pep_TalkJC13340-300x200A gay water polo team struggles to compete amidst personal dramas on their way to the Gay Games in the fun, camp and hilarious film ‘The Shiny Shrimps.’

In French with English subtitles, and directed by co-directors and co-authors Cédric Le Gallo (a real-life Shrimp) and Maxime Govare, ‘The Shiny Shrimps’ is a cross between ‘Priscilla Queen of the Dessert’ and ‘Pride,’ with a road trip film interspersed with lots of melodrama!

When straight world champion swimmer Matthias Le Goff (Nicolas Gob) makes a homophobic remark on television, he tries to redeem himself, at the direction of the swimming federation, by being tasked to train The Shiny Shrimps – a Parisian gay water polo team (and purely not athletes) who are in the sport purely for the social aspect of it as well as to be able to perform dance routines and dress up in competitions. So Goff has a huge task ahead of him. all the meanwhile trying to impress his young daughter. Other men On the team have their own issues; Cédric is married with two kids and his partner says the water polo team is taking him away from his family, while Jean has health issues he’s yet to divulge to the team, and another team member is newly out and is about to have the time of his life. We are too when the Shrimps travel, by bus, to the Gay Games in Croatia. It’s a road trip like no other; they camp it up to the extreme while love, and sadly homophobia, comes into play. And once they get to the games they’ll attempt to make their mark in any way they can.

‘The Shiny Shrimps’ is so much fun to watch it’ll make you want to join some sort of sports team to experience what you’ve just seen in the film. And the cast are having lots of fun, with each actor perfectly suited for in roles. ‘The Shiny Shrimps’ is une joie.

Category : Film
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29th Sep2019

Falsettos (Theatre)

by timbaros
FAL_heart image_2A dysfunctional Jewish family is at the heart of the new show ‘Falsettos.’
Now playing at The Other Place theatre near Victoria Station, ‘Falsettos’ is a funny, toe-tapping, well-acted and sung musical set in NYC in the late 70’s and early 80’s. But later in the show reality kicks in and the show takes a turn.
The show opens with the hilarious song ‘Four Jews in a Room bitching.’ The four Jews include Trina (a wonderful Laura Pitt-Pulford), and Marvin (a very good Daniel Boys), who were married with a young son Jason (various actors play the part but on the night I saw it it was a fantastic George Kennedy). However Marvin turned gay when he meets, and falls in love with, Whizzer (Oliver Savile), and they move in together, leaving Trina single. But the family is recommended to go see a shrink Mendel – another Jew – (Joel Montague) to accept their new circumstances. It all becomes very confusing for Jason, who spends most of his time alone in his bedroom with no friends to hang out with. Jason and Whizzer become very close and it’s Whizzer who tells Jason to see the shrink as well. Trina and Mendel soon fall in and all seems fine with everyone, but suddenly Marvin and Whizzer break up, and then Whizzer starts getting sick. As it’s the early 1980’s in NYC, it’s no surprise what disease Whizzer is struck with. The show then unexpectedly turns very dark, so unlike the first half which was hilarious and fun!
When Falsettos first premiered on Broadway in 1992 theatre audiences (a lot of them gay men) were just getting over the multitude of deaths from the 1980’s AIDS crises, a chapter in LGBT history that is dark and grim. But through its storytelling via music (Pit-Pulford brings the house down with songs ‘Trina‘s Song’ and ‘Holding to the Ground’), and a wicked sense of humour (the funniest moment is when the second half opens and Mendel points to an audience member and says ‘you are a homosexual.’)Falsettos will set the right notes for your theatre going experience. The cast are all wonderful (give Pitt-Pulford an award pronto).
This show, directed by Tara Overfield-Wilkinson, succeeds in it’s first showing in London in a venue where every seat is good, and with a very good cast.
Category : Theatre
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