4 d. ago I Love LA review – Rachel Sennott’s HBO comedy finds itself but takes its time

The Shiva Baby and Bottoms star gets her own glossy sitcom which offers us a bumpy ride until it begins to take shape in the final stretchFor most of its public existence, I Love LA, HBO’s new comedy series created by Rachel Sennott, was known online as Untitled Rachel Sennott Project. One wonders if they should have kept the temporary moniker, which befits the show better than its actual title; though I Love LA does go to Erewhon, it’s less a love letter to the city, nor a portrait of its precarious creative class, than a glossy, prestige brand bet on Sennott, an internet It Girl with a distinctly modern indistinction between actor and celebrity, and the popular, chaotic, very online sensibility that she embodies.The logic of the project flowed downhill: Sennott, one of the few internet-bred comedians with real movie mettle (see: Shiva Baby, I Used To Be Funny and Bottoms), given eight whole episodes; HBO, continually losing younger viewers to YouTube, appealing to extremely online...

Culture

4 d. ago Heart the Lover by Lily King review – a love story to treasure

A companion novel to the brilliant Writers & Lovers, this delightfully witty tale of college romance matures into midlife poignancyThe university experience is a risky business in fiction. Generally, the feelings are intense, but the stakes are low; it’s all very formative for the individual character, but it can feel a bit trivial to anyone else. In fact, reading an account of someone’s university days is surely only one or two stages removed from having to hear about the dream they had last night.So my heart initially sank at Heart the Lover’s cover promise that our main character would soon be “swept into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games” – good grief, save me from the raucous card games! But obviously the caveat here is what it always is: a good writer will make it matter. I had faith, therefore, that everything would be all right, since Lily King is an exceptionally good writer. Indeed, she could probabl...

Politics

8 d. ago Simon Amstell review – time to move on after Hollywood party crush

Arches London Bridge New show I Love It Here is billed as a departure from the comedian’s familiar neurotic self-analysis, but it proves frustratingly unchallenging“An exciting departure from [his] previous work,” claims the publicity for Simon Amstell’s new standup show – but it’s a claim that proves hard to substantiate. Like any Amstell set, I Love It Here is self-analytical to an absurd degree – and this level of forensic solipsism, from this clever and funny a man, can’t help but be engaging. But departure it is not – and indeed, I found it frustrating how Amstell’s concerns have not moved on a jot in a show largely about his disappointment (“pain”, he would call it) that his crush on a famous singer isn’t reciprocated.The abiding impression, of a show set at a star-studded Hollywood party, is of an artist whose life (and creative output) might benefit from a little more friction. We encounter Amstell at the start of this set blissful with his partner of 14 years, increasingly ...

Politics

1 week ago Shockingly good literary fiction: MONA'S EYES by Thomas Schlesser, LOVE DIVINE by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, VAIM by Jon Fosse

Stephanie Cross reviews some of the best literary fiction out this month

Events

1 week ago Keira Knightley takes on Kid's Fiction: BEAR'S NAP by Emily Gravett, I LOVE YOU JUST THE SAME by Keira Knightley, THE LONE HUSKY by Hannah Gold

Sally Morris reviews the best children's books out this month

Politics

1 week ago Love+War review – Lynsey Addario’s courageous photojournalism shines out in occasionally odd study

The Pulitzer prize-winner has worked across the developing world, braved war zones and been taken hostage in Libya, but do we really need a tour of her beautiful home?The tumultuous life and career of Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario is the subject of this National Geographic film, produced and directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (who made the climbing documentary Free Solo and the biopic Nyad with Annette Bening as the endurance swimmer Diana Nyad). Addario’s work is certainly amazing and courageous. She has captured compelling images in Ukraine, where her picture of civilian fatalities helped mobilise western opinion against Putin; in Libya, where she was terrifyingly held captive for days along with three other colleagues from the New York Times; and across the developing world where her images of maternal death have been a spur to charitable work around the globe.Addario is a smart, candid interviewee – we also get shots of broadcast-journal...

Events

2 w. ago Pillion at LFF review: Alexander Skarsgård gets kinky in this gay BDSM biker love story

Harry Lighton makes an outrageously good directorial debut with this sexy, sweet tale of queer first love wrapped up in leathers and chains

Politics

2 w. ago Die My Love LFF review: Jennifer Lawrence goes bonkers brilliant in Lynne Ramsay’s wild return

Opposite husband Robert Pattinson, Lawrence is superb (and, yes, fun) as a new mother in mental meltdown

Events