6 d. ago Murder in a manor house with secrets to hide: The best Classic Crimes novels out now

Barry Turner reviews the best Classic Crime novels out now

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7 d. ago Caught Stealing review – Darren Aronosky’s violent, chaotic and highly enjoyable crime flick

After Mother! and The Whale, Aronosky’s new movie centres on a washed-up alcoholic former baseball star’s encounters with a villainous underworldBaseball fans will see the pun straight away; I had to look it up. The non-batting runner, having only made it a certain way around the field, gets tagged out by a fielder trying to “steal”, or sneak up, on a base from the one behind. As far as the non-metaphorical meaning goes, no one in this movie is actually apprehended in the act of theft. But in a world where home runs are unavailable to most, the idea of cheekily trying for covert advantage and survival through quick wits is clear.Charlie Huston’s violent crime novel of the same name from 2004 has been adapted for the screen by the author, and Darren Aronofsky directs with gleeful energy, flair and a dark humour that straddles the mischief/malice borderline. Incredible to think that his last film was the solemn and inertly sententious body-image drama The Whale. This has more of the c...

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7 d. ago Caught Stealing review – Darren Aronofsky’s violent, chaotic and highly enjoyable crime flick

After Mother! and The Whale, Aronofsky’s new movie centres on a washed-up alcoholic former baseball star’s encounters with a villainous underworldBaseball fans will see the pun straight away; I had to look it up. The non-batting runner, having only made it a certain way around the field, gets tagged out by a fielder trying to “steal”, or sneak up, on a base from the one behind. As far as the non-metaphorical meaning goes, no one in this movie is actually apprehended in the act of theft. But in a world where home runs are unavailable to most, the idea of cheekily trying for covert advantage and survival through quick wits is clear.Charlie Huston’s violent crime novel of the same name from 2004 has been adapted for the screen by the author, and Darren Aronofsky directs with gleeful energy, flair and a dark humour that straddles the mischief/malice borderline. Incredible to think that his last film was the solemn and inertly sententious body-image drama The Whale. This has more of the ...

Events

7 d. ago Netflix adds ‘brutal’ crime drama that 'gets under your skin’

The limited series is based on a Brazilian crime thriller novel

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1 week ago The Thursday Murder Club review – Richard Osman bestseller provides solid, star

There’s much to enjoy in this adaptation of Osman’s ingenious book, with Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie and Pierce Brosnan as the senior-citizen X-MenRichard Osman’s phenomenal bestseller from 2020 was an ingenious, accessible, good-natured book, which helped rebrand the English detective novel as “cosy crime”, started a celeb-copycat publishing trend and, being about four elderly people in a retirement community rising above ageist condescension to solve crimes, spoke eloquently to the shut-in frustrations and escapist yearnings of the Covid age.Now it has been adapted as a funny and likable, if slightly bland, comedy-drama for Netflix, which as one character amusingly and pre-emptively comments, feels just like a Sunday teatime TV crime drama. There is nothing new about these nostalgist leanings: Agatha Christie has after all been a solid film and TV export for more than half a century. Screenwriters Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote adapt the novel and director Chris Colu...

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1 week ago The Thursday Murder Club review – Netflix’s Richard Osman adaptation is so flimsy and digestible, it barely exists

Richard Osman’s bestselling ‘cosy crime’ novel gets a film adaptation that fails to make the most of its all-star cast

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2 w. ago Richard Osman announces 'best news this year' ahead of Thursday Murder Club film

Richard Osman has shared some exciting news for fans of his cosy crime novels one week before Netflix's The Thursday Murder Club lands in cinemas.

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3 w. ago Seth Meyers ridicules Trump’s DC crime crackdown: ‘Like a dystopian hellhole in a steampunk novel’

‘Trump should be fact-checked every time he talks about numbers,’ The Late Night host said

Politics

3 w. ago Unmoored review – Scandi thriller delves into hidden truths of a toxic marriage

Atmospheric but unresolved drama pits a seedy academic against his ill-used wife, uneasily staying by him as he faces a rape chargeExpectations are raised high, but not satisfyingly met, in this initially intriguing and certainly atmospheric Scandi thriller that ranges from Sweden to Poland and Exmoor in England; it teases hints of Gone Girl and Patricia Highsmith. Screenwriter-producer Michèle Marshall has adapted 2014 novel The Living and the Dead in Winsford by veteran Swedish crime writer Håkan Nesser, and Caroline Ingvarsson makes her feature directing debut.The scene is the stylish home of a Swedish power couple. Maria (Mirja Turestedt) is the presenter of an popular TV talkshow, and she is married to the older Magnus (Thomas W Gabrielsson), a star academic with a drinking problem and a seedy reputation for infidelity. Maria is a former student of Magnus and has, in fact, surpassed him intellectually, now faintly despising herself for her middlebrow job as well as for editing ...

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