6 h. ago The Lost Bus review – Paul Greengrass wildfire movie is as stressful as you’d expect

Toronto film festival: the director retells the worst wildfire in California’s history with expected technical prowess but he’s hampered by a soapy scriptEven before the wildfire has started to rage in fact-based docudrama The Lost Bus, Paul Greengrass has us on edge. We’re inside a schoolbus for the morning drop-off and we’re reminded of the dangers already faced on the day-to-day, young children without seatbelts being driven around the precarious rolling roads of the California hills, the director cranking up every little sound of a vehicle we’re told is in delayed need of a maintenance check. The world is dangerous enough.That nervy tension soon gets considerably ramped up and then rarely lets up for the next two-plus hours, an exhausting, assaultive experience aiming to both take us back to the horrors of 2018’s historically destructive Camp fire and to show us what Californians have been facing ever since and will bleakly continue to in the future. It’s ruthlessly efficient in...

Events

6 d. ago The Wizard of the Kremlin review – Jude Law is Putin in adaptation of Kremlin spin doctor bestseller

Venice film festival The rise of Vladimir Putin, chillingly played by Law, is portrayed through the eyes of a wily insider, but Paul Dano’s protagonist cuts a one-note figureGiuliano da Empoli’s smash-hit satirical novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, about a Putin spin doctor called Vadim Baranov and based on shadowy Russian politician Vladislav Surkov, has now been converted into an exasperatingly laborious and literal-minded movie, burdened with endless dull voiceover. It has been written for the screen by its estimable director Olivier Assayas, working with the formidable author and reportage journalist Emmanuel Carrère; Carrère in fact has a cameo here, playing a supercilious French figure at a raucous Moscow student party in the early 90s, patronisingly informing the young people present that it was the communism they’ve just rejected that really believed in the arts.The action takes us through the 1990s decline of ailing president Boris Yeltsin and the promotion of FSB chief Vlad...

Politics

8 d. ago Rearview Mirror at the Gagosian review: This glimpse of the Fab Four is really something

This collection of Paul McCartney’s photographs, taken over a two-month span before their fame took off, is simply fascinating

Politics

2 w. ago John and Paul by Ian Leslie audiobook review – the bromance behind the band

Actor Chris Addison narrates a deep dive into the creative partnership of Lennon and McCartneyAnother book on the Beatles? It’s hard to imagine a writer shedding new light on the band given the mountain of literature already in existence. But there is a freshness of perspective in Ian Leslie’s book, which tells of Lennon and McCartney’s unique alchemy through the songs they wrote together. Leslie’s background in psychology serves him well in a study that jettisons the usual narrative of male rivalry; their partnership, Leslie suggests, was closer to a marriage.He begins with the pair’s early songwriting sessions, usually in McCartney’s front room, where rather than each taking ownership of songs, they worked in sync. Other fabled musical partnerships such as Leiber and Stoller, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, divided the labour between lyrics and melody, but Lennon and McCartney worked together on both. Pointing to their profound connection, Leslie notes how in the song I...

Culture

2 w. ago Moving to a new home or school can stress kids out. How to make it more manageable

Summer can be a time of big transition for kids

Politics

3 w. ago CRKD Gibson Les Paul Pro Edition Guitar Controller review – an almost perfect way to get rocking

Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival aficionados will definitely want to check out what CRKD has cooked up with its new Gibson Les Paul Pro Edition Guitar Controller

Politics

3 w. ago Drake London Loomed Large: Defensive Review of Titans in Georgia

Drake London Loomed Large: Defensive Review of Titans in Georgia  Paul Kuharsky

Events

4 w. ago Boy, 4, killed after 'falling under bus' as mum pays tribute to 'beautiful' son

A boy tragically lost his life after falling under a bus outside of a hospital – with tributes pouring in and a GoFundMe launched in order to raise funds for his funeral

Events