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'The Armstrong Lie' (2013) directed by Alex Gibney
So a guy cheats in a few bike races, what's the big deal? I can't help but feel like there's some crucial part of the Lance Armstrong story that I'm overlooking, but after watching this documentary it...
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'Lab 451; On Perspective' at the Camden Image Gallery
Performance art is often a bit of a mixed bag. Fortunately, my bullshit benchmark is set pretty high, and I usually more or less like most things I see, if only because I appreciate that it takes a...
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'Silvia Ziranek: Readings from Wall Works' at Upper Addison Gardens, 2nd...
My word how the other half live... Somewhere between Shoreditch and Notting Hill there's a invisible meniscus that separates two worlds. One on side the filthy, mouse-infested, damp-ridden leaky...
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'Cuban Fury' (2014) directed by James Griffiths
Cuban Fury is a movie with an admirably pure focus. Within this cinematic world, salsa is both the cause of, and solution to every conceivable problem. I've got a big soft spot for films with this...
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'RoboCop' (2014) directed by José Padilha
Somewhere deep within the metal heart of RoboCop lies the soul of a good movie. This is a deeply frustrating film, not because it does anything particularly awful, but because it displays huge...
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'The Lebanese Rocket Society' (2012) directed by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil...
Ah space travel, that most romantic of scientific endeavours: defining new frontiers, risking death for knowledge and the joy of sticking a tentative toe in the galactic ocean. This is the preserve of...
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'Seduced and Abandoned' (2013) directed by James Toback
It's a humid night in Tikrit, soundtracked only by the clatter of distant automatic weapons fire and muffled screaming. Into a dirty hotel room strides Alec Baldwin, buck naked, fully engorged and...
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'The Book Thief' (2013) directed by Brian Percival
As we glide through the clouds the voice of Death assures us that we're all going to die and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. It's a pretty harsh way to open a sentimental film about a...
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Marijuana Deathsquads at Our Black Heart, 11th February 2014
Marijuana Deathsquads make one hell of a racket. Well with a six-armed drummer furiously bashing away they would wouldn't they? With their lead signer burbling a distorted electronic howl, people...
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NEW SPACE ] performance o p e n [ by ]performancespace[ 16th February 2014
New lands, new spaces and new ambitions: ]performancespace[, cosily burrowed like a hermit crab into a warehouse near the Hackney Wick canal has upped sticks and moved to nearby Fish Island. Their...
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'Curio-City' at Curious Duke Gallery, 20th February 2014
My heart lies in Whitecross Street. If I was to be trapped there forever I think I could just about cope: there's a cinema, a supermarket, numerous great restaurants, kickin' takeaways, a world food...
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'Nymph()maniac Parts I & II' (2014) directed by Lars von Trier
It's perverse that a film where women get repeatedly punched in the face, pissed on, fucked up the arse, slapped, gorily whipped and generally humiliated all round should wind up as one of the most...
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'Live In Your Dreams!', The Crypt of St Pancras Church, 26th February 2014
When someone asks you if you want to wear a mask made of human hair and stalk around a crypt distributing pomegranate seeds to people there's really only one answer - YES! This is how I wound up...
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'Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story' at the Natural History...
Early man? Early me more like. Bleary-eyed and reduced to emitting a series of guttural grunts I stumbled into the Natural History Museum at just past 8am on Friday morning. The exhibition I'd been...
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'Twenty Feet from Stardom' (2013) directed by Morgan Neville
They sing their hearts out in front of thousands, surrounded by the most famous musicians. They're responsible for some of the most famous hooks of all time; the "do do-do do-dos"on Walk On the Wild...
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'The Grand Budapest Hotel' (2014) directed by Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson was God the world would be a much nicer place. Over the course of his cinematic career he's woven unique cinematic style; creating a fractally detailed, synchronised universe. This is a...
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Ghetts at the Barbican Centre, Secret Cinema's Secret Gig.
Last week the Met unceremoniously cancelled the Barbican Centre's Just Jam grime festival because they don't trust young black Londoners not to stab or shoot each other. Something had to be done....
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'The Zero Theorem' (2014) directed by Terry Gilliam
A new Terry Gilliam film? A twisty-turny philosophical acid-trip set in an insane future metropolis? Starring Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, David Thewlis, Matt Damon and Mélanie Thierry? Get me a...
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'The Machine' (2014) directed by Caradog W. James
The Machine is has an rather cheesy script, some slightly iffy performances and a rather Torchwood vibe to proceedings. But then I enjoy cheese, and I also enjoy ambition in film-making. So it's...
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'Need for Speed' (2014) directed by Scott Waugh
Cars are boring, complicated and dangerous death-machines. But on screen they become something more. The automobile and cinema have grown up alongside each other, and when a little petrol gets mixed in...
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