Category: Reviews
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Beethoven Is Exactly What Family Films Forgot How to Be
in ReviewsBeethoven is not subtle, and it does not need to be. Warm, chaotic and genuinely funny, it is a reminder that some films are not trying to impress you, they are simply trying to make you feel something, and that is more than enough.
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Boy Meets World and the Value of Trusting Young Audiences
in ReviewsBoy Meets World may feel like a relic of another era, but its strength lies in something rare: it trusts its audience. In doing so, it tackles complex ideas with honesty, humour and emotional weight that much of today’s children’s television avoids.
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The Greatest Showman Is Loud, Empty and Built on Illusion
in ReviewsA film so terrified of scrutiny it turns the dialogue down and the spectacle up. The Greatest Showman is not revisionism for drama’s sake, but a moral abdication that ignores the truth because the real story is too complex and too human to sing along to.
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The Parent Trap: Trust, Craft And A Confident Disney
in ReviewsA rewind of The Parent Trap that celebrates its confidence in craft, performance and restraint. Wholesome, genuinely funny and quietly clever, this is Disney trusting its audience and being rewarded for it.
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Winter Lights, Umbrella Blindness, and the Art of Getting in the Way
in ReviewsWinter Lights returned to Canary Wharf under torrential rain, dense crowds, and a creeping sense that the event no longer knows who it’s for. Moments of real beauty and interactivity remained, but the evening became a test of patience, spatial awareness, and whether public art can survive an audience determined to put themselves at the…
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The Producers and the Danger of Laughing Too Quickly
in ReviewsWhat happens when a musical moves so fast that laughter arrives before meaning? The Producers at the Garrick Theatre is explosive and deeply unsettling, inviting its audience into complicity before leaving them to question what they were so ready to enjoy.
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Yerma, Watched From a Distance
in ReviewsSimon Stone’s adaptation of Yerma, viewed via Drama Online’s National Theatre Collection, is devastating. Watched from a distance, it becomes a study in pressure, isolation and the slow unravelling of a life shaped by expectation.
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V&A Storehouse: A Museum That Trusts You
in ReviewsA visit to the V&A Storehouse shows a museum built for wandering, curiosity and independence. This is not a gallery that tells you what to think, but one that trusts visitors to look, linger and decide for themselves.
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Connection and Identity at the Painted Hall
in ReviewsInstalled inside the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College, Connection and Identity promises a transformative encounter between heritage and contemporary art. In practice, Peter Walker’s exhibition struggles against the scale and intensity of its setting.
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Grounded and Gutted
in ReviewsStorm Amy grounded most of the Imperial War Museum’s Flying Finale at Duxford on 4 October 2025, leaving just three aircraft displays to take to the skies and raising serious questions about whether the day justified the cost.
Colin Cushion 