GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
Film round-up: March 8, 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews of Copa 71, Vindication Swim, Frida, and High and Low: John Galliano
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Copa 71 (PG)
Directed by James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay
★★★★
IN 1971 Mexico hosted the first-ever Women’s World Cup, televised and witnessed by record crowds, but which has been buried for over 50 years and erased from history. This is why this is the greatest sporting story you have never heard of and a fitting one for International Women’s Day.
It is told by the pioneering women who took part in this historic football tournament which Mexico staged in defiance of Fifa. Teams flocked from around the globe to take part in a bursting-to-capacity Azteca Stadium.
Co-written and directed by James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay, with Serena and Venus Williams as executive producers, this is a remarkable and jaw-dropping documentary which features archive footage of the women’s matches not seen since 1971 and which makes for riveting viewing — and I am not a fan of football.
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The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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