New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
Film round-up: November 7, 2024
Lego synaesthesia, a tender portrait of poverty, bear-faced capers and premature Santa: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Piece By Piece, Bird, Paddington in Peru and Red One
JAN WOOLF wallows in the historical mulch of post WW2 West Germany, and the resistant, challenging sense made of it by Anselm Kiefer
ANA ISABEL NUNES points to the empowering legacy of Augusto Boal’s Theatre Of The Oppressed
CARLOS MARTINEZ welcomes the publication of the writings of the great Palestinian author, political theorist and spokesman for the PFLP
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by an account of the long history of Catholic Church’s involvement in espionage
ROGER McKENZIE welcomes an important contribution to the history of Africa, telling the story in its own right rather than in relation to Europeans
Piece By Piece (PG)
Directed by Morgan Neville
★★★★
THE closing film at this year’s London Film Festival, Morgan Neville’s psychedelic and innovative documentary chronicles the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams through a Lego lens.
Williams, his wife, his close friends and colleagues including renowned stars such as Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg all appear as Lego figures as they are interviewed although these artists apparently weren’t informed of that little detail at the time.
The loud and brightly coloured Lego settings are initially very distracting as you are captivated by the colourful figures and backdrops rather than what they are saying. It isn’t until you are halfway through the film that the novelty wears off.
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