STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
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Right Royale romp
MARIA DUARTE recommends a zany US thriller set in a hotel where the guests all have something to hide
Bad Times
Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
Bad Times at the El Royale (15)
Directed by Drew Goddard
FROM the director of The Cabin in the Woods comes a smart and stylish mystery thriller with a political and social edge. Part film noir, part crime fiction, part dark comedy, Bad Times at the El Royale is wonderfully gripping and entertaining.
Set in January 1969, against the backdrop of Richard Nixon having been inaugurated as the 37th US President, it has seven strangers — each with a secret to bury — arriving at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale hotel which, like its visitors, has fallen into disrepute. Bizarrely, half of the hotel is situated in Nevada, the other half in California.
With the action unfolding over the course of one night, in a single location, each character is given a shot at redemption.
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