Category : Focus

Blackwater Lane review – medieval mansion is the star in haunted house stalker thriller

A teacher becomes increasingly paranoid as she roams around her fabulous home and gardens in this flimsy adaptation of BA Paris’s novel The BreakdownThis thriller is based on BA Paris’s novel The Breakdown, but it’s is way too obvious for its own goo...

Crime and thrillers of the month – review

Nicci French’s latest gem; an unsettling brainteaser from Japanese enigma Uketsu; the tensions that mar the maiden voyage of an airship; and a sojourn on a scary Scottish islandI try not to repeat myself too much when it comes to the authors I pick f...

Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes dies aged 65

Whitesnake’s David Coverdale and Slash of Guns N’ Roses pay tribute to musician described as an ‘exceptional talent’John Sykes, a guitarist with the rock bands Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, has died aged 65. A statement said his death followed “a hard-f...

‘Women we might have been’: sisters and psychiatric wards – in pictures

These two breathtaking shows by women artists – one shot in Oregon State hospital, the other a collaboration between siblings – helped challenge the photographic establishment Continue reading...

Prosecuting the Powerful by Steve Crawshaw review – from the Nuremberg trials to the pursuit of Putin and Assad

This history of international justice is an important primer for our dark times and surprisingly optimistic about our chances of putting today’s despots in the dockOn a Monday morning last month the Russian general Igor Kirillov left his flat in Mosc...

Grafted review – Face/Off-style skin-graft horror has layers of punky attitude

A Chinese student arrives in New Zealand and continues her father’s experimental research in Sasha Rainbow’s cosmetic chillerFans of The Substance will probably appreciate this low-budget Kiwi body horror, intent as it is on tearing holes in the huma...

TV tonight: people face their phobias in a therapy room

The Fear Clinic is open with its 48-hour programme for terrified clients. Plus: Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell investigate a Spanish baby-napping ring. Here’s what to watch this evening8pm, Channel 4 Continue reading...

Claire van Kampen: a world-class theatre composer and bright star of Shakespeare’s Globe

The pianist, director and playwright of Farinelli and the King, which starred her husband Mark Rylance, is remembered by the Globe’s former artistic directorClaire van Kampen, theatre director and composer, dies aged 71On the first afternoon of rehea...

‘Inside I was doing the Mario jump’ – how one artist became a key player in Nintendo’s story

Takaya Imamura worked at Nintendo for 32 years before leaving to create his own game, Omega Six. He shares anecdotes from those pivotal years at the creative giantIn 1889 in Kyoto, craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded a hanafuda playing card company....

The gig economy: ticket inflation is getting worse, so where does all the money go?

Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and the Gallaghers’ ill-fated dabble with dynamic pricing have put the spotlight on how much we’re willing to pay for live music. But, on the other side of the equation, the costs can be exorbitant and the risks are eye-water...

Fee, fi, fo…Trump: how an ogre won back the White House

Large, gruesome, brutal and gluttonous: Donald Trump is the archetypal ogre. So how did he manage to stomp back for a second term?The animated film Shrek opens with the eponymous hero wiping his bottom on a book. Shrek then emerges from the toilet an...

‘An unmitigated joy’: why Married to the Mob is my feelgood movie

The next entry in our series of writers recommending their favourite comfort films is a tribute to Jonathan Demme’s zesty gangster comedyThere’s no more perfect song to open a movie than Rosemary Clooney’s Mambo Italiano in Jonathan Demme’s Married t...

Share your tributes and memories of David Lynch – and your most Lynchian photograph

We would like to hear your memories of David Lynch, as well as whether you are attending today’s global group transcendental mediation at noon PT David Lynch, the maverick American director, has died aged 78. He specialised in surreal, noir style mys...

Mother Father Sister Brother Frank review – frantic night of murder, mayhem and family bonding

This tale of nice ordinary folk doing bad things is a cartoonishly grisly comedy with a hint of Fargo, though without the off-kilter humourThe family that eats together stays together, they say. But the proverb will have to be tweaked for director Ca...

Bad Education by Matt Goodwin review – a lapsed liberal’s war on ‘woke’ lecture

The former politics professor is right to defend free speech in our higher education system, but his argument is undermined by his hysterical tone and lack of nuanceMatt Goodwin is a former professor of politics at the University of Kent who took vol...