Film Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brit praises Thomas Alfredson's new adaptation of the Le Carre classic... A Saturday night visit to the ring-road multiplex is not, in the normal course of things, an activity of particular cultural sophistication. Grown-ups in JD sportsgear (i.e.oversized romper suits) toddle open-mouthed from the shouty, flashy blast of the foyer into ... Read More...

TV Review: Downton Abbey (Sunday ITV1)

Brit watches the first episode of series 2 of Downton Abbey (Sunday ITV1 9pm), the smash-hit pile of country house tosh... “What shall we call each other?” asks the visitor. “Well, whay don’t we start with Deem Meggie Smeeeeeeuth?” drawls Jennifer Saunders in the Comic Relief spoof of Downton Abbey – the only funny ... Read More...

Film Review: Tree of Life

If it is true that the execration of American cinema is its need to package, to sell something, so that the true aesthetic judgement becomes a valuation of whether the packaging has enough heft, then Tree of Life, only the fifth film by director Terrence Malick in forty years, must ... Read More...

TV Review: Made in Britain, BBC2

Is Evan Davis the most modest man in Britain? In a recent Sunday newspaper Q&A he was asked whether he was too 'lightweight' to present the Today programme. His answer: I'm keen not to lose the things that made people say I was lightweight, but I'm also keen not to be seen ... Read More...