TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT - THEATRE REVIEW

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 24 February - Saturday 1 March 2014

Performance Reviewed: Monday 24 February 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Tonight’s The Night is the Rod Stewart musical. In case you didn’t catch that from the name, it’s handily emblazoned above the title itself. He’s also mentioned within the opening few minutes of the show. Frequently. He also plays an incidental off-stage role within the story of the show itself throughout. He’s also referenced in what seems like every major scene and held in what can only be described as an almost quasi-revered regard. The lead character looks, sounds and performs exactly like him, though isn’t actually him yet nonetheless becomes a burgeoning star acting uncannily like him in a world in which we are repeatedly reminded Rod does indeed exist. 

He’s just on something of a casual stolen-soul career break.

LONDON FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW - ALL IS LOST

ALL IS LOST
Sponsored by ST. ERMIN'S HOTEL, LONDON

Release Date: 13 December 2013 (UK)
Director: J.C. Chandor
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Starring: Robert Redford
Screening Reviewed: London Film Festival Press Screening

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

J.C. Chandor’s latest, tense seafaring drama All Is Lost, is as relatively straightforward a concept and pared down a cinema-going experience as can be imagined. A lone sailor (Robert Redford) awakens somewhere in the Indian Ocean to find his yacht taking on water, courtesy of a lone storage container which has ruptured the side of his vessel. Isolated, stark and devoid of any other characters and practically free of dialogue, what ensues is a focused, enthralling, if occasionally frustrating, devolution of circumstances that pits the fortitude and resilience of our lone protagonist against the odds, all tinted with an aura of dread and inevitability given the films opening soliloquy which heavily implies the ending of his story will not be a positive one.