FILM: Love & Mercy
“It’s a fascinating look at the rhythms of a man’s creative life.”
Karen Krizanovich, film criticLove & Mercy tells the story of Beach Boy genius Brian Wilson’s troubled journey from 1960s pop icon to a faded, fragile character in the 1980s. Director Bill Pohlad masterfully recreates these two eras using the talents of Paul Dano as the young Wilson and John Cusack as his older incarnation. It’s a film that doesn’t shy away from acknowledging that the great beauty of Wilson’s songwriting was something of an escape for him from life’s darkest recesses.
Listen now to this week’s film picks on ‘The Monocle Arts Review’
PHOTOGRAPHY: Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave, London
“What you see from these is really the relationships between people and also the way they’re working; it’s just very different and beautifully photographed.”
Sue Steward, photographic critic for the ‘Evening Standard’French photographer Raymond Cauchetier is 95 this year and to celebrate, James Hyman Gallery in London is exhibiting a selection of never-before-seen shots from his archive. Cauchetier is best known for his documentation of film sets and behind-the-scenes images of French New Wave cinema, from 1959 to 1968. But aside from capturing an essential period in global film history, it’s Cauchetier’s comfort and intimacy with his subjects that allow precious, unguarded moments to be shot.
Listen now to this week’s photography picks on ‘The Monocle Arts Review’
MUSIC: Trembling Bells The Sovereign Self
“What I find fascinating is that they’re part of this general trend in which folk music has now become something very radical and even quite avant garde. It’s almost becoming something very punk-ish.”
David Stubbs, music writerGlasgow folk-rockers Trembling Bells have been giving the music world something of a wake-up call over the past few weeks with The Sovereign Self and a reminder that art doesn’t have to be radical or explore unheard-of new depths to have meaning. Trembling Bells basically sound like your dad’s favourite records (with a more than generous scoop of Jefferson Airplane) but in an era when the ubiquity of punk means the genre has lost its bite, fans and critics seem to be doing the most rebellious thing they currently can – losing themselves in the unexplored mysticism of trad-rock records you’re just not supposed to like.
Listen now to this week’s music picks on ‘The Monocle Arts Review’
TV: Orange Is the New Black
“They use flashbacks to the pre-prison lives of the prisoners so you get this slowly rounded look into what got them there in the first place. And more interestingly, the conditions and the class issues that put them in those situations.”
Alice Vincent, arts and entertainment writer, ‘The Telegraph’Alice Vincent advised everyone in need of a Netflix binge to check out the third season of hit US comedy drama Orange is the New Black. The season opens up to include more outlying characters rather than focusing purely on the show’s main stars such as Taylor Schilling (pictured above with the show’s creator Piper Kerman). Unfettered indulgence shouldn’t really be encouraged in any sense, but with a series this fun perhaps it’s binging, not orange, which is really the new black.
Listen now to this week’s photography picks on ‘The Monocle Arts Review’
