Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel is this season’s most baffling experience. What does it take to get people to leave before the credits roll?
It’s not as easy as it looks to make a great walk-out movie, but Paul Thomas Anderson has cracked it. Inherent Vice is this season’s mustn’t-see experience. “Walked out of Inherent Vice. Understood so little of plot or dialogue, I worried I’d had a stroke” tweeted Philip Hensher.
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It’s not as easy as it looks to make a great walk-out movie, but Paul Thomas Anderson has cracked it. Inherent Vice is this season’s mustn’t-see experience. “Walked out of Inherent Vice. Understood so little of plot or dialogue, I worried I’d had a stroke” tweeted Philip Hensher.
Continue reading...
- 2/3/2015
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The cast and crew of ITV's Prey have hit back at BBC Radio 4 critic Philip Hensher after he made controversial comments about the show.
Hensher described the character played by actress Rosie Cavaliero as "the fat lady detective" when discussing the show on-air, and made other critical comments about the opening episode of the drama.
Prey director Nick Murphy said that Hensher's comments are "pitiful", tweeting: "Describing female character as 'fat woman detective'. Saturday Review meets Heat Magazine."
John Simm, who leads the cast of the new series, added: "He's a Prick. Delighted he didn't like it."
Meanwhile, Red Production Company, who are behind the series, posted: "You can guess what we at Red think. Appalled that Rosie C's break-out performance reduced to 'fat lady detective' in recent radio review."
The opening episode of Prey topped the ratings outside of soaps on Monday (April 28), attracting 5.7 million viewers and a 25.2% audience share.
Hensher described the character played by actress Rosie Cavaliero as "the fat lady detective" when discussing the show on-air, and made other critical comments about the opening episode of the drama.
Prey director Nick Murphy said that Hensher's comments are "pitiful", tweeting: "Describing female character as 'fat woman detective'. Saturday Review meets Heat Magazine."
John Simm, who leads the cast of the new series, added: "He's a Prick. Delighted he didn't like it."
Meanwhile, Red Production Company, who are behind the series, posted: "You can guess what we at Red think. Appalled that Rosie C's break-out performance reduced to 'fat lady detective' in recent radio review."
The opening episode of Prey topped the ratings outside of soaps on Monday (April 28), attracting 5.7 million viewers and a 25.2% audience share.
- 5/1/2014
- Digital Spy
This cleverly edited collection of letters reveals an attractive and energetic man. But Bernstein now has a mixed musical reputation – even if West Side Story will live forever
Like many figures eminent in their time through a grasp of the zeitgeist and a powerful personality, Leonard Bernstein's reputation has not worn well. Future generations may wonder why it was Bernstein who conducted the Berlin concerts in December 1989 to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. He had no connection with Berlin, and had conducted the Berlin Philharmonic only once, in 1979. There was, too, a very obvious candidate in Kurt Masur, the great conductor who had been involved in the Leipzig uprising. But the job fell to Bernstein, who had never even lived in the continent whose unification he was celebrating. No one seemed puzzled: it was a case of the triumph of the overwhelming personality.
That personality is apparent...
Like many figures eminent in their time through a grasp of the zeitgeist and a powerful personality, Leonard Bernstein's reputation has not worn well. Future generations may wonder why it was Bernstein who conducted the Berlin concerts in December 1989 to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. He had no connection with Berlin, and had conducted the Berlin Philharmonic only once, in 1979. There was, too, a very obvious candidate in Kurt Masur, the great conductor who had been involved in the Leipzig uprising. But the job fell to Bernstein, who had never even lived in the continent whose unification he was celebrating. No one seemed puzzled: it was a case of the triumph of the overwhelming personality.
That personality is apparent...
- 11/28/2013
- by Philip Hensher
- The Guardian - Film News
Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this year
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
- 11/23/2013
- by Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Tom Stoppard, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, William Boyd, Bill Bryson, Shami Chakrabarti, Sarah Churchwell, Antonia Fraser, Mark Haddon, Robert Harris, Max Hastings, Philip Hensher, Simon Hoggart, AM Homes, John Lanchester, Mark Lawson, Robert Macfarlane, Andrew Motion, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver, Helen Simpson, Colm Tóibín, Richard Ford, John Gray, David Kynaston, Penelope Lively, Pankaj Mishra, Blake Morrison, Susie Orbach
- The Guardian - Film News
Actors playing homosexuals are expected to sweep this year's Oscars. Has Hollywood finally turned liberal? If only, says Philip Hensher
This well might be the Year of the Gay at the Oscars. Not the year of the gay actor - heavens forbid - but the year when actors are rewarded for playing gay parts. Philip Seymour Hoffman has produced what is said to be a virtuoso account of Truman Capote's mincing style in Capote. Felicity Huffman, the put-upon one in Desperate Housewives, has been persuaded to play a male-to-female transvestite in Transamerica. And Annie Proulx's great short story, Brokeback Mountain, about an extended and tragic love affair between two cowboys, has been filmed by Ang Lee with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the leads.
Oscars surely await some of these. There are half a dozen other big name actors playing gay roles this season, and it's evidently now a safe career move.
This well might be the Year of the Gay at the Oscars. Not the year of the gay actor - heavens forbid - but the year when actors are rewarded for playing gay parts. Philip Seymour Hoffman has produced what is said to be a virtuoso account of Truman Capote's mincing style in Capote. Felicity Huffman, the put-upon one in Desperate Housewives, has been persuaded to play a male-to-female transvestite in Transamerica. And Annie Proulx's great short story, Brokeback Mountain, about an extended and tragic love affair between two cowboys, has been filmed by Ang Lee with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the leads.
Oscars surely await some of these. There are half a dozen other big name actors playing gay roles this season, and it's evidently now a safe career move.
- 11/24/2005
- by Philip Hensher
- The Guardian - Film News
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