teenage
Our Generation, National Theatre review - Alecky Blythe captures the world of teenagers todaySaturday, 12 March 2022Do you happily binge four hours of mind-candy TV in one sitting? Alecky Blythe’s latest verbatim play, Our Generation – which runs for 3hr 45min at the Dorfman space of the National Theatre – might take almost as long but will probably be much more... Read more... |
The Teacher, Channel 5 review - inappropriate behaviour in the school environmentTuesday, 01 February 2022Having had her own problems with alcohol and anxiety, Sheridan Smith no doubt felt some kinship with Jenna Garvey, the central character she plays in The Teacher. Evidently a talented educator who inspires loyalty and enthusiasm in her pupils, Jenna... Read more... |
Spring Awakening, Almeida Theatre review - must-see revival for Tony-winning musicalMonday, 20 December 2021When Berliners sat down to watch Franz Wedekind’s debut play Fruhlings Erwachen – Spring Awakening – in 1906, they had little inkling of the kind of drama he had written, or how it would change theatre for the century to come, despite being banned... Read more... |
Camp Siegfried, Old Vic review - the banality of evil, brilliantly served upTuesday, 21 September 2021A stealthily powerful play gets the production of its dreams in Camp Siegfried, which marks a high-profile UK presence for the American writer Bess Wohl. A world premiere at the Old Vic, Wohl's two-hander shines a scary and pertinent light on a Nazi... Read more... |
Album: Anne-Marie - TherapySaturday, 24 July 2021Anne-Marie Nicholson is a hard-working young woman from Essex whose career description is “Global Girl-next-door Pop Star”. She has incrementally worked her way there, attended the marketing meetings. Anyone requiring a CV that exemplifies the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Fast Times at Ridgemont HighTuesday, 01 June 2021Watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 2021 is like taking a trip in a time machine and stepping out into a totally different world. The 1982 teenage comedy marked the debut of director Amy Heckerling (who would go on to make Clueless)... Read more... |
Sequin in a Blue Room review - soullessness and sex in SydneySaturday, 10 April 2021Sequin is the screen name for the questing 16-year-old at the slowly awakening heart of Sequin in a Blue Room, a 2019 Australian film only now reaching the UK. The graduation project of its New Zealand-born director and co-writer Samuel Van Grinsven... Read more... |
Moxie review - likeable if confused high school comedyWednesday, 03 March 2021A teen comedy with a thematic difference, Moxie has enough memorable moments to firmly establish comedian Amy Poehler as a director worth reckoning with in what is her second film, following Wine Country in 2019. Telling of the teenage Vivian's... Read more... |
Words on Bathroom Walls review - well-meaning but glibSaturday, 07 November 2020Adam (Charlie Plummer) is being tested for glaucoma at the start of Words on Bathroom Walls, the director Thor Freudenthal's adaptation of Julia Walton's 2017 Young Adult novel. In fact, the indrawn teenager is suffering from schizophrenia and will... Read more... |
Rocks review - impressively well-crafted neo-realist dramaThursday, 17 September 2020Rocks is a beautifully made slice of neo-realist filmmaking which deserves to get a wide audience but may well slip off the radar in the current climate. It really should be experienced in a cinema as the camerawork by Hélène Louvart is stunning and... Read more... |
Declan, Traverse Theatre online review - compressed and compellingFriday, 28 August 2020In normal times, Edinburgh Festival audiences would now be packing into the city’s invaluable Traverse Theatre, home to some of the most vibrant new writing in the country. Instead, the Traverse has created a new online venue, Traverse 3, that... Read more... |
Chemical Hearts review - turn off the soundSaturday, 22 August 2020Musings on the agonies of adolescent love fall like dead weight in this wearying if well-acted adaptation by writer-director Richard Tanne of the 2016 Young Adult novel Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland. 17-year-old Henry Page (Austin Abrams... Read more... |