Did Ed Balls mean to make a documentary on the joys of Trump’s America?
The former British Shadow Chancellor’s new documentary is more favourable of Trumpsters than anyone at the BBC could have ever imagined.
Arts Reviews
The good, bad and ugly in arts and exhbitions
Thursday
The artist who breathes Technicolor life into historic photographs
‘My goal is to build a bridge between the present and the past.’
No apology is ever enough for the digital mob
The most sorry person this week? American poet Anders Carlson-Wee.
Tuesday
The Black Arrows come for Zadie Smith
The furore around the Teeth author’s latest short story shows the risk of keeping your politics slightly to yourself.
Sunday
Ben Brantley isn’t transphobic – he’s pitiful
The New York Times critic has nothing to apologise for. Yet he has apologised.
Thursday
Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t funny – especially when he’s mocking the powerless
I am troubled by the misuse to which he puts his considerable acting skills, quick brain and undoubted ballsiness.
A plot not so much paper-thin as soggy and smeary like used toilet paper
Mission Impossible: Fallout reviewed.
David Sedaris, the current king of humourists, is often not funny at all
Calypso is quite repetitive, especially when it comes to what is really its main concern: houses.
Bruce Lee: weird, gruesome and oh-so-cool
From his early street fights to his friendship with Steve McQueen, from his cha-cha to his one-inch punch, Bruce Lee was made to be Bruce Lee.
Westering
In which our correspondent strikes out for the territory.
Saturday
Film review: Netflix’s The Skin of the Wolf
Paws for thought
Thursday
Channel 4 doesn’t do ‘news’ in any meaningful sense of the word – it’s pure propaganda
Gone are the days when political interviewers were dispassionate seekers-after-truth on a mission to get the best out of their subjects.
Paul Simon says farewell with a daring and inventive show
One of America’s greatest songwriters enchants London
Wednesday
Drake’s soft centre makes him a new type of hip-hop role model
The Canadian rapper’s response to Pusha-T on his new album is nimble and reasonable.
Tuesday
The real reason Scarlett Johansson abandoned her ‘trans role’
She didn’t merely ‘step away’, no matter what the headlines say.
Monday
Meet Michiko Kakutani, the conservative
The former New York Times reviewer’s study of truth reveals how she’s been driven to outrage by the erosion of cultural and critical values.
Friday
My chat with Harvey Weinstein
The disgraced movie producer reached out to Taki with a ‘world exclusive’ about Rose McGowan and Asia Argento
Thursday
Chopin’s Piano is an eclectic trip through 19th-century romanticism
The author writes knowledgeably and approachably about music and sympathetically about his cast of characters
Cease to strive! Now!
This academic study of idleness is very deep, way deep, so deep in fact as to be virtually unreadable.
Tuesday
Donald Trump’s fixation on celebrity is what makes him so…American
It’s almost impossible to imagine the President praising a book or a person or an idea, or really anything, that hasn’t been approved by a lot of people.
