The Flash and the downside of hype
This is not an isolated example of hype over achievement
Alexander Larman
Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.
Thursday
Thursday
The expendable Expendables: how has Hollywood’s least essential franchise persisted?
It is unclear who the target audience of these desperately unnecessary films is
Will the royal silence over Prince Harry’s trial hold?
From our UK edition
It’s fair to say that, after an unimpressive first day on the witness stand in his case against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), Prince Harry rallied somewhat yesterday. This may well have been because he now had the measure of his interrogator, Andrew Green KC, and was able to respond with greater detail and fluency.
Wednesday
The hubris of Prince Harry
From our UK edition
As Prince Harry walked into the High Court for his second day of cross-examination, he might have been forgiven for approaching the stand with trepidation. The Duke of Sussex’s first day being grilled by Andrew Green KC did not cover him in glory. It is unlikely that the Prince has ever found himself under such
Tuesday
Prince Harry’s bruising time in the High Court
From our UK edition
Prince Harry is on a mission. ‘How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness’?’ Harry asks of journalists in his witness statement in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). After the prince became the first member of the royal family to give evidence in
Monday
Can Armie Hammer stage a comeback?
The LA County DA’s office said he will not be charged with any crimes
Tuesday
Why The Little Mermaid is bad news for cinema
From our UK edition
It is disappointing to learn that, after critics and cynical audiences everywhere had sharpened their fish knives in the expectation of the new live-action Little Mermaid film being a catastrophic disaster, early reviews have suggested that it is… fine. It attracted a great deal of attention, and some criticism, for the casting of the black singer-actress
Monday
Succession gets the satisfying finale it deserves
The Roys bow out in style
Tuesday
Prince Harry’s legal defeat will be particularly painful
From our UK edition
Today, Prince Harry lost a court case. If the law of averages is to be believed, he has involved himself in so many that it was inevitable that at least one was not going to go his way. Still, this particular defeat is likely to be difficult for the Duke of Sussex to take, as
Killers of the Flower Moon could be Scorsese’s best film yet
From our UK edition
There are a few things in this world that you can truly count on: death, taxes and Taylor Swift’s love life attracting headlines. To their number can be added the certain knowledge that, when Martin Scorsese collaborates with either of his two muses, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, the results are somewhere between fascinating (Gangs of
Sunday
Where will the vogue for censoring our best-loved authors lead?
It seems that the ‘revised’ titles are likely to become the norm
Saturday
Martin Amis’s death is the end of a great British comic tradition
The novelist leaves a distinctive and distinguished legacy
Friday
Does Johnny Depp have a future in Hollywood?
This most quixotic of performers doesn’t seem at all bothered by his fall from grace
Wednesday
Mission: Impossible makes the Daniel Craig Bond movies seem anemic and dull
The Craig films appear ‘made by people who are embarrassed to make a Bond film’
Meghan’s lecture on ‘service’ is hard to take
From our UK edition
Since the publication of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare in January, Meghan has kept an unusually low profile by her standards. Her non-appearance at the coronation earlier in the month was widely interpreted as a snub to the Royal Family, whom she has missed no opportunity to castigate. Now the Duchess of Sussex is making a
Tuesday
The reinvention of Jude Law
From our UK edition
The late director Anthony Minghella made three films with actor Jude Law: The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering. They would undoubtedly have made more if Minghella hadn’t died at the cruelly young age of 54 in 2008. He referred to the actor as ‘my muse’, but had a more perceptive comment about him too. ‘Jude
Friday
London hotels with a literary twist
From our UK edition
There’s something rather wonderful about the idea of settling down for the night in the spot where one of your favourite writers once slept, played or dreamed up a plot. There are a range of hotels across London with a vast array of bookish associations: some have played host to writers both famous and infamous,
Tuesday
A born rebel: Lady Caroline Lamb scandalises society
From our UK edition
At the beginning of her biography of the novelist, ‘fairy sprite’ and proto-feminist Lady Caroline Lamb, Lady Antonia Fraser hints that this may be her final book. Not for her a dramatic, Prospero-breaking-his-staff exit; instead, she writes mildly in the prologue that ‘this book… can also be regarded as the culmination of an exciting and
Monday
Prince Harry has so much to learn from Prince William
From our UK edition
In the run-up to the coronation, the Prince of Wales was a rather detached figure. Prince William kept an unusually low-key profile right up until the week of the coronation, along with his wife: a woman increasingly seen as the Royal Family’s secret weapon. The Princess of Wales combines glamour, accessibility and a welcome sense
The National is the next great American rock band
So much more than America’s Radiohead