Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

Big Mistakes . Dan Levy has a free pass from me for the rest of his life for giving us Schitts Creek but he doesn’t need it for his new black comedy.   Nicky (Levy) and Morgan (Taylor Ortega) are a squabbling brother and sister who need to buy a gift for their dying Nonna but things quickly spiral out of control when Morgan makes an impulsive mistake.  It’s both silly and fast moving with one of those plots where you don't want to think too hard, and also don't have the time to unpick it before moving onto the next thing.  But it also has a bit of heart too which is what will keep me coming back for more  A great cast too, including Laurie Metcalf, and I think there is mileage in the second series which has just been confirmed.  Lots of fun (Series, streaming on Netflix)  Off Campus.   A romance based in the hockey world, adapted from a book series?  Sounds a bit familiar, but this is no Heated Rivalry .   Garrett  (Belmont Cameli) is a...

Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner play the charismatic dissolute and scheming villains who toy with love and lust in their struggle for power in this gorgeous adaptation by Marianne Elliott    Marquise de Merteuil (Lesley Manville), and society rake, Vicomte de Valmont (Aidan Turner) set up a scheme to seduce an innocent girl just out of convent school, and an upright and an honourable young wife.  As the plot unwinds they realise that they are risking more than they thought.    There’s a deceptively spare and modern set at the start, which is populated as needed by swirling walls and doors that create privacy and exposure  The  costumes here are gorgeous, shown at their best by the choreography that builds the mood and is used, particularly in the second half to illustrate both  the passion and violence and give us a sense of what is really going on under the surface.   Lesley Manville, as always is fantastic, so contained and precise, a...

This is a complete updating of Ibsen’s classic early feminist creation at the Almeida, and I really wanted to like it.   Romola Garai is Nora, who, in this iteration, is married to a financier with a city boy made good vibe, (including the recovery from addiction).  He is just about to make it big by selling his company.  Nora is an over-excited trophy wife when we first meet her, spending money that as her husband points out, they don’t have yet.  But she wants a good family Christmas and so Torvald (Tom Mothersdale) acquiesces.  But all is not as it seems.  Nora has secretly put them in debt to save her husband and family, but a blackmail plot and a flirtation make everything a lot more complicated.   I appreciate the attempt to bring it up to date,and it is ostentatiously of the moment, including the delight of a  financier recognising that war will bring in big money for him.  The question of how to be a woman in today’s world is still a ...