26/01/2014

We look at two new releases examining real-life scoundrels whose fall from grace has been committed to film. In Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio plays real-life millionaire stock fraudster, Jordan Belfort, whose “pump and dump” schemes cost his investors $200 million. The film caused a furore on release in the States where critics accused the filmmakers of glamourising Belfort’s morally vacuous world in a 3-hour film filled with scenes of drug-taking, orgies, and 506 uses of the “f” word. Meanwhile Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new film, The Armstrong Lie, is an anatomy of the biggest whopper in sport – Lance Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs. With unprecedented access to Armstrong and his camp, Gibney had all but finished a largely positive film about the golden boy of cycling when, early last year, Armstrong finally came clean in an interview with Oprah Winfrey watched by some 28 million people around the world. Gibney re-edited the film to make a compelling story of one man’s refusal to let go of the lie that made him. The Armstrong Lie will be in cinemas from 31st January 2014.The Wolf of Wall Street is out now. 

What’s the Point of It? That’s the question The Hayward Gallery is asking as they launch the biggest retrospective of the work of British artist Martin Creed to date. Creed is best known for his 2001 work, Work 227: The lights going on and off and has never shied away from re-defining himself and his work: now a sculptor, now a painter, now an organ composer, now a mass bell-ringing organiser. With a major new outdoor commission as well as works from private and public collections across North America and Europe on display the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to assess one of the country’s most diverse and playful artists. The Hayward Gallery 29 January 2014 - 27 April 2014.

When 29-year-old playwright, Nick Payne, was looking for a new project on which to collaborate with his equally acclaimed theatre director friend, Carrie Cracknell, he happened across a potentially unlikely basis for a new work. The Equality Illusion, a 2010 non-fiction work by Kat Banyard, is full of interviews and statistics designed to shock its readers into a kind of feminist wake-up call. A conversation struck up and when the two theatre buffs subsequently watched the infamous uncensored Robin Thicke video to 'Blurred Lines', the biggest selling single of last year in the UK, they had found their provocative title. Although the song isn’t featured in Blurred Lines the play, the pair were inspired to create a theatrical answer to the its perceived misogyny. The all-female cast includes Mike Leigh stalwarts Claire Skinner and Ruth Sheen and is on at The Shed, National Theatre, London until 22nd February 2014.

Heralded as the one of the new authors to watch in 2014, Stewart Foster’s debut novel tells the story of two inseparable brothers. Set in the 1970s, We Used to Be Kings follows Tom, struggling in a care home for troubled adolescents. His brother Jack is with Tom at all times, despite the fact that Jack died six years ago. The siblings fight, joke and debate constantly. Doctors try to silence the voice in his head but Tom won’t let it happen. Jack and Tom set out to be reunited with their long-lost father, whom the boys believe to have been on a mission to the moon. 

A new eight-part television drama produced by HBO, Looking tells the story of three very close yet very different male friends in the gay community of San Francisco searching for happiness, success and intimacy. Patrick, Agustín and Dom each carve out their existence in a liberal city being transformed by the influx of tech startups, dating apps and unaffordable rent hikes. Director Andrew Haigh, who garnered critical acclaim for his realistic portrayal of gay men in the award-winning film Weekend, was brought on board to collaborate with writer Michael Lannan. Looking asks what it means to be openly gay, in an era of unparalleled choices – and rights – for gay men. The series begins on Monday 27th January at 10:35pm on Sky Atlantic.

Following in the footsteps of Björk and Sigur Rós, and arguably making bigger waves, Ásgeir is putting Icelandic pop back on the map.  With the help of his collaborator and translator, John Grant (the singer behind acclaimed album, Pale Green Ghosts) Ásgeir's first English language album arrives on our shores later this month. A huge sensation in his native country at just 21 years old his soulful voice cuts a clean silhouette above an uplifting blend of acoustic folk and electronica. Think a male Feist. Ásgeir joins us in our Glasgow riverside studios to perform two tracks from his forthcoming album, In The Silence. Expect big things from this velvet-voiced vicenarian.