Reviews by Rob Barker
My Cousin Rachel [12A]
Rob Barker
Adapted from a novel by Daphne du Maurier,
My Cousin Rachel tells the story of Philip (Sam Claflin), an orphan taken in by his cousin Ambrose. As the two grow older, Ambrose's health begins to ...
7 years ago
My Cousin Rachel [12A]
The Red Turtle [PG]
Rob Barker
The Red Turtle is the latest film from the Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli, though unlike their best-known works (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro), this comes ...
7 years ago
The Red Turtle [PG]
The Levelling [15]
Rob Barker
Entirely appropriately, heavy showers landed in Jericho just as I was arriving to see The Levelling, the assured debut from filmmaker Hope Dickson Leach. The story is told from the perspective of ...
8 years ago
The Levelling [15]
Frantz [12A]
Rob Barker
It's 1919 in a small German town filled with sadness and anger following the end of the Great War. A young woman, Anna, mourns the death of her fiancé, Frantz Hoffmeister. Hers is a life shown in ...
8 years ago
Frantz [12A]
Viceroy’s House [12A]
Rob Barker
'History is written by the victors': so opens Viceroy's House, a historical drama set during the partition of India in 1947. What is unclear even by the end of the film is exactly who the victors are ...
8 years ago
Viceroy’s House [12A]
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Rob Barker
Like perhaps everyone else in the UK, I remember reading Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time soon after it was published in 2003. I'd never read anything quite like it and ...
8 years ago
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Manchester By The Sea [15]
Rob Barker
January's never the easiest of months: the arctic blizzards; the post-Christmas comedown; stretching a salary to cover five weeks instead of the usual four… However, any keen filmgoer loves this ...
8 years ago
Manchester By The Sea [15]
Primal Scream
Rob Barker
A packed downstairs at the O2 Academy was the venue on Thursday for two quite different bands. Support act Bo Ningen are a Japanese four-piece who specialise in beautifully noisy psychedelic rock. ...
8 years ago
Primal Scream
The Mousetrap
Rob Barker
Perhaps I'm in the minority amongst tonight's audience for Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap in that I've never seen the show. Whilst I was aware that it contained an infamous ending, I had no idea ...
8 years ago
The Mousetrap
Emmy The Great
Rob Barker
Kicking off a UK tour on the day you release your new album is a risky business. We've all trudged out of venues having spent hours listening to unfamiliar songs, when all we really wanted was the ...
9 years ago
Emmy The Great
The Revenant [15]
Rob Barker
If your life's been lacking a gritty, dirty, bloody Western then look no further than The Revenant. Bookended with shots of flowing rivers, this is a film which requires a holding of breath and a ...
9 years ago
The Revenant [15]
Happy Mondays, Alias Kid
Rob Barker
In 1990, the Happy Mondays decamped from Manchester to London to record Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, an album which came to define the very maddest moments of the Madchester movement. 25 years ...
9 years ago
Happy Mondays, Alias Kid
August: Osage County [15]
Rob Barker
Familes: who'd have them? Certainly not me if I were offered the Westons, the disturbingly dysfunctional bunch featured in August: Osage County.
The disappearance of their poet father ...
11 years ago
August: Osage County [15]
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse [15]
Rob Barker
As a huge fan of The League of Gentlemen's previous work (three TV series, a Christmas special, a couple of live DVDs, Radio Four output), my expectations were pretty huge for their first feature ...
19 years ago
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse [15]
The Rakes
Rob Barker
A bunch of lively new music scenes have sprouted up around the country over the last few years - most notably with the likes of Babyshambles, Bloc Party and The Others emerging from the dark depths ...
19 years ago
The Rakes
The Duke Spirit / The Archie Bronson Outfit / The Half Rabbits
Rob Barker
Beautiful people - gotta love ‘em, dontcha? They’re everywhere tonight; at the bar, in the toilets... even the bouncers have baby-soft skin (not that I was touching, you understand). With a set ...
19 years ago
The Duke Spirit / The Archie Bronson Outfit / The Half Rabbits
Kaiser Chiefs and Nine Black Alps
Rob Barker
There’s always a revival on the horizon. Lately, we’ve seen the resurrection of hair metal with The Darkness, a warning that we’re only ever one Lycra jumpsuit away from the heyday of Motley ...
20 years ago
Kaiser Chiefs and Nine Black Alps
The Subways
Rob Barker
When you hear the word 'subway', what springs to mind? Perhaps a dingy underpass, filled with tramps' wee and broken bottles? Maybe a sandwich chain often found at railway stations?
Well hold the ...
20 years ago
The Subways
Goldrush and The Epstein
Rob Barker
A half-empty Zodiac is rarely an attractive prospect. A strange chill tends to fill the room, and the inevitable empty space in front of the stage doesn't exactly invite outbreaks of joyful dancing. ...
20 years ago
Goldrush and The Epstein
The Secret Machines and M83
Rob Barker
Traditionally, not much space is dedicated to support bands in reviews. M83 ably demonstrate tonight exactly why that is, with their remarkably dull, posing electronica and dense layers of wailing ...
20 years ago
The Secret Machines and M83
Yeti
Rob Barker
So you're an integral part of the most challenging, life-affirming British pop group in 20 years and it all goes pear-shaped. Two choices, my friend - firstly, you could head toward the rioting fans, ...
24 years ago
Yeti
