Tuesday 16th December 2025

Culture

Graceful and self-assured: Circle Mirror Transformation reviewed

Boulevard Productions’ Circle Mirror Transformation is a faithful and competent take on Annie Baker’s 2009 tragicomedy.  The play follows a group of people of different ages taking a beginners’ drama...

‘We’re all mad here’: Alice in Won-DRE-Land at Tingewick 2025

When I wandered into Tingewick Hall on a cold, dark evening in seventh week,...

A comical approach to a classic text: ‘Hedda Gabler’ reviewed

Tiptoe Productions’ Hedda Gabler, co-directed by Ollie Gillam and Gilon Fox, delivered a strong...

‘Lux’ by Rosalía review: A breath of fresh air

'The Latin title ‘Lux’ perfectly embodies the concept and overall aesthetic of divine femininity, as well as the multilingual aspects that run throughout the work. With complex and meaningful lyrics written in 13 languages, and split into four movements, the record is a breath of fresh air for the pop scene'.

“Elegant, witty, sophisticated, remarkable”: The ‘Philanthropist’

Katie Sayer and Emily Lawford meet the all-star cast of Simon Callow's production of 'The Philanthropist'

Review: ‘Free Fire’

Nancy Epton finds Ben Wheatley's latest picture unashamedly violent and highly quotable, yet ultimately shallow

Intersectional feminism triumphs in ‘Hidden Figures’

Izzy Smith examines the racial issues at play in the Oscar-nominated film, 'Hidden Figures'

Pop is dead—long live pop!

Alex Waygood on how Ed Sheeran represents the decline and fall of the charts

Review: “Get Out”

Jonnie Barrow lavishes praise on this recently-released horror masterpiece.

Marvel’s Netflix universe is going badly wrong, and it’s the writing that’s to blame

Christopher Goring takes a look at Netflix’s increasingly troubled corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a spoiler-filled examination of how everything went off the rails

Live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is a ‘dose of weaponised nostalgia’

Jonnie Barrow examines whether the recent live-action remake of 'Beauty and the Beast' is worth your time...

Is The Nightly Show an expensive insult to the British public?

Theo Davies-Lewis takes a look at the critically-panned talk show’s place in ITV’s schedule

Friendship, Feminism and Fun(damental Rights)

India Parker talks to Jess Bollands, the President of the Oxford Belles, about the enormous success of their latest music video

Netflix to present Orson Welles’ lost masterpiece

Claire Leibovich discusses Netflix's resurrection of Orson Welles' unfinished final film

Chuck Berry – “One of the greats”

Will Cowie pays tribute to the late Chuck Berry

“When a film depends on siamese stories in the way this one does, it is often hard to keep the whole thing alive”

John Maier finds Tom Ford's re-released second film 'Nocturnal Animals' stylish but confused

“Injections of humour amidst the Beckettian existential angst”

Emily Lawford is impressed by Leveaux’s revival of Tom Stoppard's meta-theatrical tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The Shins – Heartworms review

Akshay Bilolikar finds a confident and valedictory wisdom in the Shins' fifth effort

Review: ‘T2 Trainspotting’

Louise Howland finds an addictive energy in sequel to cult classic Trainspotting

Online discoveries through the Oxford Book Club

Ellie Duncan chats to the editors of the Oxford Book Club's new website

Circa Waves – Different Creatures review

Matt Roller deems the sophomore effort from Circa Waves to be refreshing, but inane

Spotlight: DFO

Will Cowie on those three magic letters

Tiny words: on the art of small talk

Ellie Duncan ruminates on the place of everyday interaction in literary writing

Faces, forgotten and faded

Jonathan Egid visits Christ Church Picture Gallery’s disappointingly small Forgotten Faces exhibition

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