New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Harmony Korine.
Cast: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant
Description: An ardent Michael Jackson impersonator earns meagre tips performing as his crotch-grabbing musical idol on the streets of Paris, accepting occasional work from his agent, which includes entertaining the elderly residents of a care home. During one afternoon's work, Michael meets a sultry Marilyn Monroe look-alike and she invites him to a commune on the Scottish coast where she resides with a dozen or so other impersonators. At first, Michael thinks this self-sufficient group is paradise. However, tensions bubble beneath the surface, gradually tearing the commune apart.
Country: UK/FR/IRE/US. 2006. 113mins
Iconic image: Samantha Morton as a Monroe impersonator
Harmony Korine's third film, after the intriguing Gummo and the awful Julien Donkey-Boy, is a much more temperate affair, backed by handsome widescreen cinematography from Marcel Zyskind, Michael Winterbottom's long-time collaborator. It's goodbye to Dogma and hello to orthodoxy.
The orthodoxy, however, hardly extends to the plot which has Michael Jackson (Diego Luna) meeting Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) in Paris and travelling to an idyllic seaside Scots castle where they meet, among others, Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Temple.
They are all misfits turned impersonators and we are abjured to enjoy their company just because of that.
Both Luna, the Mexican actor, who proves good at mimicking Jackson's dance moves in dark shades, surgical mask and high white socks, and Morton, dressed in Marilyn's white dress from The Seven Year Itch, achieve a few little miracles.
But the rest, including James Dean, Abe Lincoln, The Three Stooges and, if you can believe it, James Fox and Anita Pallenberg as Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II, soon push the film into the realms of quirky parody.
It runs out of steam sometime before they all prepare to stage a vaudevillian revue and the eccentric commune's sheep start dying of some fatal infection.
If Korine wants to say something about celebrity, it gets drowned out in the plot-turns. But if he wants to sympathise with these strange denizens of other people's personas, Mister Lonely has a certain success.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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