Reviews by Rowena Purrett
The Top Films of 2014
Rowena Purrett
Top 10 Films of 2014
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Because it’s Wes Anderson doing what Wes Anderson does best and it’s glorious.
August: Osage County
Because tense and ...
11 years ago
The Top Films of 2014
Of Ink, Wit and Intrigue: Lord Rochester, in Chains of Quicksilver
Rowena Purrett
Recently, historical fiction has been enjoying a boom in popularity. An increasing number of readers seem to relish the bones of bygone fact fleshed out with imagined happenings to bring the past off ...
12 years ago
Of Ink, Wit and Intrigue: Lord Rochester, in Chains of Quicksilver
They Have Their Exits by Airey Neave
Rowena Purrett
Airey Neave’s They Have Their Exits is a Second World War memoir quite unlike any other. After being wounded and captured in Calais in 1940, Neave became a prisoner of war and, amid escape ...
12 years ago
They Have Their Exits by Airey Neave
The Bling Ring [15]
Rowena Purrett
There can’t be many films that claim to be based on an article written for Vanity Fair magazine, but Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring is one of them. Inspired by a piece written by Nancy Jo ...
12 years ago
The Bling Ring [15]
Summer In February [15]
Rowena Purrett
In a love triangle between a volatile and arrogant artist, a defiant daughter with a penchant for cyanide and gentle yet stoic army captain, surely everyone is going to be a winner right? Wrong. ...
12 years ago
Summer In February [15]
Oxford Tube: An Illustrated History by Malcolm Crowe
Rowena Purrett
For a quarter of a century commuters, tourists and day-trippers alike have known that when it comes to transport between Oxford and London one service in particular is the first port of ...
14 years ago
Oxford Tube: An Illustrated History by Malcolm Crowe
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel [12A]
Rowena Purrett
Focussing on the lives of a set of senior citizens, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel follows the group as they attempt to escape the loneliness and financial strain of growing old in Britain. ...
14 years ago
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel [12A]
Romantics Anonymous [12A]
Rowena Purrett
When it comes to French cinema, there is a particular brand that often dominates our British screens. Since the undeniable success of Amelie, we have seen many that fit into the category of light, ...
14 years ago
Romantics Anonymous [12A]
My Week With Marilyn [15]
Rowena Purrett
The year is 1956, and Marilyn Monroe has arrived in England to shoot The Sleeping Prince (released under the title The Prince and the Showgirl) with Laurence Olivier at Pinewood Studios, during which ...
14 years ago
My Week With Marilyn [15]
Mademoiselle Chambon [15]
Rowena Purrett
Directed by Stephane Brize and starring Vincent Lindon, as Jean, and Sandrine Kiberlain as Veronique Chambon, Mademoiselle Chambon, (based on a novel by the same name,) tells the moving tale of an ...
14 years ago
Mademoiselle Chambon [15]
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll [15]
Rowena Purrett
Another in a recent stream of British musician biopics, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll follows the life of eccentric 70s punk rocker Ian Dury - the man who many fail to realise actually coined ...
16 years ago
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll [15]
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Rowena Purrett
This month Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang makes a very welcome return to Oxford’s New Theatre. And, with pyrotechnics, strobe lighting, live dogs and of course the now renowned flying car, ...
16 years ago
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Beyond Biba [15]
Rowena Purrett
Beyond BIBA: A Portrait of Barbara Hulanicki is exactly that, a portrayal of the woman behind BIBA, a woman whose style and designs revolutionised UK fashion at a time when England was considered ...
16 years ago
Beyond Biba [15]
The September Issue [12A]
Rowena Purrett
In a documentary detailing the lead up to the publication of American Vogue’s notorious “September Issue”; the biggest issue in a fashion magazine’s calendar, director R.J Cutler and his ...
16 years ago
The September Issue [12A]
Creation [PG]
Rowena Purrett
Everyone knows something about Charles Darwin and his work. His theory of evolution, his book The Origin of Species, and his struggle against the popular religious beliefs of his time are all aspects ...
16 years ago
Creation [PG]
Thunderclap Newman Band + Anton Barbeau Interview
Rowena Purrett
This week the Jericho Tavern was set to play host to Thunderclap Newman, authors of the 1968 hit track Something in the Air (and recently reformed as The Thunderclap Newman Band), plus ...
16 years ago
Thunderclap Newman Band + Anton Barbeau Interview
Home [15]
Rowena Purrett
Directed by Ursula Meier, the film Home tells a hugely thought provoking tale. Centred around a French family living a somewhat unusual but contented life in their lone house on the edge of an ...
16 years ago
Home [15]
Coco Before Chanel [12A]
Rowena Purrett
When considering a trip to the cinema to see Coco Before Chanel it is important to bear in mind the “before” part of the title. The film is a biopic of Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel’s life prior to ...
16 years ago
Coco Before Chanel [12A]
O'Horten [12A]
Rowena Purrett
There will always be people out there who groan at the thought of a subtitled film, people who expect to be bored after ten minutes, but fortunately that view is slowly changing, hits like Amelie and ...
16 years ago
O'Horten [12A]
Last Chance Harvey [12A]
Rowena Purrett
Hearing the words “romantic comedy” immediately provides an expectation for a film; something light, fluffy and essentially harmless, a film that requires little thought whilst watching. However, ...
16 years ago
Last Chance Harvey [12A]
Comedy Springfest
Rowena Purrett
Comedy Springfest showcases the work of five comedians. Hosted by John Simmit and brought to you by The Urban Comedy Jam the night promised to be entertaining from start to finish. The Urban Comedy ...
16 years ago
Comedy Springfest
The Servants' Ball Blitzkrieg
Rowena Purrett
The Servant’s Ball Blitzkrieg is described on the programme as a “postcolonial extravaganza” and it certainly is that. The production is based on two plays; The Servant’s Ball, and Blitzkrieg ...
16 years ago
The Servants' Ball Blitzkrieg
H.M.S. Pinafore
Rowena Purrett
This performance of H.M.S Pinafore marks the most recent in a lengthy stream of Gilbert & Sullivan productions for the OUG&SS (Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society,) a society ...
17 years ago
H.M.S. Pinafore
Coraline [PG]
Rowena Purrett
The latest in an ever-popular stream of modern animation, the wonderfully strange Coraline tells the tale of a young girl who, growing bored of life in her own world, accidentally enters into a very ...
17 years ago
Coraline [PG]
Flights Into Darkness
Rowena Purrett
Based on Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray and supposedly taking it’s name from Flight into Darkness by Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler, Flights into Darkness is a highly original production ...
17 years ago
Flights Into Darkness
The Boat That Rocked [15]
Rowena Purrett
A new film from Richard Curtis, the esteemed writer/director of such past successes as Love Actually and Notting Hill, could hardly be bad news, a fact that was certainly proven by his latest big ...
17 years ago
The Boat That Rocked [15]
My Grandfather's Great War
Rowena Purrett
So often it seems that solo dramas struggle to maintain a captive audience for the duration of a performance. Having an empty stage and only one actor puts a lot of pressure on the actual subject ...
17 years ago
My Grandfather's Great War
Brothers On Everest
Rowena Purrett
On May the 18th 2006, Tom Clowes and his brother Ben reached the summit of Mount Everest. The lecture entitled Brothers on Everest is given by Tom, and punctuated by various slides as well a short ...
17 years ago
Brothers On Everest
Outside Edge By Richard Harris
Rowena Purrett
Set entirely in and around a typical English cricket pavilion, this amateur production of Outside Edge witnesses a Saturday in the life of five couples. The play opens with Roger the captain (Paul ...
17 years ago
Outside Edge By Richard Harris
Cirque de Glace
Rowena Purrett
When the lights dim in the New Theatre at the beginning of Cirque De Glace a sense of anticipation spreads. Piercing beams of light probe the audience in an almost threatening manner as a loud voice ...
17 years ago
Cirque de Glace
