This week I am...

... working too hard to have much time for anything else, but luckily, I'm loving my job, clients and colleagues.


... reading Lucie Whitehouse's Keep You Close, a tightly-written piece of grip-lit about the unexpected death of an artist.


... watching American TV - The Good Wife, Parks & Recreation and Girls are filling the time spent waiting between episodes of Line of Duty very nicely.


... getting my heart warmed by Eddie the Eagle, a straightforward honest feel good film.

This week I am...

... looking forward to yet more brilliant BBC drama
Line of Duty was my favourite drama of 2014 and I am extremely excited about series 3 starting on Thursday.

... pondering film trailers
I loved both Hail, Caesar! and High Rise but in both circumstances can't help thinking the trailers were actually better than the films.

Hail, Caesar!
High Rise

... reading stories set in the art world
There seem to be a glut of novels set in or around the commercial art scene at the moment.  The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild (chairwoman of the National Gallery) is excellent and I'm about to dip my toe into Maestra by LS Hilton.

... discovering Hilma af Klimt
The Swedish pioneering abstract artist has a fantastic exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery.

High Rise

Judging by the reactions of my friends, High Rise is an acquired taste. Maybe one for J G Ballard fans only. I loved it. Surreal and stylish, and refusing to follow any storytelling rules, it's a perfect adaptation of one of my favourite books. 

This week I am...

... watching brilliant BBC drama
If you're not watching The Night Manager and Happy Valley, you're a fool.  Utterly brilliant in their own ways and worth the licence fee and then some.

... reading 'grip-lit'
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner is gripping, and The Woman Who Ran by Sam Baker is unputdownable.

... listening to stunning voices
I saw Lianne La Havas at the Royal Albert Hall last night and she was just perfection.  Laura Mvula's new track is on repeat too.

... revisiting old favourites
It's been many years since I've thought much about Botticelli but with two exhibitions currently in London (V&A and Courtauld), I'm dusting off my textbooks and university notes.

... looking forward to a summer of music
Ludovico Einaudi and Guy Garvey at the Royal Festival Hall, Everything Everything and Laura Mvula at Somerset House, Duran Duran in the Oxfordshire countryside - who needs to go on holiday?

Anomalisa

Anomalisa is an odd film, as you'd expect from Charlie Kaufman, the maker of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.  I didn't really know what to expect, because the film critics I respect and usually agree with, were very divided on whether it is a masterpiece or an unsuccessful oddity.  It is certainly a technical triumph, taking stop-motion animation to a new level, and I found it very intriguing and also funny in places. It's short at only 90 minutes, which is always a bonus for me given my increasingly pathetic attention span. However it didn't reach 'masterpiece' for me.

Hail, Caesar!

Oh my, I loved Hail, Caesar!, although I can see it could be a marmite film for some.  Basically a series of immaculate set pieces taking place on the movie lots of Old Hollywood, it is loosely drawn together by a paper thin and somewhat nonsensical plot, but really who cares when you have such joys as Channing Tatum tap dancing up a storm in my favourite film scene of the year so far.  And Alden Ehrenreich lighting up the screen with his every move.  Plus Clooney in brilliant idiot mode, and Ralph Fiennes being frankly perfect.  The Coen brothers are geniuses, obviously, and while this isn't their best or most striking film, it is SO MUCH FUN I can't wait to watch it again.