Film: Warm Bodies

Adelaide’s Teresa Palmer and Brit Nicholas Hoult are the star-crossed lovers in this spin on the zombie flick, which is quirky, offbeat and thoroughly heart-warming. s a dystopian zom-rom-com, it flirts with many genres: it has the splatter count and enough re-invention of the genre rules (zombies eat brains to experience their victims’ memories) to sate fans of the former, with the one-liners and on-screen chemistry to satisfy the latter two, as the Montagues and Capulets are replaced by the living and undead. 

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich | 15 | 97mins | Out February 8

 

Film: I Give It A Year

This British romantic comedy stars English-accented Aussie Byrne as the workaholic half of a newly married couple (Spall is the more laidback novelist) as their relationship is put to the test.

Some friends support, others less so – another Aussie, Baker, is the temptation (for Byrne that is), while Stephen Merchant’s the oddball best mate with the inappropriate jokes.

Starring: Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Simon Baker | 15 | 97mins On general release February 8

 

Film: Hitchcock

Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock and his relationship with the many women in his life, particularly his leading ladies, comes under the spotlight in this movie-world film about the shooting of Psycho, with a heavily made-up Anthony Hopkins as the rotund filmmaker, Scarlett Johansson as scream queen Janet Leigh and Helen Mirren as Hitch’s long-suffering wife. 

 On general release February 8

Comedy: Sean Hughes – Life Becomes Noises

Comedian Sean Hughes’s (above) touching account of his relationship with his father and his passing is a moving look at families, how the people closest to us sometimes can be the furthest away and mortality.

So, odd material for a comedy show, but in these hands it is empathetic, eye-opening and very funny. 

Tricycle Theatre 269
Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR.
Feb 13-16. 8pm. £18  
Tube | Kilburn  
tricycle.co.uk 

 

Exhibition: Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance

This so-Tate exhibition looks at the relationship between painting and performance.

In the second half of the 20th century paint wasn’t just applied with a brush to canvas, it was dripped, chucked and flung across all manner of surfaces – walls, faces, animals, you name it, pretty much anything and everything. 

Tate Modern Bankside 
London, SE1 9TG.
Until Apr 1. £10  
Tube | Southwark  
tate.org.uk

 

Theatre: Gruesome Playground Injuries

In American playwright Rajiv Joseph’s short new play, Doug and Kayleen meet each other as eight-year-old kids in the school nurse’s office (she a prim little miss, he ungainly and accident prone).

It’s the start of a long-lasting friendship teetering on the brink of a relationship in Justin Audibert’s eloquent, compulsive production. 

Gate Theatre 
Pembridge Road, W11 3HQ.
Until Feb 16. £20+  
Tube | Notting Hill  
gatetheatre.co.uk   

 

Theatre: Di and Viv and Rose

There’s something special about friends made when you first leave home – no matter how different from you they may be, they’re likely to become a substitute family.

Amelia Bullmore’s three-hander – starring Tamzin Outhwaite, Gina McKee and Anna Maxwell Martin – is truthful, compassionate and funny. 

Hampstead Theatre 
Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU.
Until Feb 23. £22+ 
Tube | Swiss Cottage  
hampsteadtheatre.com   

 

 

Photos: Johan Persson