Eek-cute: the rebirth of the frothy romcom sociopath

The online era is pushing screen romantics to alarming extremes. Whether posing as a stranger’s fiancee or framing someone as an obsessive stalker, happy endings look harder than ever to find It’s a long-running romcom trope that the couples we’re supposed to root for are often hiding lies that threaten the chances of any happy relationship blossoming. From classics such as The Shop Around the Corner to modern blockbusters such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the genre thrives whenever it presents the audience with the most alarming red flags it conceals from its characters, raising the stakes by seeing if sparks can still fly when an ulterior motive behind each meet-cute is hidden in plain sight. In the romantic comedies we’ve seen so far this year, this trope has not only been revived but pushed far beyond its breaking point, cementing a new romcom archetype: the unlucky-in-love sociopath. This week’s new release Finding Emily is the starkest example to date, introducing psychology...

Dance Revolutionaries review – performers dance like nobody’s watching

This two-part homage to dance greats Robert Cohan and Kenneth MacMillan captures the intimacy of live performance

Here is a two-part documentary that pays homage to dance greats Robert Cohan and Kenneth MacMillan. Directed by David Stewart, Dance Revolutionaries essentially presents two pieces performed by dancers from the Yorke Dance Project and the Royal Ballet, and with the noble intention of making modern dance immersive and accessible.

The first part, Portraits, is choreographed by Cohan (who died in 2021) and aims to “explore life’s private moments” in six solo performances created in collaboration with its cast. In theory, you’d think a dance film would fail to capture the intimacy of a live performance, but somehow Portraits accentuates it; the uninhibited passion of the dancers and lack of direct performance to the camera make it borderline voyeuristic. Each dance is set in a public but desolate place, from office buildings, and a seafront to a graffiti-scrawled tunnel, creating a sense of vulnerability and familiarity. You feel you are peeking in on an individual’s emotional turmoil that can only be expressed through dance, and it’s hard to look away.

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