Alexander Larman

Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.

Friday

Alexander Larman

Has Harry Styles killed the music tour?

From our UK edition

Whisper it, but Harry Styles – once talked of as the biggest British pop star since Robbie Williams – may have come a cropper. His moody new single, ‘Aperture’, lacks the obvious immediacy of earlier hits like ‘As It Was’ and ‘Watermelon Sugar’. His tradition of playing to the gallery (or, the cynical might say, as wide a fanbase as possible) by hinting at bisexual inclinations, all while leading a tabloid-friendly and decidedly heterosexual love life, has begun to founder as his hopeful LGBTQ admirers have wearied of the absence of any demonstration of same-sex proclivities; dressing up in women’s clothing and wearing a bit of lipstick will not do any more.

Tuesday

Alexander Larman

What is Travis Scott doing in The Odyssey?

As far as teaser trailers for summer blockbusters go, it takes quite a lot to make jaded audiences – or cynical critics – sit up and say, “What the hell?” But what’s exactly what the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited The Odyssey has done. Not because it has featured a couple of new shots of Tom Holland’s Telemachus squaring off with Robert Pattinson’s villainous Antinous, or Matt Damon’s Odysseus participating in the bloody sack of Troy with his fellow Greeks, but because it introduces the most unexpected cameo of the year, possibly of the decade. Ladies and gentlemen, enter the latest feature of Nolan’s all-star cast: the hip-hop artiste Travis Scott, appearing in the somewhat unlikely role of a staff-beating herald.

travis scott
Alexander Larman

We’ll miss the bar chains when they’re gone

From our UK edition

The news that the Revolution chain of bars has gone into administration may not immediately fill Spectator readers with sorrow. When the Revolution group began in the early Nineties, their raison d’etre was to pump young people full of as much strangely flavoured vodka, in as many different permutations, as they could, all the while playing music at side-splitting volume. It was very successful, for a while, but now the group, under the stewardship of the Revel Collective, is facing a decidedly bleak future. Unless a new owner can be found soon, it looks like the Revels are over.

Saturday

Alexander Larman

Was Hunter S. Thompson murdered?

From our UK edition

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson is best known for his 1972 narcotics-fuelled fantasia Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In some ways, his is a story of life imitating art. Thompson lived large, once saying: ‘I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.’ He killed himself in 2005, at the age of 67, fearing that health problems would ruin what was left of his life. His funeral was a grand, set-piece affair, costing $3 million and paid for by Johnny Depp with the swag from his Pirates of the Caribbean movies; it ended with Thompson’s remains being shot out of a cannon to Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’. He went as he lived, in a blaze of glory. Except members of Thompson’s family are now telling a different story.

Friday

Alexander Larman

Is Jacob Elordi too tall to play James Bond?

The casting of the new James Bond is the biggest story in Hollywood at the moment. The sheer amount of disinformation and exaggeration that has accompanied snippets of news about the production of a new 007 adventure is remarkable, even by the standards of La La Land. Ever since the Bond franchise was purchased by Amazon, taken out of the restrictive hands of Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and placed in the care of Amy Pascal and David Heyman, the question of who’s doing what has been a source of fascination. The hiring of Dune’s Denis Villeneuve to direct was broadly seen as a smart, auteur-ish move; the decision to entrust the script to Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, who has written an awful lot of bad films and television series, less so.

Thursday

Alexander Larman

Is an Oscars upset around the corner?

Can Sinners pull off the biggest Oscars upset in recent times? That’s the question that many in Hollywood will be asking after Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending period-musical-horror picture has been nominated for a mighty 16 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, and more. While it has been looking like a done deal that Paul Thomas Anderson’s Pynchon adaptation One Battle After Another will be sweeping to victory – and with a far from inconsiderable 13 nominations, it still could – the fact that Sinners is now the most nominated film of all time means that, on paper at least, it’s a serious challenger.

oscars
Alexander Larman

Behind Wes Anderson’s infamous sensibility

Woody Allen once sardonically described the fans of his films as being divided between those who liked the “early, funny ones” and the later, darker pictures. Much the same might be said of another famous WA: Wes Anderson, who has established himself as one of American cinema’s most significant auteurs despite no longer living in the country – he hops between England and France. Like most auteurs, his films are more succèss d’estime than they are succèss de box office, but he has the cream of Hollywood lining up to work with him and commands respect among actors young and old. Anderson is rightly celebrated – or castigated – as a visual stylist, but he has enormous flair as a screenwriter Anderson’s visual sensibility is infamous.

Wednesday

Alexander Larman

George ‘R&R’ Martin takes it easy

Now that the Stranger Things disappointment has died down – slightly – George R.R. Martin and his merry band of Game of Thrones cohorts have recaptured attention in what we must call the Thrones universe. After the warily positive but underwhelming reception that the major spin-off House of the Dragon received, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’s six-episode offering is in a lower key than either of its forbears. No dragons, no enormous battles, no big stars, just a small-scale relationship drama focusing on the hapless “hedge knight” Ser Duncan the Tall, aka “Dunk” and his child squire, Egg, whose origins are rather less lowly.

george r.r. martin knight seven kingdoms
Alexander Larman

Harry couldn’t hide his anger during his court showdown

When Prince Harry left the witness box at the High Court this afternoon, it was observed that he was 'visibly emotional'. The Duke of Sussex was there to give evidence in his group legal action against the Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers a day earlier than expected. There is inevitably a certain amount of personal toil involved in any high-profile legal case – where the stakes for whichever side wins are considerable, both financially and reputationally. But the Duke of Sussex’s emotive, even angry appearance in court today made it quite clear to any onlooker that his motives were deeply personal. It appears that victory for him would represent a spectacular vindication of a quest that he has been on for years.

Tuesday

Alexander Larman

Could Brooklyn bring down the house of Beckham?

From our UK edition

‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is it to have a thankless child!’ Such was the lament of Shakespeare’s King Lear, but he could at least count himself fortunate that his daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia did not have Instagram accounts. Brooklyn Beckham, a scion of wealth and privilege, does indeed have such a social media platform – with no fewer than 16.4 million followers, to boot. And last night he decided to tell the world about one of the worst-kept secrets in showbusiness, namely his estrangement from his famous parents David and Victoria.

Alexander Larman

In defence of Robbie Williams

From our UK edition

I write this piece while listening to an album that I suspect will be widely regarded as one of the best of the year. That it is by Robbie Williams may come as a surprise to many. After all, Williams has often been mocked as a cruise ship entertainer who got lucky, a Butlins redcoat who has somehow become Britain’s most successful solo pop star. If his new album, Britpop, goes to number one in the charts – and he deliberately delayed its release from last autumn so that it could avoid being trampled by Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl – it will be his sixteenth chart-topper, thereby setting a record that even the Beatles were unable to equal.

Monday

Alexander Larman

Is Prince Harry ready for his privacy trial showdown?

From our UK edition

When Prince Harry makes one of his comparatively rare returns to Britain, he tends to exhibit one of two personae. The first is the old Harry, the popular, light-hearted figure who possesses a common touch that most of his family sorely lack and who is consequently much sought-after for charitable functions and flesh-pressing. This side of him was on display when he last visited the country in September. The second, however, is the stern, grim-faced figure who is always on the hunt for some institution to rail against. His targets are numerous and include the government, newspaper publishers and, of course, his own family, who get it in the neck on a regular basis in the most public and embarrassing of fashions.

Friday

Alexander Larman

Good riddance, Kathleen Kennedy

The news that the producer Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down with immediate effect as president of Lucasfilm, to be replaced by Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, may not sound especially consequential; film executives come and go all the time, and their arrival and departure is normally only of interest to those in the movie business. Yet Kennedy, who has run Lucasfilm – home of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and a great deal more – since 2012, and been in sole charge after the departure of the company’s founder George Lucas the same year, is the most consequential Hollywood studio head of the past couple of decades. And, her millions of detractors would argue, the most destructive, too.

kathleen kennedy

Wednesday

Alexander Larman

Take a trip to the bone temple

28 Years Later, Danny Boyle’s ace return to the 28 Days later series, was one of last year’s most pleasant cinematic surprises. Combining serious thrills with creeping suspense and a light dusting of social commentary, it also ended with one hell of a cliffhanger, as its protagonist, Alfie Williams’s young Spike, found himself in the hands of a gang of psychotic Jimmy Savile-styled desperadoes, led by Jack O’Connell’s sinister Lord Jimmy Crystal. Audiences were keen to see how Candyman and Hedda director Nia DaCosta could pick up the pieces in the next installment, The Bone Temple – once again scripted by Alex Garland – and how the narrative threads sewn into the first picture might continue.

Tuesday

Alexander Larman

Claire Foy and the future of celebrity activism

When the actress Claire Foy – still best known for her deservedly award-winning performance in The Crown – was interviewed recently by Harper’s Bazaar to promote her new film H is for Hawk, an adaptation of the Helen MacDonald memoir, she must have expected an easy ride. Estimable title though Harper’s Bazaar undoubtedly is, few would confuse it with a hard-hitting investigative magazine. Yet Foy made some remarks that have blown open the whole vexed question of what the point is of actors getting involved in public discourse, and whether they should, instead, stick to reading other people’s lines. Foy said, when asked about her public opinions, that it was not her place to sound off on social or wider issues.

claire foy

Monday

Alexander Larman

The steady-as-she-goes Golden Globes

So, One Battle After Another is going to sweep the Oscars. That was fairly certain before last night’s Golden Globe awards, but it is now essentially guaranteed. Paul Thomas Anderson’s loose Thomas Pynchon adaptation won best film in the musical/comedy category, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay – over the hotly tipped Sinners, which had been expected to win the award as a consolation prize – and Best Supporting Actress for the scene-stealing Teyana Taylor as the superbly named Perfidia Beverly Hills. Those of us who would have liked to see Amy Madigan take that award for her indelibly creepy performance in Weapons will have been disappointed, but in truth the Globes threw up a modest number of surprises.

golden globes
Alexander Larman

A royal reunion is unlikely if Meghan returns to Britain

From our UK edition

The name ‘Meghan’ bears a certain resemblance to ‘Me Again’. If the recent newspaper reports are to be believed, ‘Me Again’ is precisely what Britain is to be treated to, in the form of the return of the Duchess of Sussex to these shores this summer. It has not yet been confirmed whether Prince Harry’s taxpayer-funded protection will be restored imminently; nevertheless, the mood music in the Sussex camp has been sufficiently confident for a story suggesting just that to be leaked to the media. If this does come to pass, it looks increasingly likely that Meghan Markle will be returning to Britain in a few months for the first time since September 2022.

Saturday

Alexander Larman

What is the Stranger Things backlash?

The fifth series of Stranger Things may have ended with David Bowie’s iconic song ‘Heroes’ being played – an appropriate piece of serendipity, given that Bowie departed the world ten years ago – but there has been very little heroic about the rest of the conclusion to one of the biggest shows on television. Such was the disappointment with the underwhelming finale, ‘The Rightside Up’ that fan chatter suggested that there was a ‘secret’ ninth episode of the show that would be released and make everything right, undoing all the hackneyed plot developments and lazy writing in the process. The ninth episode, unsurprisingly, did not materialise, and anger continued to grow in the process.

Friday

Alexander Larman

Channel 5’s Huw Edwards drama should never have been made

From our UK edition

You'd be forgiven for thinking that the disgraced Huw Edwards would never again appear on our TV screens. But Channel 5 has announced that the ex-BBC newsreader and convicted paedophile will be the subject of a drama, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. This shameless show should never be broadcast. The ex-BBC newsreader and convicted paedophile will be the subject of a drama, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards Edwards will be played by Martin Clunes in the production that has been a year in the making and is expected to be released later this year. Going from Men Behaving Badly to another behaving very badly indeed seems something of a stretch for an actor generally best known for light comedy.

Thursday

Alexander Larman

The great, underestimated Richard Yates

When the novelist Richard Yates, who was born in February 1926, was interviewed by the magazine Ploughshares in 1972, the conversation turned to the neglected writers of his generation. Yates, a man of remarkable acuity and taste, was typically incisive about the likes of Evan S. Connell, Brian Moore and Edward Lewis Wallant – and, just to show that he was no misogynist, he saluted Gina Berriault, saying that she was “an absolutely first-class talent who has somehow been left almost entirely out of the mainstream. She hasn’t quit writing yet, either, and I hope she never will.” If these words struck something of a cautionary note, then Yates’s conclusion was even more concerning.