The SLMan Culture List
Craig Fuller
THE PLAY: Red Pitch
One of the hit productions of the Bush Theatre’s 50th anniversary year, Red Pitch returns to the Bush Theatre for three weeks only from 7th September. Original cast members Kedar Williams-Stirling, Emeka Sesay and Francis Lovehall play three football-obsessed teens in director Daniel Bailey’s play. Set in south London, lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave. When a small football pitch has been a home from home, a place you’ve laughed, fought and forged friendships, what happens when it’s under threat? The fast-paced and sharp-edged play by Tyrell Williams tells a powerful story of gentrification versus regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London’s communities.
Visit BushTheatre.co.uk
THE SPORTS READ: Frank & Fearless by Frank Warren
Frank Warren has spent 40 years working with boxing's most colourful and controversial characters. In his long-awaited autobiography, he reflects on the battles he had to win to reach the top and remain there, not least the battle to stay alive after he was shot at point-blank range in an attempted assassination in 1989. Under Warren's careful stewardship, Frank Bruno, Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan and Tyson Fury all became world champions. With cameo appearances from Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Pink Floyd and the Philadelphia mafia, Frank and Fearless is the unflinchingly candid and hard-hitting memoir of Britain's most famous and influential boxing promoter.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
THE CRIME SERIES: Spy Ops
In this intense true crime series, intelligence operatives from MI6 to the CIA share insider stories of spy craft, Cold War campaigns and coups carried out by covert agents. Featuring interviews with real officials, officers and spies.
Visit Netflix.com
THE SPORTS SERIES: Wrestlers
Ohio Valley Wrestling of Louisville, Kentucky, is a regional wrestling gym whose alumni include Brock Lesnar, The Miz, John Cena, Dave Bautista and Randy Orton. Once a proud finishing school for aspiring pro wrestlers, the gym has hit hard times. Owner Al Snow clings to an old-school wrestling philosophy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, but despite the love of a few diehard fans, the gym struggles week to week to stay relevant enough to keep its doors open. Wrestlers chronicles the efforts Al and his band of wannabe pros make as they struggle with their personal ambitions and each other while attempting to come together to save this historic gym.
Visit Netflix.com
THE FILM TO STREAM: El Conde
El Conde is a stylish black-and-white dark comedy-horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion at the cold southern tip of the continent, feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence. After 250 years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. But through an unexpected relationship, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion.
Visit Netflix.com
THE REISSUES: Murakami Collectible Classics Complete Series
Vintage Books has repackaged six novels by of one of popular culture’s most enduring and celebrated writers. Designed to be beautifully mesmerising and evocative of Haruki Murakami’s slice of Japan, these collectable gift editions will appeal to those who have yet to enter the strange and surreal world of his books. All six editions have been redesigned by separate Japanese artists, featuring bold, graphic designs and a wrap-around belly band, and will include new introductions from Murakami himself. The six reissues are Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, A Wild Sheep Chase and Sputnik Sweetheart.
Visit Shop.Penguin.co.uk
THE UFO DEEP-DIVE: Encounters
Explosive revelations from military whistle-blowers of alien encounters, UFOs and clandestine Pentagon programmes, as well as coverage from major news sources, have breathed a fresh urgency into a topic that, for decades, has been relegated to the realm of conspiracy. Encounters is a landmark four-part series that travels the globe to explore four extraordinary true stories of encounters with otherworldly phenomena. Each cinematic and deeply researched episode tells a single story: strange lights in the sky over small-town Texas; submersible space craft haunting a coastal Welsh village; an alien encounter with schoolchildren in Zimbabwe; non-human intelligence reportedly interfering with a nuclear power plant in Japan. As told from the perspective of first-hand experiencers – in the places where the sightings occurred – and guided by cutting-edge scientists and military personnel, the series goes beyond the science to highlight the human impact of these encounters on lives, families and communities.
Visit Netflix.com
THE FINAL SERIES: Top Boy
This month, the critically acclaimed series Top Boy returns to Netflix for one more season – set to be the final chapter that will decide who can reign as Top Boy of Summerhouse. Sully’s actions at the end of the last series have rewritten his business rules with Dushane. As new shared problems arise, everything they've built comes under threat from forces outside and within their empire. Can they coexist by the rules of the road they’ve lived by their whole lives in a world that is changing before them? Or can there only be one Top Boy?
Visit Netflix.com
THE CRIME CAPER: The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman
We can hardly believe it, but this is the fourth novel in the record-breaking, million-copy bestselling Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. On Boxing Day, a dangerous package is smuggled across the English coast. When it goes missing, chaos is unleashed. The body count starts to rise – including someone close to the loveable OAPs of the Thursday Murder Club – as the gang face an impossible search and their most deadly opponents yet. With the clock ticking down and a killer heading to retirement village Cooper’s Chase, has their luck finally run out? And who will be 'The Last Devil To Die'?
Visit Amazon.co.uk
THE COMEBACK STORY: The Saint of Second Chances
Mike Veeck grew up in the shadow of his hustler father, Hall of Fame baseball owner Bill Veeck. The Veeck name became both legendary and notorious in professional baseball as they introduced fun at ballparks – giveaways, theme nights, fireworks and more. But it all came to a screeching halt when Mike blew up his father's career. Exiled from the game he loved, the younger Veeck spent the next few decades clawing his way up from rock bottom, determined to redeem himself. Directed by Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol), narrated by Jeff Daniels, and featuring Charlie Day as a younger Veeck, The Saint of Second Chances is wildly unexpected, full of heart, and keeps you laughing through a comeback story unlike any other.
Visit Netflix.com
THE TRUE-CRIME DOC: Who Killed Jill Dando?
British broadcasting legend Jill Dando was killed by a single bullet on her doorstep in 1999 in broad daylight. Despite one of the biggest murder investigations in British history, her death remains unsolved. This three-part series takes viewers through the twists and the turns of a true crime mystery as her family, friends, journalists, investigators and lawyers wrestle with the question: who killed Jill Dando?
Visit Netflix.com
THE IMMERSIVE READ: North Woods by Daniel Mason
With his fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a highly inventive tale. When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave – only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a beetle: as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realise that the dark, raucous past is very much alive.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
THE BIG-SCREEN EXPERIENCE: Stop Making Sense: The IMAX Live Experience
Stop Making Sense brings Talking Heads at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983 to the screen. Renowned filmmaker Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) captures the band at their exhilarating best in this new and complete restoration for the film's 40th anniversary. The special IMAX Live 40th Anniversary Event will include a screening of the film followed by a live stream Q&A reuniting the four original band members.
Visit IMAX.com
THE ACTION FLICK: Expend4bles
Enjoyed last month’s recommendation The Last Action Heroes? Now’s a chance to see some of the main players on the screen together again. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on, and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defence and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give ‘new blood’ a whole new meaning.
Visit Picturehouses.com
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