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Culture

Gladiator II: A lack-lustre return to Rome

With Gladiator II, Ridley Scott returns to the streets of imperial Rome not in triumph, but to decidedly muted applause.

Review: Moth – ‘An unabashed, piercing piece of theatre’  

An acute attention to detail marks Moth as a standout in the world of student theatre.

Review: The Outrun

The Outrun Review: Choosing recovery in a wild place

Defiance: Racial Injustice, Police Brutality, A Sister’s Fight for the Truth by Janet Alder

At Oxford’s Wesley Memorial Church, Janet Alder offered a harrowing and unflinching account of resilience in the face of systemic injustice.

Review: Making the Weather: Six Politicians Who Shaped Modern Britain by Vernon Bogdanor

Six essays are included here, one for each Carlylean “great man”, covering biographical and ideological context as well as political analysis.

Cricket jumpers at the club? What Oxford students are really wearing

Perhaps style at Oxford is ultimately about learning how not to let the mask slip.

Review: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore – ‘A drama of extremes’

John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, working within the already violent genre of the revenge tragedy, has to be one of the most...

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Review: Endgame – ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

The play invites us to laugh at our powerlessness in the face of an apocalyptic fate.

A literary map of Oxford

Look no further for the perfect afternoon dawdle, as you chase the ghosts of literary greats through the town.

Should we judge a book by its cover?

Maybe we need to start giving a chance to the books we wouldn't usually take a second glance at. 

Blood is compulsory: The films of Martin McDonagh

In these uncertain times, his films speak to us more than any traditional morality tale could.

Papicha, power, and cinematic patriotism

How can we say that Papicha is Algerian, if the film was banned without any explanation in the country shortly before its release?

Review: NUTS – ‘a harrowing portrait of deceit and desire’

NUTS works in its ability to keep the audience on edge, waiting for the delicately thin emotional facades the characters have built to come crashing down. 

“Mummy said I’m pretty”: Nepo babies on the runway

What positive changes are the people born into this system going to advocate for?

‘The Pink City’: Ten generations of Jaipur gems

Cherwell visited the Choudhary family's prestigious jewellery collection, now almost 300 years old.

Lessons From A Taiwanese Coaster

I woke up in a world Where everything was beautiful, And nothing hurt.

Ovid meets modern identities in Sap

This will certainly be a loose retelling of Ovid’s Daphne and Apollo, but a dutiful one nonetheless.

Oxford’s first Hip-Hop Society breaks it down

As Oxford's newest musical society explores ways to facilitate a much-needed space for hip-hop music, only one question springs to mind; where have they been all this time?

Review: Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Oxford Playhouse – “Nic Rackow is revelatory” 

This new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a glamorous, engrossing period drama, showing at the Oxford Playhouse, is elevated by its stars into one of the great shows of the year. 

Reinventing the epistolary novel

It looks like, then, the epistolary novel isn’t dying out completely—just reinventing itself.

Review: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Burton’s famous gift for mixing the dark and eerie with the fun and satirical shines through once again.

Oxford Horror Soc, un-earthed

The Oxford Horror Soc, led by Izzy Reese, is Oxford’s first and only society dedicated to the on-screen horror genre.

The com(m)e(n)t

Scrunching it into a ball,  you toss it atmospheric, out of sight. 

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