Culture

Should ‘Orbital’ have won The Booker Prize?

Laurence Cooke reviews Samantha Harvey's 'Orbital', the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize.

Books Laurence Cooke -

Fontaines DC and the (re) rise of indie Sleaze

I recently took to my finsta to post a story claiming that the Fontaines...

Culture Kiaya Phillips -

Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

My ticket to see Julie resembled an invite to a birthday party, promising a...

Culture Adam Saxon -

Who is Oxford’s Coffee Shop Artist? In conversation with Julia Whatley

Julia sees herself as the conduit through which an artistic vision is realised. Where does this vision come from? “Somewhere else.”

Art Florence Wolter -

Latest

Cherwell Recommends: University Reads

Trinity 2021 will see at least a significant portion of the student body return to ‘normal Oxford’, a loose collection of memories, activities, and...

Why we should all get a tattoo (or stop hating on those that do)

In a city where every other person walking down the street is clad in either a Barbour jacket or an overcoat, and seems to...

Portrayals of Royalty: Film vs Reality

It has always amused people to produce performances centring on the lives of their rulers – our most famous entertainer, William Shakespeare, wrote ten...

‘Blanched and pureed’: what does globalisation do to world music?

"Is the hit single really a triumph of Korean music and the result of successful diversification of the globalised music industry? Or is it an omen of homogenised world music, blanched and pureed under Anglophone influence?" Coral Kim discusses whether BTS disprove the model of "l'exception française".

‘That’s So Fetch’: Teen Movie Musicals

"Musicals centred around teenagers are destined to become ‘cult’ shows: their audience is intrinsically niche, and, due to their youth, unlikely to be able to sustain commercially and critically successful runs, leading these shows to fan-centric cult status." Katie Kirkpatrick analyses how teen films are journeying from Hollywood to Broadway and the West End.

49 Years of Matrimony

Agnes need not have walked in on them fucking to know what was going on.

Seaspiracy: vegan propaganda or important warning?

Seaspiracy only offers one drastic solution: eliminate fish from our diet unless you are one of the 120 million who directly depend on it.

The Common DNA of the Snyder Cut and First Cow

To examine these films side by side would be insane. But insane ideas aren’t always bad ones, and I was curious whether Snyder might be on to something with this comparison.

WATCH3WORDS: Palm Springs – Exuberant.Poolside.Mayhem.

'By taking the well-known Groundhog Day storyline and injecting it with a healthy dose of sun, fun, and drug-fuelled nihilism, Palm Springs makes one of the dullest formats in the book suddenly enjoyable.'

The Last Bookshop: Giving old books a new life

Jill Cushen talks to Last Bookshop owner Jake Pumphrey about his unconventional approach to the book business.

Music for springtime

"Start your day off with this dance track and you can’t go wrong." Flora Dyson picks out some selections to help keep you company during the final stretch of restrictions and drive you into the spring and summer months.

Checkmate or blunder? Adapting “The Queen’s Gambit” for the musical stage

"To adapt such a complex series into a musical would be to severely undermine the weight of each of these topics and in turn, the production would do no justice to the character of Beth Harmon and the communities she represents." Beth Ranasinghe considers the obstacles in the path of adapting the hit Netflix show for the musical stage.

The Role of a Lifetime? It’s Never Too Late

While actors profit from an ability to be malleable, it is often the case that they are stuck playing the roles they are ‘right...

Journals or diaries? The value of inward reflection

The boundaries between diary and journal are blurry, with the terms frequently being used interchangeably. Little attention is paid to the differences between the...

Nomadland review: questioning American individualism

The ideals of rugged American individualism are a powerful national myth, so much so that when they are questioned, it can feel like an...

Review: Romeo and Juliet at the National Theatre

"Why stage Romeo and Juliet a year into a global pandemic? Godwin’s primary response to the pandemic appears to be the focus on touch in the production: it reminds us of the power of human contact, and the depth of feeling that can only be experienced in person." Katie Kirkpatrick reviews the new National Theatre production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.

Culture

Should ‘Orbital’ have won The Booker Prize?

Fontaines DC and the (re) rise of indie Sleaze

Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

Who is Oxford’s Coffee Shop Artist? In conversation with Julia Whatley

Follow us

Support Student Journalism

Explore

Follow us

More