Juliet and Romeo strains to be meaningful but never earns its emotional crescendos

By Emily Rowe, Lecturer in Early Modern Literature, King's College London

The new musical film Juliet and Romeo arrives on screen with lavish visuals, saccharine pop songs and a reworked Shakespearean plot that tries to dazzle. With its vivid colour palette and dreamy masquerade aesthetic, this is Verona as filtered through a Eurovision lens: glittering, melodramatic and frequently overwrought.

Writer and director Timothy Scott Bogart and composer Evan Kidd join a lineage of Romeo and Juliet adaptations that blend music with spectacle. Who could forget Harold Perrineau’s drag rendition of Young…

Read complete article

~	How visionary Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson changed music – and my life

~	‘He stopped me from talking to male colleagues’: new research shows how domestic violence so often starts with isolation and control

~	Trump may try to strike a deal with AUKUS review, but here’s why he won’t sink it

~	What’s the potential effect of sanctions on Israeli ministers? Here’s what my research shows

~	After weeks of confusion and chaos, Tasmania heads back to the polls on July 19

~	Why are sunsets so pretty in winter? There’s a simple explanation

~	A new book seeks to understand what old age is for, but is this the right question?

~	What family firms like Rothschild can teach Canadian businesses about resilience

~	The leading risk factor for cancer isn’t what you think

~	‘Microaggressions’ can fly under the radar in schools. Here’s how to spot them and respond