When is anyone going to properly appreciate what critics have to go through?
The Critic is a period drama starring Ian McKellen as a newspaper theatre critic famed for his savagery and it…
A historical abomination: Firebrand reviewed
Firebrand is a period drama about Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr. It is sumptuously photographed – it’s…
The Terminator is still the best
The Terminator is James Cameron’s first film, made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger, is celebrating its 40th anniversary – there’s…
The best film you won’t go and see this week: Widow Clicquot reviewed
August is known as ‘dump month’. It’s when the most forgettable films are released on the grounds that people don’t…
Oblique and long but never boring: About Dry Grasses reviewed
About Dry Grasses is the latest film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan and it had better – I thought…
Impossible to doze through, sadly: Twisters reviewed
Twisters is an action-disaster film that follows ‘storm-chasers’ and is so relentless in its own pursuit of tornadoes that plot,…
Acceptable for a hangover day: Fly Me to the Moon reviewed
Fly Me to the Moon is a romantic comedy starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum set during the 1960s space…
Sly, sexy and smart: The Nature of Love reviewed
The Nature of Love is a French-Canadian film about an academic who considers herself happily married but then encounters a…
Stylish and potent: The Bikeriders reviewed
Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders is based on the book by photojournalist Danny Lyon, first published in 1968, about his years…
Limp and lifeless: Freud’s Last Session reviewed
Freud’s Last Session stars Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode and is a work of speculative fiction asking what would have…
Minor Linklater but fun: Hit Man reviewed
Richard Linklater’s Hit Man is a minor Linklater but a minor Linklater is still an event. Also, after all those…
Craving some alien spider insanity? Sting’s the film for you
This week, a horror film – and with it, a whole load of alien spider insanity. If you’ve been hankering…
Predictable but has a certain French verve: Two Tickets to Greece reviewed
Within the first five minutes of Two Tickets to Greece you know what it is and where it’s going. It’s…
Wonderfully special: La chimera reviewed
La chimera, which, as in English, means something like ‘the unrealisable dream’, is the latest film from Italian writer/director Alice…
Should beautiful actors be allowed to play those with plain faces?
Sometimes I Think About Dying is one of those titles you want to shout back at – what? Only sometimes?…
Better than expected (but my expectations were low): Back to Black reviewed
When the trailer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic of Amy Winehouse, Back to Black, first landed, her fans were gracious. ‘This,’…
You’ll want to claw your face off: Scoop reviewed
Scoop is a dramatised account of the events leading up to the BBC’s 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew. The…
