Deborah Ross

Extraordinary: The Seed of the Sacred Fig reviewed

8 February 2025 9:00 am

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is by the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and all you need to know is…

Miserable but compelling: Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths reviewed

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Pansy is meant to be a sympathetic figure, but I felt sorrier for those who had to put up with…

It’s no Citizen Kane: The Brutalist reviewed

25 January 2025 9:00 am

The Brutalist, which is a fictional account of a Jewish-Hungarian architect in postwar America, has attracted a great deal of…

As good a Dylan biopic as you’ll ever get: A Complete Unknown reviewed

18 January 2025 9:00 am

It doesn’t have anything new to say, which is right. If you could figure Dylan out, it would all be…

Jolie good: Maria reviewed

11 January 2025 9:00 am

Maria is a film by Pablo Larrain, who appears to have a soft spot for the psychodramas of legendary women…

Fools will love it: We Live in Time reviewed

4 January 2025 9:00 am

We Live in Time is a rom-com (of sorts), starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. They have terrific chemistry and…

Guadagnino is a true master of erotic desire: Queer reviewed

14 December 2024 9:00 am

Queer, which is based on the novella by William S. Burroughs, is the latest film directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call…

The best film about a woman turning into a dog that you’ll see this year

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Nightbitch stars Amy Adams as a mother who is so full of rage about her loss of identity it makes…

Smart, taut and stunning: Conclave reviewed

30 November 2024 9:00 am

Conclave is a papal thriller based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris and it stars a magnificent Ralph Fiennes.…

Yes, Anora is as good as everyone says it is

23 November 2024 9:00 am

Sean Baker’s Anora won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and is hotly tipped to win big at the Oscars and…

Is it meant to be a comedy? Gladiator II reviewed

16 November 2024 9:00 am

It’s nearly 25 years since Ridley Scott’s Gladiator came out and you’ve probably been wondering what happened to the little…

Hugh Grant is an amazingly convincing villain – who’d have thought it?

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Heretic is the latest horror film from writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quite Place) and stars Hugh Grant,…

Great knits – shame about the film: Almodovar’s The Room Next Door reviewed

26 October 2024 9:00 am

The Room Next Door is Pedro Almodovar’s first film in the English language and if it is his last we…

Serious and gripping – though Trump disagrees: The Apprentice reviewed

19 October 2024 9:00 am

The Apprentice is a dramatised biopic of Donald Trump, covering his early business years. He has called the film ‘FAKE…

Joker: Folie à Deux makes me long for the Joker of my childhood

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Joker (2019), and you have to admire Todd Phillips for returning with…

Melodramatic body-horror – but I don’t regret seeing it: A Different Man reviewed

5 October 2024 9:00 am

Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is ‘a darkly comic psychological thriller’ that plays like an inverted Beauty and the Beast.…

Baffling and plainly nuts – but worth it: Megalopolis reviewed

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Megalopolis, which draws parallels between the fall of the Roman empire and modern-day America, is a film by Francis Ford…

When is anyone going to properly appreciate what critics have to go through?

14 September 2024 9:00 am

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

7 September 2024 9:00 am

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

31 August 2024 9:00 am

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

24 August 2024 9:00 am

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

27 July 2024 9:00 am

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

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Twisters is an action-disaster film that follows ‘storm-chasers’ and is so relentless in its own pursuit of tornadoes that plot,…