Cinema
Wes Anderson’s latest is as hollow as anything AI could come up with
AI is coming for everyone’s jobs, but especially mine. There is absolutely no good reason for The Spectator to keep…
Cinema has reached a nadir in the new Mission: Impossible
You have to time your arrival at cinemas carefully if you want to avoid the high-volume, rapid-fire edits of trailers…
Tantalisingly ambiguous – or just plain baffling: Hallow Road reviewed
An 80-minute film which for almost all of the time features two people in a car mightn’t sound particularly ambitious.…
What did Leni Riefenstahl know?
Leni Riefenstahl: what are we to make of her? What did she know? Often described as ‘Hitler’s favourite filmmaker’, she…
Confusing but highly watchable: Slade in Flame reviewed
Slade in Flame was glam-rock band Slade’s first foray into film – and also their last. It was a flop…
Dry retelling of the Odyssey – but Fiennes is ripped: The Return reviewed
Uberto Pasolini’s The Return stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in a retelling of the last section of Homer’s Odyssey.…
Never fully comes to life, alas: Mr Burton reviewed
Mr Burton is a biopic of Richard Burton’s early years and an origins story, if you like. It stars Harry…
I genuinely feared The End would never end
Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End is a ‘post-apocalyptic musical’ starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon that is being sold as a…
Who wants a ‘girl boss’ Snow White?
Disney’s new Snow White is a live-action remake of the beloved 1937 classic that was cinema’s first full-length animated feature…
Cartoonish, sub-Armando Iannucci comic caper: Mickey 17 reviewed
Mickey 17 is the latest film from the South Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho, who won an Oscar for Parasite and…
Pamela Anderson is a thing of wonder: The Last Showgirl reviewed
The Last Showgirl stars Pamela Anderson as a Las Vegas dancer who has reached the end of her career (too…
Proudly dumb – and all the better for it: The Monkey reviewed
The monkey is an organ-grinder’s monkey toy. Wind up the key jutting out of its back, and its lips will…
Strangely moving: Bridget Jones – Mad About the Boy reviewed
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the fourth outing for our heroine as played by Renée Zellweger and I…
Extraordinary: The Seed of the Sacred Fig reviewed
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
Pansy is meant to be a sympathetic figure, but I felt sorrier for those who had to put up with…
A classy potboiler – but it’s no Citizen Kane: The Brutalist reviewed
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
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
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
We Live in Time is a rom-com (of sorts), starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. They have terrific chemistry and…
‘Was I cast because you couldn’t get anyone else?’ Cate Blanchett discusses Rumours
At last, a film about the G7. There have been more movies than you can shake a stick at set…
Guadagnino is a true master of erotic desire: Queer reviewed
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
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
Conclave is a papal thriller based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris and it stars a magnificent Ralph Fiennes.…
