Cinema
Perfection: The Duke reviewed
The Duke is an old-fashioned British comedy caper that is plainly lovely and a joy. Based on a true story,…
May put you off Chaplin for ever: The Real Charlie Chaplin reviewed
Charlie Chaplin is one of the most famous movie stars ever and is certainly the most famous movie star with…
Sounds ghastly but it's somehow riveting: The Souvenir – Part II reviewed
The Souvenir: Part II is Joanna Hogg’s follow-up to The Souvenir (2019) but it’s not your regular sequel. It’s not…
Unpredictable, delicious and flamboyantly stunning: Parallel Mothers reviewed
Pedro Almodovar’s latest is a film about identity, secrets, lies, buried skeletons, real and metaphorical. But what you mainly need…
Manipulative and sentimental but also affectionate: Belfast reviewed
After Artemis Fowl and Murder on the Orient Express you may have had concerns about Kenneth Branagh ever helming a…
I won't ever look at cows the same way again: Andrea Arnold's Cow reviewed
The latest film from Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank, American Honey) is a feature-length documentary about a cow, starring…
The heat is on
Boiling Point is a single-take drama set during a busy service at a London restaurant and it has to be…
Entirely gripping: The Lost Daughter reviewed
The Lost Daughter is an adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel about motherhood that says, quite ferociously: it’s complicated. And:…
Why? Spielberg's remake of West Side Story reviewed
When you first hear that a remake of West Side Story is on the cards, it’s: God, why? Why would…
Nostalgic, episodic and Joanna Hogg-ish: Hand of God reviewed
Hand of God is the latest film from Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian filmmaker who won an Oscar with The Great…
Worth seeing for Lady Gaga but little else: House of Gucci reviewed
Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci has been much anticipated. The cast is stellar. It’s based on a luscious, true story…
Lumpily scripted and poorly plotted: Cry Macho reviewed
Clint Eastwood is 91; Cry Macho may well be his last film. Or maybe not. He has, after all, been…
A riveting cheese dream of a film: Spencer reviewed
Go see Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, which stars Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and the next day you will wonder: did…
You'll tire of the wackiness and the whimsy: The French Dispatch reviewed
The American filmmaker Wes Anderson has an apartment in Paris and has always yearned to make a French movie but…
Hang in there for the gripping final half an hour: The Last Duel reviewed
Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is set in the 14th century and is a tale of rivalry and rape told…
A compelling mess: No Time to Die reviewed
These days, James Bond can no longer just be the main character in the Bond films. He’s also had to…
Delivers in spades: The Many Saints of Newark reviewed
So how exactly did Tony Soprano become a New Jersey mob boss? It’s 1967 and young Anthony is struggling to…
A pep-talk nightmare: Everybody's Talking About Jamie reviewed
It’s a hard heart that doesn’t warm to the musical drama Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. I don’t have a hard…
Intensely powerful: Herself reviewed
Herself is an intensely powerful film about domestic violence that isn’t Nil By Mouth or The Killer Inside Me or…
A fantastical fever dream that's hard to follow or enjoy: Annette reviewed
Leos Carax is the director whose films have always been wilfully odd. Ron and Russell Mael (the brothers from the…
The genius of Basic Instinct
Our occasional series on cinema’s most underrated films arrives at what many have considered the peak of misogynistic trash. We’re…
An intensely quiet and soulful performance from Nicolas Cage: Pig reviewed
What use does a fallen and corrupted world have for a man of integrity? This was not the question I…
The best Cold War thriller I've seen that I fully understand: The Courier reviewed
The Courier is a Cold War spy thriller and the prospect of a Cold War spy thriller always makes my…
Mesmerising and monstrous: @zola reviewed
The distinction between on and offline life blurred long ago. The greatest spats, sexual self-fashionings and mad soliloquies now unfurl…
I laughed quite a lot when I shouldn’t have: Old reviewed
The biggest challenge in reviewing M. Night Shyamalan’s Old lies in describing its central idea without making the film sound…
