Film

Modest fun: Red, White & Royal Blue reviewed

12 August 2023 9:00 am

Red, White & Royal Blue is a rom-com based on the LGBT bestselling novel by Casey McQuiston. Nope, me neither,…

The magic is missing in this remake: Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy reviewed

6 May 2023 9:00 am

Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney’s latest live-action remake (the animated version was in 1953) and it’s quite the sombre…

Formulaic and untrue: Bank of Dave reviewed

18 January 2023 10:00 pm

Bank of Dave is the ‘true(ish)’ story, as this puts it, of Dave Fishwick, the Burnley businessman who wanted to…

Everyone involved should be in prison: Netflix's Persuasion reviewed

16 July 2022 9:00 am

You may already have read early reviews of Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion saying it’s ‘the worst adaptation ever’…

Didn't deserve an Oscar: Coda reviewed

2 April 2022 9:00 am

This year the Oscar for best film went to the drama Coda– ‘Child of Deaf Adults’ – but the ceremony…

Staggeringly confident and powerful: After Love reviewed

12 February 2022 9:00 am

As there are no stand-out films this week aside from Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Death on the Nile — is…

Benedict Cumberbatch is spectacular: The Power of the Dog reviewed

20 November 2021 9:00 am

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog could also be called The Power of Benedict Cumberbatch, as he’s so spectacular.…

Exquisite to look at, strangely tense and wholly riveting: Netflix's Passing reviewed

30 October 2021 9:00 am

Passing is Rebecca Hall’s adaptation of the Nella Larsen novella (1929) about two biracial women, one of whom chooses to…

Grimy, echt and gripping: Netflix's The Forgotten Battle reviewed

30 October 2021 9:00 am

The Forgotten Battle is a Dutch feature film commemorating the desperate and relatively little-known Allied assault on the Scheldt estuary…

If it were any better, it would actually be a terrible pity: Diana – The Musical reviewed

9 October 2021 9:00 am

This week, an excellent film (Moving On) and a film that isn’t at all, but is entirely worth it as…

A window on a fascinatingly weird place: Some Kind of Heaven reviewed

15 May 2021 9:00 am

Some Kind of Heaven is a documentary set in The Villages, Florida, which is often described as a ‘Disneyland for…

This film deserves all the awards and praise: Nomadland reviewed

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Nomadland won multiple Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, and if there’d been an award for Best…

It will do your head in: Black Bear review

24 April 2021 9:00 am

Black Bear is one of those indie dramas that is meta on so many levels you can either sit with…

Clever, funny and stomach-knotting: Promising Young Woman reviewed

17 April 2021 9:00 am

Promising Young Woman is a rape-revenge-thriller that has already proved divisive but is a wonderfully clever, darkly funny, stomach-knotting —…

A work of extraordinary delicacy, poignancy and tenderness: Minari reviewed

3 April 2021 9:00 am

In the summer of 2018, when film-maker Lee Isaac Chung was on the brink of giving up filmmaking and had…

The fossil-hunting is more interesting than the sex: Ammonite reviewed

27 March 2021 9:00 am

Ammonite is writer-director Francis Lee’s second film after God’s Own Country, one of the best films of 2017, and possibly…

Spellbinding: Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time reviewed

20 March 2021 9:00 am

The premise for the unsnappily titled Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is this: a Hungarian…

The best film of the year: Judas and the Black Messiah reviewed

13 March 2021 9:00 am

Judas and the Black Messiah is a biopic about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, but it’s not your regular biopic…

It'll please small kids, but they're never to be trusted: Raya and the Last Dragon reviewed

6 March 2021 9:00 am

Raya and the Last Dragon has everything you might want nowadays from a major Disney film — feisty kick-ass heroine,…

Contains nothing you couldn't get from Wikipedia or YouTube: Netflix's Pelé reviewed

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Pelé is a two-hour documentary about the great Brazilian footballer — the greatest footballer ever, some would say — who…

Horrible – but in a very fun way: I Care a Lot reviewed

20 February 2021 9:00 am

I Care a Lot is a deliciously dark comic thriller that You’ll Enjoy a Lot. It’s heartless. It’s vicious. It’s…

Predictable, repetitive and exploitative: Run Hide Fight reviewed

13 February 2021 9:00 am

In this line of business you receive many emails from PRs ‘reaching out’ about their particular film, which I really…

This is cinema as car ad, says Geoff Dyer: News of the World reviewed

13 February 2021 9:00 am

It’s a premise with plenty of previous. Children whose parents were murdered by Indians on the frontier of the American…

The Icelandic version was better – and had better knits: Rams reviewed

6 February 2021 9:00 am

Rams is an average film with a better film trying to get out, and you may already have seen that…

Remarkably moving: The Dig reviewed

30 January 2021 9:00 am

Just before the outbreak of the second world war a discovery was made in a riverside field at Sutton Hoo…