Film
Will I be sidelined by AI?
I’ve been head down for the past few weeks, preparing for my one-man show. The title is catchy – Nigel…
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…
Make Bond great again
One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed…
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…
The thankless art of the librettist
Next week, after the première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen, the cast and conductor will take their bow. All…
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 feel-good classic: The Armie HammerTime Podcast reviewed
Relive with me and enjoy again the downfall of Armand Douglas Hammer. If you remember, Hammer’s Hollywood career had been…
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…
The cinema is the worst place to watch a film
I’ve always loved cinema, but hardly ever cinemas. It’s no surprise to me that movie-going audiences are in decline. Ticket…
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.…
‘When a work lands the excitement is physical’: William Kentridge interviewed
Watching William Kentridge’s film Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot is like being submerged inside his mind, inside the coffee pot maybe.…
Yes, Anora is as good as everyone says it is
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
It’s nearly 25 years since Ridley Scott’s Gladiator came out and you’ve probably been wondering what happened to the little…
Too cautious and wildly over the top at the same time: Paddington in Peru reviewed
Toy Story or The Godfather? Which way would Paddington in Peru go? Would the third instalment of a much-cherished series…
Hugh Grant is an amazingly convincing villain – who’d have thought it?
Heretic is the latest horror film from writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quite Place) and stars Hugh Grant,…
Serious and gripping – though Trump disagrees: The Apprentice reviewed
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
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
Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is ‘a darkly comic psychological thriller’ that plays like an inverted Beauty and the Beast.…
