Deborah Ross

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 —…

Riveting and heartbreaking: Sound of Metal reviewed

10 April 2021 9:00 am

The multi-Oscar-nominated Sound of Metalstars Riz Ahmed as a heavy-metal drummer whose life is in freefall after losing his hearing.…

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…

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…

So good I watched it twice: Netflix's The White Tiger reviewed

23 January 2021 9:00 am

The White Tiger is adapted from the Booker-prize winning novel (2008) by Aravind Adiga. It is directed by Ramin Bahrani…

The acting is very Scooby-Doo: Blithe Spirit reviewed

16 January 2021 9:00 am

The comedy Blithe Spiritwas written by Noël Coward in 1941. It is, essentially, about a séance going wrong and a…

Riveting: Dear Comrades! reviewed

9 January 2021 9:00 am

Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades! is based on a true event and set in 1962 in the Russian city of Novocherkassk…

Even I, a bitter and cynical middle-aged woman, felt stirred: Sylvie’s Love reviewed

19 December 2020 9:00 am

Sylvie’s Love is an exquisitely styled, swooning, old-school, period Hollywood romance and while it has been described as ‘glib’ in…

Buttercup the cow was so convincing I felt quite moved: Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed

12 December 2020 9:00 am

This pantomime was filmed by ‘legendary Blue Peter presenter’ Peter Duncan in his back garden over the summer. It was…

A hard watch, but ultimately a rewarding one: County Lines reviewed

5 December 2020 9:00 am

County Lines is the kind of social realism that the British do so well, if not too well. In other…

It’ll blow you away: Collective reviewed

28 November 2020 9:00 am

When I recommend this documentary to people, telling them it follows the journalistic investigation into a fire that broke out…

Like a never-ending episode of The Jerry Springer Show: Hillbilly Elegy reviewed

21 November 2020 9:00 am

Hillbilly Elegy is an adaptation of the best-selling memoir, published in 2016, by J.D. Vance and it’s quite a story.…

A gripping portrait: Billie reviewed

14 November 2020 9:00 am

This documentary about Billie Holiday is transfixing. Not just because it’s about Billie Holiday — I am not into jazz…

Every scene Sophia Loren isn’t in feels like a wasted one: The Life Ahead reviewed

7 November 2020 9:00 am

The Life Ahead stars Sophia Loren, and if there is one reason to see The Life Ahead it is this:…

You won’t be able to look away: Shirley reviewed

31 October 2020 9:00 am

This week, two electrifying performances in two excellent films rather than two mediocre performances in the one mediocre film —…

You're not going to get a better spin on bromance – brobably: The Climb reviewed

24 October 2020 9:00 am

The Climb is, essentially, a bickering bromance as two longtime pals bicker bromantically down the years, and it doesn’t sound…