Cinema
Painful, funny — and with a brilliant twist: The Farewell reviewed
The Farewell is a quiet film that builds and builds and builds into a wonderful exploration of belonging, loss, family…
Extremely predictable and extremely dull: Downton Abbey reviewed
The much-anticipated film version of Downton Abbey has arrived and I suppose you could describe it as the Avengers Assemble…
Is this film saying relationships between teachers and kids are OK? Scarborough reviewed
Scarborough is a small British film but it will give you a very big headache. Its subject is teachers who…
Sensational: The Souvenir reviewed
Joanna Hogg’s films are the antithesis of popcorn entertainment so if it’s not the antithesis of popcorn entertainment that you…
Love me tender
Pedro Almodovar can sometimes be overly flamboyant if not out-and-out nuts — let us never talk about I’m So Excited!…
DiCaprio and Pitt are transfixing: Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood reviewed
Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a sprawling tale set in Hollywood in 1969, against…
Sweet but formulaic: Blinded by Light reviewed
Once upon a time two men sat in a New York bar lamenting the state of Broadway. So they decided…
So sloooooooow: Photograph reviewed
Ritesh Batra had a smash hit with his gentle romance The Lunchbox (2013) and then made a couple of less…
Uncomfortable and distasteful: Marianne & Leonard reviewed
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is Nick Broomfield’s documentary chronicling the muse-artist relationship between Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen.…
Completely and utterly and entirely blown away: the Lion King reviewed
The Lion King is Disney’s photorealistic CGI remake of the beloved, hand-drawn 1994 original that, for many children, offered a…
Steve Bannon will be thrilled by The Brink
The Brink is Alison Klayman’s documentary portrait of Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist (he shaped the ‘America First’…
A good horror film for those who don’t like horror films: Midsommar reviewed
Midsommar is the latest horror film from Ari Aster, who made Hereditary, which starred Toni Collette and was a sensation.…
Funny moments swamped by an intolerable romance: Yesterday reviewed
Yesterday is the latest comedy (with sad bits) from Richard Curtis, directed by Danny Boyle, about an unsuccessful singer-songwriter, Jack,…
Still reliably fab: Toy Story 4 reviewed
Nearly 25 years on from its immaculate birth, Toy Story — like Wagner’s Ring, like John Updike’s Rabbit novels —…
Gripping and heartbreaking but I wanted to know more: Diego Maradona reviewed
Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia’s take on the poor boy from the slums of Buenos Aires who became a footballing god,…
Entitled white men won’t like it – which is why I did: Late Night reviewed
Late Night is a comedy starring Emma Thompson as a chat-show host in America whose ratings are in decline and…
Good hats – shame about the film: Sunset reviewed
Sunset is French-Hungarian writer-director Laszlo Nemes’s follow-up to his astonishing Oscar-winning debut, Son of Saul. This time round the film…
Rocketman is cheesy and clichéd – and all the better for it
There have been claims that Rocketman, the biopic of Elton John, is ‘cheesy’ and ‘clichéd’, but, in truth, you do…
Startlingly fresh and jaggedly strange: Birds of Passage reviewed
You don’t come across too many films from Colombia, but every few years one wriggles its way through the festival…
A mighty resurrection: Amazing Grace reviewed
Each December in Washington DC, the Kennedy Center Honors anoints five performing artists who have contributed to American life. In…
Can Deborah Ross finish her Tolkien review before it fades from memory?
Tolkien is a biopic covering the early life of J.R.R. Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) and it is not especially memorable. I’m…
Not nearly as good as the book: Bel Canto reviewed
Bel Canto is an adaptation of the Ann Patchett novel first published in 2001, which I remembered as being brilliant…
Manspreading, The Movie: Loro reviewed
Fans of Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, The Great Beauty (which won an Oscar) and his HBO series, The Young Pope,…
Jessie Buckley’s performance burns a hole in the screen: Wild Rose reviewed
Jessie Buckley is the actress who, you may remember, was ‘phenomenal’ in Beast — I am quoting myself here so…
Intriguing and beguiling but God know what it adds up to: Happy as Lazzaro reviewed
Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro sets out as a neorealist tale of exploited sharecroppers, but midway through the story it…
