Cinema
I’ve never seen a film like it: Ordinary Love reviewed
Ordinary Love stars Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson as a long-married couple whose lives are disrupted when she is diagnosed…
Wildly entertaining Pope-off: The Two Popes reviewed
The Two Popes stars Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce — that’s two reasons to buy a ticket, right there —…
Detailed and devastating: Marriage Story reviewed
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story is a drama about the breakdown of a marriage and it is, at times, devastatingly painful.…
Scorsese at his most leisurely, meandering and engrossing: The Irishman reviewed
The Irishman is Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour epic — a mobster-a-thon, you could say — starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino,…
Scooby Doo with better CGI: Doctor Sleep reviewed
Wheeeere’s Johnny? Nearly 40 years ago Jack Nicholson went berserk in a snowbound Rockies hotel, smashing an axe through a…
The best Terminator film since the first: Terminator Six reviewed
The first Terminator film, which came out in 1984, was a high-concept sci-fi serial killer thriller. You can just imagine…
The Disney sequel that no one wanted is finally here – what a relief! Maleficent: Mistress of Evil reviewed
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the sequel to the 2014 film Maleficent, and it will certainly come as a relief…
Only fitfully funny: Chris Morris’s The Day Shall Come reviewed
The Day Shall Come is a second feature from British satirist Chris Morris and like the first, Four Lions, it…
If you ever want to sleep again, step away from Joker
Judy is in cinemas this week and so is Joker and if you have to choose between the two, then…
You may not wish to kiss the ground when you finally leave the cinema, but I did: The Goldfinch reviewed
The Goldfinch is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Donna Tartt that centres on a great work of…
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…
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,…