Film
Wallace Shawn's Designated Mourner feels like watching the news
Pity the aesthete, the flâneur and the opera-goer. Those who find the contents of their own heads so dull and…
If you didn’t love Jansson already, you will now: Tove reviewed
Tove is a biopic of the Finnish artist Tove Jansson who, most famously, created the Moomins, that gentle family of…
An unrewarding slog: Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round reviewed
Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round has been heaped with awards: an Oscar, a Bafta, it swept the European Film Awards. And…
Harry Potter meets Ikea: Backlot Cafe reviewed
Harry Potter is a fictional orphan locked in a cupboard by his aunt and uncle, after which he discovers a…
Tucci and Firth are like Eric and Ernie but sexier: Supernova reviewed
At the time Supernova went into production one headline read: ‘What did we do to deserve a love story starring…
Blissfully colourful, fun and basic: In The Heights reviewed
In The Heights is an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit stage musical — the one he wrote before Hamilton —…
Two hours of kitsch tomfoolery: Amélie at the Criterion reviewed
The latest movie to turn into a musical is Amélie, from 2001, about a Parisian do-gooder or ‘godmother of the…
Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of dementia will undo you: The Father reviewed
The Father is an immensely powerful film about dementia starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was asleep in his bed in…
Remembering David Storey, giant of postwar English culture
Jasper Rees remembers David Storey, giant of postwar English culture and wry teller of tales, whose newly published memoir is perhaps his most remarkable work
Children will love it – alas: Peter Rabbit 2 reviewed
The cinemas finally reopened this week and what better way to celebrate than with Peter Rabbit 2? You’ll probably be…
A window on a fascinatingly weird place: Some Kind of Heaven reviewed
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
Nomadland won multiple Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, and if there’d been an award for Best…
Audiences don’t want woke: comic-book writer Mark Millar interviewed
James Delingpole talks to comic-book writer Mark Millar about the joy of Catholicism, our sorry lack of male action figures and his childhood superpower
Kubrick's Napoleon – the greatest movie never made
Theo Zenou on Kubrick’s fascination with the fallen Emperor
It will do your head in: Black Bear review
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
Promising Young Woman is a rape-revenge-thriller that has already proved divisive but is a wonderfully clever, darkly funny, stomach-knotting —…
The Mozarts of ad music
Richard Bratby meets the hidden men and women composing melodies to make you buy
Riveting and heartbreaking: Sound of Metal reviewed
The multi-Oscar-nominated Sound of Metalstars Riz Ahmed as a heavy-metal drummer whose life is in freefall after losing his hearing.…
Zippy and stylish, with a glint of mischief: William Forsythe’s The Barre Project reviewed
In the early Noughties there was a Hollywood subgenre (by which I mean a few cult movies, each with terrible…
The fossil-hunting is more interesting than the sex: Ammonite reviewed
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
The premise for the unsnappily titled Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is this: a Hungarian…
Awards season loses its shine when no one can go to the cinema
The inevitable listlessness of this year’s awards season
Why are the Oscars such a lousy guide to great cinema?
Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland,predicted to win big at this year’s Oscars, is not a terrible film. It’s a slight, sentimental Grapes…
The best film of the year: Judas and the Black Messiah reviewed
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
Raya and the Last Dragon has everything you might want nowadays from a major Disney film — feisty kick-ass heroine,…
