Oscars
Oscars diary: a jaw-dropping night
Oscar week is intense – and it’s been a while since it’s been as intense. The red carpet is full…
Didn't deserve an Oscar: Coda reviewed
This year the Oscar for best film went to the drama Coda– ‘Child of Deaf Adults’ – but the ceremony…
How to save the Oscars
This Sunday’s Academy Awards will be a litmus test of whether Hollywood can uncouple itself from the political agenda of…
'What do you think the English will say?' Pablo Larrain on his pop horror Diana film
Jasper Rees talks to the Chilean director Pablo Larrain about his new film, Spencer, which makes The Crown look like royalist propaganda
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…
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…
No wonder viewers are boycotting the Oscars
The Oscars are in trouble. People are switching off in their millions. A paltry 9.85m Americans tuned in to the…
It’s time to scrap the Best Actress Oscar award
If you tune in to the Oscars during the early hours of Monday morning, you’ll note – along with sickly…
'Collective' shines a light on Romania's deadly corruption problem
A gripping Romanian documentary has made history as the country’s first film ever to be nominated for an Oscar in…
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.…
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 TV we feared they’d never dare make any more: The Singapore Grip reviewed
‘Art is dead,’ declared Mark Steyn recently. He was referring to the new rules — copied from the Baftas —…
The perfect film for family viewing: Belleville Rendez-Vous revisited
The selection of a film for family viewing is a precise and delicate art, particularly with us all now confined…
Joan Collins: Parasite didn’t deserve to win Best Picture
Recovering from a bad cold and bored to tears by the fare on television, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu (it’s shocking…
Even the Oscars after-parties have lost their shine
Reading about the Oscars this week, I couldn’t help thinking back to a time when they actually meant something. When…
Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscars speech was beyond a joke
The 2020 Oscars will go down in history for two things: Bong Joon-ho’s brilliant film Parasite becoming the first foreign-language…
Oscar-winning ‘Parasite’ reviewed
Bong Joon-ho's award-winning film is satire, thriller, comedy, allegory and horror all rolled into one
Fabulous and enthralling: Parasite reviewed
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Bafta for best foreign film and is up for six Oscars and it is an…
‘If I get an adrenaline rush, something’s gone wrong’: An interview with Free Solo’s Alex Honnold
My husband, usually a cool customer, watched Free Solo from behind his fingers, sometimes jumping up from the sofa and…
Rivetingly moving: Can You Ever Forgive Me? reviewed
Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a true story based on the 2008 memoir of Lee Israel, the writer who…
Bleak, unflinching, oppressive, violent – and magical: Dogman reviewed
Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, which is Italy’s entry for the foreign language Oscar next year, is bleak, unflinching, oppressive, masculine (very),…
The subtly savage world of filmmaker Ruben Ostlund
There is a culty YouTube video shot three years ago on the laptop camera of Ruben Ostlund. It shows the…
I liked Shape of Water well enough but Lady Bird is where it’s at
Lady Bird is a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Greta Gerwig with a plot synopsis that need not detain…
A film that dares to suggest that paedophile priests may be capable of holiness
Damian Thompson admires a Chilean film about paedophile priests which, unlike Spotlight, dares to explore social and psychological complexities
Oscars goodie bags should take a tip from the Roman emperors
There was something admirable about the spirit of careful mockery behind the doggy bags on offer to the finalists in…
