Why Everything Everywhere All at Once deserves every Oscar going
The anti-superhero film encapsulates our dissatisfied, lonely age with wit and originality.
ByFilm reviews
Explore the world of cinema with our selection of film reviews, providing in-depth analysis, thoughtful critiques, and captivating insights into the latest releases and timeless classics.
Allelujah is Alan Bennett’s ode to the NHS
His 2018 play, set in a Yorkshire geriatric ward, is now a starry movie – with a pandemic-focused final act.
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How The Fabelmans, a box-office bomb in the US, became an instant classic in France
French critics have hailed Steven Spielberg’s belated coming-of-age movie as a “magisterial” and “Truffaldian” masterwork.
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Lukas Dhont’s Close explores the abrupt end of boyhood
This is a tender portrait of an innocent, intimate relationship between two best friends. So why must it veer into…
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The degradation of Marilyn Monroe
In death as in life, the actress has been used, abused and commodified. Netflix’s film Blonde is just the latest…
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Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin: a brilliantly nasty Irish fable
The director reunites Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in a timeless film full of heartbreaking sunsets and superb knitwear.
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Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale is dismal, claustrophobic and sometimes cruel
Brendan Fraser’s performance as an obese shut-in could win him an Oscar, but this bleak, suffocating film is hard to…
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Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is a major and personal work
The director’s 34th feature – and the first to turn the camera on himself – ranks as one of his…
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How Women Talking reimagines the rape plot
Cinematic narratives of sexual assault are so often formulaic, clichéd and depressing. Sarah Polley’s film asks: what if there was…
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On the “war kitsch” of All Quiet On The Western Front
Edward Berger’s film of the novel has been lauded across the world. But in Germany it has met with negative…
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How Joyland was deemed an “un-Islamic” love story
Sadim Sadiq’s film about a married man and a trans woman was censored in Pakistan – but has won acclaim…
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Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a spectacular mess
This take on the dark side of 1930s Hollywood is full of dazzling set pieces – but collapses under their…
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Top Gun: Maverick and the politics of the action hero
In its Reaganite military pomp, Top Gun seemed to mark the end of an era – but a new sequel…
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Triangle of Sadness is part satire of the super-rich, part disaster movie
Ruben Östlund’s second Palme d’Or-winning film charts a crisis on a mega-yacht – and appears to endorse what it’s supposed…
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Moonage Daydream is a lavish and loving profile of David Bowie
In Brett Morgen’s new unconventional documentary, there are no facts, no dates, and a lot of the Starman himself.
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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande: the joy of paid sex
Emma Thompson stars in a touching celebration of an older woman’s erotic discovery.
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Living: Kazuo Ishiguro’s ode to Akira Kurosawa
The novelist’s moving new film draws on a Japanese master for its portrait of terminal Englishness.
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Why the father-daughter drama Aftersun deserves all the awards
This story of an 11-year-old (Frankie Corio) and her dad (Paul Mescal) is a moving, memorable and astonishingly accomplished debut.
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Tár is a crafty, cryptic take on art and morality in the online age
Cate Blanchett stars as a master composer caught in a #MeToo scandal in Todd Field’s genre-bending film.
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Why Baz Luhrmann’s biopic fails to capture the real Elvis Presley
This conventional, sanitised version of the singer’s life is an endless highlight reel, with no room for the unsavoury or…
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