Terence Davies’s Benediction is a perfect portrait of an outsider
In this new biopic of the wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon, Davies beautifully renders, in quasi-autobiography, a life unredeemed.
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.
Laura Wandel’s Playground is a study on the cruelty of children
The writer-director’s first full-length film takes a close look at bullying in a Belgian primary school.
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The Worst Person in the World is an exuberant portrait of a young woman flailing as she approaches 30
The third instalment in Joachim Trier’s Oslo trilogy is warm and fast-moving, with a whiff of the pop promo about…
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The Phantom of the Open is a very British tribute to failure
Mark Rylance is charming as the golf hoaxer Maurice Flitcroft, but there’s not quite enough here to sustain a feature.
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Clio Barnard’s Ava & Ali is an endearing account of an unlikely romance in Bradford
This beautifully shot film is a British love story of two people who are drawn to one another despite their…
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Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II lacks the toxic glamour of the original
This was always intended to be a film in two parts, but the second installment, a Bildungsroman, is a tonal…
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Pablo Larraín’s Spencer is a bone-headed reassessment of Princess Diana
The grand biopic opts for heavy-handed symbolism over any grounding in reality.
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Rose Plays Julie is The Parent Trap with teeth
Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take a familiar long-lost-family story – and add a dark, vengeful twist.
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BBC Two’s Together is cheap and obvious pandemic piggybacking
In this tedious and excruciating film, Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy play a warring couple trapped together in lockdown.
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Ian Wright: Home Truths is an urgent film about the damaging, insidious nature of abuse
This documentary, following the former Arsenal footballer as he confronts the abuse he experienced as a child, is one of…
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Why Children of Men haunts the present moment
How Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 dystopian masterpiece became the cultural exemplum of apocalypse, and a cardinal citation in the time of…
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Carl Franklin’s 1995 film Devil in a Blue Dress is a sexy, rich take on neo-noir
Why Devil in a Blue Dress should’ve been a hit.
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Rewatching American History X shows how far-right ideas have entered the mainstream
Back in 1998, the film’s ending was criticised as implausible. In 2019, it would appear all too convenient.
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I was suddenly interested in The Karate Kid – and fell in love with Ralph Macchio
When that unbroken voice is first heard, I got a flash of a childhood crush I’d never got to have…
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I re-watched The Holiday and I have a lot of questions
44, to be precise.
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Why Netflix’s To the Bone could be triggering
Jokes about how Emma Stone is “fat” are deeply misplaced and can simply move the goalposts for more vulnerable audiences
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The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does
Over the years, hundreds of people online have shared memories of a cheesy Nineties movie called “Shazaam”. There is no…
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Why is Disney producing so many live-action remakes of its most popular animated movies?
The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon and Beauty and the Beast are just one small part of the studio’s extensive strategy…
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How Fight Club explores psychology and mental illness
Dr Elizabeth Nelson of the Pacifica Graduate Institute in California explains how film can teach psychological concepts.
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It’s time to admit that Pulp Fiction is a bad film
It’s time we recognised that Quentin Tarantino’s much-lauded movie is about nothing, says nothing and makes you feel nothing.
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