Film
Magnificently bloodthirsty: 28 Years Later reviewed
First it was 28 Days Later (directed by Danny Boyle, 2002), then 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007) and…
The politics of horror
Everyone forgets the actual opening scene of 28 Days Later, even though it’s deeply relatable, in that it features a…
Darkly comic samurai spaghetti western: Tornado reviewed
Tornado is a samurai spaghetti western starring Tim Roth, Jack Lowden and Takehiro Hira (among others). Samurai spaghetti westerns aren’t…
Literate and sensitive romance: Falling Into Place reviewed
Falling Into Place is a love story written by Aylin Tezel, directed by Aylin Tezel, and starring Aylin Tezel. That’s…
A remarkable story: The Salt Path reviewed
The Salt Path is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Raynor Winn. It tells the true story of how…
Wes Anderson’s latest is as hollow as anything AI could come up with
AI is coming for everyone’s jobs, but especially mine. There is absolutely no good reason for The Spectator to keep…
Cinema has reached a nadir in the new Mission: Impossible
You have to time your arrival at cinemas carefully if you want to avoid the high-volume, rapid-fire edits of trailers…
Tantalisingly ambiguous – or just plain baffling: Hallow Road reviewed
An 80-minute film which for almost all of the time features two people in a car mightn’t sound particularly ambitious.…
What did Leni Riefenstahl know?
Leni Riefenstahl: what are we to make of her? What did she know? Often described as ‘Hitler’s favourite filmmaker’, she…
Dry retelling of the Odyssey – but Fiennes is ripped: The Return reviewed
Uberto Pasolini’s The Return stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in a retelling of the last section of Homer’s Odyssey.…
Never fully comes to life, alas: Mr Burton reviewed
Mr Burton is a biopic of Richard Burton’s early years and an origins story, if you like. It stars Harry…
I genuinely feared The End would never end
Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End is a ‘post-apocalyptic musical’ starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon that is being sold as a…
Who wants a ‘girl boss’ Snow White?
Disney’s new Snow White is a live-action remake of the beloved 1937 classic that was cinema’s first full-length animated feature…
Irresistible: Clueless, at the Trafalgar Theatre, reviewed
Cher Horowitz, the central character in Clueless, is one of the most irritating heroines in the history of movies. She’s…
The curse of Disney’s Snow White
One of the early decisions David Zaslav made after becoming the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery in 2022 was to…
Will I be sidelined by AI?
I’ve been head down for the past few weeks, preparing for my one-man show. The title is catchy – Nigel…
Cartoonish, sub-Armando Iannucci comic caper: Mickey 17 reviewed
Mickey 17 is the latest film from the South Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho, who won an Oscar for Parasite and…
Make Bond great again
One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed…
Pamela Anderson is a thing of wonder: The Last Showgirl reviewed
The Last Showgirl stars Pamela Anderson as a Las Vegas dancer who has reached the end of her career (too…
Proudly dumb – and all the better for it: The Monkey reviewed
The monkey is an organ-grinder’s monkey toy. Wind up the key jutting out of its back, and its lips will…
Strangely moving: Bridget Jones – Mad About the Boy reviewed
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the fourth outing for our heroine as played by Renée Zellweger and I…
Extraordinary: The Seed of the Sacred Fig reviewed
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is by the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and all you need to know is…
The thankless art of the librettist
Next week, after the première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen, the cast and conductor will take their bow. All…
Miserable but compelling: Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths reviewed
Pansy is meant to be a sympathetic figure, but I felt sorrier for those who had to put up with…
