Sight & Sound

Film of the week: Insyriated evokes life under siege in Damascus

Confined to 24 hours in a flat in Syria, this masterfully claustrophobic drama reminds us that war rages within walls as well as without, writes Nikki Baughan.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Immersion island: virtual reality at the 2017 Venice Film Festival

In a 16th-century leprosarium accessible only by an antique boat, festival-goers were able to explore new interactive narratives via a wildly diverse set of entries in Venice’s first VR competition, reports Paul O’Callaghan.

Tuesday 12 September 2017

Festivals

Battle of the Sexes announced as 61st BFI London Film Festival American Express Gala

Starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell as 1970s tennis greats Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, Battle of the Sexes receives its European premiere.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Announcements

Venice review: Foxtrot, a savage satire of Israeli military grief and grind

Following his Venice Golden Lion winner Lebanon, Samuel Maoz extends his range with this Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize winner, playing off home-front traumas with the absurdism and rage of life on the Israeli frontline, writes Paul O’Callaghan.

Monday 11 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Venice review: Brawl in Cell Block 99 – Vince Vaughn’s headbanger in the clanger

S. Craig Zahler follows Bone Tomahawk with a slice of prison guignol as Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson and Udo Kier paint the jailhouse black and blue, writes Neil Young.

Tuesday 12 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri to close 61st BFI London Film Festival

Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic drama will receive its UK premiere at the Festival.

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Announcements

Belle de Jour archive review: Catherine Deneuve finds release in Luis Buñuel’s liberation fantasy

Back in cinemas for its 50th anniversary, this drama follows a French housewife who uses sex work to enliven her afternoons. On its first release, Jan Dawson praised the film’s exquisite elision of dream and reality.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Venice review: EX LIBRIS – the New York Public Library, Fred Wiseman’s ode to patience and fortitude

The director’s latest magisterial study of a public institution is a tribute to the power of education and the importance of community, characteristically ambitious yet surprisingly brisk, writes Neil Young.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Venice review: Lean on Pete – Andrew Haigh’s low-key road movie hits hard

A shy teenager crosses America with his horse in this bracing, well-crafted coming-of-age fable that sees the 45 Years director tackle a broader canvas, writes Paul O’Callaghan.

Tuesday 5 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Venice review: The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s magical anti-fascist fairytale

Guillermo del Toro conjures a cinematic extravaganza teeming with high notes, from Sally Hawkins’ mute, dreamy musical-loving cleaner to the B-movie creature from the deep she sides with against the worst of 1960s US military-industrial iniquity, writes Nick James.

Saturday 2 September 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Tobe Hooper obituary: Texan horror genius who ushered in a grisly new era

With the ferociously brilliant Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the director created new vistas for horror cinema, and became a catalyst for independent filmmaking in his home state, remembers Nick Pinkerton.

Friday 1 September 2017

Obituaries

Film of the week: God’s Own Country unites males in the Dales

Both post-gay and pre-Brexit, Francis Lee’s debut feature is anything but a straightforward coming-out tale. Instead it’s an eerily beautiful love story between two men, and the wild Yorkshire landscape, writes Alex Davidson.

Thursday 31 August 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Mireille Darc obituary: blonde icon of 60s and 70s French cinema

This glamorous star played a modern, liberated woman even in the most regressive comedies, and found international fame in Jean-Luc Godard’s celebrated Week End, writes Ginette Vincendeau.

Wednesday 30 August 2017

Obituaries

Twin Peaks: the Return episodes 15 & 16 recap – back, in style

“You are awake. Finally.” The one-armed man speaks for all of us as Twin Peaks: the Return gets the hero it deserves, 16 episodes in, says Tom Huddlestone.

Wednesday 30 August 2017

TV

Jerry Lewis obituary: goofball auteur who set the 50s and 60s comic mood

Comic star whose childlike persona hardened into a more disciplined style. He should be remembered not just for his cartoonish gags and his partnership with Dean Martin, but also as a distinctive filmmaker, writes Jonathan Romney.

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Obituaries

Waking after hours: Ted Kotcheff’s influence on Martin Scorsese

Could these two bleakly comic films, one about a teacher lost in the outback and another about an 80s yuppie in peril on the streets of New York, have more in common than first meets the eye, asks Brad Stevens.

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Bradlands

The Dark Tower review: mediocrity at the multiplex

This cynical Stephen King adaptation wastes the considerable talents of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, and exemplifies the worst tendencies of the contemporary blockbuster, writes Nick Pinkerton.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Film of the week: Quest’s loving, humane family portrait

A Philadelphia family face extraordinary traumas and day-to-day challenges with grace and solidarity in Jonathan Olshefski’s rich and utterly absorbing documentary, writes Hannah McGill.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Reviews and recommendations

Lucrecia Martel on location with Zama: “All that heroic past and brave macho stuff makes me ill”

On the set of the Argentinian director’s long-awaited new film Zama, Diego Lerer spoke to her about the radical language of the film’s source novel and how to shoot a period film on a modest budget.

Thursday 27 July 2017

Interviews

Wrapped in plasticity: Twin Peaks’ myriad Laura Palmers

Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin conduct a forensic examination of the slippages at play in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surrealistic investigative series.

Friday 28 April 2017

Video

Hollywood icon/oclast: the art of Jack Nicholson

From New Hollywood rebel to arch Hollywood devil, Jack Nicholson has been our gold-standard baby boomer, on the run from his demons even as he upends the world – and hounds down the last laugh. As he turns 80, Leigh Singer looks back at the art of Jack.

Friday 21 April 2017

Video

Video: Scorsese NYC

It’s complicated: Martin Scorsese’s irresistible passion for the mean streets of his hometown show us not just the psyche of a city, but the soul of a nation, says Leigh Singer.

Friday 3 February 2017

Video

Video essay: What is neorealism?

kogonada pits the director of The Bicycle Thieves against the producer of Gone with the Wind on the same movie material.

Friday 17 May 2013

Video