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Latest Film news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
Site URL: www.theguardian.com/uk/film
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Venice 2024: Almodóvar’s first major festival win is richly deserved – and epically overdue
Published: September 7, 2024 20:54
At 74, Spain’s finest director has won the Golden Lion – incredibly, his first major victory at a film festival – for his debut English language feature. Better late than never, even if The Room Next Door isn’t quite his finest workPedro Almodóvar’s The…
Red Rooms review – dark, unnerving French-language chiller
Published: September 7, 2024 14:00
A young woman becomes obsessed with the trial of a man accused of three horrific livestreamed murders in Canadian director Pascal Plante’s stylish psychological thrillerThere’s something rather unsavoury about our collective fascination with true crime,…
We Live in Time review – Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh charm in heartfelt weepie
Published: September 7, 2024 12:44
Toronto film festival: there are two excellent performances at the centre of a time-hopping romance that tackles well-trodden ground with maturityThere was a warm late summer surprise to be had with last month’s surprisingly thoughtful and tender…
Russian documentary accused of falsely showing invading soldiers as ‘victims’
Published: September 7, 2024 09:36
Anastasia Trofimova’s film Russians at War criticised for ‘distorted picture of reality’ in Ukraine after Venice premiereA new documentary portraying the lives of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian frontlines has faced fierce criticism for attempting to…
Venice film festival 2024 roundup – Nicole Kidman gets carnal and Lady Gaga goes crazy
Published: September 7, 2024 09:00
This year’s festival is rich in impressive female leads, including Kidman, Gaga and Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton bonding for Almodóvar, while a strong documentary lineup ranges from Trump to Yoko OnoIn a summer when oppressive heat has turned the…
Pedro Almodóvar: ‘Life needs fiction to make it bearable’
Published: September 7, 2024 08:00
The Spanish film-maker on the raw, real life experiences behind his first collection of short stories – and why his mother is his inspirationOne day when he was nine years old and living in a small Extremaduran town of makeshift adobe houses, steep slate…
Kim Cattrall: ‘I’ve had a life’s experience – I want to bring it on board’
Published: September 7, 2024 05:00
She made her name as the devil-may-care Samantha in Sex and the City, but her new CIA audio series tells a different story of female empowerment. She talks about life on screen, being childfree and finding love at the BBC‘This could only happen on the…
Hard Truths review – a Mike Leigh classic of day-to-day disillusionment and courage
Published: September 7, 2024 02:37
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is exceptional as a woman in the terrifying endgame of depression in this deeply sober and compassionate drama, not without flashes of funThose two stark monosyllables in the title are a callback to Leigh’s debut from 1971, Bleak…
The Cut review – Orlando Bloom goes through hell in sordid boxing thriller
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/06/the-cut-movie-review-orlando-bloom
Published: September 6, 2024 18:10
Toronto film festival: the actor gives a physically committed performance as a retired boxer cutting weight with dangerous speed in a silly and overcooked drama“There is no ripcord!” screams a furiously hammy John Turturro repeatedly in lurid boxing…
Norman Spencer, David Lean’s collaborator and UK’s second oldest man, dies aged 110
Published: September 6, 2024 13:03
The producer, screenwriter, production designer and actor worked on some of the most acclaimed films of British cinema including Blithe Spirit, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of ArabiaNorman Spencer, who worked on some of the most acclaimed…
Can Travis Knight’s He-Man movie do for boys what Greta Gerwig’s Barbie did for girls?
Published: September 6, 2024 11:18
It’s hard to imagine Masters of the Universe ploughing quite the same meta-infused furrow but in the right hands, it might be ripe for forward-thinking, culturally adept satireJust a couple of years ago the advent of a Barbie movie powered by feminism…
‘I’ve failed, badly – and I’m good with it’: James McAvoy on class, comfort and carnage
Published: September 6, 2024 04:00
He says that acting is a gamble – but is a dead cert to terrify audiences with new film Speak No Evil. The Scottish actor talks about marriage, therapy – and why Ken Loach would never cast himHe is a funny character, James McAvoy. I meet him in one of…
April review – Dea Kulumbegashvili comes into her own with haunting abortion drama
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/05/april-review-dea-kulumbegashvili-abortion
Published: September 5, 2024 14:30
Shocking violence is tempered by strange, silent sequences in a sophomore feature about an obstetrician under investigation, which has echoes of The Piano TeacherDea Kulumbegashvili is the much-admired Georgian director whose feature debut, Beginning, won…
Post your questions for Jude Law
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/05/post-your-questions-for-jude-law
Published: September 5, 2024 13:30
Ahead of his transformation into an ageing, smelly Henry VIII in new film Firebrand, the twice Oscar-nominated actor is answering your questionsNever say Jude Law doesn’t throw himself into a role. To better inhabit late-stage Henry VIII, he of the rolls…
Keanu Reeves at 60: from surfer dude to action hero, his 20 best films – ranked!
Published: September 5, 2024 11:00
Good cop, bad cop, Shakespearean villain – he’s done the lot. To mark the milestone birthday of one of the nicest men in Hollywood, we run down his finest works Bernardo Bertolucci, deep into his picturesque international film-making phase, portrays the…
Firebrand review – Jude Law’s obese and oozy Henry VIII rules supreme in Catherine Parr drama
Published: September 5, 2024 09:58
The ailing king’s misogyny is compellingly disturbing but Alicia Vikander is underused as his final wifeJude Law outrageously steals every scene as a horrendously unwell and cross Henry VIII in this Tudor court intrigue drama that also serves as an amusing…
From Hard Truths to Nightbitch: 10 films to look out for at Toronto film festival 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/05/toronto-festival-movies-hard-truths-nightbitch
Published: September 5, 2024 09:03
Much-anticipated titles from Mike Leigh and Ron Howard lead lineup with stars such as Amy Adams and Hugh GrantLast year’s Toronto film festival, a key stop on the fall circuit for some of the season’s biggest new movies, was a subdued edition, the strikes…
The Brutalist review – epic Adrien Brody postwar architectural drama stuns and electrifies
Published: September 5, 2024 08:34
In a superb performance, Brody plays a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the US and begins a distinguished career under the patronage of a wealthy manBrady Corbet’s amazing and engrossing epic The Brutalist is about the design of…
Damaged review – Samuel L Jackson comes to Edinburgh in crime thriller
Published: September 5, 2024 06:00
Vincent Cassel and Gianni Capaldi complete an improbable trio on the hunt for a serial killer in this absurd police procedural – one for the so-bad-it’s-good genreHere is what appears to be an authentic so-bad-it’s-good crime thriller, set on the mean…
Joker: Folie à Deux review – Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga musical spirals out of tune
Published: September 4, 2024 17:00
There’s a great supporting cast and a barnstorming first act but Todd Phillips’s much-hyped Gotham sequel proves claustrophobic and repetitiveFive years ago, Todd Phillips released his much-acclaimed take on the DC Comics supervillain, Joker, with Joaquin…
Rebel Ridge review – electrifying Netflix crime thriller is a knockout
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/04/rebel-ridge-review-netflix
Published: September 4, 2024 16:00
Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier’s crackerjack combo of action thriller and social drama is one of the year’s most undeniably entertaining filmsThe worst thing about Netflix’s mysteriously dumped thriller Rebel Ridge is its abysmally generic title.…
‘A goalkeeper vomited over my typewriter’: Werner Herzog on writing his wildest film
Published: September 4, 2024 15:47
He has made feverish films about crazed obsessives – but one idea was too excessive. The great director explains why Mexico, featuring acting frogs and fleets of ships on fire, is finding an audience at lastWerner Herzog has two faces, both wearing the…
‘We have a good relationship … as long as he doesn’t start bitching’: why Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s Gladiator 2 spat has me entertained
Published: September 4, 2024 15:45
Scott – without doubt the greatest interviewee on the planet – seems to be goading one of the most explosive actors in existence about his absence from the sequel of the film that made himBy any metric, Gladiator II is a gamble. The original, almost a…
Paul and Paulette Take a Bath review – misjudged romance takes wince-inducing wrong turn
Published: September 4, 2024 12:40
Venice film festivalJethro Massey’s New Wave-style feature debut about a couple who meet in Paris is quirky and well-acted but strikes some peculiar false notes with Nazi gagsHere’s a dreamy, quirky, well-acted but weirdly misjudged movie that I couldn’t…
Film industry ‘nowhere near’ gender parity, says London festival head
Published: September 4, 2024 10:00
Kristy Matheson bemoans ‘alarmingly’ low number of mid-career female directors as festival lineup unveiledThe film industry is “nowhere near [gender] parity” because it produces an “alarmingly” low number of mid-career female directors, according to the…
Are standing ovations at film festivals getting out of hand?
Published: September 4, 2024 09:38
The Venice premiere of Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door received 17 minutes of applause – has touting the length of clapping has become just another PR tool?For any film lovers who aren’t currently at the Venice film festival and want to play along at home,…
What we do in the shadows: why film noir will never die
Published: September 4, 2024 07:05
A Japanese heist, a Bollywood musical, London’s East End – noir has adapted and travelled the world from its 1940s Hollywood beginnings and thanks to a series of festivals and rereleases there are classics to see this autumnFilm noir was first identified…
‘We didn’t worry about a few dirty laughs!’ The Carry On women on playing nags, bra-burners and ‘crumpet’
Published: September 4, 2024 04:00
No one could say that the Carry On movies stretched their female stars, or paid them generously. But, decades later, Amanda Barrie, Valerie Leon, Sheila Hancock and co have fond memoriesI’m watching a clip from the 1969 film Carry on Camping with Valerie…
Maldoror review – true-crime serial killer procedural induces stomach-turning horror
Published: September 3, 2024 20:00
Inspired by a notorious real-life case, Fabrice Du Welz’s film starts strong but gets lost in the murky waters of conspiracyFabrice Du Welz began the century as a master of Belgian gothic, riding the wave of Euro-extreme cinema. Calvaire, or The Ordeal,…
Queer review – Daniel Craig is needy, horny and mesmeric in Guadagnino’s erotic drama
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/03/queer-review-daniel-craig-william-burroughs
Published: September 3, 2024 16:45
Venice film festivalCraig plays an American expat living indolently in Mexico City in this sometimes uproarious adaptation of William Burroughs’ autobiographical novelQueer is a story of lost love and last love and mad-about-the-boy obsession, featuring an…
‘We never went down the Aardman route’: how the Brothers Quay rocked the animation world
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/03/aardman-brothers-quay-animation
Published: September 3, 2024 15:32
They hate using big name voice actors and their eerie stories defy sense – yet they have seduced the likes of superfan Christopher Nolan. The identical twins explain how they have just managed to sneak out their third feature in 50 yearsThe Brothers Quay,…
Harvest review – folk non-horror an exasperating experience
Published: September 3, 2024 15:29
Venice film festivalDastardly deeds are afoot in an imagined medieval village with unscrupulous landowners in this directionless study of inauthenticity Hopes were high at Venice for this film, the English-language debut for the formidably talented Greek…
‘There’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene’: Daniel Craig opens up about new film Queer
Published: September 3, 2024 14:59
The Bond actor plays an American expat who begins an affair with a young student in the 1950s-set film from Call Me By Your Name director Luca GuadagninoDaniel Craig has spoken about filming explicit sex scenes for Luca Guadagnino’s Queer at the Venice…
The star who was left out in the cold: will Gary Oldman ever play Smiley again?
Published: September 3, 2024 12:21
Oldman got an Oscar nomination for his turn as John le Carré’s rumpled spymaster. So what’s stopping a repeat performance?Name: George Smiley.Age: It was once observed that Smiley is “one of those ashen Englishmen, like the poet Philip Larkin, who seem to…
2073 review – Asif Kapadia rages against the death of democracy and our planet
Published: September 3, 2024 12:00
Venice film festivalThe documentary-maker loses some nuance but he is tackling big issues, as Samantha Morton picks through post-apocalyptic ruins in a sombre futurist reverieAsif Kapadia takes on big subjects in a vehement drama-doc fantasy of just 85…
Red Rooms review – fashion model fixates on a serial-killer in unsettling dark-web horror
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/03/red-rooms-review
Published: September 3, 2024 10:00
Juliette Gariépy’s disquieting performance overcomes the more unbelievable elements of this tale of snuff-movie murder roomsA lead performance of pure sociopathic intensity is what makes this serial-killer horror stand out. It is a movie which never shows…
The Whip review – carer turns to crime in a heist movie with a conscience
Published: September 3, 2024 08:00
Austerity-minded MPs are the target of this likable drama, in which a struggling carer hatches an implausible plan to get her own back on the government Here’s an austerity drama made with the best of intentions on what looks like the thriftiest of…
My First Film review – charismatic new star beefs up audacious grad school-style project
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/03/my-first-film-review-odessa-young-zia-anger
Published: September 3, 2024 06:00
Slippery and unsubtle, Zia Anger’s film about a film-maker is saved from self-indulgence by its sly humourRising star Odessa Young brings just the right amount of spontaneity, youthful exuberance and charisma to keep this hyperdimensional little ouroboros…
The Room Next Door review – Almodóvar spins a gorgeous, fragile tale of life and death
Published: September 2, 2024 17:15
Venice film festivalThe Spanish director’s first English-language feature sees Tilda Swinton’s dying journalist trying to reconnect with an old friend played by Julianne MoorePedro Almodóvar’s death-struck new melodrama – the great director’s 23rd feature…
Pedro Almodóvar: ‘There should be the possibility to have euthanasia all over the world’
Published: September 2, 2024 15:46
The Spanish director’s latest film, The Room Next Door, in which Tilda Swinton plays a journalist with cancer who decides to end her own life, premieres at the Venice film festival The acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has called for euthanasia to…
‘Let them kick the crap out of the songs’: how we recreated the Beatles to make Backbeat
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/article/2024/sep/02/how-we-made-backbeat-beatles-john-lennon
Published: September 2, 2024 14:20
‘I knew people who said John Lennon was angry, insecure and cruel in the early days. When I met Ian Hart, I saw he could provide that’I was working at Granada in the 1980s when I came across a photograph of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe while going…
Fitting In review – rare biological condition gets thrown into typical teen movie mix
Published: September 2, 2024 10:00
Writer-director Molly McGlynn’s own experience adds a new dimension to the usual tropes of virginity loss, relationships and high school politicsOlder viewers may feel, well, erm, old, to see that this film comes prefaced with a wise statement – handed…
Fragile Memory review – a personal tribute to a prolific Soviet film-maker
Published: September 2, 2024 08:00
Ihor Ivanko’s documentary looks at his grandfather Leonid Burlaka’s career through a treasure trove of undeveloped photos and explores the role film has in preserving historyA labour of love, Ihor Ivanko’s documentary pays tribute to his grandfather Leonid…
Don’t Forget to Remember review – art, identity and the slow disintegration of dementia
Published: September 2, 2024 06:00
This elegiac Irish film documents the relationship between street artist Asbestos and his mother, and the public art project he makes to help process his griefA strange but reassuring ouroboros effect is in place in Ross Killeen’s documentary about…
Wolfs review – Pitt and Clooney are job-sharing loners in Spidey-meme of a thriller
Published: September 1, 2024 19:45
Brad Pitt and George Clooney have near identical roles as veteran crime fixers who are called into the same assignment in a fun, infectious caperBrad Pitt and George Clooney play two sides of the same coin in Jon Watts’s jaunty, high-concept…
I’m Still Here review – loving family negotiates the horror of Brazil’s military rule
Published: September 1, 2024 17:00
Walter Salles’s first drama feature since 2012 tells the story of the Paivas, whose sunny 70s existence is wrecked by the arrest and disappearance of their father The Paivas are a liberal middle-class household in sun-splashed Rio de Janeiro, generally…
Don’t believe supposed salary figures for new film Wolfs, says Clooney
Published: September 1, 2024 15:38
At sweltering Venice film festival the actor denies that he and Brad Pitt have been paid $35m eachTurn up the air con – it’s getting hot in Venice. As the festival sweltered under a prolonged heatwave, the temperature was raised still further when George…
From Darkness to Light review – Jerry Lewis’ infamous Holocaust film rescued from oblivion
Published: September 1, 2024 14:45
Lewis grappled with serious themes with The Day the Clown Cried, but as this documentary reveals, to the end he remained haunted by its failureIn 1971 Jerry Lewis, America’s most famous comedian, decided to swing for the fences and make his masterpiece.…
Mandoob (Night Courier) review – Saudi crime thriller delves into the secrets of Riyadh
Published: September 1, 2024 14:00
Director Ali Kalthami shows the city as never before, through the eyes of a desperate delivery man negotiating a world of gangsters and illegal alcoholIt’s unlikely that you will have seen the city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, shown with such…
The Count of Monte Cristo review – highly enjoyable French costume spectacle
Published: September 1, 2024 11:00
Three Musketeers screenwriters Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte move on to Dumas’s swashbuckling tale of revenge with verveThe directors of this big, lusty French costume drama, Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, previously…
Close to You review – Elliot Page struggles to bring transgender drama to life
Published: September 1, 2024 10:30
Dominic Savage’s film about a man whose family do not understand his transition feels underpoweredSam (Elliot Page), a transgender man, returns to visit his family in small-town Ontario after a lengthy, self-imposed exile, in Dominic Savage’s…
‘Everyone recognises her now – me, not so much’: Arthur Harari on how Anatomy of a Fall catapulted him and Justine Triet to film power couple status
Published: September 1, 2024 10:00
The Oscar-winning co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall on starring in a new hit courtroom drama, his fear of a rightwing France, and why he’d rather be behind the camera than in front of itRising French cinema notable Arthur Harari is a film-maker, screenwriter…
Sing Sing review – Colman Domingo is magnetic in moving real-life US prison drama
Published: September 1, 2024 07:00
The US actor heads a cast largely made up of former inmates in Greg Kwedar’s low-key tale about the redemptive power of theatreColman Domingo is at the peak of his considerable powers in Greg Kwedar’s inspirational, fact-based prison drama Sing Sing. The…
The Order review – Jude Law leads neo-Nazi-hunting thriller with confident authority
Published: August 31, 2024 19:35
Venice film festivalLaw is commanding opposite an icy Nicholas Hoult in true-crime story about the takedown of a far right militia in the 1980sYou wouldn’t want to spend time with the kind of people you meet in the films of Australian director Justin…
Campo di Battaglia review – medicos face off in stately first world war hospital drama
Published: August 31, 2024 17:00
Venice film festivalGianni Amelio’s saga is set in 1918, when a pair of Italian doctors take very different approaches to treating the wounded that pass through their wardsHere is the upstanding infantryman of this year’s Venice film festival competition:…
And Their Children After Them review – racism and revenge festers in smalltown France
Published: August 31, 2024 14:00
Venice film festivalNineties-set drama adapted from the bestselling novel zeroes in on tensions in a post-industrial community, sparked by a feud over a motorbikeClass and racial tensions come to the boil in this potent tale of disaffected youth in…
‘You’re part of the tornado’: the summer of moviegoing game-changer 4DX
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/31/4dx-movie-format-twisters
Published: August 31, 2024 08:04
The immersive theatrical experience, which sees your seat move, shake and often spray water, has seen a record summerDuring this long, hot, languishing summer, I have come to believe in one thing and one thing only: seeing Twisters in 4DX. The Oklahoma-set…
Mark Kermode on… Martin Scorsese’s love of British cinema
Published: August 31, 2024 07:00
The director’s new BFI season championing hidden gems of British film, hot on the heels of his Powell and Pressburger documentary, reveals some of the inspirations of a film-making great and passionate fanThis weekend, the BFI Southbank in London begins a…
Babygirl review – Nicole Kidman overwhelmed by lust as CEO having torrid and toxic affair
Published: August 30, 2024 17:00
Halina Reijn’s film about a company executive’s carnal adventure with her intern is expertly done but suspect at its core, despite Kidman’s bold performanceRomy Mathis owns a duplex apartment in the city and a big house in the country. She has a doting…
AfrAId review – throwaway AI-themed horror devoid of suspense
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/30/afraid-review-artificial-intelligence-horror
Published: August 30, 2024 15:44
A sinister Alexa upgrade exerts control on family in an increasingly nonsensical attempt to capture the momentGiven how technology has become the increasingly unstoppable architect of our everyday lives – the world edging closer and closer to a Terminator…
Controversial Trump biopic to receive pre-election release in US
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/30/trump-apprentice-biopic
Published: August 30, 2024 14:36
The Apprentice, an 80s-set drama with a scene where he sexually assaults his wife, will get an October releaseControversial Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice is set for a pre-election release in the US.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film which…
Nicole Kidman’s erotic drama Babygirl sets pulses racing at Venice film festival
Published: August 30, 2024 14:11
Film among host of sexually explicit features on this year’s lineup as erotica returns to screens after years of chastityIt’s been 25 years since Nicole Kidman starred in Stanley Kubrick’s erotic classic Eyes Wide Shut opposite her then husband, Tom…