John Bleasdale
05 March 2026
Rosebush Pruning, a film that needs ruthless pruning
Future James Bond Callum Turner can’t save a pointless family drama about unhappy rich people
Read the full article25 February 2026
Yellow Letters, the perfect winner of an imperfect Berlin film festival
A film about the cost of standing up for what you believe in is a stark contrast with the festival’s mealy-mouthed treatment of Gaza
Read the full article20 February 2026
The film for teens that hates teens
In Good Luck. Have Fun. Don’t Die, Sam Rockwell and Gore Verbinski poke fun at the young’s tech addiction - without realising that older generations are even worse
Read the full article18 February 2026
Travis Bickle, the first incel
Taxi Driver is 50 years old but its main character’s sexless white supremacy makes it more relevant than ever.
Read the full article16 February 2026
The Berlin Film Festival’s cowardly retreat over Gaza
By ducking tough questions about Gaza at its opening press conference, the Berlin Film Festival has enraged film-makers, signalled its own irrelevance… and put genocide in the headlines
Read the full article12 February 2026
A demon toilet, a time portal and a scammed goat farmer: New films you can’t miss
Chronovisor, Bowels of Hell and Variations on a Theme stand out at the Rotterdam Film Festival
Read the full article12 February 2026
The withering lows of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights
The Saltburn director ropes in Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi to give a bleak classic the Bridgerton treatment
Read the full article11 February 2026
Awards season is bad for cinema
The Baftas are coming. The Oscars are next. And yet again, they’ll reward hopelessly middlebrow films that honour the ruling ideas of the ruling class
Read the full article09 February 2026
Epstein, Eyes Wide Shut and Hollywood’s sad fantasy of elegant evil
Kubrick made elite depravity look operatic. The Epstein files show the real thing as vile and vacuous
Read the full article29 January 2026
Melania’s Leni Riefenstahl: The queasy resurrection of Brett Ratner
The director of the first lady’s troubled new film was the centre of serious accusations of sexual assault
Read the full article23 January 2026
Is Timothée Chalamet taking the piss?
The Oscar-nominated star of Marty Supreme is either unbearably self-confident — or quietly hilarious
Read the full article15 January 2026
The canonisation of David Lynch
A year after his death, the Twin Peaks director is universally loved. Would this Don of darkness really be happy about that?
Read the full article10 January 2026
Death to the celebrity documentary
From the Beckhams to Eddie Murphy and Charlie Sheen, they promise truth but deliver reputation-laundering dressed up as intimacy
Read the full article06 January 2026
Why Hamnet doesn’t get Shakespeare
Chloé Zhao’s film is deeply felt and beautifully made – but misses the essence of what made the playwright so great
Read the full article31 December 2025
More close encounters: the must-see movies of 2026
A new Spielberg, a remake of The Bride of Frankenstein and an exploration of the Moroccan outdoor rave scene are among the films to watch out for this year
Read the full article29 December 2025
The trouble with Brigitte Bardot
The actor, activist and icon didn't care what anyone thought of her. That was both her greatest strength and her fatal flaw
Read the full article26 December 2025
Renate Reinsve’s impossible journey
The star who began in children's theatre in a Norwegian forest is Oscar-bound with Sentimental Value
Read the full article24 December 2025
The weird and dangerous history of Hollywood snow
The white stuff in big movies isn’t real - sometimes it’s bleached cornflakes, sometimes fire extinguisher foam.. and it used to be asbestos
Read the full article19 December 2025
Avatar is the biggest film franchise that no-one really cares about
James Cameron’s CGI sci-fi epics are a box-office phenomenon - but also completely forgettable
Read the full article17 December 2025
Why The Shining is a Christmas film
Forget Die Hard. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is the perfect Christmas movie
Read the full article16 December 2025
Rob Reiner understood what Trump never will: Love and being funny
The president’s social media messages about the murdered director reveal him as a humourless, bitter bigot
Read the full article08 December 2025
When did George Clooney lose it?
The suave star once tested himself by working with prestige directors. Now he’s phoning it in in fluff like Jay Kelly
Read the full article03 December 2025
Leatherface and me: the Chainsaw that won’t stop
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the most terrifying film ever made. So why did I watch it when I was 11, and why does it still have a hold on me?
Read the full article02 December 2025
Train Dreams is the year’s most beautiful film
Joel Edgerton’s career-best performance underpins a modern classic that owes s substantial debt to Terrence Malick
Read the full article26 November 2025
Will HAL kill Hollywood?
After years of scary AI movies, the tech is now portrayed as heroic – just as the industry’s humans come into its sights
Read the full article22 November 2025
Why do people hate Sydney Sweeney?
The White Lotus actress is a registered Republican, but that isn’t a reason to troll her – our idea of liberal Hollywood is a myth
Read the full article19 November 2025
The beatification of Martin Scorsese
A new documentary series turns the director into a Hollywood saint – and dulls some of his brilliance
Read the full article06 November 2025
Are the movies finally getting mental illness right?
Starting with Jennifer Lawrence’s Die My Love, a new wave of women-led films is showing what it really means to come undone
Read the full article31 October 2025
Is it time Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos got divorced?
Bugonia is their fifth film together, and for some, the magic is wearing thin
Read the full article24 October 2025
Why nuclear war movies are blowing up
Kathryn Bigelow’s excellent thriller A House of Dynamite is part of a mushrooming trend
Read the full article22 October 2025
Kill, stream, repeat: has our obsession with true crime gone too far?
The mysterious serial killer who terrorised Florence is the subject of yet another true crime Netflix show
Read the full article18 October 2025
Could you ever love a robot?
A sci-fi film from 2013 was meant to offer a utopian vision of the future – in fact it is a perfect picture of our age of techno nihilism
Read the full article