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Film Review: The Disaster Artist
★★★★☆ Greg (Dave Franco) is struggling his way through acting school. He’s impressed by his fellow student Tommy’s (James Franco) fearless, unorthodox approach to performing, and after a series of knockbacks, the pair decide to collaborate on a project that will go down in infamy as one of the greatest bad films ever made. Based…
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Molly’s Game and the evolution of poker on screen
While poker may have started out as a rough and ready card game played on the frontier of the American West – or on Mississippi paddle steamers out of New Orleans depending on which historical account you read – the game has now transformed into a glamorous, high stakes global force. And from James Bond…
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Joe Pesci’s greatest roles
Home Alone star Joe Pesci is one of the most distinctive screen presences in the industry. Over the course of a long career he has become the go-to guy when a hyperactive Italian-American character is required. In an acting career stretching all the way back to the 1960s, Pesci has made some memorable appearances in some of…
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The 20 best films of 2017
After sampling this year’s cinematic delights, eight of our writers have pooled together their top picks to create our list of the 20 best films of 2017. There was no space in even the top 40 for Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner The Square, while Golden Lion winner The Shape of Water was voted in at number eight…
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Film Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
★★★★★ “This is not going to go the way you think.” Crabbily spat at his new apprentice, Mark Hamill’s line is a pithy summation of The Last Jedi, arguably the most original and surprising entry in the series to date. Rian Johnson’s film is the real deal: a bold, risky venture unafraid to tell its…
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Film Review: Song of Granite
★★★★★ Combining dramatic re-creation with musical performances, Ireland’s foreign-language Oscar entry Song of Granite is a lyrical paean to Gaelic culture and the ability of music to colour the distance between the past and present. In 2012, Pat Collins received critical acclaim for Silence, his cinematic ode to the soundscapes of the Irish countryside. Following…
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Film Review: The Prince of Nothingwood
★★★☆☆ The phrase “Do you know who I am?” takes on a new meaning in Sonia Kronlund’s The Prince of Nothingwood, an idiosyncratic documentary revealing an unseen side to Afghan life and culture. For though a global audience may have little prior knowledge of prolific B-movie filmmaker Salim Shaheen, every man and his dog in…
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Film Review: Mountain
★★★☆☆ Jennifer Peedom’s Mountain contains some truly breathtaking imagery, but it reduces the sublime wonders of the peaks to mere daredevilry. In this collaboration between Peedom – whose previous Bafta-nominated effort Sherpa explored similar territory – and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, dramatic footage of climbers, skiers, mountain bikers and base jumpers treating their lives like…
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Film Review: Mountains May Depart
★★★★☆ Set across three decades and two continents, Mountains May Depart is an affecting and ambitious tale of social upheaval in modern day China. The opening sequence of Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart shows an energetic young crowd bopping along in a dance class, fittingly enough, to ‘Go West’ by the Pet Shop Boys. The…
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Tallinn 2017: Our festival highlights
Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival returned to the Estonian capital for its 21st instalment from 17 November – 3 December. Unlike some other A-list European festivals, the chilly darkness provides the perfect excuse to settle in and enjoy a wealth of international cinema.
VENICE 2026