“I think those of us who live with great fame have to say that it is a trick of survival, and that a lot of us don’t like it.” A powerful, poignant obituary for Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich's daughter, whose childhood reads like a Hollywood horror story: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/a...

For @letterboxd.social I wrote a starter pack of films directed by women to watch this #Noirvember!

Sydney Sweeney is terrific in David Michôd's CHRISTY, which kept me on the edge of my seat for 2 hours. It's a powerful, visceral, sometimes harrowing film that's as much about gender, class & relationships as it is about boxing, with fearless support from Ben Foster & an incandescent Katy O’Brian.

Congratulations @mrdavebyrne.bsky.social & his team at the Royal Court for a barnstorming 70th Anniversary season. I'm particularly excited to see The Shitheads, The Afronauts & John Proctor Is The Villain; do check out the brilliant new playwriting opportunities too: royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/

Lucile Hadžihalilović is one of the great directors of coming-of age stories. Her new film THE ICE TOWER is a sparkling, sinister fairy tale about the power of film, the seduction of stardom & the deceptions of desire, starring Marion Cotillard & Clara Pacini. Coming to BFI & UK cinemas next month.

Kelly Reichardt is my favourite director so it's no surprise that I loved THE MASTERMIND, a tragicomic 1970s heist movie with Josh O'Connor as (perhaps) the US cousin of his British tomb raider in LA CHIMERA. In our era of triumphant male mediocrity it's a timely story told with style, wit & warmth.

I loved Nia DaCosta's sly, sensual, serpentine HEDDA, starring Tessa Thompson as the brittle, beautiful Hedda & the magnificent Nina Hoss as her ex-lover & potential nemesis. Set over one night at an English country house in the 1950s, it's a witty, decadent treat, beautifully shot by Sean Bobbitt.

Movie jewel thieves: "We need to get your pulse down to 30, your temperature to zero and your fingerprints lasered off. Also a cryptographer, an acrobat, a hacker, two HALO suits and a mini submarine." French jewel thieves: "Get me 2 mopeds, a chainsaw and a ladder. See you at lunch."

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Cord Jefferson's terrific AMERICAN FICTION, starring a deservedly Oscar-nominated Jeffrey Wright, is on BBC2 on Sunday night. Based on Percival Everett's novel Erasure, it's bleakly ironic that it's currently unavailable either on streaming or disc in the UK, so don't miss this chance to catch it.

Condraculations to @mogster.bsky.social & Emma Baggott for their ferocious, funny & frightening Dracula at @lyrichammersmith.bsky.social. Umi Myers is a captivating Mina, re-enacting her own story as a timely warning to all of us to question who's trying to scare us & why. lyric.co.uk/shows/dracula/

The tiny but mighty @camdenpt.bsky.social has supported 1000s of theatre careers, challenging every convention to create new adventures for artists & audiences. In a perilous time for artistic freedom & funding CPT needs your help! Please support them if you can: www.justgiving.com/campaign/lon...

MELANCHOLIA (Lars von Trier, 2011)

Cow | Deer at the Royal Court is a powerful, beautiful work of collective attention, imagination and empathy by Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson. I found its dual reality of sound story + live foley spellbinding. royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/cow...

Darren Aronofsky's CAUGHT STEALING is a giddy, gaudy, gruesome soufflé that brings a welcome, loose-limbed new swing to his style. For me it never quite recovered from a key character death that should have landed much harder, but Austin Butler & Zoë Kravitz are a delightful screwball double-act.

Spike Lee's HIGHEST 2 LOWEST is a wildly entertaining kidnap caper that loses the heartstopping tension of Kurosawa's original but gains a spry wit, social satire and swagger that plays like a Denzel Washington greatest hits album, gorgeously shot by Matthew Libatique. In UK cinemas now.

Dance down to Southbank tonight if you can for WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON, Rambert and (LA)HORDE's takeover: a playful, political, sensual carnival that feels like a much-needed act of defiance in this time of joylessly totalitarian politics. www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/we-...

Still buzzing from @companythree.bsky.social's new show THIS CITY: a fresh, funny, sharply observed portrait of London in all its temporal, emotional and political seasons, beautifully co-created and performed by its young cast. Last two shows today at Park Theatre: parktheatre.co.uk/events/this-...

Jack Clayton's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1982) dates from Disney's brief era of kid-friendly horror, most of which proved to be far too frightening (cf. RETURN TO OZ). It's a gorgeously shot, truly unsettling film, haunted by the fear of death, with a terrifying performance by Jonathan Pryce.

Images from films shot by cinematographer James Wong Howe - BOTD in 1899 Mantrap (1926) Mark of the Vampire (1935) The Baron of Arizona (1950) Seconds (1966)

WEAPONS (Zach Cregger, 2025) is a film of two halves. I was much more on board for the first, with its echoes of TWIN PEAKS and THE LEFTOVERS, but the whole film is confident, characterful film-making, and I hope Julia Garner & [redacted] get nominations, as acting awards so rarely recognise horror.

A treat to revisit Joe Johnston's THE ROCKETEER (1991), a funny, fast-paced WW2-era adventure that prefigures his CAPTAIN AMERICA. Billy Campbell is a perfect, pure-hearted comic book hero, but Timothy Dalton is its MVP as dastardly movie star Neville Sinclair, and James Horner's score is a joy.

Happy birthday to one of the best directors ever. I hope he's enjoying his retirement.

I'd been saving BADLANDS (Terrence Malick, 1973) to see on a cinema screen, so thank you BFI for an unforgettable evening: a film of breathtaking beauty, shocking violence & sly, seductive charm, more about movie stardom & media than it is about crime. A timeless masterclass in visual storytelling.

If we want the arts to survive and succeed we need AE, not AI. Give the next generation a leg up by becoming an @artsemergency.bsky.social mentor this year ❤️🚨

Come and celebrate the 70th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman's sublime sexual comedy SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, starring Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck and Harriet Andersson, at @thegardencinema.bsky.social next Thursday 14th August at 6.30pm: www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/smiles-...

François Girard's THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD (1993) is absolute heaven: warm, witty, intimate, rich with insight and striated with melancholy as it leaps time, form and genre to create a dazzling kaleidoscopic portrait of a truly original artist, brilliantly played by Colm Feore.

I loved researching & writing about this quietly radical charmer for BFI DVD… Deleted now ofc, so here it is for anyone who wants it: www.somayer.net/2025/08/07/a...

Diane Kurys' PEPPERMINT SODA (1977) is enchanting: a raw, funny, painfully honest — and honestly painful — look back at her adolescence. Minute in its focus but epic in its themes — sex, class, colonialism, anti-Semitism — it's a giddy, glorious masterpiece, beautifully shot by Philippe Rousselot.

The quality of attention in a great stage production can be breathtaking. I've rarely felt such an intensity of empathy from an audience as I did in Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage at the Donmar, directed by Lynette Linton, where Samira Wiley holds our hearts in her hands for two hours. Wonderful.

Rachel Zegler is a sensational Evita: charismatic, manipulative, vulnerable, with a glorious voice. Jamie Lloyd's production loses historical detail but nails the performative nature of power. And I think it's the peak of Rice and Lloyd Webber: a tightrope between romantic music and sardonic wit.

Loved Jim Jarmusch's MYSTERY TRAIN (1989) a triptych of stories set on one night in a rundown Memphis hotel. Suffused with grief, melancholy and loneliness, haunted (literally) by Elvis's ghost, it's nonetheless a warm, funny, flirtatious movie, every frame gorgeously shot by the great Robby Müller.

Richard Donner's SUPERMAN (1978) is a blissful blend of screwball and melodrama, beautifully played by Reeve, Kidder and Hackman to John Williams' magnificent score. They promised we'd believe a man could fly, but in 2025 what's hardest to swallow is that any reporter could afford this apartment.

I hugely enjoyed Godard’s ALPHAVILLE (1965) at the BFI: part timely tech satire, part noir parody, beautifully shot by Raoul Coutard and scored by Paul Misraki. Eddie Constantine brings Leslie Nielsenesque deadpan to his galactic PI, but it’s Anna Karina who gives the movie its heart and soul.

Robert Redford's QUIZ SHOW (1994) is a wry, witty elegy for truth that feels more timely than ever. Paul Attanasio's dazzling screenplay tells the story as screwball tragedy, given piercing emotional force by Paul Scofield as the poet whose son (Ralph Fiennes) trades honour for TV fortune & fame.

“When something hits you and excites your interest, there’s really no reason to kill it with improvements.” Clint Eastwood on his script development process from Shawn Levy's biography CLINT, reviewed by @tnyfrontrow.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/books/under-...

RIP Martin Cruz Smith, whose Arkady Renko is one of the great detectives: a wry, quixotic hero in a corrupt & decadent world. My favourite is Wolves Eat Dogs (2004) with its unforgettable Chernobyl climax, but I also love the later books as Renko finds new love & hope even in Putin's brutal regime.

Mitchell Leisen's MIDNIGHT (1939) is a Parisian screwball with shades of Renoir, given bite by Wilder & Brackett’s script. Claudette Colbert is a chorus girl on the make, Don Ameche her would-be beau & a rakish John Barrymore her benefactor. Criterion has an insightful essay by @dcairns.bsky.social.

Today's kids are tomorrow's artists, and with arts funding being cut everywhere it's never been more important to give them hands-on experience and a chance to express themselves as early as possible. This sounds entirely delightful, so please do help out if you're able to.

Cronenberg's THE SHROUDS (2025) is a sly, stylish conspiracy thriller about a man memorialising his late wife through surveillance technology that may have even darker purposes. It's adapted from an unmade TV series, which explains its abrupt ending, but a rich, timely, deeply felt film nonetheless.

Here's a wonderful comic drawn by Maya Scarpa from a conversation with film projectionist Carolyn Funk, about the magic of 35mm, the vital legacy of cinema and her first memory of THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980). www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

Great to rewatch THE NICE GUYS (2016), Shane Black's sweet family comedy about a grieving dad reconnecting with his young daughter through copious violence, nudity and swearing. A terrific new video essay by @leighsinger.bsky.social on @secondsightfilms.bsky.social Bluray illuminates Black's career.

New BFI 35mm print of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) is a stunning showcase for Mackendrick's radical compositions and James Wong Howe's gorgeous NYC cinematography. Curtis & Lancaster's fearless, feral performances make every line of Lehman & Odets' screenplay slice as sharp and deep as a scalpel.

Come and celebrate the 70th anniversary of Bergman's sublime, satirical sexual comedy SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (1955) at The Garden Cinema next month. I'm introducing the screening on 14th August: www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/smiles-...

Still reeling from Frank & Eleanor Perry's THE SWIMMER (1968) at BFI last night: a ruthless, ravishing horror film about capitalism that sucks you in and and drags you under alongside Burt Lancaster's Ned, one of the boldest lead performances on film. Thank you @phuonghhle.com for a terrific intro.

Love you, London ❤️

Alice Wu's SAVING FACE (2004) is a lovely, low-key romcom starring Michelle Krusiec as a young doctor shy about her sexuality, Joan Chen as her unexpectedly pregnant mother and Lynn Chen as her dancer meet-cute. An observant, affectionate portrait of Chinese American life in New York.

Seijun Suzuki's delirious hit man movie BRANDED TO KILL (1967) puts the angst in gangster with sublime style, deadpan humour and a dream logic like Melville remade by Buñuel. Part of the Garden Cinema's Noir International season: thanks to @jaspersharp.bsky.social for his insightful introduction.

YOKOHAMA BJ BLUES (1981) is a wonderfully woozy, melancholic neo-noir by Eiichi Kudo about a Chandleresque PI & blues singer hunting the killer who framed him for a yakuza murder. Gorgeously shot by Seizô Sengen, it blends brutal action with dreamy sensuality. On Blu from @filmsradiance.bsky.social.

I loved Miloš Forman's counter-culture satire TAKING OFF (1971) starring Buck Henry & Lynn Carlin as a couple searching for their daughter, an aspiring singer. Intercut with musical auditions (including Carly Simon & Kathy Bates!) their quest spirals into farce. A madcap, melancholic masterpiece.