Love San Sebastián forever, of course, but I would like a word with the town planner who decided that a city with an annual rainfall of over 1500mm should be mostly paved with smooth black marble

Co-sign: this film has been on my mind since January, and my mind doesn’t stay on much these days

I notice so many people these days with glasses that sit way too high on their face, is it a trend or is it more people ordering them online rather than trying them on

You delivered it, you did your job, I have no complaints. But it wasn’t an experience. What do you want from me?

Londoners! Support this brilliant Cinema4Gaza event on 12 Oct — lots of fun, all in aid of @medicalaidpal.bsky.social. Tickets can be bought here: link.dice.fm/ia9db9d5f732

So Chloé Zhao is the first filmmaker to win this twice? variety.com/2025/film/ne...

What was interesting about him? If you didn’t agree with *much* that he said, what did he say that you do agree with?

Not a banner year for French filmmakers

Love a deceptively whimsical film where an actor exudes a winsome balance of innocence and woundedness while the director keeps the ambience buoyant, playful and spectacular

I want every AI entrepreneur to fatally slip in the shower. They deserve nothing more dramatic or violent or notable than that.

Did Jeff Wells really tell the Italian police that he was born in 1977

Had fun talking about Jarmusch’s Golden Lion winner FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER — among other titles, including THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE and Mark Jenkins’ excellent ROSE OF NEVADA — with @nicolasrapold.bsky.social on his indispensable The Last Thing I Saw podcast. m.soundcloud.com/the-last-thi...

As with Almodovar last year, Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Lion for his triple-miniature FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER feels a bit like a lifetime achievement award in disguise — but it’s also a lovely movie, so no complaints! @jessicakiang.bsky.social’s review gets it just right: variety.com/2025/film/re...

Grand Prix goes to Kaouther Ben Hania’s THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB — I expect we’ll be discussing this film for some time. My review: variety.com/2025/film/ne...

And the Special Jury Prize goes, also very deservedly, to Gianfranco Rosi, whose BELOW THE CLOUDS is one of his best. My review: variety.com/2025/film/re...

Valerie Donzelli takes a very well-deserved Best Screenplay win for AT WORK, one of the Competition’s quiet keepers this year. My review: variety.com/2025/film/re...

German actor Luna Wedler wins the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor in SILENT FRIEND — deserved, but I hope there’s a bigger prize for the film to come.

The Audience Award at Venice goes to Maryam Touzani’s CALLE MALAGA, which I duly called a “crowdpleaser” in my review, so I think we can officially say I have the popular touch. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

It’s rare and rewarding when the very last film in a festival competition turns out to be the best one, and so it is at Venice this year with Ildiko Enyedi’s mad, beautiful, joyous SILENT FRIEND. variety.com/2025/film/re...

She’s so relatable.

For anyone who, like me, briefly and excitedly thought Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet were making a musical biopic of this Ann Lee, I’m sorry to disappoint. m.youtube.com/watch?v=PbkI...

“Not my headline” is a common refrain of journalists on social media, but in the case of my THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE review, the headline is mine, and I’m sorry. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

Kicking off my Venice reviews with Laszlo Nemes’ ORPHAN, which is horrifying and handsome in ways that don’t really complement each other. variety.com/2025/film/re...

Paul Laverty was wearing this very T-shirt at the Edinburgh Film Festival talk I moderated with him, Ken Loach and Rebecca O’Brien on Wednesday. He spoke passionately about human rights, peace and raising your voice for the voiceless. Of course he had to be arrested.

Not the first time I’ve been told this

Never not embarrassing to do this.

A real pleasure to fill in for @wendyide.bsky.social on film review duty at @theobserveruk.bsky.social this week — not least because it means writing about Zach Cregger's sensational WEAPONS, my favourite multiplex film of 2025 so far. observer.co.uk/culture/film...

No one makes him post this stuff. No one even pays him to post this stuff.

The titles JAY KELLY and ELLA MCCAY sound like Travolta-isms of each other.

+1

This looks absolutely horrific.

Ah yes, the classical beauty of Trump Tower www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why do they always taunt us like this

Feed yourself however you want in the way that’s easiest for you — who cares? But what’s this idea that having homemade meals daily equals cooking from scratch daily? Batch cooking and leftovers, people — the definition of sustainable.

The lost art of cutting high-waisted, full-legged trousers that will show off a man's buttocks

we've lost the art of cutting high-waisted, full legged trousers that will show off a man's buttocks

Just caught up with the Philippous’ scalding horror heartbreaker BRING HER BACK and has it been said enough that a) this is Sally Hawkins’ best performance since HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, as b) basically her character from HAPPY-GO-LUCKY dealt every bad hand going in the last 17 years, and manically ruined.

Browsing the FANTASTIC FOUR reviews and I know *why* critics treat the industry’s most moneyed and privileged and endlessly enabled products with such kid gloves, but that doesn’t make it right.

I’ve been an avid reader of Reverse Shot and its marvellous coterie of writers for years, so it’s a honest thrill to make my debut there, on Ari Aster’s prickly, perverse, brilliant EDDINGTON. (Thank you to Michael Koresky for being a dream editor.)

On the train, what sounds like a strained post-date conversation between two people who didn’t expect to be taking the same route home has landed on cinema: “I do like watching films sometimes, except when they’re really long like Conclave.”

On a date I once referred to some childhood memory, only for the guy to loftily inform me that nobody remembers anything from before age 10, you’re just repeating what your parents told you

“Why criticise them, they’re only going to get worse”

Glad the top prize at Karlovy Vary has gone to Miro Remo’s wonderful, original hybrid doc BETTER GO MAD IN THE WILD: a pastoral portrait with nude arm-wrestling, talking cows and a lucid reflection on why Vladimir Putin is a “boring cunt.” Distribution, please! My review: variety.com/2025/film/re...

Let’s see if this more forgiving new era extends to releasing THE PALACE, unequivocally one of the worst films I’ve ever seen

Initially thought the reviews on this Instagram ad were made up but this name seems too far-fetched to make up, or is it a double bluff

Just so unutterably bleak that this is casually advertised to everyone

The new Lorde album is full of sharp, perceptive writing and arrestingly juddery production, but am I old for missing the lovely melodic sense of Melodrama? As a complete listen it’s just a bit samey and grey.

Guessing she thinks this is some kind of sick burn on trans people but it sounds more like she’s trolling herself?

I will never understand the British men who are so violently opposed to wearing shorts that you wonder if they have swastikas tattooed on their knees — but even setting that aside, why are you wearing *jeans* in 30-degree weather

Not saying Sabrina Carpenter’s new country-pop joint isn’t a bit of fun, but it also wouldn’t have been even like the ninth single off of Come On Over