I know money is nice, and people who have a lot of it seemingly can’t have enough of it, but if I were a talented and well-regarded actor, and Ryan Murphy offered me a role playing second fiddle to Kim Kardashian in his latest junkfest, I’d tell him where to stick it.

A pleasure to serve on this year’s Gotham Awards nominating committee for Best Director and Best Breakthrough Director, alongside excellent colleagues @bealoayza.bsky.social, @davidehrlich.bsky.social, @bmluse.bsky.social and @ldbahr.bsky.social. Really proud of both these rangy nomination fields.

Really funny that Jeff Wells thinks NO OTHER CHOICE — a lithe, pulpy murder comedy based on a Donald E. Westlake book — is punishing arthouse gruel, but I guess he really does find it that hard to look at Asians for two hours

Just saw ROOFMAN: there was a time when you could go to the multiplex any weekend and see something straightforwardly grownup with this much comfy storytelling nous and easy-breezy star power, but now it feels like something rare, which gets it sized up as a prestige item, which isn’t quite right.

Absolutely fucking not

I personally think press screening access for a film festival that charges a £52 accreditation fee shouldn’t be a lottery situation, but that’s me.

He wrote an Instagram post shrugging off the box office and saying he’s proud of the film. I’m not sure that’s the same as “issuing a statement”.

One film reviewing tip you can have for free is that no good critic ever refers to a director/actor/cinematographer/whoever as having done “a phenomenal job”.

TRON: ARES, from the same definitely-not-British titling geniuses who brought you OUR SOULS AT NIGHT

Whatever this film is — good, bad, nuts — that’s some prime voting-window visiblility right there.

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.)