the biggest fucking idiot you've ever met in your life, who thinks that accepting trans people was a Muslim conspiracy theory to undermine the west or some shit like that, has called this a "victory for common sense"

Every trans person I've ever met is smarter and more interesting than I am and every TERF I've ever had to deal with has been a parochial, petty dullard. Strange how that works.

Ryan Coogler breathes life into the vampire tale with #Sinners, a richly told, carnal delight. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review:

After a couple of New Queer Canon columns discussing exciting, unsung LGBTQ films, it’s finally time for me to dig into one that represents everything wrong with current American indie cinema! Me on PET SHOP DAYS for Vague Visages: vaguevisages.com/2025/03/28/p...

#BeingMaria, a drama about Maria Schneider and the traumatic experience of filming Last Tango in Paris, has a lack of curiosity about its subject. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review:

My latest New Queer Canon column for @vaguevisages.bsky.social has landed, digging into the delightful transgressions of Bruce LaBruce's THE VISITOR, and how a fetish porn movie has more to say about our current political climate than most recent LGBTQ cinema: vaguevisages.com/2025/03/19/t...

Remember when the Russo Brothers said AI would be directing feature length movies by 2025? If you didn't know any better, you'd assume their new movie THE ELECTRIC STATE was the AI-directed movie they were predicting. My review for Looper: www.looper.com/1804865/the-...

Recently got a chance to sit down with Bong Joon Ho and Steven Yeun to talk all things Mickey 17: www.zavvi.com/blog/film/mi...

Michel Gondry's latest film may have been scrapped, but he's back with a new animation Maya, Give Me a Title, making its North American premiere this weekend. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review:

I wasn't even a fan of Longlegs to begin with, but with THE MONKEY, Oz Perkins doubles down on the whacky comedy to offer an early contender for most insufferable movie of 2025. My review for Vague Visages: vaguevisages.com/2025/02/19/t...

I'm Still Here is out in the UK today! Rebumping my interview with Fernanda and Walter:

There’s a lot to like in Mickey 17, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s just Starship Troopers if Paul Verhoeven kept pausing to directly tell the audience he was satirising fascism every 5 minutes. My review for Looper: www.looper.com/1790621/mick...

A few months ago, on Golden Globes nominations day, I spoke to the prides of Brazil, Fernanda Torres and Walter Salles. With I’m Still Here now just a week away from UK cinemas, I can finally share our conversation: www.zavvi.com/blog/film/st...

Paddington in Peru is a big step down from its predecessors, but is not without charms. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review as the threequel arrives in U.S. theaters:

Ahead of its UK release on Friday, I spoke to Memoir of a Snail director Adam Elliot about why he loves emotionally "torturing" audiences with his movies: www.zavvi.com/blog/film/me...

Got a new monthly column on launching over at @vaguevisages.bsky.social on new and rediscovered LGBTQ films, and whether they fit into the New Queer Cinema Canon! In the first edition I dive into the recently rediscovered Japanese film BYE BYE LOVE, a genderqueer take on Breathless:

Chiara Mastroianni's tribute to her legendary father is an unfortunately laugh-free satire. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review of Marcello Mio:

"There's no shortage of movies about AI gone wrong... I wanted to make one about AI gone right!" I had a very interesting, somewhat revealing conversation with Companion writer/director Drew Hancock about the process of developing a screenplay that can stand out in an oversaturated genre:

as a frequent tourist in London, I've always felt the capital city needed less cultural institutions and more American candy stores/Harry Potter merchandise stores which can't legally use "Harry Potter" in their names. However, the Prince Charles Cinema is pretty good too, sign to save:

#SaveThePCC Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease. For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below; you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...

it would be unfair on the other actresses in the race if Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin were Oscar nominated, because how can you compete with them? I spoke to them last year about building their Hard Truths characters from the ground up: www.zavvi.com/blog/film/ha...

only just realised that 3 of WB's next 4 films are movies where the lead actors play multiple roles. Is this a cost saving exercise from David Zaslav, or a genius plot to get freelance journalists everywhere to pitch articles on "double movies" for a month of free publicity?

My Night at Maud's star Françoise Fabian leads Aurélie Saada’s Rose, which offers too neat a portrayal of an emotionally turbulent moment. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review:

Last week I spoke to Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and the young cast of Steven Soderbergh’s Presence (in cinemas Friday!) about the challenges of shooting the experimental horror movie, and why it’s ultimately a movie about why you need to talk to your family about your problems:

Last week I spoke to Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and the young cast of Steven Soderbergh’s Presence (in cinemas Friday!) about the challenges of shooting the experimental horror movie, and why it’s ultimately a movie about why you need to talk to your family about your problems:

Just saw Companion, and as much as I think we need a 25 year break from movies which ask ‘can AI become human?’, this turns into a surprisingly straightforward noir riff with double crosses and a bag of money by the second act. A solid time!

Trump’s anti-trans Executive Order is bad BUT it technically defines everyone as female. It states: “'Female' means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell." Since all fetuses "at conception" are female, Trump just defined EVERYONE as female.

As a story of sexual discovery, Audrey Diwan's #Emmanuelle feels less aligned with its predecessors than it does something like Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, in which the very act of sexual desire is depicted as something unfathomable and alien. Read @yesitsalistair.bsky.social's review:

I spoke to Leigh Whannell about Wolf Man, and why this Universal Monster was the perfect vessel to explore every anxiety he's had over the last five years:

Just realised I didn’t share my Nosferatu review for Vague Visages, but now it’s out in the UK… I liked it! But it’s better as a spiritual companion piece to The VVitch than it is a Nosferatu retelling:

My top 10 films of the year for @thefilmstage.bsky.social is now live! A delight to finally write about a lot of the movies I’ve loved but not had a chance to go off about until now:

if I were a hotshot Hollywood trailer editor, I'd have scored the Superman trailer to a slowed down, haunting cover of Crank That (Soulja Boy)

Say what you like about Stephen Fry but he did inspire an all-time great tweet

Over on Vague Visages I dug into The Brutalist, a fascinating, frustrating movie where an intimate family drama quickly becomes an obvious, heavy-handed metaphor for the death of the American Dream. In other words, Brady Corbet is back on his bullshit:

I spoke to Barry Jenkins, Mads Mikkelsen and Billy Eichner about Mufasa: The Lion King, which Barry was quick to point out is far closer in spirit to Moonlight and Beale Street than we'd naturally assume:

2025 career goals; - start pitching places again, maybe get commissioned? - More podcast appearances - Convince someone to let me host a screening Q&A again - Convince someone to let me write a booklet essay - Apply for more critics orgs, maybe get accepted? - 7 figure book deal

it was a delight to speak to director Michael Gracey, Jonno Davies and Raechelle Banno about making Better Man, the Robbie Williams monkey musical of all our dreams:

One of the funniest bits of hate mail I’ve ever received. As we all know, George Orwell’s trademark was ‘animals being used in people circumstances’

It’s the big one! And no spoilers, but of the four years I’ve contributed to TFS, this is the third time my number 1 has also been the TFS number 1…

Caught Babygirl last night and have to confess I was disappointed by it. A very distant second best entry in the ‘Nicole Kidman cucks an actor from Interview With The Vampire’ cinematic universe

The faux compassionate tone here really does make this one of the most astoundingly evil speeches in recent memory, which is really fucking saying something. Never hated a politician more than I despise this cunt

For our latest year-end feature, we count down our 30 favorite performances of 2024: thefilmstage.com/the-best-per...

The Disney+ Inside Out spin-off Dream Productions is charming but utterly unnecessary - who could have seen that coming? My review for Looper:

Saw and enjoyed Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU tonight, but was very distracted when you finally get a clear view of Bill Skarsgard’s Nosferatu and he just looks like this

Wrote about some of my favourite performances of the year for The Film Stage: Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov! Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin! Kieran Culkin! Julianne Nicholson! Vera Drew! Ilinca Manolache!

I spoke to Gerard Butler. No, not about Den Of Thieves 2. No, not about the How To Train Your Dragon remake. Yes, about a Sky Original family movie where he voices Santa: www.zavvi.com/blog/film/ge...

Interviewed Walter Salles and Fernanda Torres this afternoon, fresh off their Golden Globes nominations. After congratulating them, Walter made a joke about bribing Globes voters, and this is truly the only acceptable way to respond to someone congratulating you on a Golden Globe nomination

For work I've been tasked with putting together this poll to find out our followers' favourite movies and TV series of 2024 (based on UK dates). Feel free to vote for your favourites, or whatever you think would be funniest to announce has been voted Zavvi's movie of the year: bit.ly/3ZDHId3

Oh Nightbitch is out today? Time to reshare my Vague Visages review which dives into why it doesn’t function as body horror, comedy, or any unholy union of the above:

a couple of months back I spoke to Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson about Rumours (in UK cinemas tomorrow), and the liberation of making a horror movie that doesn't want to scare anybody. Was a fun chat, read below: