Sorrentino gets political again with LA GRAZIA, his most subdued film in eons. Aims for depth after the feather-light PARTHENOPE, but just ends up dull. Servillo does his best to save it. In U.K./Irish cinemas now. My review for @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social: loudandclearreviews.com/la-grazia-fi...

Arguably Cronenberg’s best. That same year, Coppola made JACK.

"HOLY DAYS was never designed to be challenging, but when it dares to go in that direction, it hints at being more interesting than the mild diversion with which we’ve ended up." Read @cynicalfilm.bsky.social's review of the Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver-starring film, out Friday!

Jessie Buckley deservedly took home the Best Actress Oscar for HAMNET. I haven’t cried that hard at a film in a while, and I explained why on Reel Feels.

Bad Oscar takes are already accumulating. This place is becoming The Other Place so quickly, and you're doing nothing to stop it.

If you want to hear what PTA has to say about this moment, watch One Battle After Another. This just smacks of bitterness from someone that didn’t get their specific point of view parroted in a digestible form on live TV for two minutes.

No comedy this year will make me laugh as hard as Jordan pipping Chalamet to the Best Actor Oscar. No matter how good you are, hubris will cripple you. Take notes, children.

The best one won, thankfully. My review of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER: headstuff.org/entertainmen...

Bi Gan's RESURRECTION draws from the history of cinema to craft something unique. A challenging but enrapturing tour of the medium with eye-popping visuals that will nestle in your dreams. In U.K./Irish cinemas now. My review for @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social: loudandclearreviews.com/resurrection...

Hey, @theguardian.com, next time you need someone to write up an Oscar nominee, choose someone who actually likes the film in question, displays greater knowledge of film in general, & doesn’t undermine his argument with personal tangents and blatant disinterest. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

Loved Pálmason’s THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, a dryly hilarious take on marriage, separation, and the collateral damage that results when love is put on ice(land). In U.K./Irish cinemas now. My review for @filmhounds.co.uk: filmhounds.co.uk/2026/03/06/t...

I think we need a collaboration between this year’s #Cannes honourary Palme d’Or recipients. Maybe Peter Jackson can adapt Mecha Streisand for the big screen?

As for my review of Project Hail Mary… 🤷🏻‍♂️ ⬇️⬇️⬇️

The irony of preparing to go to the Cannes Film Festival while PRs in my hometown repeatedly ignore my requests to attend their press screenings. Why should regular people care about the death of film criticism when the industry itself clearly doesn’t give a shit?

In the latest issue of Late Nite Picture Show, I had a rant about the overuse of Richter's 'On The Nature of Daylight', and how it undermines HAMNET's emotional apex, rather than accentuates it. latenitepictureshow.com/issue3/

In U.K./Irish cinemas now, Mascha Schillinski's SOUND OF FALLING is a slow-burn stare into the abyss of national shame, as one household carries the burden of abuse across generations. My review from Cannes last year for @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social: loudandclearreviews.com/sound-of-fal...

Had two different colleagues at my day job tell me yesterday they went to see SIRĀT at the weekend. Glad to see this mystifying, terrifying film reaching beyond its subtitles and challenging material to get to wider audiences. My review from Cannes 2025: loudandclearreviews.com/sirat-film-r...

Fabrice Du Welz's CALVAIRE comes to Blu-ray courtesy of @arrowvideo.bsky.social. Adjacent to New French Extremity, but it's thornier and goes to more interesting places than most films with that label. Fenders & genders in a blender. My review for @filmhounds.co.uk: filmhounds.co.uk/2026/02/27/c...

Oliver Laxe’s SIRĀT is a dark night of the soul for the raver set, a sandy odyssey that never relinquishes its tension for a moment. One of the highlights of last year’s Cannes Film Festival is finally in U.K./Irish cinemas. My review for @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social:

Today, and every day.

Here’s my review of MENUS-PLAISIRS, LES TROIGROS, the final film by Frederick Wiseman. An intoxicating swan song, it’s now streaming on BFI Player filmhounds.co.uk/2026/02/22/m...

Rose Byrne gives the performance of her wonderfully diverse career as an extraordinarily put-upon parent in Mary Bronstein's IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU, in U.K./Irish cinemas today. My @headstuff.bsky.social review: headstuff.org/entertainmen...

THE SECRET AGENT is finally in U.K. and Irish cinemas today. I've been raving about Kleber Mendonça Filho's sublime thriller, and Wagner Moura's terrific performance therein, since Cannes. My @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social review: loudandclearreviews.com/the-secret-a...

"[W]atch me. Watch my heart break. Watch me jump. Watch me learn that after death there's nothing. There's no more watching. There's no more following. No love. Say goodbye to Hazel for me. And say it to yourself, too. None of us has much time." Adieu, Tom Noonan.

Found this pic of Frederick Wiseman chatting about MONROVIA, INDIANA at the London Film Festival in 2018. Such a charming and wise gent. We shall miss him dearly.

American cinema’s greatest documentarian. His films stand as monuments to the frailty and perseverance of human endeavour. R.I.P.

IT’S NOT OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY is conventional as you like, but the sweetness and creativity of its subject shines through. My @filmhounds.co.uk review: filmhounds.co.uk/2026/02/its-...

LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN is the best animated film you’ll see this year. Soulful and smart like few other films aimed at children are. A delight. My @headstuff.bsky.social review: headstuff.org/entertainmen...

Glad to see someone vocalize this. I’m usually hard to please, but it baffles me when people rail against something just because some over-caffeinated Bluesky/Twitter-dweller decided to take offence on someone else’s behalf. TOUCH GRASS, ffs.

Update: I have now renewed my Letterboxd subscription, if only to stop seeing FYC adverts for del Toro’s appalling take on Frankenstein.

Vale, James Van Der Beek. If all you know him for is Dawson's Creek, you'll be shattered by his despicable turn as a college fuckboy sociopath in Roger Avary's THE RULES OF ATTRACTION. TV teen stars undermine their images with gusto. Hold your nose and enjoy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUgP...

Post a banger not in English: youtu.be/N2sNcfD4nYI?...

THE STRAIGHT STORY is David Lynch’s most accessible film, with a heart-melting Richard Farnsworth as a man going to great lengths (or rather medium lengths, but very slowly) to right a wrong. My review of the new @studiocanal.co.uk Blu-ray for @filmhounds.co.uk: filmhounds.co.uk/2026/02/the-...

Hey, @letterboxd.social, if I promise to renew my Patron membership, will you get rid of the simping, shilling Charli xcx branding?

“Wasn’t her mother one of the Kilbride Infinitis?”

Absolutely thrilled that THE DEAD, John Huston’s final (and some would say best) film is now on Blu-ray from @criterion.bsky.social. One of my favourites for many years, one of cinema’s greatest swansongs, and the finest film to come out of Ireland yet. My review: filmhounds.co.uk/2026/01/the-...

Did a bathtub kill Ronald and Mary Bronstein’s dog? Or steal their car?

Finally catching up on older seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm (I know, I know. I’m not a TV guy, leave me alone), and in the opening minute of the first episode, Larry David snaps a young couple’s selfie stick in half. I missed this motherfucker.

SINNERS leads the Oscar nominations, with a record-breaking 16 nods. S'fine. Ambitious, fun, but neither as original or as deep as it thinks. My review: headstuff.org/entertainmen...

We’ve peaked. Properly laughing.

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE is everything its predecessor thought it was: thoughtful, visceral and darkly fun. The world may have lost faith, but Ralph Fiennes is a GOD. My review for @loudandclearrvs.bsky.social: loudandclearreviews.com/28-years-lat...

Haven’t the people of Iran suffered enough?

Ten years on, we’re still mourning the loss of a true one of a kind. I wrote this through tears on the day David Bowie died. His absence still hurts, and this is still (in my opinion) the best thing I’ve written. Godspeed, Starman. We miss you. www.scannain.com/featured/opi...

Only just heard that the BFI are doing a marathon of Rivette's OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE this weekend at the Southbank. Sadly can't make it, but I did see it in similar fashion on the big screen a decade ago, and it's catnip to any self-professed cinephile. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoLR...

"Zhao’s vision isn’t subtle, but it reaches for big emotions and achieves them, sometimes in spite of itself." our HAMNET review ✍️ @cynicalfilm.bsky.social 🍿 in cinemas from Friday headstuff.org/entertainmen...

Adieu, Béla Tarr. A rewatch of his transcendental masterwork WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES would be an apt and fitting tribute. A film filled with despairing beauty. youtu.be/-tJVdq_G_Go?...

SAIPAN achieves something very rare indeed: evoking sympathy for Roy Keane. Worth a watch, especially as a refreshing repudiation of the nation’s tendency to play up its comic relief status on the international stage. It’s the isle of saints and scholars, not shites and shleeveens.

We spoke with director-writer-producer Craig Brewer about SONG SUNG BLUE, out now in US theaters and New Year’s Day in UK & Irish cinemas! 😍 Read what he told @cynicalfilm.bsky.social and watch the full clip of the interview 👇🔥 #SongSungBlue #interview loudandclearreviews.com/song-sung-bl...

Delighted to make an argument for my Christmas movie, L.A. Confidential, in Loud and Clear’s seasonal recommendations.

Sucker-punched by everything about MARTY SUPREME: its energy, its ambition, its directorial brio, and handily the best performance of Timmy C.’s career thus far. My review: headstuff.org/entertainmen...