3 h. ago British thriller hailed as 'masterpiece' and best film of 2025 is now on two platforms

Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later has been called a "masterpiece" by fans and described as the "best film of the year" by one reviewer, with an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Politics

20 h. ago Netflix quietly adds new film being called one of 2025’s best

You’ll want to shoot this to the top of your watchlist

Politics

21 h. ago New film adaptation of Camus’s L’Étranger opens old colonial wounds

François Ozon’s handling of classic novel draws both praise and criticism, including from the author’s daughterMore than 80 years after it was published, Albert Camus’s L’Étranger remains one of the most widely read and fiercely contested French books in the world.Until now, few attempts have been made to adapt the novel, published in English as The Outsider, for television or cinema: it is considered problematic and divisive for its portrayal of France’s colonisation of Algeria. Continue reading...

Politics

23 h. ago O come out ye faithful: a joyful roundup of UK culture this Christmas

Beauty and the Beast or Wolf Alice? Queen Marie Antoinette or Count Arthur Strong? Come and behold: the holiday season offers stage, film, music and art that’s worth singing aboutThe 12 Beans of ChristmasTouring to 19 December Last year, character comedians Adam Riches and John Kearns joined forces for an archly silly tribute to crooners Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. Now Riches is back with another leftfield celebrity riff as he gives his Game of Thrones-era Sean Bean impression (as seen on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and his Edinburgh show Dungeons’n’Bastards) a yuletide twist. Rachel Aroesti Continue reading...

Politics

27 h. ago ‘We have to be able to ask difficult questions’: who really took the iconic Napalm Girl photo?

A controversial Netflix documentary follows an investigation into the truth behind one of the most important wartime photos ever takenIt is one of the most recognizable photographs of the 20th century: a naked girl – arms wide, face contorted, skin scorched and peeling – running toward the camera as she flees a napalm attack in South Vietnam. To her right, a boy’s face is frozen in a Greek tragedy mask of pain. To her left, two other Vietnamese children run away from the bombed village of Trảng Bàng. Behind them, an indistinguishable group of soldiers and, behind them, a wall of black smoke.Within hours of publication in June 1972, the photo, officially titled The Terror of War but colloquially known as Napalm Girl, went the analog version of viral; seen and discussed by millions of people around the world, it’s widely credited with galvanizing public opinion against the US war in Vietnam. Susan Sontag later wrote that the horrifically indelible image of nine-year-old Kim Phúc in di...

Culture

31 h. ago ‘Our underachieving careers make the friendship easier’: Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater on Blue Moon and their 32

As they launch their 10th film together, the actor and director look back on how their stellar careers have progressed in tandem, through co-stars’ addictions and Hollywood pressures‘I like this, it’s good,” Ethan Hawke tells Richard Linklater, midway through a lively digression that has already hopped from politics to the Beatles to the late films of John Huston. “What’s good?” asks Linklater. “All of this,” says Hawke, by which he means the London hotel suite with its coffee table, couch and matching upholstered armchairs; the whole chilly machinery of the international press junket. “I like that we get to spend a couple of days in a room,” he says. “It feels like a continuation of the same conversation we’ve been having for the past 32 years.”It’s all about the conversation with Linklater and Hawke. The two men like to talk; often the talk sparks a film. The director and actor first met backstage at a play in 1993 (“Sophistry, by Jon Marc Sherman,” says Linklater) and wound up ch...

Politics

31 h. ago ‘It felt dangerous. You got naggy’: Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater on power, combovers and Blue Moon

Ahead of their 11th movie together, the actor and director discuss musicals, the legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman and what being bald and 5ft tall does to your flirting skills ‘I like this, it’s good,” Ethan Hawke tells Richard Linklater, midway through a lively digression that has already hopped from politics to the Beatles to the late films of John Huston. “What’s good?” asks Linklater. “All of this,” says Hawke, by which he means the London hotel suite with its coffee table, couch and matching upholstered armchairs; the whole chilly machinery of the international press junket. “I like that we get to spend a couple of days in a room,” he says. “It feels like a continuation of the same conversation we’ve been having for the past 32 years.”It’s all about the conversation with Linklater and Hawke. The two men like to talk; often the talk sparks a film. The director and actor first met backstage at a play in 1993 (“Sophistry, by Jon Marc Sherman,” says Linklater) and wound up chatting...

Politics

47 h. ago You’re gonna need a bigger boat: the 20 best films set on water – ranked!

As L’Atalante is re-released, we count down the best movies set largely on ships, boats, barges, yachts, steamers and trimarans. Submarines banned, as they’re under waterStephen Sommers’ sci-fi horror pulp follows a bunch of scene-stealing character actors playing mercenaries hired to destroy the cruise ship Argonautica for insurance purposes. But a giant mutant octopus has got there first! Among the potential cephalopod fodder are Treat Williams, Kevin J O’Connor, and Famke Janssen as a jewel thief. Continue reading...

Politics

50 h. ago Stranger Things' final season hailed as a 'masterpiece' as 'thrilling' new episodes 'solve mysteries that have plagued fans for years' and critics are left 'yelling with joy' at their TV screens

The hit sci-fi series comes to an end with the new episodes, four of which were released by streaming giant Netflix today (November 27).

Sport

52 h. ago 'Rare perfect' war film hailed 'masterpiece' on Film 4 tonight

Quentin Tarantino knows just how to grip audiences, and he did it again with his wartime black comedy from 2009, starring Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz

Events

69 h. ago After bringing back Rush Hour, which franchise might Trump resurrect next?

The president’s bizarre insistence that the dead Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker series should return resulted in a shock announcement this week. Maybe there’s more to come So far, Donald Trump’s control of the media has involved a lot more stick than carrot. Thanks to a combination of outbursts and indiscriminate legal threats, the powerful figures at the centre of a rapidly consolidating industry find themselves with little option but to bend to the president’s every demand. Unfortunately, what he’s demanding is Rush Hour 4.Just a few days ago, this seemed like a weird overreach, like when Trump used a keynote speech at a McDonald’s to demand more tartare sauce on Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. But in this case it really happened. Trump told majority Paramount Skydance shareholder Larry Ellison that he wished someone would make Rush Hour 4, and now Rush Hour 4 is being made. Continue reading...

Politics

2 d. ago Sirāt review – rave in the desert leads to exasperating quest in the sands of Morocco

Oliver Laxe’s Cannes prize winner about a father’s search for his missing daughter starts impressively then descends into Pythonesque perditionOliver Laxe leads his audience into a wilderness of non-meaning in this strange and unrewardingly oppressive film that was the joint jury prize winner at Cannes this year and the recipient of all sorts of critical superlatives. For me, Sirāt is the most overpraised movie of the year – exasperating and bizarre in ways that become less and less interesting and more and more ridiculous as the film wears on.There is a moment of tragic horror halfway through the action that is not absorbed or clarified and whose (presumed) emotional and spiritual consequences are not conveyed. It simply looks coercive and even slightly farcical. The later explosions in the desert are, frankly, Pythonesque. And yet, as with Laxe’s earlier film Mimosas there are some wonderful visual moments and stylish shots of the Moroccan desert landscape. Veteran Spanish actor S...

Politics

3 d. ago Christy review – Sydney Sweeney pummels a boxing pioneer’s story into lifeless cliche

Underpowered David Michôd film fails to land the story of the groundbreaking 90s female boxing champion and the horrendous abuse she faced at home An uninspired and undirected performance from Sydney Sweeney means there’s a fatal lack of power in this movie from director and co-writer David Michôd. It manages to be unsubtle without being powerful. His subject is Christy Salters Martin, who under the grinning tutelage of Don King became the world’s most successful female boxing champion in the 90s and 00s but faced a misogynist nightmare outside the ring.The film fails to deliver the power of the traditional boxing movie, or the real importance of a story about domestic abuse and coercive control, or the sensory detail of true crime. It relies on the simple fact of a woman pioneeringly taking on what had once been solely a man’s sport and relapses into cliche. Christy, with her frizzy hair and brown contact lenses, doesn’t seem to plausibly develop as a character throughout the film,...

Politics

3 d. ago Jingle Bell Heist review – Netflix comedy is slight cut above standard festive filler

A game cast and some decent twists help to elevate this passably entertaining London-set Christmas offering about a department store robberyWe’re a few weeks into the annual Netflix Christmas dump and standards have already fallen below freezing. In both Alicia Silverstone’s A Merry Little Ex-Mas and Minka Kelly’s Champagne Problems, motions were lethargically, and cheaply, gone through without any seasonal sparkle added, a low bar once again set for the next month and change.So while there’s nothing all that remarkable about the streamer’s latest festive effort, crime caper turned romcom Jingle Bell Heist, there’s just about enough to give it an edge over its more anemic peers. Rather than being set in Snowflakeville or some other absurdly named small town in Middle America (while being clearly filmed in Canada), it’s shot on location in London during Christmas 2023 (directed by Mike Flanagan’s long-time cinematographer Michael Fimognari). The city does a great deal of heavy-liftin...

Politics

3 d. ago Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review – Josh O’Connor excels in another deadpan delight

Daniel Craig is joined by a sparkling array of talent including O’Connor, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin in this latest murder mystery with a religious undercurrentRian Johnson’s delectable new Knives Out film is a chocolate box: mouthwateringly delicious on the first layer and well, perfectly tasty on the second. Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc, in a slightly more serious mode than before, with not as many droll suth’n phrases and quirky faux-naif mannerisms, but rocking a longer hairstyle and handsomely tailored three-piece suit.Blanc arrives at a Catholic church in upstate New York to investigate the sensational murder of its presiding priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a ferocious clerical alpha male played by Josh Brolin, thundering his reactionary views from the pulpit. (That “Monsignor” title can only be bestowed by the pope incidentally: presumably Benedict XVI or John Paul II, not milksop liberals like Francis or Leo XIV.) And prime suspect is the sweet-...

Events

3 d. ago Wake Up Dead Man movie review: knives way the hell out (London Film Festival 2025)

Wake Up Dead Man movie review: knives way the hell out (London Film Festival 2025)  Flick Filosopher

Culture

3 d. ago Morgan Quaintance & Onyeka Igwe Named Joint Winners Of Film London’s 2025 Jarman Award

Morgan Quaintance & Onyeka Igwe Named Joint Winners Of Film London’s 2025 Jarman Award  Deadline

Events

3 d. ago Rush Hour 4 in the works at Paramount after reports of Trump intervening

Brett Ratner, accused of sexual misconduct by several women, will bring his hit franchise back to the big screenRush Hour 4 is reportedly a go at Paramount – after Donald Trump intervened on behalf of the movie.The studio will now release the next sequel by Brett Ratner, the director, who had retreated from Hollywood after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Sex cardigans: can the Wicked sequel make bulky knits strangely alluring?

It’s not the sexiest of garments. It arguably looks more like a discarded fishing net. And yet it has cast a spell over the internetName: Elphaba’s sex cardigan.Age: Elphaba is a character in Wicked: For Good – Jon M Chu’s fantasy film, the sequel to last year’s mega hit Wicked Part 1, which was adapted from the 2003 stage musical, and has just been released. That was loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, which was a reimagining of L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation starring Judy Garland. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘A fire, a dog, and the starry sky’: the teens overcoming phone

A new documentary from the makers of Jesus Camp follows the students enrolled at one of Norway’s 85 ‘folk high schools’. Can sledding and survival skills cure their social media-induced anxiety?Nineteen-year-old Hege is stricken by all the common anxieties of her generation. She spends too much time scrolling through socials on her phone, and as a result she is obsessed with how other people perceive her, and highly stressed when it comes to interacting with real humans in the flesh. “I think a lot about what people think about me,” she says. “You get tired of it.”The young adult from Sandnes in the south-west of Norway is one of the three teenage protagonists of Folktales, a new documentary that proposes a refreshingly simple remedy for zoomer angst: “Give yourself a fire, a dog, and the starry sky above you.” Continue reading...

Events