39 h. ago ‘Revelatory, magnetic, unknown’: how Frank Dillane became a star at Cannes

With a breakout performance in Urchin, the actor has emerged from cult TV fame to the cusp of major stardom – a new ‘post-alpha male’ lead to join the ranks of Paul Mescal and Josh O’ConnorFew actors make an instant impact on their first major film festival appearance, but Frank Dillane, star of fellow actor Harris Dickinson’s directing debut Urchin, is one of them. Critics are near-unanimous in their praise, with Variety calling his performance “revelatory”, and IndieWire describing it as “magnetic”. Influential film industry publication Deadline said that Dillane “arrived in Cannes a virtual unknown, but Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut has made him a star”.In Urchin, Dillane plays Mike, a man living on the streets who ends up in jail after committing an assault and then struggles to go straight after his release. Despite being given a place in a hostel and helped into employment, Mike is tempted to fall back into his old ways. With a script written by Dickinson, Dillane commi...

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66 h. ago ‘Grifter loneliness is not for me any more’: Julia Stiles on dance, Dexter and her directorial debut

Following Wish You Were Here’s release, the actor answers your questions about Sunday roasts, being kept on her toes by Paul Greengrass and especially villainous villainsHi Julia. What’s it like being directed by Paul Greengrass with his fast-cut, handheld camera, reportage style? Do you have to approach your acting in a different way? HighPriest1967Paul is an extraordinary director, a visionary director, and I absorbed so much by watching him work. He comes from documentary, so even though he was filming these elaborate, very expensive, complicated action sequences, he was still able to see things happening spontaneously. I remember when we were shooting The Bourne Ultimatum in Tangier, running through those windy streets. Normally as an actor, you turn a corner and you think you’re off camera, so you’d stop. But you could never do that with Paul because there might be a camera around the corner. He always liked to keep us on our toes.You stole the show as Heather Graham’s sister i...

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3 d. ago Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut premieres to mixed reviews at Cannes film festival

Some critics have predicted awards season success, while others called it ‘wobbly’ and ‘unconvincing’

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4 d. ago Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut Eleanor The Great premieres to mixed reviews as critics brand it 'wobbly' and 'unconvincing'

The Hollywood star's hotly-anticipated film was shown for the first time at a special screening held at the 78th iteration of the star-studded festival on Tuesday afternoon.

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4 d. ago Eleanor the Great review – June Squibb takes on Holocaust survivor trauma in Scarlett Johansson’s iffy directing debut

The 95-year-old actor gives an enjoyably twinkly performance in a film that misjudges how seriously its story should be takenScarlett Johansson’s directorial feature debut, from a screenplay by Tory Kamen, is honestly intentioned and sweetly acted – notably by the film’s 95-year-old star June Squibb, whose remarkable career renaissance began with her being nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska. But this frankly odd film is misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme. Its bland, TV-movie tone of sentimentality fails to accommodate the existential nightmare of the main plot strand, or indeed the subordinate question of when and whether to put your elderly parent in a care home.Squibb plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a widowed Jewish lady with a waspish way of speaking her mind to condescending youngsters, including the blandly unhelpful teen working in a supermarket who presumes to tell Eleanor that all pickles taste pre...

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7 d. ago Mariska Hargitay drops bombshell family secret she's kept hidden for 30 years

Hargitay's documentary, My Mom Jayne, which marks her feature film directorial debut, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.

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8 d. ago The Chronology of Water review: Kristen Stewart makes a traumatic splash with directorial debut

Imogen Poots takes the lead in Stewart’s choppy but compelling adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of abuse and sexual uncertaintyKristen Stewart’s directorial debut, adapted by her from the 2011 abuse memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, is running a very high temperature, though never exactly collapsing into outright feverishness or torpor. It’s a poetry-slam of pain and autobiographical outrage, recounting a writer’s journey towards recovering the raw material of experience to be sifted and recycled into literary success. The present day catastrophes of failed relationships, drink and drugs are counterpointed with Super-8 memories and epiphanies of childhood with extreme closeups on remembered details and wry, murmuring voiceovers. It borders on cliche a little, but there is compassion and storytelling ambition here.Lidia herself, well played by Imogen Poots, is a young woman who was abused in her teenage years by her clenched and furious architect father (Michael Epp) – along with he...

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8 d. ago Kristen Stewart says Donald Trump’s effect on the film industry is ‘terrifying’

The actor who is making her directorial debut with The Chronology of Water at the Cannes film festival says ‘we should expect the worst and fight for the best’ Kristen Stewart has described President Donald Trump’s effect on the film industry as “terrifying” and said that “we should expect the worst”.In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter as her feature directing debut The Chronology of Water screened at the Cannes film festival, Stewart said: “We’re living in a world that’s folding in on itself by the split second we’re all looking over our shoulders going: ‘Holy shit.’ The slippage is just terrifying.” Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Billie Piper on toxic masculinity, raising teens, and playing complex characters: ‘I’ve been a woman on the edge – I’m not afraid of it!’

As part of a Bafta TV special, the nominated actor talks carving out a niche playing people at breaking point, the ‘dreamy’ romcom she’s currently writing, and what she really thought of that Prince Andrew interview“I’ve had so many coffees, I feel hysterical,” says Billie Piper. The 42-year-old actor has set up camp in a caff in Camden, London, while she finishes the final draft of a romcom she’s working on – a follow-up to her 2021 directorial debut, Rare Beasts. Piper shot to fame at 15 as a pop star, then transitioned into acting, becoming a household name as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. Since then, she’s carved out a niche playing women at breaking point (like Suzie Pickles in I Hate Suzie). Now, she’s ready to do less acting and more work behind the scenes. Not that her on-screen career is slowing down – she just bagged her fifth Bafta nomination, for playing journalist Sam McAlister in Scoop, the dramatisation of the BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epste...

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2 w. ago Walton Goggins talks 'disagreements' with wife Nadia Connors as fans speculate he has ended his feud with White Lotus co

Nadia, 54, made her directorial debut with the comedy-drama which was released last year and starred Walton, Pedro Pascal and Elizabeth Reaser.

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2 w. ago Letitia Wright’s Directorial Debut ‘Highway to the Moon’ to Premiere at South London Film Festival (EXCLUSIVE)

Letitia Wright’s Directorial Debut ‘Highway to the Moon’ to Premiere at South London Film Festival (EXCLUSIVE)  Variety

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