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Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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This is three hours I’ll never get back and nor would I wish to. A masterpiece, no, but as the most crackpot piece of filmmaking you ever did see? This rocks.
Posted Aug 08, 2024
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Dìdi
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Here’s the bottom line: it’s an absolute joy. It’s funny, moving, authentic and takes you right back to being 13. (Agh!).
Posted Aug 01, 2024
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About Dry Grasses
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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Hope, disappointment, self-discovery: they’re all in here, along with, in the end, the dry grasses. Some will consider the film a masterpiece; others an ordeal. I’d lean towards the former but would also offer this advice: take sandwiches.
Posted Jul 25, 2024
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Twisters
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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If you believe, as I do, that once you’ve seen one big storm you’ve seen them all don’t expect any mercy. This never lets you off the hook and is so furiously and incessantly loud that a doze is impossible. God knows I tried.
Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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The extent to which the film does take flight is largely thanks to Johansson’s charisma, even though I couldn’t help shake the feeling they’d fired up a Maserati for a job that basically required a pootle to the shops and back.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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The Nature of Love
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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The director has an expert light touch and the performances are exquisite. Blondeau has a beautifully expressive face of the kind that makes you want her to be in every frame, while Cardinal brings vulnerability and also earnestness.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It has the cinematography you’d expect of a Western, as well as the vast landscapes and the emphatic, sweeping music... What it doesn’t have is anything original to say if, that is, it has anything to say at all.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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The Bikeriders
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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The film stars Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer, who manages to wipe the floor with both of them. You may wish to look away from the violence, but you won’t wish to look away from her.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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The Truth vs. Alex Jones
(2024)
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James Walton
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On the whole, the programme let the facts, the parents’ anguish and the hideousness of Jones and his allies speak for themselves -- which duly made for a grim and enraging watch.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Freud's Last Session
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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What if two of the greatest minds of the 20th century had the chance to thrash it out? Thrash it out they do but, alas, they cannot thrash any life into this film.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Hit Man
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It is nicely acted, particularly by Powell who turns in a performance of great charm. Arjona isn’t required to do much more than be ravishing, but she has plenty of charisma. The bottom line is that, chances are, you will like this film. Somewhat.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
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Sting
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Roache-Turner is no Hitchcock or Spielberg, but he has a sure touch when it comes to knowing what fans of these films want and expect.
Posted May 30, 2024
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Let It Be
(1970)
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James Walton
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Let It Be definitely offers far more such smiles and moments than its gloomy reputation could ever have led us to expect.
Posted May 16, 2024
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Two Tickets to Greece
(2022)
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Deborah Ross
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While the film is predictable, it has a certain French verve, excellent performances and doesn’t take it out of you.
Posted May 16, 2024
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Napoleon
(1927)
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Spectator Staff
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Napoleon is the greatest of French films. The producers were fortunate in securing so fine an actor as Albert Dieudonné to interpret Napoleon. He has personality, fire, looks.
Posted May 14, 2024
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La Chimera
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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If you’re in the mood for something original and woozy and riotous and wonderfully special, you will be able to fill your boots.
Posted May 09, 2024
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The Fall Guy
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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A gloriously fun, screwball action film that pokes fun at action films and this, I now know, is my favourite kind of action film. I would even venture that it’s the sort of film that’s crying out to be enjoyed with a big old bucket of popcorn.
Posted May 02, 2024
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Postcards From the Edge
(1990)
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Mark Amory
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Superficial but fun.
Posted Apr 29, 2024
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Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer
(2024)
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James Delingpole
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Where once he resembled a wittily deadpan undertaker, he’s now starting to look as pale, drawn and sinister as the contents of the coffin.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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White Heat
(1949)
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Virginia Graham
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White Heat is a first-rate thriller. It is of an appalling violence.
Posted Apr 22, 2024
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The Caine Mutiny
(1954)
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Virginia Graham
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The Caine Mutiny is a finely rounded, compact piece of work, intelligently written, admirably acted and directed with the minimum of fuss.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
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Sometimes I Think About Dying
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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The film does a lot with little... The naturalistic writing and directing means everyone arrives fully formed and believable.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
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Everything Everywhere All at Once
(2022)
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Sam Kriss
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This film can’t quite commit to its interdimensional-war gimmick; it’s an appendage, mostly played for laughs, to the real story, which I kept waiting to arrive -- and when it did, I wished it hadn’t.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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White Noise
(2022)
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Sam Kriss
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Instead of something that speaks directly to the present, it’s a period piece... There’s not much fun in a film where everyone’s just looking at Twitter. But without its eerie relevance, it’s not quite clear why this film even exists.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Back to Black
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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This is better than I expected (although my expectations were low). It does seem softened at the edges, and one can never forgive a falling-in-love montage set at London Zoo -- ever -- but I (mostly) didn’t cringe and it is respectful, if painful.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Lady Sings the Blues
(1972)
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Christopher Hudson
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The film is about Billie Holiday. And the qualities that lay behind her supremacy as a jazz singer -- her timing, inflection and voice timbre -- Diana Ross tries, and necessarily fails, to reproduce.
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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Scoop
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Sewell doesn’t so much imitate Andrew but embody him -- who knew Sewell had that in his arsenal?
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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Mothers' Instinct
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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The movie doesn’t even pretend to have anything to say about parental bereavement, or repressed feelings, or Stepfordy wives. Its purpose is purely to entertain and it does that nicely enough, without outstaying its welcome.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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The Searchers
(1956)
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Isabel Quigly
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The splendour of the country-side, the whole sweep and scope of conception and above all the grandeur of Ford's leisurely, controlled direction, make the film outstandingly fine.
Posted Mar 22, 2024
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Robot Dreams
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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Sweet, charming, deeply moving…. Readers, I welled up! At a cartoon! This is something we need never speak of again.
Posted Mar 21, 2024
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High & Low - John Galliano
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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I went into the cinema wanting to hear what Galliano had to say about it all... But the film never properly gets to the bottom of it.
Posted Mar 14, 2024
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Monster
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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I have been known to throw a shoe at the screen when the plot device stops anyone uttering the few words that will clear everything up in one minute flat... But Kore-eda, who has films such as Shoplifters on his CV, can get away with it and does.
Posted Mar 14, 2024
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Dune: Part Two
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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There is little character development and it’s not for the literal-minded -- or anyone who has, despite their best efforts, paid some attention.
Posted Mar 14, 2024
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Chinatown
(1974)
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Duncan Fallowell
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Even to those of you of strong heart, I say hold on to your ventricles. This is a thriller with a capital K. We knew he was good at it, now Polanski stands supreme in the pharmacology of the cinema.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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Westward the Women
(1951)
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Virginia Graham
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It is strange that with so much going on in such novel conditions the film should be, for quite long periods, dull and flat.
Posted Mar 07, 2024
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Perfect Days
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It is compelling and while I felt I should have been bored, I never was. Plus I’m still marvelling at the toilets.
Posted Feb 22, 2024
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The Taste of Things
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It is sensuous, languorous, soothing and as rich and deep as (I now know) a consommé should be.
Posted Feb 19, 2024
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Occupied City
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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The full cut will, [Steve McQueen] has said, be 36 hours which I can imagine as an installation running on a loop in a museum so you can spend ten minutes in front of it and then move on. Ten minutes is probably all you need.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
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The Zone of Interest
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s extraordinary, powerful, and will haunt you today, tomorrow, and maybe for all your days to come.
Posted Feb 01, 2024
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All of Us Strangers
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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The acting is off the scale. Scott, in particular, infuses his character with such vulnerability that you’ll want to reach into the screen and comfort him.
Posted Jan 25, 2024
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The Holdovers
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It is both melancholy and funny as these characters develop the capacity to engage emotionally and take off in new directions. It is affecting without ever being treacly or sentimental and the performances are tremendous.
Posted Jan 18, 2024
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Poor Things
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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Though it flags towards the end, the film is marvellously entertaining. And ultimately, while it is weird, it is the sort of weird we can do.
Posted Jan 11, 2024
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One Life
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s fine, in its workmanlike way. But the story is so inherently powerful and moving and there is so much goodness and decency at work it will set you off. Take a whole box of tissues if you want to play it safe and would rather not deploy your sleeve.
Posted Jan 04, 2024
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Royal Family
(1969)
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Stuart Hood
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The viewer recognises, again and again, incidents, situations and expressions which can only be described as archetypal. It casts, at the same time, [a] light on how the royal family performs not only in our society but, by extension, in many others.
Posted Dec 28, 2023
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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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While Aardman films have always looked and sounded like no other, this has a generic rather than a quirky, handmade feel. Chances are you’ve had bigger disappointments in life, but it is a disappointment all the same.
Posted Dec 15, 2023
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Fallen Leaves
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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Kaurismaki somehow suffuses every frame with feeling, even if his storytelling is so pared back it is almost unfeeling. It’s the opposite of melodrama, whatever that is.
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Napoleon
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It does have the feel of a film that’s been scissored to death. The battle sequences are spectacular but the jackhammer cutting-style -- hang on, how did he get from there to here? -- means the storytelling is hurried and confusing.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Saltburn
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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I was often watching though my fingers. It is fearless -- and intoxicatingly so.
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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Little Big Man
(1970)
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Christopher Hudson
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All the acting is good, the photography outstanding, and the pace kept up from beginning to end. Underneath the higher purpose there is a film well worth seeing.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Dream Scenario
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s certainly the most Nicolas Cage film since the last Nicolas Cage film, whenever that was. Plus it is entertaining. Mostly.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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