Play buttonFilm (UK) Hail Satan? review – devilish intentionsThe Guardian - Simran Hans“Isn’t this a hoax?” asks a news reporter. This is the question at the heart of Penny Lane’s (Nuts!, Our Nixon) impish documentary about the Satanic Temple. Founded in 2013, the group claim to “refine”
Play buttonFilm (UK) Streaming: is the Brazilian film Araby the movie of the decade?The Guardian - Guy LodgeI was late getting to this week’s selected film – though not as late as film distributors in the UK: it has never been picked up for a cinema or even a DVD release. For more than two years, respected have
Kashmir Bollywood to depict Indian air strikes on Pakistan over Kashmir bombingThe Guardian - AgenciesBollywood is to make a movie based on the “true story” of Indian air strikes on Pakistan this year, its producer said, the latest patriotic film to hit the silver screen. The 26 February attack took place
Film (UK) Freda Dowie obituaryThe Guardian - Anthony HaywardTerence Davies, one of Britain’s most original film-makers, said he would never have made his autobiographical classic Distant Voices, Still Lives if Freda Dowie had not agreed to play his mother in it.
Quentin Tarantino Tarantino's gruesome revenge fantasies are growing more puerile and misogynisticThe Guardian - Caspar SalmonCompare and contrast two screen deaths. In Quentin Tarantino’s second film, Pulp Fiction in 1994, John Travolta’s Vincent Vega accidentally shoots Marvin, a minor character, in the face. The killing happens
Play buttonFilm (UK) Jawline: behind the social media documentary about short-lived fameThe Guardian - Adrian HortonSometime between 2016 and 2017 – a distinct period, if you follow the rapid hot and colds of social media platforms – 16-year-old Austyn Tester filmed a video just for himself. Shirtless in front of a
Film (UK) Rich territory: how class warfare is taking over the multiplexThe Guardian - Charles BramescoThe thing about rich people is that they need the working poor much more than the working poor need them. The new horror film Ready or Not imagines a circumstance under which the upper crust will literally
Stan Lee Stan Lee's daughter condemns Disney over Spider-Man splitThe Guardian - Catherine ShoardJoan Lee, the daughter of the late comics mogul Stan Lee, has spoken out in the wake of this week’s surprise split between studios Sony and Disney over the rights to Lee’s creation, Spider-Man. In a statement
Transylvania Miley Cyrus: I was fired from Hotel Transylvania over penis cake photosThe Guardian - Catherine ShoardMiley Cyrus claims she was fired from children’s animation Hotel Transylvania after posing with a penis-shaped cake purchased for her then-boyfriend’s birthday. Listing a series of her lowest points on
Play buttonFilm (UK) Rocking the boat: how Cornish class war inspired a masterpieceThe Guardian - Laura SnapesTwenty years ago, Mark Jenkin returned to his boyhood home in north Cornwall to shoot his debut film, Golden Burn, about the tensions between local lads and the owner of a caravan park. Jenkin had been
Play buttonFilm (UK) Dear Boris Johnson, watch these six films before you rip up the Irish backstop and trigger violenceThe Guardian - Mark CousinsI’m a Northern Irish film-maker, living in Scotland. I have never been great at words, but have learned a lot about life through film. As it is 50 years since the start of the Troubles and, as the backstop
Play buttonFilm (UK) Neither Wolf Nor Dog review – road movie tells Native American storiesThe Guardian - Phil Hoad‘If I had a nickel for every time a white guy came out here to write a book about us, I could buy back the Black Hills.” So says one Native American character, channelling decades of oppression and cultural
Play buttonFilm (UK) A Faithful Man review – drearily frothy French romcomThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeFrench actor Louis Garrel pays homage here to Woody Allen’s ego by co-writing, directing and starring in a film in which two drop-dead-gorgeous women go to war over him. (Naturally, one is much younger
Spider-Man Can Spider-Man survive outside of the Marvel universe?The Guardian - Gretchen SmailIs the Marvel Cinematic Universe going to have to say goodbye to its friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Marvel and Sony discussions on how to share the webslinger’s universe have reached an impasse, meaning
Play buttonGerard Butler Angel Has Fallen review – Gerard Butler's pyrotechnics fizzle outThe Guardian - Mike McCahillIs Gerard Butler hellbent on remaking every last action movie of the 90s? The thought arose during last year’s Den of Thieves, in which Butler bellowed his way through the Al Pacino role in a cut-price
Play buttonGary Oldman Killers Anonymous review – Gary Oldman fires blanks in deathly yarnThe Guardian - Leslie FelperinThere was a stretch of time recently when violent, talky crime stories flourished in the British film scene like mushrooms in a woodland glade. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Sexy Beast and Bronson
Play buttonSatanic Temple Hail Satan? review – sympathy for the devil, socks for the homelessThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeThe devil’s work is moving with the times. Gone are the days of hell-raising and animal sacrifices. Followers of the Satanic Temple in Florida collect socks for the homeless. Other Temple chapters donate
Play buttonFilm (UK) Princess Emmy review – plodding horse-whisperer animationThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeThis well-meaning, eat-your-broccoli kids’ animation from Germany steers clear of simpering princess stereotypes in its story about a young royal who’s mad about animals. She is princess Emmy, who has
Play buttonFilm (UK) Astro Kid review – little boy lost on a planet far far awayThe Guardian - Leslie FelperinIn this French animated feature, pre-teen tyke Will (voiced as a perky American in the English-language release by Landen Beattie), the son of a pair of explorers, is literally lost in space. Separated
Play buttonFilm (UK) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark review – horror-comic summer specialThe Guardian - Mike McCahillDirected by Trollhunter’s André Øvredal, with script contributions from Guillermo del Toro and Saw graduates Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, this young adult-leaning horror compendium proves a mixed
The Matrix Keanu Reeves set to return for The Matrix 4The Guardian - Benjamin LeeKeanu Reeves is set to return to the world of The Matrix with a fourth chapter now officially confirmed. Lana Wachowski, who created the franchise with her sister Lilly, will also return as director, with
Gerard Butler Angel Has Fallen: is Gerard Butler Hollywood's weirdest action hero?The Guardian - Stuart HeritageThe many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics states that every possible outcome to every decision ever made will each happen, and each outcome exists in its own parallel universe. I am telling this
Play buttonFilm (UK) Bombshell: first trailer for star-studded Fox News drama releasedThe Guardian - Guardian staffThe trailer for Bombshell has revealed our first official look at Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson. The Oscar-tipped drama will tell the story of how Fox News boss Ailes
Play buttonWoody Allen Woody Allen's Rainy Day in New York to open Deauville film festivalThe Guardian - Catherine ShoardA Rainy Day in New York, Woody Allen’s romantic comedy dropped by distributor Amazon in the wake of the #MeToo movement, is to open the Deauville American film festival next month. The film, which stars
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Dwayne Johnson named highest earning male actor of the yearThe Guardian - Guardian StaffDwayne Johnson has been named Hollywood’s highest paid male actor for the second year in a row. According to Forbes, the former wrestler has earned an estimated $89.4m in the last 12 months thanks to in
Lana Wachowski A fourth Matrix movie is exactly the kind of rabbit hole reality needs right nowThe Guardian - Luke HollandOf the 10 highest-grossing films of 2019, only one – Jordan Peele’s Us – isn’t part of a franchise. Few jaws will have hit the floor, then, at the wholly un-flabbergasting news that sci-fi punch-’em-up
Disney+ Spider-Man out of Marvel Cinematic Universe after Disney split with SonyThe Guardian - Catherine ShoardSony Pictures, the studio that owns the film rights to comic book character Spider-Man, has spoken out about the split with Disney that will see the webslinger booted out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Film (UK) James Bond Aston Martin DB5 sold at auction for £5.2mThe Guardian - Rupert Neate Wealth correspondentAn Aston Martin DB5 used to promote the James Bond film Thunderball has sold for $6.4m (£5.2m) at the world’s biggest classic car auction in California. The car, which was once owned by the British JCB
Play buttonRichard Williams Richard Williams obituaryThe Guardian - David RobinsonThe two Oscars awarded to the film animator Richard Williams, who has died aged 86, for his work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) marked a fitting recognition of his mastery of his craft. The fantasy-comedy
