The absence of any major American films from this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition allowed room for some French films to sneak in. The Birthday Party aka Histoires de la Nuit is a film which would have never otherwise been allowed to compete for the Palme d’Or. It’s the kind …
Writer-director Volker Schlöndorff probably remains best known for his 1979 film The Tin Drum, but that underestimates his career. He has been a solid and thoughtful filmmaker both in English and his native German for more than this half-century, without ever quite having a major hit that provides an easier …
The best film of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival premiered out of competition. La Bataille de Gaulle: L’Âge de Fer, which has the English title De Gaulle: Résistance, is an absolute triumph of cinema. It is a fast-paced and largely true historical epic that handles complex and layered political events …
It’s been eighteen months since Season Three of Reacher and the series’ appeal is more valuable than ever. The character of Reacher – ex-military brat, ex-military police, now a keenly observant drifter with no living family, no possessions, no way of being traced as he moves through the world, and …
Cannes Film Festival liked doing things in pairs in 2026. It jointly awarded All of a Sudden’s two lead actresses, the French Virginie Efira and the Japanese Tao Okamoto, the Best Actress prize. (Ms. Okamoto beginning her acceptance speech by referring to herself as a “mediocre Japanese actress” prompted a …
It is a pleasant surprise that the two lead performances of Coward shared the Best Actor prize at this year’s Cannes. In the announcement, the jury mentioned that is because these performances change how masculinity is normally portrayed onscreen. But what the performances in Coward do is meet the current …
When reviewing The Agency season one, released in 2024, I chose to leave expectations at the door. At its core, the series was not a slam-bang action tale, but a methodically paced story about the effects of espionage on human psyche. Now entering its second season, The Agency is back …
The Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani has a massive short film haul in her career, most of which have played at the world’s central events. Washingtonia premiered at the Berlinale. Yellow Fieber and What Mary Didn’t Know were at Locarno. Electric Swam was at the Venice Film Festival, and Limbo was …
The Un Certain Regard Jury for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival was announced in April, and included three women: French actress Leïla Bekhti as jury president as well as Italian director Laura Samani and Senegalese director-producer Angèle Diabang. It’s clear Ms. Diabang was chosen because her movie So Long a …
The existence of art for art’s sake is always wonderful to see. It might not necessarily meet the moment or fill a need, but people have gone to some trouble to create it and this hard work and good cheer is always fascinating. The Man I Love is precisely just …
The considerably more dramatic original title of this German movie is Ants Don’t Eat Halva. This is a line spoken during the argument that’s at the core of this sweet and strange story of adult responsibilities assumed much too young. I Spy With My Little Eye has heavy subject matter …
One movie is an experience. Four is a consensus. The female filmmakers of America have agreed: modern motherhood is hell on earth. The mommies at the centre of these recent movies are all wealthy, with every societal advantage their husband’s money can buy. (They’re all thin and white too, if we …
Using the court system as a way to discuss societal problems has been a mainstay of television around the world for decades. Yet since Anatomy of a Fall gave the world an clever, multilingual mystery, the court system has suddenly become just as popular a technique for movies to address …
Some writers might use subtext. Others have the main female character ask the male lead, “So you’re on a f*cked-up American pilgrimage?” It never hurts to spell things out, but Via Negativa ricochets quite a bit between overly explaining things and letting Young Mazino’s handsome face do all the work. …
This charming little movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does do three things. It makes the case that Haley Bennett is one of our most overlooked movie stars, it introduces Austrian actor Elyas M’Barek to English-speaking audiences, and it tells a serious story of unsupported female ambition with a …
Film festivals can be a little too intellectual sometimes. There is of course space in movies for people giving each other lectures on why capitalism is bad (something that featured in an awful lot of films at Cannes this year). But those movies are rarely a good time, and most …
Romantic movies told from the male point of view tend to focus on the guy, especially a guy able to recognise something in a woman – beauty, brains, talent – that she didn’t know she had. Through the guy’s actions the woman is able to get what she deserves, which …
Netflix’s Beef, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, was a phenomenon upon its release in 2023. At the time, everyone thought that the show would be nothing more than a limited series. Now in 2026, Beef has taken the anthology route with a brand new eight-episode season. Beef season two …
Travel remains one of life’s luxuries where, for a few hours whilst in the air, passengers are encouraged to switch off from outside distractions and disconnect those online connections. Therefore to be a designated ‘travel companion’ to receive free flights, on standby, is a perk that few are unlikely to …
For anyone who is, knows, or aspires to be a dad, Finnegan’s Foursome is the perfect movie. The stakes are low, the banter is high, and there’s so much golf that anyone who’s ever fallen asleep in front of Sunday afternoon television will feel right at home. Edward Burns has …