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Few modern directors have had the sustained critical success that Christopher Nolan has found over the last three decades. Sure, there have been weaker moments -- the entirety of "The Dark Knight Rises," some would argue, or any time he's tried to write a woman outside of "Interstellar" -- but it's also impossible to argue with the sheer number of hits. "Inception," "Memento," "Oppenheimer," "The Prestige," "The Dark Knight," "Dunkirk," the list goes on and on.

Though "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Tenet" are probably the most polarizing of Nolan's movies, neither holds his lowest audience score on IMDb. That "honor" belongs to one of his earliest films: 2002's "Insomnia." A remake of the 1997 Norwegian movie of the same name, "Insomnia" is a psychological crime thriller starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. Yet, despite that strong core cast, it is the worst-rated movie in Nolan's filmography on IMDb,...

A remake of the 2011 French flick Sleepless Night, Baran bo Odar's breathless action thriller Sleepless may have only been released eight years ago, but it can already be considered a forgotten entry in a diluted genre. Starring the ever-popular Jamie Foxx, just two years after his Academy Award for Best Actor win for the musical biopicRay, Sleepless also boasts the likes of Michelle Monaghan, David Harbour, Scoot McNairy, Dermot Mulroney, Gabrielle Union, and more in a movie written by Academy Award nominee Andrea Berloff.

However, despite the impressive names both on and off-screen, Sleepless faced fierce backlash, illustrated by a poor 25% critics' score and a 37% audience rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw saying the film "suffers from sheer silliness." Nevertheless, eight years on, Sleepless has become an unlikely streaming hit, officially one of the ten most-streamed movies on Paramount+ in the U.S.

The actor, best known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, was found unresponsive in Los Angeles

Michael Madsen – a life in pictures

Peter Bradshaw’s appreciation

The actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67 at his home in Malibu, according to authorities and his representatives. No foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s department confirmed, after deputies responded to the Los Angeles county home following a call to the emergency services on Thursday morning.

He was pronounced dead at 8.25am. In an email, Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, confirmed his client had died from cardiac arrest.

Following the New York premiere of F1: The Movie on Monday evening, the first reviews of the film from critics have been coming in, and they’ve been generally favorable.

The high-octane Formula One racing drama, directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick and Tron: Legacy), stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris. The film follows Pitt’s Sonny Hayes, a former F1 driver who comes out of retirement to mentor and team up with a younger driver, Idris’ Joshua Pearce.

As of Tuesday afternoon, F1: The Movie had a score of 84 percent from 58 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and clocked in at 69 percent on Metacritic from 24 reviews.

The film, from Apple Original Films and Warner Bros., speeds into theaters on June 27. It also stars Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies and Kim Bodnia.

Read on for key excerpts from some of the most prominent early reviews following the New York premiere of F1: The Movie.

Before the Palme d’Or gets dished out and after power cuts took down the town’s electricity for a day, Cannes was abuzz with the burning question: qui a gagné le Palm Dog? The answer came yesterday afternoon at a star-studded-collar event on the beach at The Members Club. In a woof-and-ready ceremony, jury member Peter Bradshaw noted that 25 films had come under consideration for this year’s honors, pointing out that some were made by directors who hadn’t even been born when the event first took place at the UK Pavilion back in 2000.

• The top prize — The Palm Dog itself — went to sheepdog Panda, for her part in a film directed by her owner: The Love That Remains, Hlynur Pálmason’s tragicomic, gentle family saga.

• Mutt Moment — for the year’s best scene-stealer — went to the British Un Certain Regard film Pillion for its long-haired Dachshund Hippo and Rottweiler Rosie.

Just like Succession, HBO's gone-but-not-forgotten drama series, Mountainhead comes from the satiric mind of Jesse Armstrong and focuses on a group of unserious billionaires. However, critics aren't as enthusiastic about the new TV movie as they were with its Emmy-winning predecessor.

Mountainhead follows four wealthy tech bros — played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef — who meet at a swanky ski resort. Their retreat soon descends into chaos as a global crisis unfolds, exacerbated by the actions of one of their companies.

Armstrong is a seven-time Emmy winner for Succession, but this is his feature directorial debut, and critics are well aware of the fact. Fair or not, most of the initial reviews included comparisons between Succession and Mountainhead.

The new telefilm, with its runtime of 109 minutes, is "rich in laughs but lacks the substance of Succession," says Shaina Weatherhead (Collider), who adds, "If you come...

Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident and Mario Martone’s Fuori have landed joint top and bottom of Screen’s Cannes jury grid.

Iranian drama It Was Just An Accident joins Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors in first place with a 3.1 average from the critics.

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

The film, which follows the chain reaction caused by a minor incident, received four four-stars (excellent) and five three-stars (good) while three critics gave it two-stars (average).

It is an increase on Panahi’s last time in Competition in 2018 where 3 Faces scored a 2.6 rating.

Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, the follow-up to her Palme d’Or winner Titane, has landed with poor scores on Screen International’s Cannes jury grid.

With an average of 1.5, it is joint bottom alongside Ari Aster’s Eddington. It collected two zero-stars (bad) from Le Monde’s Mathieu Macharet and The Guardian’ s Peter Bradshaw, as well as four one-stars (poor) and four two-stars (average). Screen’s critic and Positif’s Nt Binh were the outliers, awarding it three-stars (good).

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

Alpha is about a troubled 13-year-old girl,...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival is officially in full swing, and you know what that means, don’t you? Reviews for some of the hottest films at the fest are pouring in hot off the presses. Not long after Denzel Washington received an honorary Palme d’Or Award for his outstanding career, the first reactions (reviews) for his new film, Highest 2 Lowest, are here!

Spike Lee directs Highest 2 Lowest from a screenplay by William Alan Fox, based on High and Low by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryūzō Kikushima, Eijiro Hisaita, and King’s Ransom by Evan Hunter. Highest 2 Lowest takes Kurosawa’s classic crime thriller to New York City and tells what happens when a titan music mogul is targeted with a ransom plot.

Check out some of the first reactions from entertainment outlets in the Cannes crowd below:

According to Variety‘s Peter Debruge, Highest 2 Lowest brings Kurosawa...

According to early reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have another winner on their hands.

The Oscar winners have reunited for the fifth time with Highest 2 Lowest, their first project since 2006’s Inside Man, a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1963 drama High and Low. The film had its gala premiere at Cannes on Monday, where Lee helped celebrate Washington with an honorary Palme d'Or.

“Titled like a sequel, plotted like a remake, and shot with enough of its own singular verve to ensure that most people never think of it as either of those things, Spike Lee’s deliriously entertaining — if jarringly upbeat — Highest 2 Lowest modernizes the post-war anxieties of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low for the age of parasocial relationships,” Indiewire critic David Ehrlich wrote. “The basic chords of the song remain the same as they were back in 1963, even...

Alexander Skarsgard is a successful actor who is on an impressive Rotten Tomatoes streak. After receiving a perfect debut score for Murderbot, his new Apple TV+ series, Skarsgard achieved a rare career win by adding a different title in less than a week.

His latest film, the romance Pillion, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18 to huge acclaim. The drama, which follows a Bdsm relationship between a gay biker and a timid parking attendant, enjoyed an eight-minute standing ovation from the audience, per Deadline. As reviews started coming in, Pillion debuted with a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pillion marks Harry Lighton's directorial debut. The filmmaker also wrote the script for the drama, which is based on Adam Mars-Jones' 2020 novel, Box Hill. The cast features Harry Potter star Harry Melling in the leading role, as well as Douglas Hodge, Lesley Sharp, Jake Shears, and Anthony Welsh. The...

Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme received middling scores on Screen’s Cannes jury grid while Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent impressed.

The Phoenician Schemedebuted with an average of 2.3 from the critics, including one four-star (excellent) from Le Monde’s Mathieu Macharet and a one-star (poor) from Time’s Stephanie Zacharek.

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

The rest of the scores for Anderson’s latest espionage, with another starry ensemble including Benicio del Toro, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks, comprised eight two-stars (average) and two three-stars (good).

It beats out...

Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love received mixed scores on Screen’s Cannes jury grid while Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir also landed.

Die, My Lovescored an average of 2.5 stars after ratings ranged from a four-star (excellent), from Time’s Stephanie Zacharek, to a zero-star (bad), from Le Monde’s Mathieu Macharet.

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

Jennifer Lawrence stars in Ramsay’s third Competition entry as a new mother battling with psychosis. Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek and Lakeith Stanfield also star.

Die, My Love’s score...

Based on the reaction to Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, the first significant Oscar-caliber performance of the year has arrived thanks to Jennifer Lawrence.

“Cannes is a festival where Oscar narratives typically start to take shape, and while it’s far too early to make predictions, Lawrence has announced herself as an early frontrunner,” wrote The Daily Beast in an unbylined review (although critic Esther Zuckerman has filed several reviews for the outlet this week from France). “Die, My Love still has yet to find distribution, but it inevitably will get picked up with a big campaign in place. The second coming of Jennifer Lawrence is here and it’s astounding.”

In the headline for his review, Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson called Lawrence “astonishing.”

“What keeps our attention during the film’s slightly sagging middle, and makes it such bracing viewing,...

Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson took to the Cannes red carpet this evening for the world premiere of new film Die My Love, directed by Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here).

The Competition movie is based on the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz and also stars Lakeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte.

Set in rural America, the film is a portrait of a married woman’s mental disintegration as post-natal depression consumes and obliterates her. Pattinson plays her husband, and Stanfield her lover.

In Deadline’s review, Damon Wise was impressed by Ramsay’s “mesmerizing film,” describing it as a “brutal but beautiful story.” As for many critics, Lawrence proved the star of the show. “America knows very well how good Jennifer Lawrence can be,” Wise wrote, “and this could well mean a fifth Oscar nomination if it lands in savvy hands.” But Ramsay also comes in for particular...

Westerns have a special place in the hearts of audiences that grew up during the genre's golden age, and those introduced to classic productions on television and film via reruns and VHS tapes/DVDs. While they aren't produced as much as other genres today, Ari Aster's Eddington is the latest to enter the world of showdowns and standoffs. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, Eddington follows the standoff between a small-town sheriff (Phoenix) and the Mayor (Pascal) that sparks a powder keg as neighbors are pitted against each other. It's set in May 2020 in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico. The Aster-directed film will debut on July 18, 2025, but had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2025.

Critics and those in attendance at the film festival got to witness either one of the best new Westerns in the genre or the worst. While many people...

Oliver Laxe’s Sirat has divided opinion on Screen International’ s Cannes jury grid, receiving an average score of 2.5.

The family drama about a father, played by Sergi Lopez, searching for his missing daughter in Morocco, collected scores of four (excellent) from Justin Chang, Ahmed Shawky, Kong Rithdee and The Telegraph duo Robbie Collin and Tim Robey, as well as two threes (good).

Dragging the average down however was a zero (bad), from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus, as well as ones (poor) from Peter Bradshaw and Mathieu Macheret.

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

Screen’s Cannes 2025 jury grid has officially kicked off, with both Mascha Schilinski’s Sound Of Falling and Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors posting strong scores.

German drama The Sound Of Fallingdebuted with an average of 2.8. Schilinski’s second feature received four scores of four(excellent), butBangkok Post’s Kong Rithdee dragged the average down with a one star (poor).

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

It is the strongest start to the jury grid since 2021 when Leos Carax’s Annette started with a 3.0 average.

The Sound Of FallingisSchilinski’s second feature and...

The best sci-fi movies usually mirror some aspect of our contemporary world. "Dune" did it with its grim predictions of ecological warfare and the folly of humanity pinning its hopes on some messiah, "Blade Runner" exposed us to a dystopian technocratic future that continues to feel like it could easily become a reality, and the "Terminator" movies have basically come to represent the popular understanding of AI and the technological singularity. But what if a movie really drove the point home with an on-the-nose approach that actually blended real-world footage with fictionalized scenes set in a dystopian future designed to represent the outcome of today's political and social unrest? Apparently, such a thing would become a streaming hit.

The dystopian landscape of the streaming most-watched charts are enough to convince anyone we're already living in a nightmare future, but depending on how you feel about Asif Kapadia's "2073," there...

The Amateur opens Friday from director James Hawes, with Oscar winner Rami Malek playing a CIA cryptographer who seeks revenge against his wife's killers. Critics' reviews are mixed overall, with the action thriller earning a 65 percent at Rotten Tomatoes and a 53 score on Metacritic.

Based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littell, the 20th Century Studios' version of The Amateur plays out like Jason Bourne meets The Da Vinci Code, with Malek's "nerdy" character Charles "Charlie" Heller being praised by film experts as an "unlikely action hero." Joining him in the cast are Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, and Julianne Nicholson.

Before winning his Oscar for portraying Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Malek took home an Emmy for his role as geeky computer hacker Elliot Alderson in Mr. Robot (2016). In other words, playing a character like Charlie, who specializes in cryptology, is right up his alley.

Netflix Threads Remake Poster (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The creative minds behind Adolescence, Netflix’s chilling sensation that shot straight into the platform’s top ten most-watched English-language series, are diving back into the shadows, and this time, they’re pulling one of the most haunting tales in cinematic history into the modern spotlight.

A BBC Thriller Drops, but the Bigger News Looms

Hot off the heels of a brand new revenge thriller that just dropped on BBC iPlayer, the team isn’t letting the momentum slow. Warp Films, the same production powerhouse behind Adolescence, has now announced their boldest move yet – reimagining Threads, the grim 1984 nuclear war film so psychologically jarring that it’s barely seen airtime in the last four decades.

Threads isn’t your typical dystopian drama. It was originally a BBC television film that painted a bleak, almost unbearably realistic portrait of life in the aftermath of nuclear catastrophe,...

Filmmakers and studio executives, be warned: a long-suspected Oscars curse may in fact be real.

Over the past 13 years, the vast majority of best director winners have followed up their wins with disastrous films that tanked at the box office or alienated viewers. These films ultimately brought the highs of a career-defining moment crashing down to the reality of the fickle and unpredictable tastes of modern audiences.

Take a look and a pattern becomes clear: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012) follow-up Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) was a box office disaster. Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) follow-up First Man (2018) failed to connect. Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (2021) didn’t come close to making back its budget after The Shape of Water (2018) dazzled the Academy. Chloé Zhao followed up the gorgeous Nomadland (2020) with the would-be superhero franchise starter, Eternals (2021). That one landed with a thud.

The heretofore...

It has been five years since Bong Joon Ho won three Oscars for Parasite, shocking the industry and bringing the cult auteur into the Hollywood mainstream. Finally, the South Korean filmmaker has returned with his biggest project yet: Mickey 17, the long-delayed science-fiction movie that Warner Bros. has out in theaters now.

Set in the near future, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as the title character and his several other versions. Mickey is known as an “expendable” in Bong’s latest project; those people sacrificed to the greater needs of capitalism and returned to life to do it all over again via scientific whizbang. Pattinson plays two versions of the character simultaneously (something previewed in the trailer). Costars include Naomie Ackie and Steven Yeun, plus Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette as buffonish fascists who bear a striking resemblance to some of America’s current political leadership.

Mickey 17 is the...

Image courtesy of the Critics' Circle

The 45th annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards were held this afternoon at London’s May Fair Hotel where 15 different titles were honoured. Brady Corbet’s epic American immigrant saga The Brutalist won the big prize for Film of the Year.

Films are automatically eligible if they are released in UK cinemas or on premiere streaming services between mid-February 2024 and mid-February 2025. The awards are given by the 210-member Film Section of the Critics' Circle, the UK's longest-standing and most prestigious critics' organisation. The vast majority of Film Review’s roster of critics are members of the London Film Critics’ Circle, including Executive Editor James Cameron-Wilson, Mansel Stimpson, Michael Darvell, George Savvides and Wendy Lloyd.

The Derek Malcolm Award for Innovation was presented to Zoe Saldaña at the ceremony by America Ferrera and last year’s winner Colman Domingo. Daniel Craig became the 34th recipient...

Celebrated actor and star of Plein Soleil and Le Samouraï has died, his children have said

Peter Bradshaw on one of cinema’s most mysterious starsA life in pictures

Alain Delon, the celebrated actor who starred in a string of classic films such as Plein Soleil, Le Samouraï and Rocco and His Brothers, has died aged 88, his children have told French media.

“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as [his dog] Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” they said in a statement, adding that the family asked for privacy.

Often, when reading film reviews, I hear the voice of Tim Heidecker as Nigel Andrews. Upon realizing that the film "Us," in which the comedian stars, had received a bad review from Andrews, Heidecker launched into an impression of the prolific Financial Times film critic. Reading the Rotten Tomatoes quote from Andrews' review, Heidecker announced in a hearty British Received Pronunciation tone that "Us" — which was actually a frightening and relevant tale of terror — was in fact "merely the sum of the first film's critical effluent and influent, wish-determining the new movie's monody of genre and monotony of tone in the name of a specious homogeneity."

Since then, Heidecker's Andrews voice has taken root in my mind as the voice of any critic with a negative opinion. The "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" star elaborated on his impression, mocking Andrews' penchant for needlessly ornate language by improvising the brilliantly nonsensical line,...

The three-time Emmy winner has been celebrated for her vivid portrayals of strong, troubled women, including in 10 films directed by her first husband John Cassavetes

• Peter Bradshaw on Gena Rowlands: the fiercest, most incandescent star of US indie cinema

Gena Rowlands, the Oscar-nominated actor best known for the string of films she collaborated on with her husband, the director John Cassavetes, has died aged 94 her son, Nick Cassavetes, said on Wednesday. In 2024 Nick revealed that she had Alzheimer’s.

A successful actor before and after her films with John Cassavetes, it is nevertheless the string of films she made with her actor-turned-director husband that came to define her career. In Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980) and Love Streams (1984), Rowlands played a series of groundbreaking roles as damaged and yearning women in emotionally committed performances of a kind all too rare in American cinema of the period.

In a ‘radical rethink’ after its crisis two years ago, the festival returns with world premieres, a new £50,000 prize and a focus on industry

• Peter Bradshaw’s 12 best picks of the festival

The trailblazing producer Lynda Myles knows a thing of two about film festivals. The first female director of the Edinburgh international film festival (Eiff) betweeen 1973 and 1980, Myles declares herself “ecstatic” that the revived programme will take place this month.

“With so many other festivals to compete with, you have to have specificity,” says Myles, who will present a new screening showcase at the Eiff, “and it seems to me that being part of the world’s biggest arts festival offers that. After a difficult few years it was time for a radical rethink.”...

Fans have loved Tom Hanks’ body of work over the years, and he has won several accolades for his incredible performances. The 90s was a seminal decade for the actor where he did some of his best films, including Saving Private Ryan, Green Mile, Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump. He won back-to-back Oscars for the latter two.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code | Credits: Sony Pictures Releasing

Outside of brilliant character drams, Hanks also starred in several studio blockbusters such as Angels & Demons, Inferno, and The Da Vinci Code. The films were a part of the Robert Langdon trilogy that the actor did with Ron Howard. While the latter was a big commercial success, it received a scathing reaction from audiences when it premiered at Cannes.

Tom Hanks Took A Hard Beating With The Nightmarish Reactions To The Da Vinci Code At Cannes

The Da Vinci Code...

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman | Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

I often start by saying that Second Sight give us the ability to revisit classics or discover diamonds we’ve not yet seen. With their Drive: Limited Edition, this has never been truer. Drive is a movie that doesn’t apologise for the violence on screen, and the characters that it shows.

When a mysterious Hollywood stuntman (Ryan Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver meets one of his neighbours (Carey Mulligan) a softer side of him is exposed. When her husband returns from jail and gets the driver into major conflict with the people he works for.

Ryan Gosling’s character is simply named The Driver, we never learn anything more about him. We do get to see what could be a softer side, but the fact is this...

From Belfast to The Power of the Dog, all the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards, which take place on 27 March

• Oscar nominations 2022: The Power of the Dog leads the pack

• Peter Bradshaw: Oscar nominations triumph confirms The Power of the Dog’s classic status

Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)

Ariana Debose (West Side Story)

Judi Dench (Belfast)

Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)

Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)...

Jane Campion’s repressed western up for 12 prizes at 94th Academy Awards, with Dune scoring 10 nominations and Belfast and West Side Story both bagging seven

• Peter Bradshaw: Oscar nominations triumph confirms The Power of the Dog’s classic status

The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s Montana-set drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a threatening rancher, has swept the board at the Oscar nominations.

The film is up for a dozen prizes, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best actor for Cumberbatch, best supporting actress for Kirsten Dunst and best supporting actor for both Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons.

Acclaimed film-maker won a string of awards for a wide variety of films, including crime and film noir, as well as his celebrated film about a jazz musician

•Peter Bradshaw on Bertrand Tavernier: a flesh-and-blood lion of French cinema

Bertrand Tavernier, the veteran French director of a host of acclaimed films including A Sunday in the Country, Round Midnight and These Foolish Things, has died aged 79. The news was announced by the Institut Lumière, the film organisation of which he was president. No cause of death was given.

Tavernier’s output was prolific: he made his directorial debut in 1974 with The Clockmaker of St Paul and worked continuously until 2013, when he released his final feature film, The French Minister. He also took in a wide variety of material, from crime and noir, to comedy, jazz and historical drama.

After its official trailer debuted in November, many were equal parts horrified and enraged by the litany of humanoid cats preparing for the Jellicle ball and Jellicle sacrifice in “Cats.” Based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical of the same name, said outrage came to no one’s surprise.

Unfortunately for director Tom Hopper and team, the rage has extended into the film’s debut, with critics effortlessly tearing the film to shreds.

The almost 40-year-old tale of the Jellicles has been no stranger to condemnation, annoyance and outright shame. Despite a star-studded cast including James Corden (“The Late Late Show”), Dame Judi Dench (“Skyfall”), Jason Derulo, Idris Elba (“Thor: Ragnarok”), Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Ian McKellen (“The Hobbit”), Taylor Swift (“The Lorax”) and Rebel Wilson (“Pitch Perfect”), the film looks to receive no different fate.

However — based on the Broadway musical’s unprecedented commercial success and longevity — we can’t...

Directed by Paweł PawlikowskiThe Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski won best director, for ‘Cold War’, which follows two lovers from the end of World War II into the 1960s across countries and shifting political realities. Based on his own parents’ love story, this gorgeously shot, Robert Doisneau-esque (when in Paris) black and white period piece takes a slice of your heart away in its retelling.

Cold War reviews have been stellar as are the stars Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot.

“Luminous presence of Joanna Kulig, who on this performance is a powerful enough to become the Jeanne Moreau de nos jours.This film fizzes with a devotional energy and political relevance”

Nick James, Sight & Sound

“Kulig, as effervescent in her way as the young Jeanne Moreau, is the film’s life force”

Tim Robey, Telegraph 4****

“This is a movie of the flesh, not the spirit. Pawlikowski is a lyrical, mysterious filmmaker...

How does “Solo: A Star Wars Story” fare without Harrison Ford playing the title scoundrel-turned-hero? The prequel stars Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo and Donald Glover (“Atlanta“) as the young Lando Calrissian, but its journey to the big screen wasn’t without a few significant bumps in the road.

The film started shooting with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at the helm, but midway through production they left the film due to creative differences and replaced with Oscar winner Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”). That kind of behind-the-scenes drama doesn’t usually bode well for a project.

However, “Solo” has met with largely positive reviews, scoring 63 on MetaCritic and rated 70% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tomatometer consensus calls it “a flawed yet fun and fast-paced space adventure” that “should satisfy newcomers to the saga as well as longtime fans who check their expectations at the theater door.

Our pick of the star's five greatest performances to date. What would be top of your list?

This week, Scarlett Johansson returns to her role as the Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sequel to The Avengers (here's Mark Kermode's review). It's a role she will also return to for the third installment, Avengers: Age of Ultron, slated for 2015. While there's probably no better Kick-Ass superhero than Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, Johansson plays the Black Widow with gusto and guts, high-kicks and witty quips.

Johansson has also been praised recently for her turn as an alien with a convincing British accent in the low-budget sci-fi film, Under the Skin, which Peter Bradshaw gave a five star review. Two days ago, the incredible trailer for Luc Besson's Lucy was released, in which Johansson plays the titular role, a drug mule who turns into a metahuman with...

An intriguing premise turns in to 115 minutes of codswallop. Peter Bradshaw squirms away

There are some films that confront the viewer with profound ethical dilemmas, agonising moral choices. In this one, an ageing man with a horrible face approaches a happily married woman with a proposition that could earn her $1m. Oh, heavens to Betsy, you are probably thinking, it's that Robert Redford back again, the incorrigible old goat, making another of his indecent proposals: a sackful of cash in exchange for the chance to let his expensive trousers and pants pool round his ankles while he puts you on the receiving end of a one-off rogering. How absolutely loathsome. And yet it is a lot of money, so gosh, would I? Would I?

But it is not Robert Redford. This time it is Frank Langella, playing a man with an appalling wound to the side of his face, dressed...