After Christopher Hampton saw Zeller’s dementia drama on stage in Paris, neither language, finance nor another film adaptation could thwart their collaboration on the screenplayI first met Florian Zeller about eight years ago. It was in the foyer of th…
Angela Bassett on success, salaries and staying power: ‘I gotta find a new queen to play!’
She is back on the big screen as an assassin, is reportedly the highest-paid female actor of colour ever for a TV drama – and is moving into producing. She discusses fairness, film-making and why acting is still her first loveEven via a video call, fro…
From Mansfield Park to Mojo: why Harold Pinter’s acting deserves to be celebrated
With the Pinter-penned 1963 classic The Servant back in cinemas, there’s a chance to reflect on the playwright’s less-acknowledged acting performancesLike an unhurried but dependable butler, The Servant is here again. It was only nine years ago that Jo…
Review: Candyman turns singular slasher into a timeless avatar for Black trauma
“Candyman ain’t a he. Candyman is the whole damn hive.”
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon review – B-movie thrills in New Orleans superhero gumbo
The new film from Ana Lily Amirpour will keep the fans happy with the tale of mind-controlling waitress on the loose the French QuarterIranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour serves up heaped spoonfuls of B-movie thrills in Mona Lisa and the Blood …
Jack O’Connell: ‘Eventually the wheels come off, everything explodes’
Actor Jack O’Connell is known for going to physical extremes to show the vulnerability of violent men. But what does masculinity really mean to him?Are you here to see man?” asks a Spanish waiter as I walk through the café garden, and points towards th…
The arts have had it tough, but critics need to take off the kid gloves
Mediocre productions have been rewarded with glowing reviews during the pandemic. It’s time to be a little less gentleSeen anything good lately? It is a common bit of small-talk, but often a reliable way to find the next play or film worth watching. Th…
Last Night in Soho review – a gaudy romp that’s stupidly enjoyable
Edgar Wright’s time-travel film plays like a 60s pop song building towards a big climaxThe nostalgia gauge is code-red on Last Night in Soho, a gaudy time-travel romp that whisks its modern-day heroine to a bygone London that probably never existed out…
My summer cultural highlight? An old film where I got lost in Bette Davis’s eyes | Rachel Cooke
A 1943 melodrama offers one of the best portraits of a single woman Hollywood ever drewOut in the world again, I’ve seen a lot of new exhibitions and a bit of new theatre, the heart going out to those actors who, in spite of great reviews, are still ta…
Il Buco review – unhurried meditation on the beauties of geological time
Ten years after village doc Le Quattro Volte, Michelangelo Frammartino returns with an observational piece centring on a deep-cave system in CalabriaIn 2011 Italian artist Michelangelo Frammartino scored a small indie hit with a film called Le Quattro …