MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Film round-up: January 19, 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews Holy Spider, Alice, Darling, The Substitute, More Than Ever
CHARISMATIC: Juan Minujin in The Substitute
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Holy Spider (18)
Directed by Ali Abbasi
★★★
FROM the writer-director of the award-winning supernatural fantasy Border comes a gripping crime thriller about Iran’s most notorious serial killer, known as the Spider Killer, who hunted down street prostitutes.
Written and directed by Ali Abbasi, it is inspired by the real life tale of Saeed Hanaei, a father of three, who murdered 16 sex workers in the holy city of Mashhad in the early 2000s.
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