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Film
round up
Cinema / 25 June 2026
25 June 2026

ANDY HEDGECOCK, FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review The Last Viking, Blue Heron, 500 Miles, How To Live On Earth, and Supergirl

Jodie
Film of the Week / 25 June 2026
25 June 2026

MARIA DUARTE goes down a bilingual rabbit hole with an impressive Jodie Foster

fotw
Film of the week / 21 May 2026
21 May 2026

ANDY HEDGECOCK is astonished by a portrait of contemporary Greece, complete with political protest, organised crime and people trafficking, told from the point of view of — wait for it — runaway poultry

fotw
Film Of The Week / 14 May 2026
14 May 2026

LEO BOIX recommends a film that portrays how fascism feeds on ignorance, machismo and myth in isolated communities abandoned by the state

Olive Gray as Maria and Slavko Sobin as Vlad in Surviving Earth / Pic IMDb
Film of the week / 23 April 2026
23 April 2026

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a gripping and touching drama, based on a true story, about a Serbian refugee rebuilding his life in Bristol

round up
Cinema / 19 March 2026
19 March 2026

JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey

fotw
Film of the week / 19 March 2026
19 March 2026

ANDY HEDGECOCK peers into the US psyche to find deluded ambition, toxic aggression and an obsession with fame

MEMORABLE: Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver / pic IMDb
Culture / 16 March 2026
16 March 2026

Taxi Driver at 50: Martin Scorsese’s film remains a troubling reflection of our times, writes ALEXANDER HOWARD

cuba ff
Screen Cuba Film Festival 2026 / 6 March 2026
6 March 2026

In the face of Trump’s brutal aggression, DODIE WEPPLER and TRISH MEEHAN invite you to share some of the masterpieces of Cuban cinema

Berlin FF
Berlin Film Festival 2026 / 24 February 2026
24 February 2026

RITA DI SANTO points out that political films at Cannes, and overtly pro-Palestinian statements by film-makers, contradict the apolitical stance of the jury

round up
Cinema / 19 February 2026
19 February 2026

JOHN GREEN, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare, Man on the Run, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Cold Storage

fotw
Film of the Week / 29 January 2026
29 January 2026

JOHN GREEN savours an elegy to black farmers in the deep south of the US: a vanishing way of life redolent with poetic and political meaning

round up
Cinema / 22 January 2026
22 January 2026

MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review The History of Sound, H Is For Hawk, Saipan, and Mercy

fotw
Film of the week / 18 December 2025
18 December 2025

MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama

el gouna
El Gouna Film Festival 2025 / 4 November 2025
4 November 2025

RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival

palestine 36
Film of the Week / 30 October 2025
30 October 2025

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a cinematic glimpse of the role of the British in establishing the zionist state

REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]
Cinema / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025

MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians

one battle
Film of the Week / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025

MARIA DUARTE is entertained by a wry portrait of befuddled resistance to US authoritarianism

round up
Cinema / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Materialists, Unmoored, Together, and Bambi: A Tale of Life in The Woods

cannes
Cannes Film Festival 2025 / 30 May 2025
30 May 2025

RITA DI SANTO reports on the films from Iran, Spain, Belgium and Brazil that won the top awards

round up
Cinema / 29 May 2025
29 May 2025

The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Along Came Love, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Ritual, and Karate Kid: Legends

fotw
Film of the Week / 29 May 2025
29 May 2025

MARIA DUARTE recommends the powerful dramatisation of the true story of a husband and wife made homeless

backlash
Cinema / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

The Star's critics MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd, The Uninvited, The Surfer, and Motel Destino

Maiwene Barthelemy and Clément Faveau in Holy Cow
Cinema / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
(L) REDISCOVERED ALLIES: The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru; (R)
Cinema / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
The Star's critics review The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru, Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other, American Dreamer, When Autumn Falls, and Flow
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS: Xilun Sun as the mysterious interloper
Film of the Week: / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
Film of the Week: / 27 February 2025
27 February 2025
MARIA DUARTE recommends an homage to the iconic showgirl that understands them as working-class women 
HAUNTING: Lucy Liu in Presence
Cinema / 24 January 2025
24 January 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Presence, Flight Risk, Emanuelle and Back in Action
THE REAL THING: Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Civil Rights March
Opinion / 21 January 2025
21 January 2025
DAVID YEARSLEY compares Timothee Chalamet’s impersonation of Dylan to the real thing
STUNNING: Ethan Herisse and Brandon Turner in Nickel Boys
Cinema / 10 January 2025
10 January 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Nickel Boys, Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger, Babygirl, and Maria
LAS VEGAS HERE WE COME: Mark Eidelshtein and Mikey Madison,
Cinema / 31 October 2024
31 October 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Anora, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Blitz, and Heretic
(L) Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun; (R) Shia LaBeouf in Megalop
Cinema / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
Decline and fall of the US empire, rehab in Orkney, the younger self, and lone wolves
(L) Speak No Evil; (Centre) The Queen Of My Dreams; (R) My F
Cinema / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
Iranian late-bloomers, holiday chums, the poison pen, and Pakistani lesbians: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews My Favourite Cake, Speak No Evil, The Critic, and The Queen Of My Dreams
NAZIDAMMERUNG: Marion Cotillard in Lee
Film of the Week: / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends the story of surrealist turned photojournalist Lee Miller
(L) The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet; (R) Youth Homec
Venice Film Festival 2024 / 9 September 2024
9 September 2024
RITA DI SANTO selects seven of the best films from this year’s line-up to watch for in cinemas
IMPERIAL DECADENCE: Caligula
Cinema / 8 August 2024
8 August 2024
Domestic abuse, orgies revisited, baby trouble, and Hollywood claptrap: MARIA DUARTE reviews It Ends With Us, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, Babes, and Borderlands
Agent of Happiness
Cinema / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
Happy sadface, moonshot scullduggery, trouble sleeping and Cage animal: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Agent of Happiness, Fly Me To The Moon, Sleep, and Longlegs
Features / 22 June 2024
22 June 2024
The award-winning documentary on British anti-apartheid heroes has already sparked passionate discussions — now trade unions and progressives must integrate it into training and education courses, argues ROGER McKENZIE
Marvin Hagler (r) catches Alan Minter (l) with a vicious rig
Men's Boxing / 21 June 2024
21 June 2024
JOHN WIGHT on boxing legends make such great film subjects
THE REAL THING: Abdellatif Masstouri and Ayoub Elaid in Houn
Cinema / 13 June 2024
13 June 2024
Posh environmentalism, Moroccan lumpenproletariat, US survivalism and cartoon adolescence
Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud
Film of the Week: / 13 June 2024
13 June 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a drama that brings together a superstar Atheist and a born-again Christian in a psychoanalytic consulting room
CONQUERING FEARS: (L) Young Woman and the Sea; (R) Sting
Cinema / 30 May 2024
30 May 2024
Channel swimming, forgetting the ex-bf, therapeutic cycling and scary spiders: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Young Woman and the Sea, The Beast, Hard Miles, and Sting
NO HUMAN NEEDED? Editing, storyboarding and animation all fa
Features / 8 May 2024
8 May 2024
After the recent writers' and actors' strikes, the bosses in film and TV are embracing the cost-cutting potential of AI even faster than before — barely acknowledging that what they will be cutting is livelihoods, writes DENNIS BROE
HUMAN VALUES: Lina Soualem’s documentary, Bye Bye Tiberias
El Gouna Film Festival 2023 / 28 December 2023
28 December 2023
RITA DI SANTO visits El Gouna film festival in Egypt to witness a programme of films and discussions in solidarity with Palestinians
PRELUDE TO INDIANA JONES: (Above) Eadweard Muybridge: Arab H
Science and Society / 11 October 2023
11 October 2023
ROX MIDDLETON and LIAM SHAW examine the early scientific investigations that enabled film to become an artistic medium