The 50 best films of 2024: No 50 to No 31 The 10 highest-grossing titles were all sequels – but none is in our 50-best list in a year audiences turned out in numbers for ‘cultural cinema’Wed Dec 04 2024 - 05:30
Merchant Ivory: Stephen Soucy’s documentary lifts up the petticoats of the prestigious production houseA rollicking account of a long movie partnership that was flying by the seat of its pantsWed Dec 04 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekVatican thriller Conclave is gripping hokum. Plus poetic Mumbai drama All We Imagine as Light, mild and pleasant Disney sequel Moana 2, and ho-ho-hum Christmas romcom Our Little SecretSun Dec 01 2024 - 05:00
‘They are stupid people for stupid times’: Cate Blanchett on presidents, prime ministers and powerThe Oscar-winner plays a scheming German chancellor in Rumours, Guy Maddin’s raucous, phantasmagorical comedy about the G7Sat Nov 30 2024 - 05:30
All We Imagine as Light director Payal Kapadia: ‘In India we have fables because women can’t always express their feelings’The acclaimned film-maker on the dynamics of Mumbai, the significance of rice cookers and why doesn’t mind being overlooked in India’s Oscar raceFri Nov 29 2024 - 05:00
Moana 2: Entertaining Disney sequel has the best boat chases since Live and Let DieThe film’s best scenes lean into the chemistry between Auliʻi Cravalho’s Moana and Dwayne Johnson’s MauiTue Nov 26 2024 - 19:48
Our Little Secret: Awkward! Lindsay Lohan’s Christmas flick may as well be AI generatedHo ho ho, it’s a dull-witted, soundstage-bound romance with festive trimmings and a clockwork plotTue Nov 26 2024 - 19:34
Four new films to see this weekMovie of smash-hit musical Wicked is well-cast and spectacular. Plus moving and evocative Irish documentary Housewife of the Year, solid IVF drama Joy, and fascinating feminist doc WitchesSun Nov 24 2024 - 05:00
Joy: Thomasin McKenzie is luminous in a film about the journey towards test-tube babies that feels more like classy tellySpot-on lead performances and canny supporting players elevate a nuts-and-bolts scriptThu Nov 21 2024 - 05:00
Witches: A pioneering investigation of post-partum psychosisElizabeth Sankey looks to cinematic tropes of occult-adjacent women in her fascinating documentary about mental health and motherhoodWed Nov 20 2024 - 05:00
Amrou Al-Kadhi: ‘Drag gives you a licence to sort of scare yourself and other people. But how do you bring that into your daily life?’The performer and award-winning author discusses why and how he made his first film, Layla, a buoyant new drama concerning a British-Palestinian drag queenMon Nov 18 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekMescal and Washington are solid in otherwise second-hand Gladiator II. Plus charmingly festive Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, vibrant doc Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, and rigorous if cold drama In CameraSun Nov 17 2024 - 05:00
Paul Mescal: ‘My favourite actors are Irish. There’s a wildness. We do our own thing’Gladiator II proves another showcase for Mescal’s tough and tender masculinity, giving rein to his natural instinct as an actorSat Nov 16 2024 - 05:45
Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point: Altmanesque seasonal comedy is a wistful riot of chatter and foodsTyler Taormina’s Cannes contender is a trippy Yuletide vibeFri Nov 15 2024 - 05:30
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: A fleet-footed chronicle that never lets upJohan Grimonprez’s propulsive account of jazz, colonialism, and the murder of Patrice LumumbaFri Nov 15 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekSaoirse Ronan in in elaborate but conventional WWII drama Blitz, plus superior family film Paddington in Peru, static adaptation of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and peculiar ‘Legoised’ Pharrell Williams doc Piece by PieceSun Nov 10 2024 - 04:45
The Problem with People star Paul Reiser: ‘We’d sit out with our Guinness, chatting with people. We don’t have that in New York’The comedian’s return to the ‘motherland’ was a big part of making his new comedy. ‘I’ve always been drawn to Ireland. The beauty and the greenness and the underlying melancholy’Fri Nov 08 2024 - 09:45
Blitz review: Saoirse Ronan has little to work with in Steve McQueen’s absorbing but crowded war-time dramaSteve McQueen’s extensively researched script alights on racism and looting, but at heart is a boy’s own adventureThu Nov 07 2024 - 05:00
Paddington in Peru review: Fine lessons wrapped up in fun and furThis third Paddington instalment can’t live up to its predecessors, but it’s still vastly superior to most G-rated filmsWed Nov 06 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekCillian Murphy in Small Things Like These and Hugh Grant in Heretic, plus Anora and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve StorySun Nov 03 2024 - 05:00
Anora director Sean Baker: ‘What Mikey Madison did was so impressive. She shadowed lapdancers. She spent time in the club’The US director used to be one of indie cinema’s best-kept secrets. Now his funny, sexy, action-packed new film is frontrunner for the best-picture OscarFri Nov 01 2024 - 05:15
Small Things Like These: Cillian Murphy’s performance is fiercely internalised in a film emblematic of a changing IrelandTim Mielant’s memorable film is quietly emblematic of a changing IrelandThu Oct 31 2024 - 05:00
Heretic review: Hugh Grant has a ball tormenting young Mormon doorsteppers in this gleeful horror thrillerFormerly foppish actor menaces in claustrophobic nailbiter from Oscar-nominated writersWed Oct 30 2024 - 05:00
Julianne Moore: ‘When a friend really needs to unburden themselves, what are they asking you to do?’The Oscar winner stars in The Room Next Door, a euthanasia drama that is Pedro Almodóvar’s first feature in English. It’s an ideal film for her to appear inSun Oct 27 2024 - 05:25
Four new films to see this weekBold trans drama/musical Emilia Pérez and Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut The Room Next Door. Plus a lyrical Senegaelse documentary and an avant-garde depiction of an avant-garde painterSun Oct 27 2024 - 05:00
The Room Next Door review: Almodóvar’s English-language debut is stuffed with good performances but sounds off-keyThere are things to admire in Pedro Almodóvar's new film but this is a lesser offering from a great directorThu Oct 24 2024 - 05:00
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things review: A lovingly curated chronicle of the artist Wilhelmina Barns-GrahamDirector Mark Cousins mostly lets the painting do the talking, lingering admiringly over the Scottish artist’s canvasesWed Oct 23 2024 - 05:00
Karla Sofía Gascón, star of the Oscar-tipped Emilia Pérez: ‘I put my entire life and soul into creating this character’If the Spanish star gets an Academy Award nomination for her role in Jacques Audiard’s film, she’ll be the first openly trans performer to do soSat Oct 19 2024 - 05:15
Every Little Thing: A gorgeous, life-affirming portrait of a hummingbird healerDocumentary outlines hummingbird healer’s ideas about giving back to nature and complicated backstoryThu Oct 17 2024 - 05:00
Woman of the Hour: Anna Kendrick’s chilling directorial debut gives voice to the victims of the serial killer Rodney AlcalaAnna Kendrick proves herself to be a formidable talent on both sides of the camera in this absorbing and considered filmWed Oct 16 2024 - 05:00
Terrifier 3 star Daniel Roebuck: ‘You can bring your family to see it – but if you do we will turn you in to social services’Both a prominent Christian and an underground horror icon, Daniel Roebuck makes for a jolly Santa Claus in director Damien Leone’s third instalment of the gory splatter franchiseMon Oct 14 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekA homage and critique of Hong Kong action cinema in elegiac Stuntman, plus evocative Irish drama King Frankie, sci-fi romcom Timestalker, and a bland return to Stephen King’s ’Salem’s LotSun Oct 13 2024 - 05:00
François Ozon: ‘I wanted to give the power to the woman in the story. I wanted to make a film about sisterhood’The Crime Is Mine, the French director’s new movie, takes cues from the sensational murder trial of Violette Nozières, but it also flips the gender scriptSat Oct 12 2024 - 05:15
Stuntman: This retro Hong Kong action film is the movie The Fall Guy wanted to beThis debut feature showcases old-school choreography where performers slam against walls and fall down escalatorsThu Oct 10 2024 - 05:00
Timestalker: Like Horrible Histories with sex-toy jokesAlice Lowe chases her crush across centuries in this giddy reincarnation romcomWed Oct 09 2024 - 05:00
First Look: Barry Keoghan’s new film, the sometimes sickeningly extreme Bring Them Down, is a hard movie to likeChristopher Andrews’s gory new rural revenge drama features scenes of animal mutilation that quickly outstay their welcomeMon Oct 07 2024 - 11:34
Four new films to see this weekTurgid Joker: Folie à Deux falls flat, despite Phoenix and Gaga. Plus singular dark comedy A Different Man, West Bank-set drama The Teacher, and deadpan horror comedy Humanist Vampire...Sun Oct 06 2024 - 05:00
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person: Like a very French Edward ScissorhandsRising Québécoise star Sara Montpetit channels a young Winona Ryder as a reluctant vampire who feels compassion for her family’s victimsFri Oct 04 2024 - 05:00
Agreement: No play about the Good Friday negotiations has the right to be this much funDublin Theatre Festival 2024: Owen McCafferty’s writing cuts through the Belfast peace talks’ seriousness to find levity in personal stakes and political blusterWed Oct 02 2024 - 09:33
The Teacher: Farah Nabulsi’s Palestinian drama is powered along by terrific performances and palpable furyThe director’s compelling first feature takes cues from hostage negotiations but is more interested in common trauma than in fraught West Bank politicsTue Oct 01 2024 - 12:17
Tim Roth: ‘Gary Oldman was going to Hollywood. He wanted that. I didn’t’The British actor on Quentin Tarantino, coping with grief and working with female talent like Dutch director Désirée Nosbusch and her debut film PoisonMon Sept 30 2024 - 05:00
Starjazzer: Affecting, innovative Anu adaptation marries a put-upon O’Casey heroine with her equally abused granddaughterDublin Theatre Festival 2024: Louise Lowe’s socially conscious production tells two stories at once, putting an unusual theatrical space to creative useSun Sept 29 2024 - 12:22
Four new films to see this weekSaoirse Ronan shows new strengths as a recovering alcoholic in The Outrun. Plus sweet and sensitive My Old Ass, kindly road movie Will & Harper, and Francis Coppola’s ambitious folly MegalopolisSun Sept 29 2024 - 05:00
Megalopolis or Megaflopolis? Francis Ford Coppola took 40 years to make this sci-fi epic but it misfires on the grandest scaleAdam Driver looks as if he doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. We know exactly how he feelsThu Sept 26 2024 - 05:00
My Old Ass: Aubrey Plaza deadpans as this charming low-fi sci-fi puts a fun spin on coming of ageMegan Park takes a wistful and sensitive angle on the letters-to-my-younger-self theme in this sassy comedyWed Sept 25 2024 - 05:00
Irish Hellboy star Leah McNamara: ‘At horror films I’m always the person watching between my fingers’The actor knew nothing about the series before she was cast in Hellboy: The Crooked Man. It triggered a deep dive into witchcraftMon Sept 23 2024 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekBad dream horrors The Substance and Strange Darling are instant cult classics. Plus ‘tragically familiar’ Canadian abuse documentary Sugarcane and tense French drama The Goldman CaseSun Sept 22 2024 - 05:00
Strange Darling: How weird is this cult sensation? There’ll never be another movie quite like itJT Mollner’s fever-pitch dream of serial killers and Americana aims to mess with your head – and succeedsFri Sept 20 2024 - 05:00
Sugarcane: Gripping story of abuse in Catholic schools in Canada is an early Oscar favouriteDocumentary details horrific cruelty towards and abuse of First Nations children in residential schools and discovery of unmarked gravesThu Sept 19 2024 - 05:15
Sketcherella: This must be Dublin Fringe Festival’s funniest showDublin Fringe Festival 2024: Erin McGathy delivers a quadruple threat of singing, wicked comic chops, costume changes and interpretive writhingTue Sept 17 2024 - 10:06
