Close-Up

Once upon a time, so my head canon goes, a drunk philosophy fresher told Christopher Nolan that time is a construct and Nolan has never looked back. The majority of his films are characterised by their focus...

We have always seen glimpses of Pedro Almodóvar in his films. Most notably in Law of Desire (1987) and Bad Education (2004), he has used stories of filmmakers in a self-reflective way to construct deeply...

In a conversation between Fran Kubelik and C.C. Baxter, the two very broken people at the centre of Billy Wilder’s classic comedy drama The Apartment, Fran (Shirley MacClaine) sums up the dichotomy of the...

Has there ever been a film that so greatly influenced and changed the course of a single genre as Psycho? With one swish of a shower curtain and a chorus of shrieking violins, Alfred Hitchcock’s bold and...

Towards the end of Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank (2014), Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) glances at Frank Sidebottom’s band one last time before turning his back for good. They represented his feverish dream of...

Céline Sciamma is having a moment. Following the 2019 festival debut and this year's cinematic release ofPortrait of a Lady on Fire, she is currently the subject of Mubi UK's 'Focus on' retrospective. This...

The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang, is fast being slotted into one of film culture’s more interesting reductive categories: the heartfelt indie that makes everyone cry. The very premise primes...

Poor Roger Murtagh wouldn't last long in Hollywood today. Played by Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon movies, the cop was complaining about getting on in years at the tender age of 50 - which makes him a...

Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls is undoubtedly a feminist film, despite being set in a Hooters-esque sports bar where the staff flirt for tips in low-cut tops. Its greatness lies in how it pits its cast...

Action movies aren't what they used to be. With the incredible advancement of CGI allowing for ever-increasing financial success, modern action has become all about sequels, remakes and adaptations. This...

In his essay on Richard Eyre’s Iris Murdoch biopic Iris for the Guardian, Martin Amis claims that ‘very broadly, literature concerns itself with the internal, cinema with the external.’ These supposed...

Tim Burton returns this weekend with his 19th feature film as director: a live-action version of Dumbo. While the lingering fascination with his films, and the cultural lure of a reimagined Disney gem like...

Wrack your brains for somewhere the DC Extended Universe has beaten its rival, Marvel, and you will probably land on Wonder Woman. As well as reintroducing female-led superhero movies after Elektra in 2005, it...

"I am who?” Tima, the child robot of Rintaro's Metropolis (2001), asks just before she plunges from the edge of a high-rise tower and Metropolis collapses around her. She is parroting the first words ever...

If we include the about-to-be-released Roma, Alfonso Cuarón has only directed eight feature films across a near 30-year career. The reason for this relative slimness of output is likely to have many factors...