Analysis

“God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.” —Paul Valéry In 2019, the average life expectancy of a male in the US sits at 76. Robert De Niro is 76. Martin Scorsese is...

– 2019 has been a great year for film. As this list has illustrated and will continue to illustrate, 2019 saw bountiful returns from budding auteurs Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Greta...

‘Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighbourhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy. This...

The doppelgänger is an age-old figure of dread. A portent of doom or impending misfortune, they’re often hellbent on eliminating and supplanting the ‘original’. They represent the uniquely horrific...

Much has been made of Quentin Tarantino’s plans to retire after ten films. With Once Upon a Time in Hollywood being his ninth, it seems there’s still plenty of life in him – yet it's difficult to...

At the end of the decade, media seems to be moving further away from the noughties’ nihilism. Perhaps audiences need a break from the relentless inhumanity highlighted in 24/7 news cycles. Perhaps a...

In 2019, we weren’t exactly hurting for ‘topical’ or ‘timely’ films. From January – with The Favourite’s vision of a Britain ruled by sad and grotesque schemers – to December – with...

It's almost time to wrap up this year and this decade. A wondrous opportunity to reflect on what has passed. If you haven't already, I heartily recommend you check out our Top 100 Films of the 2010s – #100...

In criticism, time-distance is everything: time to let a film sink in, time to give it more thought and more watches, and time to see what impact it has on the culture. Time also, often, for the artists...

The ground is littered with fantastic and fascinating titles that just failed to make our top 100 films of the decade: Margaret, Blade Runner 2049, Foxtrot. Somehow Michael Pearce’s “moody”, empty Ramsay...

Our countdown of the Top 100 Films of the Decade continues apace as we start reaching the titles with some very high aggregate scores. Debate continues to rage over the relative merits of (usually heavy)...

At its very best, cinema not only influences its audience but changes the very medium around it; a great film builds itself as it plays, showing you how to view it and redefining itself in real time. And this...

Another decade, another dollar – billions and billions of dollars, that is, spent on both making and watching films. Early 2010 saw Avatar clamber to the first-ever $2 billion gross, becoming the biggest...

Much can be said about the cinema of the 2010s, from Oscars drama and the legacy of #MeToo to the dominance of Disney and emergence of streaming platforms in film distribution. The films driving and reacting...

The following contains spoilers for book and film versions of The Shining and Doctor Sleep. Turning a Stephen King novel into a movie is a tricky thing to pull off, even considering the great run of King...