Features

Surprising combinations are the spice of life. Country music and hip hop, footballers’ wives and hard-boiled sleuthing – 2019 has been a great year for the unexpected mash-up, and none have proven quite as...

Rian Johnson is a man who loves breaking rules. He broke just about every rule in the book when he was given the reins to Star Wars, and some of the most unpleasant people on the internet are still giving him...

Kids today, eh? They don’t know they’re born. They’ve never had it better, but they spend all their time glued to their phones, living their lives through social media. That’s the easy, lazy criticism...

“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...