Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes review - a Hollywood legend, warts and all

★★★★ BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES A Hollywood legend, warts and all

A documentary portrait of Bogie toes the official line but still does him justice

It might be a push to call this documentary a feminist slant on Humphrey Bogart, but it wouldn’t quite be a shove. Northern Irish filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson’s work has often concerned itself with identity and gender politics, and her narrative here is framed around the women in Bogart’s life, starting with his aloof, undemonstrative mother, Maud. 

Sujo review - cartels through another lens

A surprisingly subtle narco pic from Mexico

It’s not often we hear barely a single gunshot in a movie set amid Mexican drug cartels, but that may be the way it is for people who actually live amid Mexican drug cartels.

In Sujo, Mexico’s bid for the next foreign feature Oscar, we experience violence the way many who inhabit violent places actually experience it – mostly embedded in the fabric of life, only occasionally directly. 

Queer review - Daniel Craig meets William Burroughs

★★★★ QUEER Luca Guadagnino's film is crazy but it just might work

Luca Guadagnino's film is crazy but it just might work

Judging by a Sunday Times interview last weekend, Daniel Craig now enjoys wearing brilliantly-coloured sweaters and extraordinary trousers, very much like a man running as fast as possible in the opposite direction to James Bond. He has goodbye-Bond-esque quotes to go with it.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review - a middling return to Middle-earth

JRR Tolkien gets the anime treatment

Lauded by Auden, detested by Edmund Wilson, the Tolkien sagas have divided many from childhood onwards: for kids, they’re not quite pulpy enough to be the first choice for a Halloween costume, for grown-ups not quite literary enough to be literary.

Nocturnes review - the sounds of the rainforest transport you a remote region of the Himalayas

Mansi spends her nights counting moths in North East India

If you suffer from lepidopterophobia, this film will either cure your fear of moths or push you over the edge. Warning: the screen is often filled with moths of every shape, size, colour and pattern while the sound of flapping, fluttering and girating wings fills the air to the point where you feel bombarded by the flying, furry creatures.

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmakers Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson on 'Rumours'

Archetype-bending auteur Maddin and co. discuss their new film's starry, absurd G7, autobiography and artifice

Somewhere in Germany, G7 conference leaders including German Chancellor Ortmann (Cate Blanchett) and US President Wolcott (Charles Dance) repair to a gazebo to collaborate on a “clear, but not so clear” communique addressing an unnamed, possibly apocalyptic crisis. Farcically human, they pocket hors d’oeuvres, flirt and pull rank, lose tempers and trousers.

Merchant Ivory review - fascinating documentary about the director and producer's long partnership

★★★★ MERCHANT IVORY The director and producer's long partnership

Stephen Soucy examines Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's complicated relationship with input from many stars

“Shoot, Jim, shooot!” Simon Callow does a fine impression of producer Ismail Merchant desperately trying to get director James Ivory to bring urgency to the proceedings.

The received wisdom was that Ismael thought Jim was going to bankrupt Merchant Ivory Productions commercially by insisting on perfection, while Jim was sure that Ismael would bankrupt it artistically by insisting on every possible economy.

Grand Theft Hamlet review - intriguing documentary about Shakespeare as multi-player shooter game

★★★★ GRAND THEFT HAMLET Shakespeare as multi-player shooter game

How two jobless actors created a novel Hamlet inside the game Grand Theft Auto

On July 4, 2022, one of the most unusual performances in Hamlet’s lengthy and much travelled CV took place: an in-game stream for players of the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto (GTA).