Film

Just like the movies: An American’s notes on her Oxford year

Oxford occupies a mystical, almost fantastical place within the American psyche – so much so that when I told my peers I’d be studying abroad, they had me promise...

Culture Radhika Bhargava -

Netflix’s city of dreaming Americans: My Oxford Year, reviewed

If not taken too seriously, Netflix’s new movie My Oxford Year is a surprisingly...

Culture Franca Haug -

Lacking Latin: Ceremonial mistakes in My Oxford Year

My Oxford Year, a new Netflix rom-com, has received considerable attention. Yet as a...

Culture Honcques Laus -

What can office workers learn from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

"The character Walter Mitty was first brought to life in James Thurber’s short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, published in a 1939 issue of The New Yorker."

Film Saskia Maini -

Latest

Sex Education review: exuberantly explicit

It refuses to conform to the tiring tradition of sugar-coating anything that sits outside the realm of the PG-13

The illusion of reality television

Reality television is, then, in many ways a fiction. They tell us they are depicting something akin to an authentic reality, but flatten and stabilise the randomness and contingency of actual life, while refusing to overtly acknowledge the authorial voice behind it.

Mary Queen of Scots review: ‘artistic licence breathes life into history’

Rourke brings a fresh take on the fraught relationship between two women ruling in a man’s world.

Beautiful Boy review: powerful, painful, poignant

Beautiful Boy is unlikely to have an unintentional glamorising effect. We witness the oblivion of being high before the inevitable crash down to a deeper and darker place.

Fast Film: In a Lonely Place unites noir tradition with painfully real romance

Humphrey Bogart is a man addled by loneliness in this cinematic masterclass of subtlety and allegory.

So that’s how Bandersnatch works, but did it snatch our respect?

From a design perspective, Bandersnatch falls into a lot of traps. Choices are quite infrequent and always binary, whereas it's standard for most interactive fiction games to allow you to choose almost every line of character dialogue. Isabella Welch discusses whether Bandersnatch is revolutionary or just manufactured hype on part of Netflix.

An alternative to ‘Fast Film’

Modern cinema is rubbish - it is time to rediscover some old classics to remind ourselves what it is to be truly moved by film.

Film First: a box of tissues are needed for the first film to make me cry

Director Isao Takahata tugs at the heartstrings until you're bleary-eyed

Les Misérables review: BBC adaptation soars, even without the songs

Heaps of narrative are packed into the latest adaptation, but it is a masterful work of character complexity

Is it still a wonderful life in 2018?

The film may feature angels and an alternate reality, but it is among the most realistic of Christmas films

Aquaman review: DC’s latest offering fails to marvel

Aquaman makes for pleasant viewing, but proves unable to repeat Wonder Woman’s winning formula.

Why The Nightmare Before Christmas is the most underrated Christmas film

The Nightmare Before Christmas says that it is fine to find a holiday dull, or to question the purpose of repeating it every year.

Festive flicks: the best films to watch at Christmas

Get into the Christmas spirit with a .. Harry Potter marathon

Frantz: a wrenching tale of remembrance

The French-German film Frantz, however, has gone unnoticed by many English-speaking viewers, despite being one of the most powerful films released to explore the after-effects of World War I.