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Fri 4 Sept 2026

Spotlight

How Queen at Sea upended the dementia drama

‘If you can’t understand what sex is, it’s irrelevant if you seem to be enjoying it’

Lance Hammer’s film is a heart-wrenching masterpiece about family, mental decline and sexual consent
Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall stand close, faces near, in intense conversation by a window
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Picks of the week

Movie still showing the troll Jötunn towering over a vehicle on a snowy road
Ranked!
The 20 best giants in film
Hayley Mills looks warily at Alan Bates in a barn
Whistle Down the Wind
‘The whistling on the theme tune? That’s Dickie Attenborough!’
Eric Allan and Anne Raitt sit solemnly at a table with water glasses
‘Not just Hollywood crap’
Mike Leigh on the East End communist who brought world cinema to the UK
A man with red hair holding his head, with a swirly background behind him
Domhnall Gleeson
‘No one talks about actors’ dedication. But I had a perm for five months!’
Tom Cruise and director Stanley Kubrick lean closely together, one whispering into the other's ear
Eyes Wide Shut
Did someone cut a crucial 20 minutes from Kubrick’s final movie?
Paul Mescal and Ridley Scott stand side by side, Scott's hand resting on Mescal's shoulder
quote  Was Paul Mescal being ‘not masculine enough’ the reason Gladiator II flopped?
Stuart Heritage
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Peter Bradshaw's film of the week

Late Fame

Willem Dafoe as twilight-years bohemian getting a second chance

★★★★☆
Adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler novella sees Dafoe’s ageing poet embraced by a younger cohort of capricious hipsters. It’s smart, literate and affecting
Willem Dafoe sits looking sideways in a moody blue-lit room with a red leather sofa
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This week's reviews

Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly in close-up feeding from purple flowers, filmed on Super 8. Still from film Super Nature.
Super Nature
Crowd-sourced Super 8 film is a triumphant collage of hope for the natural world
★★★★☆
a man with a long beard and long hair in fur clothing standing against a backdrop of mountains
The Death of Robin Hood
Hugh Jackman darkens a heroic tale in grim drama
★★★☆☆
An actor stands at the end of a pier as the sun sets, while a another stands in the foreground near the sea, looking to the left, in a still from the film Pin de Fartie.
Pin de Fartie
Spoonerist remix of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame finds fresh absurdity in Argentina
★★★☆☆
Samvel and Avo laugh joyfully with arms around each other on a fairground ride
The Black Garden
Haunting study of growing up in war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh
★★★☆☆
Beldina Odenyo in a sequined outfit sings passionately into a microphone on stage
Bel
The powerful life force of a traumatised singer-songwriter
★★★☆☆
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We recommend

Lady Bird

A hilarious love letter to teenagers and their mothers

★★★★★
Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are tremendous in Greta Gerwig’s moving and gloriously funny film
Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird.