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There’s a now infamous moment from Steven Spielberg’s appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio. The host James Lipton poses a question to the filmmaker about the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that suggests it was inspired by…

When After Yang was making its way through the festival circuit, much was made about the early, multi-family dance sequence that doubles as an opening credits and an introduction to the wider cast. It’s understandable. The scene is a…

A couple of years ago, the pioneering documentarian Errol Morris said in jest that he felt he had to apologise for his hugely influential The Thin Blue Line. This was as, in his words, “you solve a murder mystery and then people think…

It’s difficult not to compare Audrey Diwan’s brutal, bracing Happening to Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always or Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Granted, given they are all three accomplished dramas detailing…

When Titane won the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, there were murmurs in some circles that the result was akin to Crash’s controversial victory at the 2005 Oscars. This is to say that, as there were so many worthy…

C’mon C’mon. This isn’t just the title of writer/director Mike Mills’ fourth, and probably best, feature. It’s also a mantra for both its characters and just about anyone who inhabits the screen for even a nanosecond. The words are first…

While I would mostly recommend it, I’m not sure if there is a more frustrating film this year than Tomás Ó Súilleabháin’s Arracht. We sincerely hope this becomes a landmark for Irish-language cinema, but the more generic storytelling makes…

Bob Viddick, the grunting, grizzled and scruple-light hitman from the frenetically fun Copshop, informs us at one stage that he received a degree “from the university of common sense”. Is this a good line? It would be a struggle to…

Technological anxieties concerning relationships with artificial beings really have had something of a stranglehold on the world of grounded, sci-fi dramas recently. Spike Jones’s Her, which concerned a lonely Joaquin Phoenix and his…

Remember when Captain Marvel was set in the 1990’s for some inexplicable reason? I say inexplicable, it at least gave the filmmakers lots of chances to make so-so jokes about video rental shops and dial-up internet. Now, it’s the turn of DC…