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Film

Gladiator II: A lack-lustre return to Rome

With Gladiator II, Ridley Scott returns to the streets of imperial Rome not in triumph, but to decidedly muted applause.

Review: The Outrun

The Outrun Review: Choosing recovery in a wild place

Blood is compulsory: The films of Martin McDonagh

In these uncertain times, his films speak to us more than any traditional morality tale could.

Papicha, power, and cinematic patriotism

How can we say that Papicha is Algerian, if the film was banned without any explanation in the country shortly before its release?

The Duality of Movement in the New Taiwanese Cinema Movement

The entry of Hong Kong cinema to the Taiwanese market in the 1980s brought with it a move to protect homegrown directors and maintain a national...

Lady Gaga is not a receptacle for your pain

It's been almost two years since the release of Chris Moukarbel's documentary about the pop icon super-star Lady Gaga, a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta. Gaga: Five...

BBC Three’s Fleabag

“I’d just like my tits to be that much bigger — does that make me a terrible feminist?” Such forthright, fourth wall busting, hilarious, and...

Jordan Peele’s new horror film ‘Us’

The idiom, “To be afraid of one’s own shadow,” normally forms part of an insult, a derogatory phrase denoting child-like cowardice. The characters of...

Bird Box: a victim of its own platform?

It is ironic that Netflix, the reason for the film’s rapid popularity, might also be the reason why it’s not as memorable a film as it could have been. Emilie Rapport Munro discusses whether Netflix overdid its latest hit

Fantastic Cities: unveiling the complex realities, and fantasies, of urban life

A review of the Penny Woolcock exhibition at Modern Art Oxford

Hollywood’s lesser known gender gap

There's a lesser known gender gap in Hollywood - the difference in the shelflife of actors.

On the Basis of Sex: battling through a man’s world

Ruth Bader Ginsberg biopic shows how Felicity Jones and feminism can bring a legal drama to life

Student film: ‘notoriously difficult to penetrate’

Oxford’s student filmmakers give their takes on writing workshops, directorial debuts, and getting inside one of the arts’ most difficult industries.

Placing society’s margins under the microscope

The psychological and physical decay resulting from drug addiction is tactfully explored in Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece.

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: transformation tv done right

Netflix’s latest hit sparks more than just joy.

Review: Velvet Buzzsaw – “rebellion of art against the pretentious world”

Netflix’s latest thriller stars Jake Gyllenhall and Rene Russo in a tense satire on the contemporary art world

91st Academy Awards: Predictions

It’s a fascinating mixture of nominees, especially considering the variety of outcomes in precursor awards ceremonies (such as the Golden Globes and BAFTAs), but guessing what should or will win in each category is as subjective as it’s ever been – and even more difficult than ever. Jonnie Barrow offers his predictions for this year's Oscars.

The year of the underdog: will outsider nominees come out on top at this year’s Oscars?

Awards season is well and truly upon us. After last week’s BAFTAs and Grammy awards, it is inevitably time for the Oscars, the Big...

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.

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