Film

A jarring Mann: ‘Fatherland’ (2026) in review

'Fatherland', which recounts celebrated Modernist author Thomas Mann’s return to a Germany in wreck and rubble, deals with great personal malaise against a backdrop of great political unease.

Culture Freddie Lewis-Hedley -

NAZA: The most important film of the year

The filmmakers of NAZA clearly know that beyond physical distance, emotional distance is what allows the violence in Gaza to continue, and shows us just how easy it is to ignore what is going on right under our noses.

Culture Willow Jopp -

The problem with Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’

Nolan had all the tools for greatness. Instead, to my eternal frustration, his 'Odyssey' will always only be just alright.

Culture Kelly Yu -

‘One Night Only’ (2026) and the death of romance

Romance movies are, on the whole, my favourite movie genre. But good romance movies, like good romantic relationships, are hard to find, and easy to mess up.

Culture Willow Jopp -

Latest

Heimat: a cinematic odyssey through 20th century German life

The controversy surrounding Taika Waititi’s recently Oscar nominated satire on Nazi Germany, JoJo Rabbit, demonstrates that dramatic portrayals of Hitler and the era of the Third...

Cinema Self-Care: A Therapeutic Guide to Nora Ephron Films

Even when I am most in need of time to myself, I still crave company. Nora Ephron’s characters, from jolly, larger than life Julia...

Review: JoJo Rabbit

Based on Christine Leunens’ Caging Skies, Jojo Rabbit is a very different kind of war film to Sam Mendes’ 1917, advertised just moments before....

Review: The Rise of Skywalker

Space Operatic Dullness by Mattie Donovan, “The Critic” When this new trilogy of Star Wars films began back in 2015, there was a charming sense of...

ROYALTY IN FILM

“Uneasy is the head that wears a crown”, wrote Shakespeare, who seemed compulsively committed to documenting the simultaneous lure and burden of monarchy more...

Review: Little Women

“Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as...

Review: The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen has been described – somewhat euphemistically by critics – as a ‘guns and gangsters’ film. It has been perceived as...

Review: Frozen 2

It’s not every day that Disney releases a sequel to a ‘Princess’ film. I approached Frozen 2 already resigned to the fact that this...

MUST SEE: Cossacks of the Kuban

On the 12th and 13th of January 2020 Oxford’s Ultimate Picture Palace will show the classic Soviet musical Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) as...

Review: Doctor Who’s New Year’s Day Episode, “Spyfall”

On New Year’s Day, exactly ten years after David Tennant’s beloved Tenth Doctor regenerated into Matt Smith, Doctor Who returned with the first instalment...

Review: Marriage Story

“Everything’s like everything in a relationship, don’t you find that?” This is the question Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) asks at the start of Marriage Story....

THE BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE

We, your Film Section Co-editors, have assembled a totally and completely objective top ten best films of the 2010s list. While we theoretically believe...

Review: Knives Out

British audiences know the whodunit genre well. The Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, wrote 66 murder mystery novels over the course of her prolific...

In Defense of Escapist Art

In our current political climate escapism is a dirty word. Moreover, it is a risky form of mental engagement in a culture that calls...

The Fantasy of Film

Food - whether symbolising power, desire, loss, despair, love, murder or moral, social and political disorder - provides an extensive menu for films. Imogen Harter-Jones explores its symbolic capabilities.

The Farewell Review

Seemingly all of us either have or yearn for an affectionate but caustically witty grandmother such as Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), the endearing matriarch...