Sight and Sound magazine

Josephine review: a harrowing child’s eye view Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan star as parents of an eight-year-old girl who witnesses a horrific crime in Beth de Araújo’s smartly observed film about the illusions we carry in order to survive.

“Josephine is a film about loss of innocence, but its cleverness lies in how it demonstrates that this loss cuts in multiple directions. A child’s sense of safety has been shattered, but so has her parents”

Rachel Pronger reviews from #berlinale2026 www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Testament of Ann Lee review: Cooler shaker Unconvincing Manchester accent aside, Amanda Seyfried delivers a brilliant, primal performance as Ann Lee, the radical leader of a celibate religious sect that absolved sins through intense physical w...

“Ann Lee demands devotional commitment from Amanda Seyfried, and for the most part she delivers, channelling the religious leader through a primal scream of a performance that taps into a rawness we have never seen from her before”

Katie McCabe reviews www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Sirât review: All about that bass A father in search of his lost daughter enters a world of illegal desert raves in the Spanish director’s teeth-rattling sensorial experiment.

“Sirāt opens at an illegal rave in the shadow of the mountains, where throbs of deep bass reverberate off the rock and shake the audience into a trance state beyond conscious thought”

Mark Asch reviews www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Everybody to Kenmure Street review Felipe Bustos Sierra’s engaging record of a large resident protest against an attempted deportation of two Sikh men in 2021 is a strong showcase of both local solidarity and proactive filmmaking.

Felipe Bustos Sierra’s engaging record of a large resident protest against in Glasglow is a strong showcase of both local solidarity and proactive filmmaking.

Tim Hayes reviews Everybody to Kenmure Street, opening film at @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Testament of Ann Lee review: Cooler shaker Unconvincing Manchester accent aside, Amanda Seyfried delivers a brilliant, primal performance as Ann Lee, the radical leader of a celibate religious sect that absolved sins through intense physical w...

Unconvincing Manchester accent aside, Amanda Seyfried delivers a brilliant, primal performance as Ann Lee, the radical leader of a celibate religious sect that absolved sins through intense physical worship.

Katie McCabe reviews The Testament of Ann Lee
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Rose review: a sharp dissection of gender roles Set in 17th-century Germany, Markus Schleinzer’s witty third feature sees Sandra Hüller adopt a man's identity in an intriguing interrogation of gender as performance.

Set in 17th-century Germany, Markus Schleinzer’s witty third feature sees Sandra Hüller adopt a man's identity in an intriguing interrogation of gender as performance.

@www.johnbleasdale.com reviews Rose from #Berlinale2026 www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Collective Monologue review: Claws encounter Jessica Sarah Rinland’s experimental documentary on Argentinian zoos and animal sanctuaries takes an intimate, non-judgemental approach to its subjects, human and non-human alike.

Jessica Sarah Rinland’s experimental documentary on Argentinian zoos and animal sanctuaries takes an intimate, non-judgemental approach to its subjects, human and non-human alike.

Hope Rangaswami reviews Collective Monologue, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Rosebush Pruning review: Hollow eat-the-rich satire Starring Riley Keough, Callum Turner and Elle Fanning, Karim Aïnouz’s tale of a dangerously dysfunctional wealthy family strains hard for shock value at the expense of any meaningful critique.

“Rosebush Pruning feels a decadent, debilitated affair, a re-run of starker, more focused former glories: in all its prestige lushness, it’s essentially the Condé Nast Traveller version of Dogtooth (2009)”

Jonathan Romney reviews from #Berlinale2026
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Yellow Letters review: State of play İlker Çatak’s political drama about an avant garde theatre couple whose family life begins to unravel when their work is targeted by the government has much to say about artistic censorship.

İlker Çatak’s Golden Bear winning film about an avant garde theatre couple whose family life begins to unravel when their work is targeted by the government has much to say about artistic censorship.

Travis Jeppesen reviews Yellow Letters from #Berlinale2026 www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Secret Agent review: Tropical thriller The Brazilian director’s stellar filmmaking and sharp storytelling make this portrait of life under dictatorship as politically incisive as it is entertaining.

“Such confident skill, combined with the impressively fluid storytelling, renders the film riveting for all 158 minutes of its running time. One is tempted to call it a masterpiece”

Giovanni Marchini Camia reviews The Secret Agent, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review Seventeen years on from her mumblecore debut Yeast (2008), Bronstein returns with an anxiety-inducing exploration of motherhood, starring Rose Byrne as an overwhelmed therapist with a suspicious hole ...

“It’s been a full 17 years since Mary Bronstein’s crackling debut feature, and the long wait has filtered into the simmering anxieties and ambient aggression of her full-on follow-up”

@nicolasrapold.bsky.social reviews If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

The Secret Agent review: Tropical thriller The Brazilian director’s stellar filmmaking and sharp storytelling make this portrait of life under dictatorship as politically incisive as it is entertaining.

“Such confident skill, combined with the impressively fluid storytelling, renders the film riveting for all 158 minutes of its running time. One is tempted to call it a masterpiece”

Giovanni Marchini Camia reviews The Secret Agent, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Moment review: is brat all there is? Charli xcx’s satirised pop-star persona isn’t enough to carry this tonally confused music biz mockumentary.

“By the time the plot contrives a disastrous Brat-themed bank card promotion, its pretensions to either clever comedy or artistic reflection are lost in the lights”

@nicolasrapold.bsky.social reviews The Moment. Out Friday. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Frederick Wiseman 2015 interview In 2015, David Jenkins spoke with the veteran documentary filmmaker for National Gallery. In this enlightening interview, Wiseman reveals his working process, his relationship to public institutions a...

“When you stop shooting, that’s when the best thing is going to happen. You have to persevere”
— Frederick Wiseman

In tribute to the great documentarian, we share a 2015 interview, in which he reveals his working process, his relationship to public institutions and his love of a good typeface

Variations on a Theme: Village of the scammed Based on a collection of true stories, this novelistic film from directors Devon Delmar and Jason Jacobs captures the lives of villagers in a Kamiesberg mountain community as they are subjected to a c...

My review Rotterdam winner Variations on a Theme, for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social

www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

“Wuthering Heights” review: The full Brontë Fennell takes liberties with her source material in a colour-saturated, baroque spectacle charged by yearning and foreplay that all falls apart in the second half.

Emerald Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights is “a tragic romance borne of misapprehensions and missed connections, all yearning and foreplay. Here, sex is as repulsive as it is alluring: a blurry, frightening thing”

Catherine Wheatley reviews. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Robert Duvall obituary: eminent actor from New Hollywood and beyond The Oscar-winning American actor – who has died aged 95 – broke through in the 1970s, essaying emotional repression in complicated men for Francis Ford Coppola.

The Oscar-winning American actor Robert Duvall – who has died aged 95 – broke through in the 1970s, essaying emotional repression in complicated men for Francis Ford Coppola and helping to mould a new kind of leading man

www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Frederick Wiseman obituary: towering figure of American documentary filmmaking Across a filmmaking career spanning more than five decades, Wiseman – who has died at 96 – refined a uniquely austere, quietly radical form of documentary cinema. Working without narration, interviews...

Across a filmmaking career spanning more than five decades, Frederick Wiseman – who has died at 96 – refined a uniquely austere, quietly radical form of documentary cinema

www.bfi.org.uk/features/fre...

Robert Duvall, 1931-2026

(The Godfather Part II, dir. Coppola, 1974)

Looney Tunes: The Day The Earth Blew Up review Director Peter Browngardt’s feature-length Looney Tunes movie captures the early inventiveness of these cartoon creations, sidelining Bugs to show off the great comedic talents of Daffy Duck and Porky...

“The Day the Earth Blew Up liberates its octogenarian cartoon stars from several decades of rigorous brand management, searching instead for that original spirit of fun and invention”

@willsloanesq.bsky.social reviews Looney Tunes: The Day The Earth Blew Up www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Variations on a Theme: Village of the scammed Based on a collection of true stories, this novelistic film from directors Devon Delmar and Jason Jacobs captures the lives of villagers in a Kamiesberg mountain community as they are subjected to a c...

Based on a collection of true stories, @iffr-festival.bsky.social Tiger Competition winner Variations on a Theme captures the lives of villagers in a Kamiesberg mountain community as they are subjected to a cruel scam.

@www.johnbleasdale.com reviews. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Wuthering Heights: the best love story ever re-told? To mark the release of Emerald Fennell's new take on Wuthering Heights, we look back to a 1987 article that explored the checkered history of Brontë film adaptations.

"Hollywood never really decided how to take the Brontë novels. Yes, they were classics, but were they love stories or horror movies?"

To mark the release of Emerald Fennell's new take on Wuthering Heights, we look back to a 1987 article that explored the checkered history of Brontë adaptations

The President’s Cake review: Operation dessert Director Hasan Hadi evokes the collective trauma that millions of Iraqi children grew up internalising with the story of a young girl tasked with making a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday cake in th...

“At once a road movie, a magic realist fable and an incisive portrait of the seldom-seen Iraq of the 1990s, The President’s Cake recalls both Abbas Kiarostami and The Night of the Hunter (1955)”

@josephfahim.bsky.social reviews The President’s Cake, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Shepherd and the Bear: Paws for thought Max Keegan explores both sides of the debate over reintroducing wild bears to the French mountains, offering a compassionate understanding of a local shepherd’s fear for his livelihood.

Max Keegan explores both sides of the debate over reintroducing wild bears to the French mountains, offering a compassionate understanding of a local shepherd’s fear for his livelihood.

Megan Feeney reviews The Shepherd and the Bear, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

André is an Idiot review: The last laugh A terminal cancer diagnosis is met with dignity and a lot of morbid jokes in Tony Benna’s documentary about the final years of his self-mocking subject, André Ricciardi.

A terminal cancer diagnosis is met with dignity and a lot of morbid jokes in Tony Benna’s documentary about the final years of his self-mocking subject, André Ricciardi.

Philip Kemp reviews André is an Idiot, out now.
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

100 Nights of Hero review: Got it maid Though at times too reliant on voice over, Julia Jackman’s fantastical comedic take on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel crackles with suppressed yearning.

“Julia Jackman’s playful, sensual take on period drama owes more to Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway than to the films of Merchant Ivory”

Kathryn Bromwich reviews 100 Nights of Hero, in cinemas now.
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

My Father’s Shadow review: An exquisite debut Akinola Davies Jr.’s feature about two brothers who join their father on a dizzying trip through Lagos is a beautiful blend of moral guidance, nostalgia and discovery.

Akinola Davies Jr.’s debut feature about two brothers who join their father on a dizzying trip through Lagos is a beautiful blend of moral guidance, nostalgia and discovery.

Abiba Coulibaly reviews My Father’s Shadow, in cinemas today. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Twinless review: one is the loneliest number Starring O’Brien as identical twins, director James Sweeney’s slippery story of an unlikely bromance is full of surprises – and is as poignant as it is playful.

Starring Dylan O’Brien as identical twins, director James Sweeney’s slippery story of an unlikely bromance is full of surprises – and is as poignant as it is playful.

Hope Rangaswami reviews Twinless, in cinemas tomorrow. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Philippa Lowthorpe on H is for Hawk Filmmaker Philippa Lowthorpe tells us how she brought Helen Macdonald’s nature memoir to life on screen, and explains why directing hawks is a complex art.

For @sightsoundmag.bsky.social, I spoke with Philippa Lowthorpe about her adaptation of Helen Macdonald’s nature memoir H IS FOR HAWK and the art of directing birds of prey for the camera
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Invite review: Olivia Wilde’s odd couples Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Penélope Cruz and Olivia Wilde are all at the top of their game in this bittersweet partner-swap comedy where the stakes don’t extend beyond the living room.

The stakes don’t extend beyond the living room of Olivia Wilde’s witty partner-swap story, but everyone in this all-star ensemble is at the top of their game.

@nicolasrapold.bsky.social reviews The Invite from #SundanceFilmFestival www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...