Leigh Singer

With N-word incident, Bafta have shot themselves in the foot | Catherine Shoard In not editing out Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson’s shouted tics, Bafta have allowed their successful diversity drive to be overshadowed

Left in the N-word, cut out "Free Palestine". Jesus wept, Bafta, that's not firefighting, that's arson.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

YouTube video by Fandor T2 Trainspotting, The Sequel Nobody Expected

I couldn’t believe the negative reviews when T2 came out as I found it genuinely thoughtful, moving and underrated. Made a video essay on it at the time:
youtu.be/P0pwOWrn0Xw?...

MULHOLLAND DR. - THE ESSENTIAL DAVID LYNCH FILM Why Mullholland Dr. is the essential David Lynch film. Examining how Lynch 2001's film combines and expands upon many of his visual, aural, stylistic and thematic…

Wild to think it's a whole spin around the sun since #DavidLynch left us, just a year and four days shy of his 80th birthday, which would’ve been today.

Here's my video essay on my favourite of his films, MULHOLLAND DR., and why it epitomises his whole body of work.

vimeo.com/223150206?sh...

Thanks Jonathan!

Watch The Ice Tower - Extended Q&A - BFI Player Writer-director Lucile Hadžihalilović explains how she spun her own dark fairy tale out of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen.

Lucile Hadžihalilović's THE ICE TOWER is my favourite film from last year. You can watch it now on BFI Player alongside this really warm, generous and insightful interview with Hadžihalilović by @leighsinger.bsky.social about the film and her creative collaborators: player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...

Such a pleasure to talk in depth with Lucile Hadžihalilović about her hypnotic film (and one of my favourites of 2025), The Ice Tower.

Interview available for free on BFI Player (and so is the film)!

Inconceivable.
RIP Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

And for the director of my favourite comedy of all time, as well as many other great films he directed, and facilitated through Castle Rock, an incredibly tragic end to an incredibly meaningful life.

A Few Good Men. Best in Show. A Mighty Wind. Miss Congeniality. Barcelona. All three movies in Linklater's "Before" trilogy. Music & Lyrics. Michael Clayton. All films that were able to be made because of the production company Reiner co-founded in order to give talented filmmakers creative freedom.

James L. Brooks on his return to directing: “The word ‘content’ is not my favourite” From The Simpsons to Broadcast News and the Best Picture-winning Terms of Endearment, James L. Brooks has been a driving force in American film and TV for more than half a century. As Ella McCay, his ...

an absolute honour to talk with one of the most significant creative forces in American film & TV for over 50 years. James L. Brooks on making his kind of comedy-dramas today, his fave Simpsons episode, Wes Anderson Jack Nicholson is coming back anytime soon & more…

www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/j...

For anyone not familiar with Lucile H’s haunting body of work, I also wrote a primer for BFI online. And don’t sleep on Innocence (2004), one of the best films of the 2000s.

www.bfi.org.uk/features/whe...

The Ice Tower review: Through the looking glass Marion Cotillard’s impressive performance as a glacial screen diva is matched by newcomer Clara Pacini in Hadžihalilović’s coolly calibrated vision of The Snow Queen.

Marion Cotillard’s impressive performance as a glacial screen diva is matched by newcomer Clara Pacini in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s coolly calibrated vision of The Snow Queen.

@leighsinger.bsky.social reviews The Ice Tower, out today. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

🎥 32 years ago today, Peter Weir’s Fearless hit theaters—a profound journey through trauma, survival & rebirth.

Revisit this underrated masterpiece in our deep dive:

cinephiliabeyond.org/fearless/

The Travelers | BFI London Film Festival 2025 David Bingong’s personal film is an intimate and hopeful account of the dangerous journey taken by a group of migrants from Cameroon to Europe.

@lffstubs.bsky.social
1 ticket to the sold out screening of THE TRAVELERS, Friday 17th October, 12:00pm at BFI Southbank. Face value £13.00 ono

whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...

Landmarks | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Artistic ambition and political advocacy meld in Lucrecia Martel’s documentary, a bold and beautiful reflection on the death and legacy of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.

@lffstubs.bsky.social
I have 1 ticket going for Lucrecia Martel's LANDMARKS screening this evening at 18:00 Thursday 16th October @BFI Southbank, NFT1, with director Q&A.
Ticket face value £18.00, ono, get in touch asap!
whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...

Just a reminder of what an absolute c*nt Farage is: he wants to scrap the benefits of people who legally work and pay their taxes in Britain, yet the greasy f*cker happily slurps down his fat EU pension - paid for by the very European citizens he spent years spewing bile at. Parasite in a suit.

pleasure to be back on the @lwlies.com Truth & Movies podcast, talking The Long Walk and the longer trudge that is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, a sequel to one of my all-time favourites that flirts with a certain infamous two-word review.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review: Metal fatigue Rob Reiner’s follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984) has plenty of great gags, but without the sharp satire of the original, it feels too close to the hagiographic music docs it once mocked.

It’s like, how much more disappointed could you get?
And the answer is… none.
None more disappointed…

As a devoted Tap-head, this isn’t at all the review I wanted to write but here are my thoughts on Spinal Tap II - The End Continues for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social.

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

Someone else shared this. Various comments Kirk has made. -Gay people should be stoned to death -Most people are scared when they see a black pilot flying a plane -Taylor Swift should reject feminism and submit to her husband -No one should be allowed to retire -Leftists should not be allowed to move to red states -British Colonialism was what "made the world decent" -The guy who assaulted the Pelosi's should be bailed out -Religious freedom should be terminated -Multiple black politicians "stole white people's spots" -MLK Jr was "an awful person" -The Great Replacement Theory is reality -Hydroxychloroquine cures COVID -Vaccine requirements are "medical apartheid" -Guns deaths are acceptable in order to have a 2nd amendment -Women's natural place is under their husband's control -Parents should prevent their daughters from taking birth control -George Floyd had it coming, the Jan 6th protestors didn't -The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a "huge mistake" -Encouraged parents to protest mask mandates -Mamdani winning in NY is a travesty because Muslims did 9/11 -Muslims only come to America to destabilize Western Civilization -Palestine "doesn't exist" and those who support it are like the KKK

More of Kirk’s “reasonable opinions”

Charlie Kirk was a private citizen

Melissa Hortman was a seated lawmaker in MN

No Flags were flown half staff at the WH for her death by gun violence

“Academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion. Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates.” Werner Herzog (Happy Birthday!)

It’s that time again…

A pleasure as ever to be involved in selecting films for the #LFF. Among the high-profile draws there are some real unsung gems that I’ll flag up closer to the festival.
Meantime, feast yer eyes!

whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...

Hit like if you read film criticism weekly and repost if you read film criticism more than that

Met him once to talk about his… chocolates. But such a down-to-earth guy, zero pretensions & talent to burn that, despite impressive credits, you felt was often under appreciated. Still, Billy Budd, Collector, Teorema, Madding Crowd, Superman II, The Hit, Priscilla QOTD, The Limey… RIP Terence Stamp

Pravda.

This is so depressingly true re: the arts / of criticism. But in the bigger picture I also go back to shitheel Tory politician Michael Gove’s phoney Brexit shibboleth that British people “have had enough of experts” to justify anti-intellectual, knee-jerk populism & how to control / profit from it.

Et tu, @bsky.app?

If this stellar, heartfelt Walter Chaw WEAPONS review is indicative of what can get you suspended on this site, have to question whether it’s worth sticking around here.

filmfreakcentral.net/2025/08/weap...

Police arrest 474 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London Number of arrests was highest recorded in relation to single operation in at least past decade, according to Met police

“UK civil liberties are trapped in a manufactured crisis. Peaceful citizens of conscience… have become terrorists, at the will of a human rights lawyer turned authoritarian who now lunges at opinions that expose the moral vacuum of his unrecognisable government.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

This is fantastic, urge you to listen, especially if you think Still Bill is one of the most underrated albums out there…

🚨new video essay 🚨

How deep is your love - and memory - of Saturday Night Fever?

The original is closer to Mean Streets than Grease, but that’s not how most people think of it…

How Saturday Night Fever was remodelled for a PG audience
for @lwlies.com.

Full video here:
youtu.be/KSniVr7-2_c?...

New album cover art drop, courtesy of the fab European Film Festival Palić, FIPRESCI jury