Peter Bradshaw

Palestine Comedy Club review – roving performance collective finds light in darkness This portrait of a multi-ethnic comic troupe could do with more unpicking, but its reflections on the grind of war, life on the road and the reactive nature of comedy are insightful

My review of Palestine Comedy Club (dir. Alaa AliAbdallah) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Sirāt review – rave in the desert leads to exasperating quest in the sands of Morocco Oliver Laxe’s Cannes prize winner about a father’s search for his missing daughter starts impressively then descends into Pythonesque perdition

My review of Sirāt (dir. Olivier Laxe) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...

The Testament of Ann Lee review – strikingly strange portrait of radically ecstatic Shaker leader Amanda Seyfried plays the 18th-century missionary who took her radical message to the New World, in Mona Fastvold’s elusive film

My review of The Testament Of Ann Lee (dir. Mona Fastvold) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se... (it premiered at Venice last September and gets its UK release today)

YouTube video by Peter Bradshaw PETER BRADSHAW reviews THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

My vlog on Mona Fastvold’s The Testament Of Ann Lee is up here, please click, watch, share and subscribe: youtu.be/VkDDNQmDoh8?...

BBC Radio 4 - Loose Ends, Joanna Scanlan, Adèle Anderson, Faye Tozer, Elles Bailey, ERNIE Stuart Maconie and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.

Everyone! Please tune in to BBC Radio Four Loose Ends this Saturday at 6:15pm when the incomparable Joanna Scanlan will be talking about her starring role in my Audible Original drama Mercy www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Peter Bradshaw’s Baftas 2026 predictions – who’ll get the gongs, who’ll be the goners? Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets

As ever, the advice from HM Government is: if you have no savings or pension provision, borrow heavily from a number of different door-to-door payday lenders in Tottenham or Wood Green and bet it all on my BAFTA predictions: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

The Secret Agent review – brilliant Brazilian drama of an academic on the run in the murderous 1970s Kleber Mendonça Filho’s study of a man attempting to escape corrupt politics is a tremendous, novelistic study of corruption in high and low places

My review of The Secret Agent (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma... (it premiered at Cannes last year and gets its UK release today)

Fukushima review – a devastating account of disaster and denial in 2011 nuclear catastrophe A tense return to the disaster foregrounds the heroism of the ‘Fukushima 50’ while raising questions about corporate secrecy and nuclear safety

My review of Fukushima (dirs. James Jones, Megumi Inman) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Wasteman review – Brit prison drama is as lethal and nasty as a sharpened toothbrush Some of the tropes are familiar, but this brutally violent and gripping film sidesteps the cliches with committed acting and fierce storytelling punch

My review of Wasteman (dir. Cal McCau) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Man on the Run review – archival delve into Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles era is a welcome revisit After the Fab Four fell and Wings took flight, McCartney embodied a strange, stylised sense of uncool, which would become bestselling success. A new documentary of old material memorialises his second...

My review of Man On The Run (dir. Morgan Neville) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review – Rose Byrne is tremendous as therapist in meltdown in pitch-black horror-comedy Byrne delivers a barnstorming performance as a shrink – counselled by an impatient Conan O’Brien – being pushed to the edge by stress of parenting

My review of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

YouTube video by Peter Bradshaw PETER BRADSHAW reviews THE SECRET AGENT

My vlog on Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent is up here, please click, watch, share and subscribe: youtu.be/7jFy5X11n3Y?...

The President’s Cake review – toughly revealing story of kid on a baking mission for Saddam Hussein’s birthday Nine-year-old Lamia is obliged by her school to make a birthday cake for the Iraqi president, and meets a series of vivid characters as she shops for sanctioned ingredients

My review of The President’s Cake (dir. Hasan Hadi) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Crime 101 review – bracing tale of master thief lifts a trick or two from Michael Mann The pedal is pressed hard to the metal for this very stylish high-stakes armed robbery thriller starring Chris Hemsworth

My review of Crime 101 (dir. Bart Layton) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

This Berlin Film Festival @BerlinaleRP is full of surprises. I just saw next year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner - Bill Pullman in Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Send Help review – Sam Raimi returns with gore-laced plane-crash survival face-off Starring Rachel McAdams, this gets off to a promising start, but the plot twists are derivative and the tacked-on violence descends into exasperating silliness

My review of Send Help (dir. Sam Raimi) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...

100 Nights of Hero review – Emma Corrin leads starry cast in a queer fable with a serious streak Gender, sexuality, status and power are all in flux in Julia Jackman’s playful medieval fairytale, adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel, also starring Maika Monroe and Charli xcx

My review of 100 Nights Of Hero (dir. Julia Jackman) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

The Chronology of Water review – Kristen Stewart makes a traumatic splash with directorial debut Imogen Poots takes the lead in Stewart’s choppy but compelling adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of abuse and sexual uncertainty

My review of The Chronology Of Water (dir. Kristen Stewart) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma... (it premiered at Cannes last May and gets its UK release today)

Sham review – Takashi Miike revisits infamous ‘murder teacher’ trial in unflinching courtroom drama Based on a real-life case of a teacher charged with abusing a child, Japan’s master of the extreme doesn’t sit on the fence in this two-sided retelling

My review of Sham (dir. Takashi Miike) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Ashes and Diamonds review – Poland faces bleak postwar realities in Andrzej Wajda’s 1958 masterpiece Polish fighters contemplate their future in Wajda’s 1958 film in which the war’s end, far from being a cause for celebration, marks a crisis of identity for their country

My review of the re-release of Ashes And Diamonds (1958) (dir. Andrzej Wajda) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

The Stunt Man review – Peter O’Toole runs amok in a gleefully deranged Hollywood satire Richard Rush’s cult 1980 comedy-drama turns film-making into a battlefield, with O’Toole’s imperious director blurring art, war and cruelty in a performance of lasting menace

My review of the re-release of The Stunt Man (1980) (dir. Richard Rush) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Hamlet review – Riz Ahmed’s tortured prince drives chilling modern take through London’s streets Timothy Spall and Art Malik co-star in Aneil Karia’s intelligent and stark retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, set in the world of shady family business

My review of Hamlet (dir. Aneil Karia) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

My Father’s Shadow review – subtle and intelligent coming-of-age tale set in 1993 Nigeria British-Nigerian film-maker Akinola Davies Jr makes a strong directorial debut with this deft and intriguing tale of an absent father briefly reunited with his two young sons

My review of My Father’s Shadow (dir. Akinola Davies Jr) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma... (it premiered at Cannes last May and gets its UK release today)

YouTube video by Peter Bradshaw PETER BRADSHAW reviews MY FATHER’S SHADOW

My vlog on Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow is up here, please click, watch, share and subscribe: youtu.be/W_zQTFhXBHM?...

Thanks to The Sunday Times @thetimes.com for this lovely review of my Audible Original drama Mercy starring Joanna Scanlan. Click here: www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0GGTQ9ZB...

YouTube video by Peter Bradshaw PETER BRADSHAW at the INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 2026 Saturday 31st January

My vlog on the International Film Festival Rotterdam @IFFR is up here, please click, watch, share and subscribe: youtu.be/x1WjOPxdMmA?...

YouTube video by Peter Bradshaw PETER BRADSHAW reviews IS THIS THING ON?

My vlog on Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? is up here, please click, watch, share and subscribe: youtu.be/eyyOuCsEg8M?...

Silence and Cry review – deeply strange 1960s erotic ballet meditating on Hungary’s history and politics Director Miklós Jancsó creates a bizarre psychodrama set after the fall of the 1919 Hungarian Soviet republic, encompassing postwar trauma and erotic overtones

My review of the re-release of Silence And Cry (1968) (dir. Miklós Janscó) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...

Send Help review – Sam Raimi returns with gore-laced plane-crash survival face-off Starring Rachel McAdams, this gets off to a promising start, but the plot twists are derivative and the tacked-on violence descends into exasperating silliness

My review of Send Help (dir. Sam Raimi) is up here: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...