25 May 2021
Frankie review – like an academic Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The great Isabelle Huppert stars in filmmaker Ira Sachs' handsome but emotionally inert drama about a terminally ill actress
Articles by Ben Flanagan
18 May 2021
Starter Pack: The Films of Robert Altman
As the BFI launches a season dedicated to the works of the American auteur, Ben Flanagan offers a route into his highly diverse canon...
06 May 2021
Atlantis review – haunting Ukrainian dystopia keeps you at a distance
Writer-director Valentyn Vasyanovych helms an atmospheric but overtly formal vision of the future about a soldier dealing with PTSD
27 Apr 2021
Labyrinth of Cinema review – an agitated and operatic swan song
Nobuhiko Ōbayashi's final film is the most epic of spectacles, a meditation on cinema that's by turns baffling, exciting and moving
20 Apr 2021
Red Moon Tide review – Spanish coastal tale is dripping with mood
This slow and ambiguous debut from filmmaker Lois Patiño, set in a tiny Galician village, makes for one strange and unsettling trip
17 Apr 2021
True Mothers review – intermittently engaging melodrama
The latest from Sweet Bean filmmaker Naomi Kawase tells the story of an unconventional adoption but feels stretched at 140 minutes
05 Mar 2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy review – an utterly triumphant triptych
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s magical new film offers sharp social critique and gut-punch twists across three deceptivity simple stories
04 Mar 2021
Bloodsuckers review – Marxist vampire comedy is a piercing delight
Working in multiple genres and styles, Julian Radlmaier delivers a standout political yarn exposing the Soviet Union's dark heart
03 Mar 2021
The Girl and the Spider review – the Zürchers create magic out of nothing
This inspired exercise in the power of staging and editing, set within a series of Swiss apartments, is equal parts comic and heartbreaking
02 Mar 2021
The Scary of Sixty-First review – giallo meets Jeffrey Epstein in frenzied conspiracy thriller
The ghost of the American financier haunts the characters - and the viewer - in this 70s inspired throwback of millennial alienation
15 Feb 2021
The Twentieth Century review – a gloriously naughty biopic
Matthew Rankin's debut film is a most unconventional and playful look at the life of Mackenzie King, Canada's tenth Prime Minister
12 Feb 2021
The Silence of the Lambs at 30: Jonathan Demme’s Style Sees (Almost) Everything
Endlessly revealing, though not without its problems, Ben Flanagan looks back on the serial killer classic three decades after its release