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Wendy Ide's film of the week

Films of the week reviewed by the Observer's film critic Wendy Ide

  • A female photographer holding a camera crouches behind sandbags during world war two.

    Lee review – Kate Winslet is remarkable as model turned war photographer Lee Miller

    Winslet strongly conveys Miller’s tough-broad magnetism in this sobering, visually striking drama by cinematographer turned director Ellen Kuras
  • CATHERINE O’HARA as Delia, JENNA ORTEGA as Astrid, WINONA RYDER as Lydia and JUSTIN THEROUX as Rory in Warner Bros. Pictures’ comedy, “BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE,”

    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review – Tim Burton has fun with pleasingly idiosyncratic sequel

    The director’s long-imagined follow-up to his 1988 cult movie Beetlejuice revels in some gleefully silly moments while narrowly avoiding that dated feeling
  • Colman Domingo as John Whitfield, aka Divine G, dressed in stage costume including a crown for a prison production in Sing Sing.

    Sing Sing review – Colman Domingo is magnetic in moving real-life US prison drama

    The US actor heads a cast largely made up of former inmates in Greg Kwedar’s low-key tale about the redemptive power of theatre
  • Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman sitting together at a bar drinking.

    Between the Temples review – bittersweet screwball comedy with shades of Harold and Maude

    Playing a bereaved synagogue cantor and his former primary school music teacher, Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane light up Nathan Silver’s endearing odd couple tale
  • Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson in Alien: Romulus.

    Alien: Romulus review – thrillingly gruesome new instalment gets a shot of young blood

    The ever-impressive Cailee Spaeny heads a cast of fresh-faced alien fodder in Fede Álvarez’s propulsive sci-fi horror, which favours horror over storyline
  • Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau in Babes.

    Babes review – Pamela Adlon’s caustically funny pregnancy comedy

    Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau fizz in the Better Things creator’s directorial debut, a rapid-fire riff on pregnancy, motherhood and female friendship
  • Deniz Celiloğlu and Musab Ekici as Samet and Kenan in About Dry Grasses.

    About Dry Grasses review – rich, engrossing Turkish epic with a twist

    A village teacher is accused of inappropriate behaviour in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s handsome, beautifully performed, three-and-a-half-hour fable
  • Zoe Ziegler and Julianne Nicholson in Janet Planet.

    Janet Planet review – Annie Baker’s tender, perceptive mother-daughter drama

    Julianne Nicholson and newcomer Zoe Ziegler are a dream team in the Pulitzer prize-winning US playwright’s richly cinematic film debut
  • Maika Monroe in profile as a bedraggled looking Agent Lee Harker in Longlegs, screaming in a car in a dull, grey forest setting

    Longlegs review – Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage grip in brooding horror thriller

    Monroe plays a dogged, antisocial FBI agent on the trail of Cage’s occult serial killer in the latest buzzy, atmospheric film from Osgood Perkins
  • Eddie Murphy aiming a hand gun in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

    Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F review – Eddie Murphy’s megawatt charisma lights up creaking sequel

    Reprising his role as lovable undercover cop Axel Foley, the actor – and some full-on car-chase carnage – can’t disguise a plot several decades past its sell-by date in debut director Mark Molloy’s slickly packaged action comedy
  • This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Emma Stone, foreground left, and Jesse Plemons in a scene from "Kinds of Kindness." (Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

    Kinds of Kindness review – Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone for overlong but admirable triptych

    Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe head the cast in the Poor Things director’s odd three-part study of control whose central idea proves elusive
  • A black and white image of a child behind razor wire looking up at armed border guard.

    Green Border review – an angry and urgent masterpiece about Europe’s migrant crisis

    Agnieszka Holland’s vital drama about refugees stranded between Belarus and Poland could hardly be more topical
  • Jesse Eisenberg in Sasquatch Sunset.

    Sasquatch Sunset review – brilliant bigfoot oddity is unexpectedly moving

    The Zellner brothers follow a family of grunting sasquatches played by Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough in a wonderful one-off
  • Viggo Mortensen and Vicky Krieps side by side on horseback.

    The Dead Don’t Hurt review – Vicky Krieps is a woman of substance in Viggo Mortensen’s offbeat western

    The actor-director’s second film behind the camera is a quirky spin on the genre given true grit by its magnetic heroine
  • Léa Seydoux and George MacKay in period costumes.

    The Beast review – Léa Seydoux mesmerises in wildly ambitious sci-fi romance

    Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell
  • USA. Anya Taylor-Joy in (C)Warner Bros. Pictures new film: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). 
Plot: The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before she teamed up with Mad Max in 'Fury Road'. 
Ref: LMK110-J10651-120424
Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only.
Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com<br>2X0RXFY USA. Anya Taylor-Joy in (C)Warner Bros. Pictures new film: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). 
Plot: The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before she teamed up with Mad Max in 'Fury Road'. 
Ref: LMK110-J10651-120424
Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only.
Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com

    Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review – renegade warrior Anya Taylor-Joy ignites thunderous action prequel

    George Miller’s world-building spectacle is an assault on the senses that’s given a human heart by its remarkable star
  • Cailey Fleming in IF

    IF review – imaginary friends reunited in a kid-pleasing live-action fantasy

    Actor-director John Krasinski’s animated tale of an anxious tween and her make-believe buddies is not in Pixar’s league, but it boasts a heartfelt sweetness and an engaging young star
  • Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian leaning against a pick-up.

    Love Lies Bleeding review – Kristen Stewart keeps it real in deliciously lurid outlaw romance

    Rose Glass’s follow-up to her acclaimed Saint Maud is a scorchingly sexy, darkly violent tale of a gym manager’s love affair with a bodybuilder
  • Mike Faist, Zendaya and Josh O'Connor in Challengers, sitting on a bed smiling

    Challengers review – Zendaya holds court in absurdly sexy three-way tennis romance

    Luca Guadagnino’s sizzling, sharply scripted drama, co-starring Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, is such fun it’s almost indecent
  • Daisy Ridley as Fran in Sometimes I Think About Dying, standing uneasily in a doorway, looking at other people having a laugh Plot: Fran, who likes to think about dying, makes the new guy at work laugh, which leads to dating and more. Now the only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.
Ref: LMK110-J10392-141223
Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only.
Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com<br>2TD7TE2 USA. Daisy Ridley in a scene from the (C)Oscilloscope new movie : Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024).
Plot: Fran, who likes to think about dying, makes the new guy at work laugh, which leads to dating and more. Now the only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.
Ref: LMK110-J10392-141223
Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only.
Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com

    Sometimes I Think About Dying review – Daisy Ridley excels as shy office worker in offbeat comedy

    ​Rachel Lambert’s perceptive tale of a ​l​oner with a vividly imaginative inner life​ proves an unexpected showcase for the Star Wars actor​’s talents
About 49 results for Wendy Ide's film of the week