The Boys in the Boat review – George Clooney’s formulaic sporting drama of triumph against the odds
The director’s crowd-pleasing true-life tale of the US rowing team that won gold at the Berlin Olympics lacks the bite of his best work
December 2023
The Boys in the Boat review – George Clooney sports drama goes for patriotic boosterism
The director lays on the strident messaging in this clunky film, all about the gutsy underdogs of the US rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
May 2023
Master Gardener review – Paul Schrader’s sluggish new crime thriller isn’t a grower
Joel Edgerton plays a horticulturist with a dark secret, Sigourney Weaver his dowager boss in a drama stunted by its poorly written female characters
The reader interview
Joel Edgerton: ‘I’d be terrified to fight Tom Hardy now’
The Australian actor/writer/director on swearing, Star Wars, and working with everyone from his ‘far more interesting’ brother Nash to Bob Dylan
The reader interview
Post your questions for Joel Edgerton
The acclaimed Australian actor is a stalwart of the Star Wars universe as well as a veteran of a string of chewy independent thrillers – so get your questions over to him now
September 2022
Master Gardener review – Paul Schrader’s plantation drama struggles to blossom
Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton can’t save this stilted, eccentric crime story
August 2022
The Stranger review – Joel Edgerton is at his brooding best in this sophisticated crime drama
Thomas M Wright’s unconventional, captivating film sees Edgerton as an undercover cop trying to identify a child murderer, opposite the brilliant Sean Harris
July 2022
Thirteen Lives review – Ron Howard’s Thai cave-rescue saga told with non-Hollywood heroics
Howard gives this stunning true story the Apollo 13 treatment but swerves Elon Musk’s grotesque ‘pedo’ comment
May 2022
The reader interview
Jacki Weaver: ‘I can be a cow, but I had a very polite English mother who taught me to be kind’
The twice Oscar-nominated star of Animal Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook – as well as the upcoming Father Stu – on mangling accents, Vegemite and preteen fanmail
September 2021
The Green Knight review – Dev Patel rides high on sublimely beautiful quest
Director David Lowery conjures up visual wonders and metaphysical mysteries from the anonymously authored 14th-century chivalric poem
October 2019
The King review – Timothée Chalamet is all at sea as Prince Hal
The King review – Shakespeare reboot is Game-of-Thrones lite with touch of Python
September 2019
First look review
The King review – rogues' gallery of grunters and brawlers
Timothée Chalamet makes for a slight royal alongside Robert Pattinson’s French dauphin in this bruising adaptation of Shakespeare’s history plays
February 2019
Boy Erased review – starry but drab gay conversion drama
Boy Erased review – dark tale of a teenager's 'gay conversion' ordeal
January 2019
Joel Edgerton on Boy Erased: 'I crave the acceptance of the LGBTQ community'
The actor-director talks about being under scrutiny as a straight man telling and appearing in a story about gay-conversion therapy
September 2018
First look review
Boy Erased review – plodding gay conversion drama lacks power
Strong performances from Lucas Hedges and Nicole Kidman aren’t enough to bring a disappointingly pedestrian tale to life
July 2018
Boy Erased: first trailer for Oscar-tipped gay conversion drama revealed
Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges stars as a young man sent away to a program aimed at ‘curing’ him of his homosexuality in the fact-based story
March 2018
Gringo review – muddled drugs thriller
Neither David Oyelowo’s likable character nor Mexicans fare well in this mess of a movie
February 2018
Science friction: can Netflix figure out its blockbuster problem?
Costly sci-fi films have received poor reviews but the streaming giant still has an eager audience in its vast subscriber base
