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Sight and Sound magazine

@sightsoundmag.bsky.social

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Established in 1932. Published by the British Film Institute. Home of the once-a-decade Greatest Films of All Time poll. https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound

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Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 22h

In a London Film Festival programme crammed with the best of new cinema from across the world, many films are still seeking a distributor for UK theatrical release

Here, we select eight titles you might not get a chance to see anywhere else #LFF

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

Eight under-the-radar LFF films

In a London Film Festival programme crammed with the best of new cinema from across the world, many films – some by established auteurs, others by exciting new voices – are still seeking a distributor...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 2d

Five years after cheerfully transgressive midnight musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released, Jonathan Rosenbaum examined the growing trend for singalong event screenings of the film, seeing them as a resurrection of cinema as community

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

Midnight madness: The Rocky Horror Picture Cult

With Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror hitting UK cinemas this week, we revisit an exploration of how midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show resurrected the idea of cinema as co...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 7d

“It was dance as action rather than as aesthetics”

As Billy Elliot turns 25, we revisit an interview with its director Stephen Daldry on the film’s political context, emotional rhythms and expressive physicality. From our October 2000 issue.

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

Cosmic dancer: Stephen Daldry on Billy Elliot

As Billy Elliot turns 25, we revisit an interview with its director Stephen Daldry on the film’s political context, emotional rhythms and expressive physicality. From our October 2000 issue.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 7d

“Without waggling an eyebrow or popping a pec, Dwayne Johnson is so damn good in Benny Safdie’s biopic of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr that you kind of want to take him apart to see how he does it”

@jessicakiang.bsky.social reviews The Smashing Machine. Out Friday.

The Smashing Machine review: The Rock is cooking

By drawing on the metatext of Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling background, director Benny Safdie has created a respectful account of MMA fighter Mark Kerr that plays like a fascinating essay on physique and...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 8d

In Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez’s ethereal docufiction film, a young woman tries to learn more about her deceased father, starting with her only inheritance – his mysterious patent for a ‘healing device’.

Dylan Huw reviews. Screening at ICA London. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Invention review: Ghost in the machine

In Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez’s ethereal docufiction film, a young woman tries to learn more about her deceased father, starting with her only inheritance – his mysterious patent for a ‘he...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 8d

“At the age of 28, Dickinson has already established himself as a distinctive onscreen talent, and with this flawed but admirable film, he’s serving notice that his career behind the camera may be just as exciting to follow”

Philip Concannon reviews.
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Urchin review: Harris Dickinson’s distinctive debut

The acclaimed actor makes imaginative choices with his first feature, an exploration of addiction and homelessness led by an outstanding performance from Frank Dillane.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 10d

“This is a film about friendship, not fanaticism – a ride-or-die friendship, which saved the girls in the hostile UK, but which jeopardises them as the stakes get higher”

Kate Stables reviews Brides, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Brides review: a risk-taking road movie

Nadia Fall’s film about two teenage girls fleeing their British seaside town to join ISIS recalls the exuberant portraits of teens in Girlhood (2014) and Rocks (2019), focusing on the girls’ ride-or-d...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 12d

“There’s so much to relish. The film has a Kubrickian satirical absurdism… DiCaprio’s Bob brings a broad slapstick haplessness to his midlife fallibility, on the run in plaid bath robe and grease-gathering hair”

@nickkinocritic.bsky.social reviews. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

One Battle After Another review: Revolutionary road

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as an off-the-grid freedom fighter searching for his vanished teenage daughter in an absurdist action thriller that thunders along with Mad Max-like propulsion.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 15d

“While there’s nothing wrong with playing quixotic Gen-Z idealism for laughs, Sacrifice is finally too slick and preening to work up any real sense of anxiety over issues of personal or collective accountability”

@brofromanother.bsky.social reviews. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Sacrifice review: eco-satire flames out

Director Romain Gavras’s film about a self-involved movie star (Chris Evans) who is kidnapped by a group of eco-activists for a human sacrifice crams together so many visual styles, its ideas about po...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 17d

First-time director Usman Riaz explains how a pirate VHS tape of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) sparked his love for animation and led to his own landmark hand-drawn feature, The Glassworker.

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

“There was a lot of naivety and youthful exuberance”: Usman Riaz on creating The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated feature

First-time director Usman Riaz explains how a pirate VHS tape of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) sparked his love for animation and led to his own landmark hand-drawn feature, The Glassworker.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 18d

Max Porter, the author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Shy, discusses his new film with Cillian Murphy, the fine art of adaptation and the pleasurable ‘dry-stone walling’ of screenplay writing. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Max Porter on Steve: “I want my kids to see this movie and say: “We understand Dad a bit now””

The author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Shy discusses his new film with Cillian Murphy, the fine art of adaptation and the pleasurable ‘dry-stone walling’ of screenplay writing.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 18d

“I have very little interest in the lighter side of storytelling”: As his new film Steve hits UK cinemas, actor Cillian Murphy explains why the richest work comes out of longstanding creative relationships.
#CillianMurphy www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Cillian Murphy on Steve and his career so far

In Steve, Cillian Murphy plays the stressed-out headmaster of a reform school. As the film hits UK cinemas, the actor looks back over his electrifying career.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 18d

“No one will miss the animation’s debt to the works of Studio Ghibli: [Usman Riaz] has clearly imbibed that influence, graphically and conceptually, and wears it on his sleeve”

Nick Bradshaw reviews The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated feature www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Glassworker review: Light fantastic

First-time director Usman Riaz embraces the old-fashioned star-crossed romance with a beautifully animated Studio Ghibli-inspired film about a young glass-blowing artist and his lost love.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 19d

“The anxious tone, staccato pacing and underlying existential malaise of the whole thing is closer to Waiting for Godot than Walk the Line (2005)”

@brofromanother.bsky.social reviews Ebony & Ivory, a Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder anti-biopic from Jim Hosking. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Ebony & Ivory review: Macca Bingo

Hosking’s wacky two-hander imagines a rendezvous with Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, who meet at a remote ‘Scottish Cottage’ to eat veggie patties, smoke ‘doobie-woobies’ and work on an anti-racist...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 21d

“As a piece of filmmaking, Happyend is both impressively assured and perhaps a bit too deadpan for its own good.”

@brofromanother.bsky.social reviews Neo Sora’s dystopian drama Happyend, out Friday. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Happyend review: impressive future-shock satire

Tokyo teens rise up against authoritarian forces in Neo Sora’s smart but schematic dystopian drama.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 22d

Robert Redford, 1936-2025

In 2019, @christinalefou.bsky.social paid tribute to an actor who, in charismatic performances of immense restraint over more than half a century, blended traditionalism, predictability and inscrutability to great effect

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

Robert Redford: act natural

In charismatic performances of immense restraint over more than half a century, Robert Redford blended traditionalism, predictability and inscrutability to great effect. From our January 2019 issue.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 22d

In what might be his best acting role since Control (2007), Sam Riley stars as a tennis coach at a Fuerteventura resort who gets wrapped up in an absorbing missing person mystery.

Tom Charity reviews Islands, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Islands review: The life of Riley

In what might be his best acting role since Control (2007), Sam Riley stars as a tennis coach at a Fuerteventura resort who gets wrapped up in an absorbing missing person mystery.

Reposted by Sight and Sound magazine

Leigh Singer @leighsinger.bsky.social · 26d

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...

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.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 25d

Seventeen years on from her mumblecore debut Yeast (2008), Mary Bronstein returns with an anxiety-inducing exploration of motherhood, starring Rose Byrne.

@nicolasrapold.bsky.social reviews If I Had Legs I’d Kick You www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review

Seventeen years on from her mumblecore debut Yeast (2008), Bronstein returns with an anxiety-inducing exploration of motherhood, starring Rose Byrne as an overwhelmed therapist with a suspicious hole ...

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 26d

A five-year-old girl in Taipei becomes convinced the devil is working through her left hand in Shih-Ching Tsou’s debut feature, an electric family drama co-written and edited by Sean Baker.

@brofromanother.bsky.social reviews from #TIFF2025 www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Left-Handed Girl review: the devil is in the digits

A five-year-old girl in Taipei becomes convinced the devil is working through her left hand in Shi-Ching Tso’s debut feature, an electric family drama co-written and edited by Sean Baker.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 27d

“It is tempting to set this alongside The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as part of a ‘Fucking the World Up’ trilogy; but A House of Dynamite might be Bigelow’s crowning achievement”

@www.johnbleasdale.com reviews www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

A House of Dynamite review: Bigelow at her best

Bigelow’s story of US government officials facing an escalating nuclear threat is a masterclass in tension-building, with top-notch performances from an ensemble cast that includes Idris Elba and Rebe...

Reposted by Sight and Sound magazine

Anton Bitel @antbit.projectedfigures.com · 29d

Four characters in search of a narrative form: Ben Wheatley's mind-blowing multidimensional marvel BULK (2025) screens 9.35pm tonight at #MOTELX. This DIY 'reality quake' is one for all you cinematic psychonauts. Review for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Bulk review: Ben Wheatley’s mercurial multiverse

The British director returns to the lo-fi stylings of his early work with a multiverse sci-fi starring four characters in search of a narrative form.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · Sep 8

“Jarmusch’s new film is decidedly understated, accruing its force with a virtuoso’s ability to modulate dramatic notes and switch up perspectives on a theme of homecoming”

@nicolasrapold.bsky.social reviews Golden Lion winner Father Mother Sister Brother #Venezia82 www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

Father Mother Sister Brother review: family matters

Jarmusch’s surprise Golden Lion winner blends arch humour and awkwardness in a trio of short-form sibling stories with a bittersweet core.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · Sep 6

Coppa Volpi for Best Actor goes to #ToniServillo in La Grazia at #Venezia82.

Read @www.johnbleasdale.com’s review of the film here: www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

La Grazia review: less is a-more

The Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino swaps excess for restraint in this meditative story of an ageing Italian president’s last days in office.

Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · Sep 6

Benny Safdie has won the Silver Lion for Best Director with The Smashing Machine at #Venezia82

Read @jessicakiang.bsky.social’s review of the film here www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...

The Smashing Machine review: The Rock is cooking

By drawing on the metatext of Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling background, director Benny Safdie has created a respectful account of MMA fighter Mark Kerr that plays like a fascinating essay on physique and...