Critical Week: Take a leap

I travelled back from rainy California to icy London this week, having submitted my final ballot for the Golden Globes last weekend. So I look forward to seeing what our international group of critics chose to take home prizes on Sunday night in Los Angeles. I also caught up with two films opening this week: Kristen Stewart's writing-directing debut The Chronology of Water is a challenging arthouse collage, based on a dark memoir. Imogen Poots is superb in the lead role, although the film is a bit too fragmented to pull us in. By contrast, People We Meet on Vacation is a charming and silly romantic comedy (now on Netflix) that's a bit too slick and long, but has some underlying themes that resonate. Plus ridiculously likeable leads in Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. Still, Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is hands down the best film out this week.

I also caught up with the acclaimed German drama Sound of Falling, an ambitious and luxuriant multi-generational epic that continually sends shivers down the spine with its darkly astute observations. Another awards contender, the doc Orwell: 2+2=5 is expertly assembled by Raoul Peck to explore how George Orwell's prescient novels have been echoed in global politics over the past century. It's essential viewing, partly because of the rather terrifying things it says about humanity. And then there were two movies I finally caught up with on the plane flight home: Megan 2.0 is an enjoyably bonkers sequel that is unafraid to get both silly and sharply pointed. I loved it. And gifted filmmaker Kogonada takes a huge swing with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a surreal romance starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. It's skilfully crafted, but almost nothing about the story works at all.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo in Crime 101, survival horror Primate, Palestinian drama All That's Left of You and catching up on films and TV I haven't had time to watch over the past few weeks. There are also more voting deadlines to contend with.

A Year in Shadows: Vol 41

Wrapping up the 41st volume of Shadows on the Wall with the 52 covers over the course of 2025. Films featured in order are: Nosferatu, A Real Pain, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, September 5, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Mickey 17, Black Bag, Snow White, Novocaine, A Minecraft Movie, Warfare, Sinners, The Accountant 2, Thunderbolts, The Wedding Banquet, Good One, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, The Phoenician Scheme, Ballerina, How to Train Your Dragon, Elio, F1, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, Smurfs, The Fantastic 4: First Steps, The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday, Materialists, The Life of Chuck, The Roses, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Lost Bus, Dead of Winter, The Smashing Machine, Roofman, Frankenstein, Hedda, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Jay Kelly, Wicked: For Good, Wake Up Dead Man, It Was Just an Accident, Ella MacCay, Avatar: Fire & Ash and Marty Supreme, plus Bafta and Oscar. Full-sized versions can be found in posts here and on social media from throughout the year.

And here's the traditional flurry of unnecessary trivia...

Unusually, only two people appeared on two covers this year: Timothee Chalamet had two all to himself, with A Complete Unknown (in January) and Marty Supreme (in December); Pedro Pascal appears on two alongside his costars in The Fantastic 4: First Steps (in July) and Materialists (in August).

Getting their own solo covers: Adrian Brody, Lily Collias, Kit Connor, David Corenswet, Tom Cruise, Ana de Armas, Benicio del Toro, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Mackey, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt, Jack Quaid, Emma Stone, Channing Tatum, Mason Thames, Emma Thompson and Tessa Thompson. And George Clooney shares a cover with his younger self.

Sharing a cover with one or more costars: Ben Affleck, Pamela Anderson, Michele Austin, Ryan Bader, Jonathan Bailey, Leonie Benesch, Jon Bernthal, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Miles Caton, Ben Chaplin, Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Daniel Craig, Kieran Culkin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Lee Curtis, Britain Dalton, Lily-Rose Depp, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Eisenberg, Ali Elyasmehr, Cynthia Erivo, Chris Evans, Vera Farmiga, Michael Fassbender, America Ferrera, Gal Gadot, Lily Gladstone, Ariana Grande, Christopher Guest, Thomas Haden Church, David Harbour, Oscar Isaac, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hannah John-Kamen, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Dwayne Johnson, Felicity Jones, David Jonsson, Michael B Jordan, Vanessa Kirby, Mila Kunis, Lindsay Lohan, John Magaro, James McAvoy, Matthew McConaughey, Daryl McCormack, Michael McKean, Jason Momoa, Wunmi Mosaku, Liam Neeson, Josh O'Connor, Hadis Pakbaten, Madjid Panahi, Lewis Pullman, Florence Pugh, Joseph Quinn, Jeremy Renner, Wyatt Russell, Andrew Scott, Harry Shearer, Bill Skarsgard, Cailee Spaeny, Sebastian Stan, Kelly Marie Tran, Patrick Wilson, Leo Woodall, Letitia Wright, Renee Zellweger, Rachel Zegler, Kerry Washington andSam Worthington.

On a cover but without their face showing - either obscured or as an animated character they voiced: Jacob Elordi (back), Andrew Barth Feldman (dwarf silhouette), Tituss Burgess (dwarf silhouette), James Corden (smurf), John Goodman (smurf), Yonas Kibreab (Elio), Martin Klebba (dwarf silhouette), Jason Kravits (dwarf silhouette), Olga Kurylenko (masked), Billie Lourd (smurf), Natasha Lyonne (poot), Xolo Maridueña (smurf), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (thing), Rihanna (smurf), George Salazar (dwarf silhouette), Jeremy Swift (dwarf silhouette), Andy Grotelueschen (dwarf silhouette) and Matthew Wood (robot).

The most crowded covers: Wake Up Dead Man (11), Snow White (9), September 5 (8), Smurfs (8) and Thunderbolts (7).

There were no animal covers this year, although critters appear in the margins for Snow White, A Minefield Movie and Jurassic Park: Rebirth. There's a big teddy bear for Roofman. And the most prominent creature is Toothless for How to Train Your Dragon.

And finally, here are some outtake covers that were designed but never used for a reason that seemed good at the time: Opus (bumped for Black Bag on 14 Mar), Jurassic World: Rebirth (alternate draft for 4 Jul), Fantastic 4 (alternate draft for 25 Jul), Caught Stealing (bumped for The Roses on 29 Aug), Plainclothes (bumped for The Lost Bus on 19 Sep) and Wake Up Dead Man (an LFF version bumped for Frankenstein on 17 Oct, then rejigged to use on 28 Nov).

The Best of 2025: 45th Shadows Awards

As usual, here's a brief summary of my top 10 lists for the year, with much, much more on the 45th Shadows Awards page on the website. These are my favourites - and as usual, I always like to be surprised...

BEST FILMS: 

1. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
3. Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper)
4. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao)
5. Cactus Pears (Rohan Parashuram Kanawade)
6. Good One (India Donaldson)
7. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
8. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
9. 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Mstyslav Chernov)
10. Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)

DIRECTOR:

1. Chloé Zhao - Hamnet
2. Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland - Warfare
3. Lynne Ramsay - Die My Love
4. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
5. India Donaldson - Good One
6. Oliver Laxe - Sirāt
7. Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
8. Kelly Reichardt - The Mastermind
9. Mary Bronstein - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
10. Celine Song - Materialists

SCREENWRITER:

1. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
2. Eva Victor - Sorry, Baby
3. Rian Johnson - Wake Up Dead Man
4. Jafar Panahi - It Was Just an Accident
5. Harry Lighton - Pillion
6. India Donaldson - Good One
7. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade - Cactus Pears
8. Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet
9. Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value
10. Kleber Mendonca Filho - The Secret Agent

ACTRESS: 

1. Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
2. Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value
3. Camila Plaate - Belén
4. Leonie Benesch - Late Shift
5. Jennifer Lawrence - Die My Love
6. Tessa Van den Broeck - Julie Keeps Quiet
7. Yasmine Al Massri - Palestine 36
8. Kate Hudson - Song Sung Blue
9. Laura Dern - Is This Thing On, Jay Kelly
10. Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

ACTOR: 

1. Théodore Pellerin - Lurker, Nino
2. Michael B Jordan - Sinners
3. Paul Mescal - The History of Sound, Hamnet
4. Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value
5. Mahmood Bakri - To a Land Unknown
6. Josh O'Connor - The Mastermind, Wake Up Dead Man, The History of Sound, Rebuilding
7. Ryo Yoshizawa - Kokuhō
8. Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent
9. Will Poulter - Warfare, On Swift Horses
10. Sergi Lopez - Sirāt

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 

1. Nina Hoss - Hedda
2. Glenn Close - Wake Up Dead Man
3. Amy Madigan - Weapons, Rebuilding
4. Youn Yuh-jung - The Wedding Banquet
5. Wunmi Mosaku - Sinners
6. Fiona Shaw - Hot Milk, Park Avenue
7. Mariam Afshari - It Was Just an Accident
8. Naomi Ackie - Mickey 17, Sorry Baby, The Thursday Murder Club
9. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value
10. Maxine Peake - I Swear

SUPPORTING ACTOR: 

1. Miles Caton - Sinners
2. Kit Connor - Warfare
3. Tonatiuh - Kiss of the Spider Woman
4. Alexander Skarsgard - Pillion
5. Min Tanaka - Kokuhō
6. Noah Jupe - Hamnet, The Carpenter's Son
7. Jay Lycurgo - Steve
8. Ken Watanabe - Kokuhō
9. Jack O'Connell - Sinners, 28 Years Later
10. Archie Madekwe - Lurker

WORST FILM: 

1. A Working Man (David Ayer)
2. The Home (James DeMonaco)
3. Star Trek: Section 31 (Olatunde Osunsanmi)
4. Him (Justin Tipping)
5. Night of Violence (Illya Konstantin)
6. The Electric State (Joe & Anthony Russo)
7. Bull Run (Alfredo Barrios Jr)
8. The Pickup (Tim Story)
9. The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
10. Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

TV SERIES: 

1. Adolescence (Netflix)
2. Hacks 4 (Max)
3. The White Lotus 3 (HBO)
4. Chief of War (Apple)
5. Boots (Netflix)
6. Juice 2 (BBC)
7. Only Murders in the Building 5 (Hulu)
8. Too Much (Netflix)
9. Andor 2 (Disney)
10. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (BBC)

SINGLE: 

1. Golden - Huntr/x
2. DtMF - Bad Bunny
3. Where Is My Husband - Raye
4. Undressed - Sombr
5. Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter
6. Daisy, When the Wine Runs Out - Role Model
7. The Giver - Chappell Roan
8. Rubber Band Man - Mumford and Sons & Hozier
9. I Lied to You - Miles Caton
10. Show Me Love - WizTheMc, Bees & Honey

On the road: Take the plunge

Being away for the holidays, I've prioritised hanging out with family and friends over work - so I'm a bit behind with everything apart from food! But I've managed to watch a few films here and there. Just out in cinemas here in the US, The Plague stars Joel Edgerton as a boys' water polo coach who seems either unable or unwilling to tackle the horrific bullying on the team. It's strikingly well made, with a terrific central performance by young Everett Blunck. 

The gentle drama Rebuilding features yet another excellent role for Josh O'Connor as a Colorado rancher trying to start over after a wildfire. It's quietly powerful. Ron Howard's Eden tells the true story of Europeans trying to find paradise in the Galápagos in the 1930s, with a cast that includes Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas. The cast makes it watchable even when it gets rather soapy. The documentary The Perfect Neighbor is assembled from body-cam footage as Florida cops teal with a messy situation that escalates until someone dies. It's hard to watch, but important. I also caught up with a few pulpy movies from recent years, including the cat-and-mouse thriller Carry-On in which Jason Bateman terrorises security agent Taron Egerton in Los Angeles airport. It's seriously stupid, but fun. Mel Gibson plays an action-oriented Santa in Fatman, an uneven mix of comedy and violence that never comes together. Walton Goggins is seriously intense as the baddie; Marianne Jean-Baptiste (yes, really) shines as Mrs Claus.

Over this next week, I'll be watching a few more contenders before ballots are due in various awards. I'm also flying back to London, so will no doubt catch up with some gems (!) on the flights. Before that, I will be finalising year-end lists of my best and worst from 2025 - watch this space...

Critical Week: Smile for the camera

I'm travelling these days, visiting friends and family in Southern California, where I was born. I've certainly been enjoying the sunshine and fish tacos! And of course the Christmas spirit. Work has taken a back seat, with no screenings and refreshingly few deadlines. And I'm working on those pesky year-end best lists. The only film I've watched was revisiting the Knives Out sequel Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix - still one of my favourite movies of the year, this is a smart, funny whodunit with some added insight into compassion and faith. The ensemble is fantastic too, led by the excellent Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig, plus a fabulous scene-stealing Glenn Close.. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Is This Thing On? • Cover-up
The Voice of Hind Rajab
ALL REVIEWS >

On the plane flight over here, along with various TV episodes, I finally caught up with the guilty pleasure comedy Nonnas, a silly but warmly enjoyable true story starring Vince Vaughn as a guy opening a restaurant in Staten Island with a group of Italian grandmas as chefs. And Mariska Hargitay's documentary My Mom Jayne, is an intimate and involving exploration of her connection with her mother Jayne Mansfield. I also rewatched Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life somewhere over Greenland. This film never ages - it's just as entertaining and moving as ever. One of the best movies of all time.

Coming up this next week, I still have a few movies I need to watch for awards voting deadlines, but otherwise it's more likely that I'll see a few more holiday classics with friends and family.

Stage: Let it all hang out

Boys in the Buff
words & music Chris Burgess
with Rowan Armitt-Brewster, Adam Norton, Liam Bradbury, Max Rizzo, Tish Weinman
director-choreographer Robbie O’Reilly
musical director Aaron Clingham
lighting Richard Lambert • sets & costumes Alan Meggs
Golden Goose Theatre, London • 10.Dec.25-10.Jan.25 ★★★★

This latest production of the venerable musical comedy has had some of its songs updated, while the story itself remains a rather engaging mix of coy and cheeky. It seems a bit dated to treat nudity as if it's something naughty or transgressive, but the ultimate explosion of happiness is infectious, as if they were making a lot of fuss about nothing really. And the lively, hugely likeable cast is superbly up for this story about conquering insecurities about our body, delivering fabulous full-on song and dance performances.

The story sees host Maxie (Tish Weinman) cast a group of young guys in a show that requires nudity, and each of them has a distinct reaction. Dan (Rowan Armitt-Brewster) puts on a near-naked comedy dance in which his bits remain cleverly covered as he proclaims his love of running around in the altogether. Luca (Max Rizzo) is a fitness addict who used to be fat and has lingering trauma from bullying. Theatre boy Richard (Liam Bradbury) wants to get on with the show. And Phil (Adam Norton) isn't sure he can go through with this.

The key idea here is that we don't need to be ashamed of our bodies, however we look, because everyone is different and the ideal body is a fantasy. This theme is expressed throughout the songs in a variety of sparky, often very funny ways, with smartly written lyrics and eye-catching staging that augments a range of choreography, from Fosse-style pizazz to a French fan dance, with added ballroom, ballet and tap. Plus a Shakespearean burlesque. And the buoyantly performed songs address such questions as whether size matters, the prevalence of the fat jab (a lively Charleston) and the intensity of gym obsession.

More serious moments take on peer pressure and bullying. And Richard sings a power ballad lamenting the loss of his foreskin. Yes, the tone veers entertainingly between the sublime and the ridiculous. But the running theme punches the importance of accepting our imperfections and loving ourselves as we are. While it seems like the cast and crew are jumping through hoops to put off the inevitable, when these guys finally strip off completely, it's a joyous expression of freedom in a variety of personal dance styles. It's as if like they would have rather been performing like this right from the start.

For details, LAMBCO PRODUCTIONS >

photos by Peter Davies • 10.Dec.25

Critical Week: She's behind you!

This past week has been a flurry of awards voting deadlines, watching both contender and holiday releases. Then after several critics' groups started announcing their year-end winners, the Golden Globe nominations came out on Monday, and awards season is now in high gear until Oscar night in March. Among the eclectic group of movies I watched this week, perhaps the most fun was had with The Housemaid, Paul Feig's latest female-led blackly comical thriller, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. It's twisty, nasty and entertaining.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Goodbye June • Lurker
The President's Cake
Baby • Scarlet
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was Nia DaCosta's sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, picking up the story from Danny Boyle's movie last summer, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell. It's brutally nasty, with intriguingly thoughtful moments along the way. Rose Byrne gives a tour fe force performance in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, a staggeringly immersive drama abotu a woman grappling with motherhood. H Is for Hawk stars the excellent Claire Foy as a woman dealing with grief by raising a feisty goshawk. It's warm, earthy and very moving. From Japan, Kokuho is a lavish, powerfully involving epic about a boy determined to become a great kabuki artist. The scale is both enormous and vividly intimate. Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys play frazzled parents in Hallow Road, almost entirely set inside their car. The plot doesn't quite work, but it's riveting. I also finally caught up the wonderfully warm and funny comedy The Ballad of Wallis Island, a ridiculously likeable music-infused British movie starring Tim Key, Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan. And there were two live performances, The Fit Prince at King's Head Theatre and Boys in the Buff (ooh err!) at Golden Goose Theatre, all before flying out to see my family in California for the holidays. 

Coming up this next week, I don't really know what I'll be watching, as I'm spending time with my parents and family members. I'll no doubt see something on the flight! And at some point I do still need to watch The Plague with Joel Edgerton, Rebuilding with Josh O'Connor and, now that it has a Golden Globe nomination, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.