Gilbert Adair

Gilbert Adair Independent (UK) Apr 22, 2026 Instead of what might be termed a style, Ferris Bueller's Day Off does at least possess a tone, a tone which takes its cue from Broderick's witty button-holing injunctions to the camera. Go to Full Review Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) 85% 92%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound Apr 8, 2026 Even more striking is the sheer power of expression with which he proves capable of investing individual shots, such as the authentically moving close-up of Andrews shedding tears at a performance of Madame Butterfly. Go to Full Review Victor/Victoria (1982) 85% 86%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Mar 30, 2021 It's an incomparably moving experience. Go to Full Review The Apple (1998) 85% 56%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound Feb 6, 2020 Donald Sutherland commands a stunning array of gestures both precise and revealing...an extraordinarily physical performance and the gem of this flawed masterpiece. Go to Full Review Fellini's Casanova (1976) 64% 80%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound Jan 28, 2020 What is most remarkable about Empire of the Sun then, is the almost seamless fashion in which a faithful adaptation... has nevertheless contrived to become a proto-Spielbergian affirmation of faith and optimism in the universe. Go to Full Review Empire of the Sun (1987) 75% 90%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound Jan 16, 2020 Cyril and Shirley both have and are the high hopes of Leigh's title, which is absolutely not ironic; and theirs is a story of grace under pressure. Go to Full Review High Hopes (1988) 92% 85%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound Nov 15, 2019 6 World's on Fire never manages to bring the different elements of the narrative together. It's neither truly immersive nor is it able to establish a critical distance from its subjects Go to Full Review What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire? (2018) 88% 64%

Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound May 22, 2019 6 In the film's slightness as well as its focus on a young boy, Young Ahmed calls to mind The Kid with a Bike, previously the brothers' shortest, loosest movie. Go to Full Review Young Ahmed (2019) 58% 54%

Gilbert Adair Time Out Nov 9, 2018 [It's a] bizarre, funny, almost mystical take on the Western Go to Full Review Dead Man (1995) 69% 88%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 It's a lazy, thoroughly old- fashioned entertainment... Yet it's also unexpectedly watchable and unpretentious -- campy, too, if you're into that kind of thing -- and it communicates a sense that everyone involved had a super time making it. Go to Full Review Tea With Mussolini (1999) 67% 76%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 Beatty is to be congratulated on even attempting to prick America's conscience in these conservative times, but the real reason for seeing it is the panache with which it captures the irresistible flash and filigree of American politics. Go to Full Review Bulworth (1998) 80% 68%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 It's like a novel written entirely in italics, every single sentence of which ends with an exclamation mark. As there are people of whom it's said that they don't know their own strength, Kusturica is a film-maker who doesn't know his own brilliance. Go to Full Review Crna macka, beli macor (1998) 80% 95%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 From the ridiculous title, with those two M's gummily stuck together in the middle, to the uniformly atrocious performances, from the incomprehensible plot to the sluggish pacing, The Phantom Menace is an unsalvageable disaster. Go to Full Review Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) 54% 59%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 Not everyone's cup of tea and, indeed, not a cup of tea at all, but one of those extremely rare films that aren't content to leave the cinema as they found it. Go to Full Review The Idiots (1998) 70% 78%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 The problem with In the Mood for Love is that its imagery has far too many face-cards and not enough twos and fives and eights, which, boring as they are, nevertheless constitute the indispensable nitty-gritty of narrative. Go to Full Review In the Mood for Love (2000) 92% 94%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 If the prospect of having to do some of the work yourself doesn't alarm you, then Nolan's first American film is well worth catching, a thriller which is for once authentically Borgesian, to use an overworked qualifier. Go to Full Review Memento (2000) 93% 94%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 It's the film we, Almodvar's faithful fans, have been waiting for, the film we knew he had, as they say, in him. Go to Full Review All About My Mother (1999) 98% 93%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 It's a masterpiece, still the most convincing representation of human cruelty in the history of the cinema. Go to Full Review Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) 74% 62%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 The problem with Martin Campbell's new movie is that, even though by no means a disgrace, it's finally just another inflated big nothing. Go to Full Review The Mask of Zorro (1998) 87% 73%

Gilbert Adair Independent on Sunday Nov 27, 2017 Just when it's supposedly getting to grips with its theme, the movie goes utterly haywire and becomes yet another brainless, humourless bone-cruncher. Go to Full Review Fight Club (1999) 81% 96%