New Statesman

Simon Cunliffe New Statesman Oct 20, 2026 It is a curiously broken-backed movie but, with fewer pretensions, certainly more likeable than Hamburger Hill. And Kubrick moves his camera with characteristic fluency. Somehow, however, it doesn't seem enough. Go to Full Review Full Metal Jacket (1987) 84% 94%

John Coleman New Statesman Oct 19, 2026 All that attention to detail and none to the overall structure, all those takes and the hammiest showing yet by Jack Nicholson: his grinner with an axe does more than just destroy a couple doors. Go to Full Review The Shining (1980) 74% 90%

W. John Morgan New Statesman Oct 14, 2026 Clearly this is not a run-of-the-mill epic. The acting is uniformly excellent: the swoop of crane-shot is exciting. But, for all that, the film has faults, Go to Full Review Spartacus (1960) 89% 87%

John Coleman New Statesman Aug 13, 2026 Comic incidents clash badly with the all-too-realistic gruesomeness of Rick Baker's special make-up effect. Go to Full Review An American Werewolf in London (1981) 80% 81%

David Sexton New Statesman Aug 4, 2026 The two boys, cast locally, new to acting, have real rapport. Perretta, co-scripting with Enda Walsh, has made a really affecting drama, successfully melding the political and the personal in a way rarely achieved. Go to Full Review Ish (2025) 95% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Jul 23, 2026 On the Sea is an exceptionally well-made film -- well written, well directed, well acted, well edited, well scored, beautifully photographed, tasteful in every way -- about sex and love and the way they are inextricably connected. Go to Full Review On the Sea (2025) 77% - -

William Whitebait New Statesman Jul 13, 2026 Most of this film I found dull and the rest nauseating. Go to Full Review The Robe (1953) 74% 69%

David Sexton New Statesman Jul 10, 2026 But the film so delights in indulging its own bad taste that it simply doesn’t work as a satire on family dysfunction, patriarchal tyranny, late capitalism, label mania or any other worthy target. Go to Full Review Rosebush Pruning (2026) 16% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Jul 1, 2026 The Invite is a four-hander, all taking place in the one apartment, in chronological sequence: a play, therefore. But it is so inventively photographed, edited and scored, so dynamically acted, you never feel confined... Go to Full Review The Invite (2026) 96% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Jun 25, 2026 What’s consistently rewarding is seeing Foster navigate French life and language so expertly while remaining aware she is not French and never will be, a fascination and plight for any Francophile. Go to Full Review A Private Life (2025) 82% - -

John Coleman New Statesman Jun 22, 2026 Only the amiable, coolly humorous opening of the we-joined-the-Army stripes works; then plot moves in and sickens. Go to Full Review Stripes (1981) 68% 79%

William Whitebait New Statesman Jun 17, 2026 Blood and thunder, especially on Golgotha, seems to me vilely overdone, as is also the frenzy of the MGM symphony orchestra. But then perhaps I lack the two-million, Christmas spirit. Go to Full Review Ben-Hur (1959) 87% 89%

David Sexton New Statesman Jun 11, 2026 Hokum has no more earnest exponent. Somehow, [Steven Spielberg] makes wholly Hollywood films that are entirely his own. Go to Full Review Disclosure Day (2026) 79% - -

John Coleman New Statesman Jun 4, 2026 For Carpenter-cultists only. Go to Full Review Escape From New York (1981) 70% 77%

David Sexton New Statesman Jun 3, 2026 The film doesn’t work at all, neither dreamy nor funny, just mucky. Very odd. Go to Full Review Savage House (2026) 64% - -

Nick James New Statesman May 28, 2026 Viewers must indulge some alarming narrative and tonal shifts, including a bewildering action climax which blunts the film’s moral appeal. At its best, however, it’s an often-electrifying experience. Go to Full Review Eagles of the Republic (2025) 76% - -

David Sexton New Statesman May 13, 2026 The Christophers vindicates Soderbergh’s ornery independence, as well as showcasing McKellen’s mastery. Gandalf and Magneto can wait. Go to Full Review The Christophers (2025) 95% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Apr 29, 2026 It is, I regret to report, more or less a complete dud, not only because it has been overtaken by events in Putin’s war against Ukraine but because its earnest, unimaginative fidelity to its source exposes the novel’s superficiality. Go to Full Review The Wizard of the Kremlin (2025) 44% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Apr 29, 2026 Here’s an accomplished Stranger for today, the story we wish [Albert Camus] had written, rather than the one he himself maintained he had. Go to Full Review The Stranger (2025) 91% - -

David Sexton New Statesman Apr 29, 2026 [The original] performed a similar sleight of hand in notionally addressing the challenges of being a working woman, while actually delivering high-end wish fulfilment. The Devil Wears Prada 2 does it again. Go to Full Review The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) 78% - -