Ralph Fiennes (centre) plays The Menu’s mad Chef Slowick.
Disney
A despotic chef reveals the theatre, terror and class divides of haute cuisine.
Florence Pugh stars in The Wonder.
Christopher Barr/Netflix
As the trend for “heroin chic” returns to runways, new Netflix film The Wonder takes aim at our fascination with disordered eating.
2022 MARVEL
The film sees myths created by the Black diaspora come alive as Wakanda is presented as a Black utopia.
Disney
In fairy tales there are real mothers and stepmothers and the latter are always evil.
Linda Lovelace starred in 1972’s ‘Deep Throat,’ which kicked off porn’s golden age.
LMPC/Getty Images
The son of the director has argued that Americans are still too squeamish about sex to fully appreciate the film. A porn scholar disagrees.
Without its iconic music, the shower scene of the movie ‘Psycho’ would likely create a very different experience for viewers.
Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images
Music and film have gone hand in hand ever since the release of ‘The Jazz Singer’ nearly 100 years ago.
Installation image of exhibition introduction with PSY S Gangnam Style at Hallyu The Korean Wave at the V A Victoria and Albert Museum London.
V&A
Starting in the late 1990s, South Korea’s promotion of its cultural exports abroad has made it a major power on the international stage.
Till-Mobley watches the body of her son, Emmett, being lowered into his grave.
Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images
She eventually decided to become a public school teacher so she could influence a new generation of Americans.
Album/Alamy
From her role as sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote to originating some of the most famous roles on the stage, Lansbury’s career was impressive and expansive.
Annie Ernaux.
Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA
Annie Ernaux is the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her autofiction masterpiece, The Years, has been called a modern In Search of Lost Time.
Fame can bring young performers financial success, but it also comes with hidden costs.
(Shutterstock)
What do we love about seeing children perform? And how do their performances shape our understanding of childhood?
The film is loosely based on a chapter from the book ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai.’
(Pen Movies/YouTube)
Despite portraying sex workers as agents of social change, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ presents sex workers as worthy victims because they didn’t choose their disreputable fates.
Critics praised the film for its stunning visuals.
Studio Ghibli
Despite the fact that many of its elements were alien to American audiences, the film became a sensation.
Crazy Rich Asians film poster (Warner Bros), The Whitewash book cover (UQP), The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu original film poster, The Mask of Fu Manchu film poster, The Conversation.
Siang Lu’s debut novel suggests whitewashing Asians for the screen is profitable. ‘People pay to see foreignness repackaged as stereotypes – and thus rendered virtually invisible.’
MIFF
Our expert shares the five films from the Melbourne International Film Festival that have stuck with him.
‘The Salt of the Earth,’ made during the height of the post-World War II Red Scare, was blacklisted.
IMDB
Inspired by real events, the films tackle issues of race, gender and class in ways that will resonate with many of today’s viewers.
An early poster for Monkey Grip, starring Noni Hazelhurst and Colin Friels.
MIFF
Ken Cameron’s film of Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip is dark, yearning, weird – and incredibly sexy – writes Ronnie Scott.
Jordan Peele’s latest horror film challenges viewers to consider technology, surveillance, other worldly life and the making of spectacle through different lenses — including the eyes of animals.
(Universal Pictures)
When it comes to our ethical duties to animals, representation and respect should go hand in hoof.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
IMBD
In his 1972 novel The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin powerfully dramatised women’s suburban alienation and men’s resistance to feminist change. Michelle Arrow traces its enduring influence.
Nick Wall/Netflix
Slated by critics, Netflix’s Persuasion isn’t as bad as it’s been made out to be.