Film

Emily Maskell Five personal favourite films of2025 Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor) April (Dea Kulumbegashvili) Flow (Gints Zilbalodis) On Falling (Laura Carreira) Cinematographer of theyear Darius Khondji (Mickey 17) Below theline Léo Silly-Pélissier (Animation director, Flow) Old guard Stellan Skarsgård New school Chase Infiniti It’s f***kin’ trash but Iloved it Bridget Jones:

I first became acquainted with Freida McFadden’s New York Times bestselling thriller ​‘The Housemaid’ earlier in 2025, when Istumbled across aYouTube video entitled ​“Is this the worst book ever written?”. Intrigued by the title Iclicked – the reviewer gave adetailed review of McFadden’s book, which concerns ayoung ex-con who takes amaid position in an affluent

In 2016, David Bowie’s death shook the world like asupernova– adeliberately-staged explosion that collapsed alifetime of personas into asingle, blinding point of closure. Ten years later, with aglut of posthumous Bowie films in tow, the question is no longer what remains to be said, but how it can still besaid. The Final Act treats Bowie

I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” Timotheé Chalamet announced in February 2025 while accepting the Screen Actor’s Guild Award for Male Actor in aLeading Role. ​“I know people don’t usually talk like that, but Iwant to be one of the greats.” Chalamet’s statement was earnest enough, if not alittle self-serious (he was being recognised for

Given how rare event television is in the streaming era, watercooler moments are far and few between. While Celebrity Traitors is agripping exception to this rule, the field of other possibilities is vast. Mammoth franchises sit alongside original storytelling in aTV schedule of your own making as the medium continues to adapt to the evolving

Nothing brings afamily together like afuneral, and at the wake for Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes’ (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) mother, their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) strolls through the door as though nothing has changed. His reappearance in his daughters’ lived threatens to disturb the tentative peace they both have, particularly for Nora, aflighty actress

Crafting acomplex portrait of afraught father-daughter relationship set against agrand dragestil family home in Oslo, Joachim Trier turns to family, ancestral traumas and art to convey all that can’t be articulated through language. LWLies: The house doesn’t feel like home anymore, to any of the characters. How do you treat that subtle transformation when afamiliar

1. One Battle After Another We’ll be honest: in the run-up to the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, we had no real idea of what to expect. We kinda knew that it had been inspired by aThomas Pynchon novel; it had Leonardo DiCaprio wearing granny shades and doing alot of shouting;

“It was the summer of 1959, along time ago. But only if you measure it in terms of years.” Richard Dreyfuss is desolate-looking in atruck parked up somewhere pastoral and private. On the seat beside him is anewspaper with aviolent front page headline. Stand By Me is afilm steeped in nostalgia for atime full of

Despite its entirely digital construction and sometimes uncanny mix of 24 and 48FPS 3D, Avatar: Fire and Ash is full of messy human impulse which place it well above its big budget Hollywood contemporaries. As fellow Little White Lies contributor Mark Asch said, it’s funny to think of James Cameron as atraditionalist when his work

I first encountered John Irvin’s 1985 filmTurtle Diary more than adecade ago, drawn by its Harold Pinter screenplay and all-star cast, including Oscar winners Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley. Icame away convinced Ihad found an overlooked gem, but in the years that followed, this sweet film remained obscure, never even getting aDVD release. Upon revisiting

It’s been 15years since filmmaker and TV legend James LBrooks last attempted to make aromantic comedy. The memory of 2010’sHow Do You Know – afilm that stumbled both critically and commercially – disappeared without atrace. So when the trailer for his new film,Ella McCay, appeared, announcing his return to the fray after aprolonged absence, anticipation

When 94-year-old Eleanor’s (June Squibb) best friend of 70years and roommate Bessie (Rita Zohar) passes away, she decides it’s time for achange, and moves back to her native New York. In an attempt to get her out of the house and socialising, her daughter Lisa encourages Eleanor to attend classes at their local Jewish Community

Hangdog Noël (Kentucker Audley), in his woolen beanie and plaid workshirt, works as ahouse-maker most of the year round, but he picks up afew extra bucks during the festive period by selling Christmas trees in alay-by. And to mix things up alittle – and to perhaps guarantee amore vibrant variety of clientele – he works

In his controversial but undeniably significant smash hit ​‘Stan’, Eminem relayed the story of an obsessive fan who would do anything to get the attention of his idol. His deteriorating mental health – conveyed through aseries of increasingly worrying letters to Eminem – eventually led him to threats, then acts, of violence, and even some

That this exchange takes place within the feminine domain of the department store – the doll counter, no less – clearly places the film within the world of women. While men hover at the periphery, their attempts to insert themselves into Carol and Therese’s intimate shared world are rightfully experienced by both women as unwelcome

Itto (Oumaïma Barid) is alienated. After aseries of elegantly composed shots of ahouse’s opulent if empty interiors, she is shown in there but out of place. She goes to the kitchen to help the maids prepare dinner (“Like us, she sure is aBerber!” one of them comments), only to be regarded with contempt by Hajar

If there’s one thing that 2025 has done really well it’s to place out in the open the fact that the so-called ​“system” for securing political asylum is asham. Rather than representing the collective moral outlook of acountry – or what that outlook purports to be – it instead leans on violence and intimidation, making

When investigative journalist Seymour ​“Sy” Hersh is asked what made him asuitable candidate to run his father’s store in Chicago, he shrugs, ​“Pizazz. Like people.” Pizazz and liking people not only equipped Sy to work front of house at Isador Hersh’s dry cleaning business, they have made him appealing to journalistic sources across an extraordinary

Jafar Panahi has had to navigate the most challenging set of circumstances in order to make films. Censored and persecuted by an authoritarian régime that has imprisoned him, placed him under house arrest and subjected him to filmmaking and travel bans, Panahi has always proved resourceful enough to find away. With his Cannes Palme d’Or