American actor, playwright and filmmaker
Venice has faced criticism for including few female directors in its main competition. May el-Toukhys Woman Unknown was the lone woman-led feature in the initial lineup; festival organisers have since added the documentary NAZA. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal and programmers at London Film Festival have said structural barriers, especially financing, are limiting womens progression to larger films.
A newly released slate of reviews examines a Covid-era romance and a Sundance-like indie road movie, both with uneven executions. The Guardian critics note the emotional aims, world-building, and performances, while raising questions about pacing, scope, and commercial strategy.
The 70th London Film Festival has opened with Simon Stone’s biographical drama Elsinore, starring Olivia Colman and Andrew Scott, about Ian Charleson’s final Hamlet performance. The director has discussed Day-Lewis’s reaction to revisiting the exit from the 1989 production. The festival runs for 12 days, featuring world premieres and a roster of international talent.
The Guardian and The Scotsman critique Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network, The Social Reckoning, with Jeremy Strong’s Zuckerberg cast as a calculating, isolated figure. Frances Haugen and Jeff Horwitz drive the whistleblower narrative, while the film channels Sorkin’s signature dialogue and addresses algorithm-driven harms and Capitol riot echoes.
A whale-trapped climactic sequence has Austin Abrams fighting for breath as he recalls his relationship with his father, while other new releases explore identity, memory and power on stage and screen. The slate includes The Scotsman’s review of Whalefall and Guardian critics on contemporary theatre.