Queer as Folk has an almost totemic place in queer culture. The original show, which aired on Channel 4 in 1999, is often evoked by gay men, and others, as something that introduced them to a metropolitan gay life that existed beyond the trappings of a regional existence. There is a recurring image presented by gays…

In 2017, when Christopher Nolan released his gritty war-film Dunkirk, the press asked whether the current Prince of Pop, Harry Styles, was any good in it? It was his debut role, and it came on the heels of a hotly anticipated solo album after the world domination of One Direction ended the year before. There were articles…

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the past week trying to metabolise the 2022 Cannes Film Festival which wrapped up last weekend with a slew of headlines about who won what prize (and even more headlines about whether it was deserved!) Mostly, I’d been paying attention to Kirsten Stewart’s fashion choices (which are always top-notch) then all…

‘Since 2017, a single writer has significantly influenced the publishing world: Sally Rooney. Her caustic and acerbic debut, Conversations with Friends, now adapted into a television series for the BBC and Hulu, took the world by storm. It inspired many copycats, ushered in a new cultural interest in Irish fiction that focused on millennial angst and even…

When I was fourteen, my ringtone, for about six months, was Julia Styles’ poem from the end of 10 Things I Hate About You. Any time I got a call or a text it would buzz, and Styles’ voice would go from apathetic to emotional. It would crack as the emotion swelled in, and then I’d answer.…

‘Once, walking down Kilburn High Road in 2017, I surprised myself by knowing all of the Oscar nominations Nicole Kidman had received. My roommate and I had watched Eyes Wide Shut the night before and discussed it as we headed out to run errands on a warm Saturday in spring. Casually, my friend asked if Kidman had ever won…

‘A friend told me recently that she didn’t think of me as someone who fell. “I can’t picture it,” she said. “I’ve seen other people trip or end up flat on their face, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do it.” This was jarring to me. I felt I’d spent most of my…

“A third of the way through Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, a woman stops time. Julie (Renate Reinsve) is a twenty-something woman looking for something to focus her and help her figure out what she wants from the world. She has fallen into a relationship with an older man, Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie),…

‘Few debuts in British cinema have been as bold and assured as Clio Barnard’s. The Arbor, released in 2010, is a film that defies easy categorisation, weaving between documentary, drama, re-enactment, adaptation, essay, and, at its core, an exploration of the Bradford-born writer Andrea Dunbar. The film, so named for the street that Dunbar grew up…