Little White Lies

I remember where I was sitting when I received my first email missive from the folks at the then-nascent LWLies HQ. It was late 2003, and I was slumming at one of the computer terminals facing the back wall of the since-remodelled journalism departme

The old Tinseltown aphorism that “nobody knows anything,” coined by screenwriter William Goldman in his 1983 showbiz guidebook ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade’, once put a heartening worldview in shorthand. Because movies are an unruly commodity, the

YOU ARE NOW HOLDING ONE OF FOUR COLLECTIBLE COVERS FOR THIS SPECIAL 100TH ISSUE OF LITTLE WHITE LIES. WHEN COMBINED, THE COVERS CREATE A SINGLE IMAGE OF AN APARTMENT BLOCK, AND THERE’S A PARTY HAPPENING INSIDE. WITHIN EACH ARTWORK THERE ARE HIDDEN RE

Saiorse Byrne | SB Lillian Crawford | LC David Jenkins | DJ Saskia Lloyd-Gaiger | SLG Mike McCahill | MM Kat McLaughlin | KM  Rafa Sales Ross | RSR  Justine Smith | JS Hannah Strong | HS Adam Woodward | AW  Laura Venning | LV Josh Slater-Williams | J

This year, I went to the cinema and saw a film that has long held an earthshaking, talismanic, near-mystical place of importance in my life. It is nearly 70 years old. It was my first time seeing it on the big screen, although I could recite most of

Since the earliest days of LWLies, we’ve been asking filmmakers to try to pinpoint the moment that they succumbed to the magnetic allure of moviemaking. For this 100th issue spectacular, join us on a journey through the formative years of 39 of our f

It was summer in London – if you live within a certain radius of the centre, you learn quickly that the city never really gets dark in July, just slightly dimmer, as though someone has turned the brightness down. Walking around at night is like wadin

In a culture under siege by every variant of marketing tease, there is no cleaner high than stumbling on a film that enters one’s parched heart with no fanfare. The only time I’ve ever experienced this en masse was during the first press screening of

Directed by IRA SACHS Starring FRANZ ROGOWSKI, BEN WHISHAW, ADÈLE EXARCHOPOULOS Released 1 SEPTEMBER Dangerously louche but incisive film director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is a ball of contradictions: explosively mellow; a hot, spectrum-traversing pres

Directed by ANNA HINTS Released 13 OCTOBER A first foray into sauna media – not quite sure what I’m dipping my toe into. Absorbing, but drags a little and so grows tepid. One to reflect on in the bath. Naked in the steam-filled darkness of the sauna,

Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter, a ghost story set in a country house hotel, revels in cinematic in-jokes and the English Eerie. Yet the foggy pallor of the film, as filmmaker Julie struggles to write about her ailing mother, Rosalind (both played

Directed by JOANNA HOGG Starring TILDA SWINTON, JOSEPH MYDELL, CARLY-SOPHIA DAVIES Released 24 NOVEMBER The Eternal Daughter opens on a shot of mist drifting across a wooded section of road. A white taxi, fog lights on, glides like a ghost out of the

Directed by MOLLY MANNING WALKER Starrin MIA MCKENNA-BRUCE, LARA PEAKE, ENVA LEWIS Released 3 NOVEMBER Great title, and a promising DoP-turneddirector’s debut. A familiar but engaging tale of teenage rebellion and heartbreak. Mia McKenna-Bruce is a r

Directed by KEN LOACH Starring DAVE TURNER, EBLA MARI, CLAIRE RODGERSON Released 29 SEPTEMBER Is Ken Loach modern cinema’s answer to John Steinbeck? Let’s see… Another heavy-handed late work which trades largely on didacticism and sentimentality. Not

Directed by BABAK JALALI Starring ANAITA WALI ZADA, GREGG TURKINGTON, JEREMY ALLEN WHITE Released 15 SEPTEMBER The city of Fremont in California has the largest Afghan population in the US – some 30,000 call the city home, leading to its affectionate

Directed by CRAIG GILLESPIE Starring PAUL DANO, AMERICA FERRERA, SETH ROGEN Released 22 SEPTEMBER Didn’t this just happen? Dano is rather charming, but otherwise this is decidedly lacking in epic lolz. Dare I say Adam McKay has already cornered this

Directed by CAROL MORLEY Starring MONICA DOLAN, KELLY MACDONALD, GINA MCKEE Released 3 NOVEMBER Carol Morley is a maverick who follows her storytelling instincts down some strange paths. A delight, and a film which cleverly picks apart the clichés of

Directed by CRISTIAN MUNGIU Starring MARIN GRIGORE, JUDITH STATE, MACRINA BARLADEANU Released 22 SEPTEMBER If Europe were a person, it would be in dire need of emergency medical attention. So says Romanian New Wave lynchpin Cristian Mungiu, whose pre

Conviction is something the British writer/director Carol Morley possesses in abundance – certainly on the evidence of her wild filmography. Determined to use film to rediscover or revisit lost places, or to create a sort of cine-shrine to those she

Directed by MATT JOHNSON Starring GLENN HOWERTON, JAY BARUCHEL, MATT JOHNSON Released 6 OCTOBER Do we really need another tech origin story? Okay, maybe we do. Glenn Howerton is on top form, though the film lacks staying power. When the first iPhone

Directed by CLEMENT VIRGO Starring LAMAR JOHNSON, AARON PIERRE, MARSHA STEPHANIE BLAKE Released 29 SEPTEMBER A Sundance hit and, per the hype, the arrival of a hot new directorial talent. Superb performances across the board in a tale that touches on

Directed by KŌJI FUKADA Starring FUMINO KIMURA, KENTO NAGAYAMA, TETSUDA SHIMADA Released 15 SEPTEMBER In the elegantly simple board game Othello, two opponents – one placing down black counters, the other white – aim to have the most pieces left on t

Directed by MARTIN SCORSESE Starring LEONARDO DICAPRIO, LILY GLADSTONE, ROBERT DE NIRO Released 20 OCTOBER  When Marty calls, we answer. A big, fascinating, frustating, slightly lopsided, sporadically brilliant prestige epic. On first watch, maybe no

Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has collected auteurs like Pokémon. Since he started out in the early nineties in his native México, he has worked with Alejandro González Iñárritu, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, Greta Gerwig, and h

Directed by JEAN ROLLIN Starring BRIGITTE LAHAIE, ALAIN DUCLOS, DOMINIQUE JOURNET Blu-ray/DVD Released OUT NOW French filmmaker Jean Rollin made at least one film for every year he was working, releasing more than 50 films in his half-century-long ca

A perfect digital companion to the magazine experience, our website is updated daily with new stories, reviews and features. Head over for this new piece looking at how techonlogy plays an important role in Celine Song’s Past Lives and Charlotte Rega

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has long been lauded as an unparalleled platform for pioneering ambitious cinema that defies all classification. For this writer, one film rose to the fore of its 76th edition: Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3.

The BFI London Film Festival will be rolling into London town on 4 October, and this 67th edition has the potential to be one of the most exciting yet. Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn [pictured left], a thriller about privilege, status and desire starring