Riz Ahmed speaks about his stellar career to date and his latest film, Sound of Metal. Chloé Zhao on her American odyssey Nomadland. Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield and director Shaka King talk Judas and the Black Messiah. And we have Another Round with Mads Mikkelsen
“Riz Ahmed’s two most recent films (Mogul Mowgli, Sound of Metal) see him give not only the best performances of his career, but the standouts of the past year full stop,” writes Kaleem Aftab in his profile of the British multi-hyphenate. From this vantage point of critical acclaim, Ahmed reflects on his career, his heritage and their intersections.
Featured in our March 2021 issue are some of the best and brightest of independent filmmaking. Standing shoulder to shoulder alongside Ahmed are Chloé Zhao, director of indie triumph Nomadland, the team behind Black Panther drama Judas and the Black Messiah, and self-proclaimed minimalist Mads Mikkelsen.
With 2020 well and truly behind us, we look forward to our most hotly anticipated films and TV series of 2021, including new films by Terence Davies and Ruben Ostlund.
Plus regular features:
Editorial Lost in the dream
Rushes
2021: The most anticipated films and TV series to look out for The 25 films we hope will hit cinemas in 2021. By Thomas Flew, Devika Girish, Jonathan Romney and Isabel Stevens.
+ Devika Girish talks to director Terence Davis about his latest project – a film about Siegfried Sassoon.
+ Pamela Hutchinson picks small-screen highlights for the year ahead.
+ Thomas Flew hears from Ruben Ostlund about his forthcoming foray into the world of the super-rich.
Opinion: Stream on As more and more films bypass cinemas to be released on digital platforms, what does this mean for the future of filmmaking? By Guy Lodge.
+ Warner Bros directors on the studio’s plan to stream all its 2021 films.
Dream Palaces: Aero Cinema, Los Angeles The director of The Farewell Lulu Wang discusses the value of shared cinema experiences and explains why art makes us human.
Obituary: Barbara Shelley: 1932-2021 Though she is known above all for her Hammer Horror roles, there was far more to this intelligent, dedicated actor. By Jonathan Rigby.
+ Screenwriter and actor Mark Gatiss on Barbara Shelley.
Obituary: Joan Micklin Silver: 1935-2020 The director blazed a trail for female filmmakers in the US, creating a number of bona fide classics in her formidable career. By Carrie Rickey.
Tribute: Michael Apted: 1941-2021 The eclectic British director is lauded for his Up documentaries, but don’t overlook his little-seen 1970s crime thriller The Squeeze. By Neil Young.
+ Director Paul Greengrass on Michael Apted.
Wide angle
Primal screen: In the beginning Everyone knows that the Lumière brothers invented cinema, right? Well, up to a point: the story is more complicated than that. By Peter Domankiewicz.
Ways of filming: Mike Dibb in profile Mike Dibb’s films about art and thinking, made for mainstream television, are considerable works of art in themselves. By Matthew Harle.
Experimental film and video: Laboratory conditions In London in the late 60s and early 70s, the Arts Labs were hothouses for innovation that might hold lessons for filmmakers today. By David Curtis.
Films of the month Dear Comrades! Andrei Konchalovsky dramatises the hushed-up 1962 Novocherkassk massacre in the monochrome style of its time. Reviewed by Michael Brooke.
Ham on Rye Tyler Taormina’s beguiling debut centres on a ritualistic prom-like ceremony whose effects reverberate through the protagonists’ lives. Reviewed by Ryan Gilbey.
Plus reviews of Archive Beginning The Dig Enormous The Filmmaker’s House The Mauritanian MLK/FBI News of the World Nomadland Persian Lessons Pieces of a Woman Quo Vadis, Aida? Simple Passion Sound of Metal Stardust This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection The White Tiger
Television of the month
It's a Sin
Russell T. Davies’s “beautifully gay” series creates an evocative, personal time capsule of an 1980s London beset by the Aids crisis – it’s the first great British series on the subject. Reviewed by Alex Davidson.
plus reviews of Bridgerton Death to 2020 The Good Lord Bird Raised by Wolves
Home cinema features
Domesticated goddess: Marlene Dietrich at Universal 1940-1942 A new box-set shows how Marlene Dietrich set about taming her own exotic image to become more appealing to the American public. Reviewed by Christina Newland.
Rediscovery: Mothra/The H-Man/Battle in Outer Space The monster films that came out of Toho studios from the 50s onward, once dismissed in the West, seem ever more delightful and sane. Reviewed by Alex Davidson
Lost and Found: Incident at Oglala The late Michael Apted’s little-seen documentary about a shooting on a Lakota reservation is a typically humane outcry against injustice. By Neil Sinyard.
Archive television: Hullabaloo – The Complete Series Reviewed by Robert Hanks.
Plus reviews of Blue Sky Le cercle rouge Devil in a Blue Dress The Great Buster – A Celebration Inner Sanctum Mysteries: Calling Dr. Death/Weird Woman/Dead Man’s Eyes/The Frozen Ghost/Strange Confession/Pillow of Death The Masque of the Red Death Roadgames Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea The Weird and Wonderful World of Ujicha: Violence Voyager Burning Buddha Man
Books
Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film by Helen O’Hara (Robinson/Hachette) reviewed by Pamela Hutchinson.
The War against the BBC: How an Unprecedented Combination of Hostile Forces Is Destroying Britain’s Greatest Cultural Institution… And Why You Should Care by Patrick Barwise and Peter York (Penguin) reviewed by Robert Hanks.
Letters
Endings Trust The final moments of Hal Hartley’s 1990 indie black comedy see reality intrude on the closed world inhabited by its misfit protagonists. By Josh Slater-Williams.
