Geoffrey MaCnab
The Independent
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Geoffrey:
After Yellowstone controversy, has Kevin Costner ever recovered from 1995 and Waterworld?
The 68-year-old actor-director, whose shock decison to quit ‘Yellowstone’ has left fans reeling, remains an enigmatic and often puzzling figure, says Geoffrey Macnab → Read More
Tim Burton on cancel culture and his Beetlejuice sequel: ‘I used to think about society as like the angry villagers in Frankenstein’
The director who defines modern gothic on screen talks to Geoffrey Macnab before a major new exhibition of his work in Italy → Read More
Venice Film Festival round-up: From Yorgos Lanthimos standout Poor Things to Michael Mann’s operatic Ferrari
Festivalgoers will surely agree that the 2023 competition was one of the most eclectic and eccentric in recent memory, writes Geoffrey Macnab → Read More
It’s OK to show Woody Allen and Roman Polanski films at Cannes and Venice – if they are good
Here at the Venice Film Festival the Hollywood bad boys are out in force being feted and fawned upon despite the dark clouds of MeToo accusations hanging over them. So, asks Geoffrey McNab, are the great and the good of the film world right to look the other way? → Read More
Priscilla review, Venice Film Festival: Sofia Coppola drama will be very uncomfortable viewing for Elvis fans
Devoid of the exuberance of Baz Luhrmann’s more hagiographic 2022 biopic of the King, this sparse drama sees Elvis effectively grooming the 14-year-old who’d become his wife → Read More
Maestro review, Venice Film Festival: Bradley Cooper delivers an affectionate portrait of a magnetic musician – fake nose and all
Cooper is effortlessly charming in a film that’s been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, and his co-star Carey Mulligan is magnificent → Read More
The Killer review, Venice Film Festival: David Fincher’s slick thriller doesn’t offer anything new
Tilda Swinton gets most of the best lines in this Michael Fassbender-led hitman movie, although her screen time is fleeting → Read More
Poor Things review, Venice Film Festival: Emma Stone has never been bolder than in this oddball farce
Oscar winner plays a dead woman brought back to life by a mad scientist who embeds her unborn baby’s brain in her head → Read More
Martin Scorsese’s love of Powell and Pressburger is not as baffling as it may first appear
One was a blazing, brilliant, bearded American moviemaker at the height of his fame, the other, a fogeyish, out-of-fashion British duo, who loved Bach, Scottish mountains and... Arsenal FC. Geoffrey Macnab recalls the film world’s most peculiar – and fascinating – friendship → Read More
Jurassic Park at 30: Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur romp was a glimpse into his dark side
As the beloved family film celebrates its 30th anniversary this summer, Geoffrey Macnab says why ‘Jurassic Park’ was more than just a colossal blockbuster hit – it was a window into Spielberg’s soul as both a filmmaker and a man → Read More
Truly Dyer: The brutal, boozy brilliance of the British football hooligan movie
Once regarded as ‘worthless’ by broadsheet critics, the low-budget football hooligan film is finally being celebrated inside the hallowed halls of the British Film Institute. Geoffrey Macnab asks whether these Danny Dyer-filled thrillers should have been embraced all along → Read More
Michael Mann movies: Hollywood machismo might be over, but at least one director still loves his anti-heroes
In movies like ‘Heat’, ‘Thief’ and ‘The Last of the Mohicans’, filmmaker Michael Mann perfected the art of digging into the souls of fatalistic men. As the director’s biopic of Italian entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari hits the Venice Film Festival, Geoffrey Macnab salutes his career so far → Read More
Why Roald Dahl is still too hot for Hollywood to cancel
As film fans await the releases of ‘Wonka’ and Wes Anderson’s ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’, Geoffrey Macnab reveals why moviemakers remain magnetised by the ultimate storyteller – despite his unsavoury views → Read More
Meg 2: The Trench is part of a rich Hollywood tradition – trashy sequels that nobody asked for
The sequel to 2018’s killer shark blockbuster ‘The Meg’ is out in cinemas and has been eaten alive by critics. Geoffrey Macnab looks at the industry’s storied history of sequel schlock – and wonders whether reviewers may have been missing the joke → Read More
Oppenheimer and the cult of the brainy blockbuster
As Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic storms the box office, Geoffrey Macnab explores the films that found commercial success while still challenging audiences intellectually → Read More
Overspending, sleeping with co-stars, and big gaps between movies: How Warren Beatty lost his Midas touch
As the BFI prepares to screen ‘Dick Tracy’ next month, Geoffrey Macnab reveals how blown budgets, Oscar gaffes and recent allegations about his sex life have cast Tinseltown’s ultimate Lothario Warren Beatty and his films in a very different light → Read More
Die for you: Why contract killers on screen hit just the right spot
With Richard Linklater’s action-comedy ‘Hitman’ coming to cinemas later this year, Geoffrey Macnab looks back at contract killers in film, and questions why they are rarely shown as villains → Read More
American Beauty’s midlife crisis: ‘The Kevin Spacey scandal doesn’t really have anything to do with the movie’
As ‘American Beauty’ approaches its 25th anniversary, Geoffrey Macnab looks back at the Oscar-winning film, and says, it should be judged on its own merits, not dismissed due to a string of sexual misconduct allegations against its star, Kevin Spacey → Read More
Mission: Impossible – How Tom Cruise and Brian de Palma made the groundbreaking action movie
As the new ‘Mission: Impossible’ film ‘Dead Reckoning’ prepares to hit cinemas, Geoffrey Macnab looks back at how Tom Cruise and a run of celebrated directors transformed a Sixties TV series into a blockbuster franchise → Read More
Julian Sands was dashing, Helena Bonham Carter hated the kiss – the filming of A Room with a View
It starred the late Julian Sands as the dashing George Emerson, sparked the career of an 18-year old Helena Bonham Carter and was derided for being ‘Laura Ashley cinema’. What, asks Geoffrey Macnab, is it about the romantic comedy of manners ‘A Room with a View’ that still resonates so strongly with audiences? → Read More