Film

A favourite at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Extraordinary, starring Vincent Cassel, offers insight into the lives of autistic youths and their carers.

Miranda Nation’s directorial debut, Undertow, begins with power, promise and tension, but it ends up drowning in its own contradictory styles.

Miss Americana, Lana Wilson’s documentary on Taylor Swift, tells the story of a pop princess frozen in time and juggling self-esteem issues with truth-telling and politics.

Through the story of a farmer who refuses to swear allegiance to Hitler, Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life reckons with the horrors of the Nazi regime in a quiet, powerful way.

Tilda Swinton has often been drawn to roles that explore transformation – a fascination that led her to become one of the world’s finest actresses. She speaks about her unconventional career, her love for Scotland and her upcoming trip to Australia, where her mother was born. “For me, the whole joy is working in collaboration, working in conversation … I love dreaming things up with my friends and I’ve always been lucky enough to work with people who are interested in this stuff and continue to find new people who are interested in this sort of shapeshifting.”

Despite its limitations, Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang is the first film to capture the verve and intensity of this iconic story.

Streaming services increased their domination of the film industry this year, but the big screen still holds a vital place in cinema.

A screen actor since he was 10 years old, Damon Herriman is all too aware of the precarities in his line of work. He speaks to Steve Dow about the ups and downs of his career and his new film, Judy and Punch. “It has a dark fairytale vibe. You can watch Judy and Punch as an allegory or a feminist revenge tale, or you could watch it as a really entertaining fairytale fable, or both.”

Drawing on his recent experience of a heart attack, as well as his decades-long friendship with director Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas has produced what may be his finest performance in Pain and Glory. “We hadn’t worked together in eight or nine years, but suddenly he calls me and says, ‘Hey, I’m gonna send you something. You’re going to find a lot of references to people that you and I know.’ And I received Pain and Glory. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it because he was there, it was such an opportunity. So, I went to him as a soldier, as a very, very plain soldier, ready to listen. Really listen.”

In Blinded by the Light, director Gurinder Chadha critiques British politics and shows the tension between racial and national identity in a coming-of-age story that celebrates Bruce Springsteen’s music.