Xan Brooks

At 90, Bruce Dern discusses his long acting career, his daily jogging and his reputation for playing loners, cranks and unconventional characters. He recalls working with figures including Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Jack Nicholson and Marilyn Monroe, and describes turning down a role in Gandhi because he feared traveling to India and encountering snakes. Dern reflects on early struggles at the Actors Studio, his move to Hollywood, his Oscar-nominated performance in Coming Home, his Cannes recognition for Nebraska and the documentary Dernsie, and his new film Northbound, which premieres at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Tom Overton’s biography presents John Berger as a wide-ranging storyteller, novelist and art critic whose Marxist analysis challenged traditional ideas about art, authorship and looking. The book places Ways of Seeing within a broader political and artistic career, while using an openly subjective style to explore both Berger’s intellectual achievements and his contradictions, including his difficult personal presence, traditionalist impulses and self-imposed exile. Berger’s archive, writings and continuing influence remain central to a view of him as an artist and critic whose conversations between the past and present continue to inspire new generations.

Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, the concluding novel in his Harlem Trilogy, follows furniture dealer and underworld fence Ray Carney through New York from 1981 to 1986. The novel combines crime capers with a portrait of a city shaped by hip-hop, graffiti, widening inequality and racial tension. Its plots involve stolen cultural artefacts, sports memorabilia, underground communities and the blurred boundaries between Black and white cultural worlds. The review praises Whitehead’s vivid, freewheeling recreation of 1980s New York while noting that the novel’s nostalgia is counterbalanced by an unflinching vision of poverty, exploitation and the city’s continual cycles of change.

A new wave of films—including Disclosure Day, Backrooms, Bugonia and Eddington—is embracing paranoia, aliens, hidden institutions and conspiratorial explanations. The trend reflects widespread public belief in conspiracy theories and a desire for narratives that impose order on a confusing world, but it differs from the anti-establishment conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s. Contemporary conspiracy culture has been mainstreamed and politically weaponized, particularly by Donald Trump and the far right, making filmmakers’ critiques inseparable from the disinformation environment they depict. These stories offer the comfort of hidden meaning, even as they risk reinforcing the very confusion and mistrust they examine.

Cannes is depicted as an open-air movie set and a self-promotional spectacle that enjoys watching itself as much as it celebrates cinema. The arrival of The White Lotus season four at the Hotel Martinez continues a long tradition of films and television productions using the festival and Côte d’Azur as their setting, from Mr Bean’s Holiday and Nouvelle Vague to Femme Fatale. The piece argues that productions made with the festival’s approval may capture its glamour, but outsider works such as The Last Horror Film remain sharper satires because they expose the event’s celebrity circus without being controlled by it.

Woody Brown’s debut novel follows Walter, a non-speaking autistic young man confined to an adult daycare centre in suburban Los Angeles, as he dreams of becoming a writer and navigates love, communication and institutional isolation. The review praises the novel’s compassion, humor, multiple viewpoints and challenge to stereotypes about autistic people lacking empathy, while noting that it sometimes overexplains and provides excessive exposition. Its character-driven account portrays both residents and exhausted staff as people constrained by a neglectful system, with Carlos’s search for the runaway Jorge driving the story toward its climax.

Interviewed at 81, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas reflects on his rise in Hollywood, struggles with cocaine, alcohol and infidelity, subsequent sobriety, refugee childhood and friendships with figures such as Hunter S Thompson. He discusses a proposed supernatural reboot of Basic Instinct, for which Amazon MGM reportedly paid him $2m, while Emerald Fennell's representatives deny she is involved and Sharon Stone has rejected the project. Eszterhas defends provocative, confrontational filmmaking, describes the reboot as “anti-woke,” and criticizes Donald Trump's attempts to influence Hollywood, while explaining why he returned to Cleveland and chose a quieter life.

Paul Thomas Anderson finally received long-overdue Academy recognition when One Battle After Another won best picture, director and adapted screenplay, giving him three Oscars after 11 previous nominations without a win. The film, viewed as a politically charged response to Donald Trump’s second term, defeated Ryan Coogler’s Sinners in a closely contested awards season; One Battle After Another finished with six Oscars to Sinners’ four. Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley won the leading acting awards, while Warner Bros. emerged as the ceremony’s major institutional winner with 11 Oscars. The results were portrayed as both a belated embrace of Anderson and a possible last stand for ambitious, politically radical mid-budget filmmaking within the traditional Hollywood system.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is endorsed as the film that best captures the political instability of Donald Trump’s second term. Its story follows a burned-out revolutionary rescuing his daughter from forces tied to immigration detention and a Christian Nationalist cell inside the federal government. The film’s mixture of farce, violence and political seriousness, along with its themes of racial division, blurred ideological boundaries and generational struggle, makes it unusually timely. Despite not being the critic’s personal favorite Anderson film or nominee, its ambition, hopefulness and defense of continued resistance are presented as compelling reasons for it to win Best Picture.

Paolo Sorrentino and Toni Servillo discuss their seven-film collaboration, their shared Neapolitan background and the private bond that has sustained them for more than two decades. Their latest film, La Grazia, stars Servillo as an outgoing Italian president confronting moral choices, faith, law and the end of public service. Sorrentino says the film is less about politics than the relationship between private life and public duty. The conversation also turns to ageing, artistic legacy and Sorrentino’s growing ambivalence about filmmaking, although he admits that his appetite for cinema may draw him back.

Amy Madigan discusses her Oscar-nominated performance as the terrifying Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s horror film Weapons, whose popularity has made the character a TikTok sensation and revived interest in Madigan’s career. At 75, she describes the acting business as brutal and says the film has put her back on Hollywood’s radar after years of smaller roles. She and husband Ed Harris are still living in a rental after their home was destroyed in Southern California wildfires, with rebuilding delayed for years. Madigan also reflects on their refusal to applaud Elia Kazan at the 1999 Oscars, her opposition to forgiving his testimony before HUAC, and her anger at the current US political climate, while remaining cautiously hopeful about resistance and the country’s future.

James Meek’s novel follows Raf, a gifted demolition engineer imprisoned for allegedly plotting to destroy St Paul’s Cathedral, and examines the emotional consequences for his unofficial adoptive family. The cathedral’s proposed destruction becomes a metaphor for liberation, obsolescence and the tension between preserving the past and creating something new. The review argues that although the novel has the scale and mechanics of a thriller or state-of-the-nation epic, its greatest strength is its compassionate portrayal of grief, resentment and fractured family relationships, particularly among Mr Burman, his daughter Leila and the absent Ada.

Brett Ratner’s documentary follows Melania Trump through preparations for Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, focusing on fashion, decorations, social events and the staging of the festivities. The review finds the film emotionally cold, politically evasive and almost entirely unrevealing, arguing that its polished imagery distracts from the Trump administration’s wider threat to constitutional government. Melania is portrayed as detached and image-conscious, while Donald Trump appears mainly to boast about his election victory and complain about the inauguration’s clash with college football. The reviewer concludes that the film is an empty, grueling spectacle rather than a meaningful documentary.

At 96, Alejandro Jodorowsky reflects on his unconventional career, mortality and belief in living intensely in the present. The Chilean-born artist discusses his cult films El Topo and The Holy Mountain, his memoir films, psychomagic practice, tarot, poetry, comics and the new two-volume Taschen retrospective Art Sin Fin. He recalls escaping Tocopilla, studying mime in Paris, surviving controversy in Mexico and losing his son Teo to an overdose. Jodorowsky says he is prepared to die happily, while continuing to create art and counsel patients.

A group of Guardian critics recommend classic and contemporary films suited to a New Year’s Eve spent at home. The selections range from hopeful romances such as When Harry Met Sally… and Holiday to darker choices including Sunset Boulevard, The Shining and The Apartment, alongside epics, thrillers, disaster movies and international cinema. Across the recommendations, recurring themes include renewal, nostalgia, resilience, escape and the possibility of a better year ahead.

Guardian writers select memorable moments from Rob Reiner’s career as a director and actor, highlighting his unusual range across coming-of-age drama, courtroom spectacle, rock satire, romantic comedy, horror, television sitcoms and political films. They praise his ability to balance comedy with genuine emotion, his rapport with actors and his instinct for genre conventions. Stand by Me, A Few Good Men, This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and The Princess Bride receive particular acclaim, while his comic and dramatic screen appearances are presented as evidence of a generous, versatile talent whose work continues to resonate.

Dick Van Dyke is celebrated on his 100th birthday as an unusually energetic and enduring figure in American entertainment. The profile traces his career from wartime performances through The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, emphasizing his elastic physical comedy, boyish charm and ability to bring liveliness to mainstream roles. It also acknowledges his 25-year struggle with alcoholism and his support for Bernie Sanders, while suggesting that his longevity stems from good genes, friendships, optimism and the freedom to pursue work he loved.

Seymour Hersh’s career and brief decision to quit Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s documentary Cover-Up illuminate both the journalist’s combative personality and the enduring importance of investigative reporting. The film revisits his revelations about the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib torture while acknowledging his contentious methods and occasional errors. Hersh and the filmmakers argue that newspapers’ financial weakness, institutional caution, political pressure and fragmented digital media have made major investigative breakthroughs harder to achieve. Although Substack provides Hersh with independence and a livelihood, he says it cannot match the reach of the New York Times. The documentary ultimately presents journalism as a difficult but essential check on power, despite the limited accountability that often follows major exposés.

Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater discuss their 32-year friendship and 11-film collaboration, including the challenges of making Blue Moon in just 15 days. Hawke describes the physical and emotional demands of playing bald, diminutive lyricist Lorenz Hart, while both reflect on power, status and the creative risks of their partnership. They also discuss addiction, the deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman and other talented performers, and the importance of preserving curiosity and idealism in an unforgiving film industry.

Joel Edgerton and Clint Bentley discuss the difficult journey of making Train Dreams, a spiritual and rugged Western about Robert Grainier, a taciturn lumberjack in 1900s Idaho. They describe the film’s unconventional premise, studio reluctance and the personal connections they found in its themes of family separation, grief and life on the road. Edgerton reflects on balancing acting with fatherhood and on his emotionally restrained performance, while Bentley links the story to his own father’s itinerant career. Both also argue for the enduring value of human-made cinema as artificial intelligence increasingly enables films to be created digitally.