Andrea Riseborough

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Mandy is a hypnotic nightmare of blood, drugs and damnation

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 10th October 2018

    Another year, another London Film Festival, another annual peruse of the festival programme choosing films that sound fascinating in theory without really knowing what to expect in practice. Take Mandy, for example, which the programme describes as “a film so singular, perverse and beguiling, it’s almost impossible to define”. Ok... maybe try though? “Think of the most exquisitely nightmarish LSD trip imaginable, then multiply it by ten”. Hmm, I have no idea how to do that, but it sounds interesting. Ok fine, I’ll see it. “Don’t just see Mandy, experience it”. WHAT IS THIS IS IT EVEN A FILM.

  • The Death Of Stalin

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 23rd October 2017

    By now the central premise of Armando Iannucci's recent satirical output is clear enough, or has maybe just about been done to death: in politics, everyone's a chancer, making it up on the fly and looking out for number one. In The Death of Stalin there's an extra layer of irony, too: under Communism, there isn't supposed to be a number one to look out for. It's kind of the point.

  • Oblivion

    Movie Review | Ali | 10th April 2013

    Joseph Kosinski made his directorial debut with Tron: Legacy, a movie that boasted the sleek lines of an Apple product with about as much narrative thrust as the iTunes terms and conditions. With Oblivion, his second movie as director and his first as screenwriter, Kosinski keeps the slick, glossy sheen of his sophomore effort (trading black for white) but bolts it onto an involving, expansive sci-fi that asks more of you than simply to ogle its gorgeous curves. Though it shares similarities with many iconic works of science-fiction, including The Matrix, 2001 and one recent movie that would act as a spoiler if I named it, Oblivion nonetheless makes a bold attempt to be remembered on its own terms thanks to a dazzling arrangement of future tech and some truly satisfying plot twists.

  • Shadow Dancer

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 22nd August 2012

    Unlike its namesake, a game for the Megadrive in which a ninja and his dog beat up a lot of other ninjas, James Marsh's Shadow Dancer is about the Troubles. This puts me in the awkward position of having little background knowledge of the Troubles to contribute, largely because I spent too much of my youth not doing my history homework so I could play Shadow Dancer on the Megadrive. You can see the bind I'm in.

  • Brighton Rock

    Movie Review | Anna | 2nd February 2011

    There has to be a very good reason for taking on an adaptation of a beloved book or remaking a classic film - the Coen Brothers doing True Grit makes perfect sense - but I can't fathom the reason for Rowan Joffe reviving Brighton Rock. By any measure it's going to come off badly when compared to Graham Greene's novel or John Boulting's 1947 film. But let's shelve the comparisons for a couple of paragraphs.