mike - Hollywood Authentic

February 13, 2026

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER

Barry Keoghan, Bart Layton, Chris Hemsworth, Crime 101, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Monica Barbaro

Greg Williams goes on set of heist movie, Crime 101, as lead, Chris Hemsworth, tells Hollywood Authentic about getting out of his comfort zone, how he stays sane and reteaming with The Hulk.

Chris Hemsworth is in London a month after teaser trailers have dropped for Marvel’s next Avengers get-together, Doomsday, featuring his much loved character, Thor. But the Australian actor’s next project is a world away from the superheroes and clearly delineated goodie/baddie morality of the comic book series that launched his career. In documentarian-turned-filmmaker Bart Layton’s first fully-fictional movie (after his based-on-true-events, American Animals), Crime 101, Hemsworth plays a lonely everyman with a complex family background who steals diamonds from couriers along LA’s famed freeway artery, the 101. As Davis, Hemsworth is watchful, tightly-wound, cautious – a man who disappears into crowds and whose apartment and social life is like a burner phone: impersonal, disposable, blank. It’s the opposite to gregarious Thor who wears his heart on his regal sleeve. And that’s exactly what Hemsworth was looking for.

Bart Layton, Chris Hemsworth, Crime 101,

What instantly struck a chord when I read this script. The character didn’t fall into an archetype or trope that felt familiar from something I had ever done, or something I had even seen before

‘It has changed throughout my career,’ he tells Hollywood Authentic of how he chooses projects the day after the London premiere for the film. Part of the filming took place in the UK, where Greg Williams captured the cast on-set. ‘Initially, it was about keeping some sort of continuity with the characters I was playing. That was also when I was being sent a lot of bigger action-type films. Then I was curious about doing comedy. But I guess now it’s just about it not feeling repetitive, and seeking something that is going to motivate you to dig as deep as possible because there’s a fascination or a curiosity or a world you haven’t inhabited before. That was what instantly struck a chord when I read this script. The character didn’t fall into an archetype or trope that felt familiar from something I had ever done, or something I had even seen before. This was an individual who was highly skilled in his line of work, and there was obviously a strength and a confidence there. But there was this fragility and vulnerability, which I thought humanised him in a great way, and allowed there to be layers of complexity that could be surprising for an audience.’

Talking to Layton about the grey areas of the character, Hemsworth admits to a certain nervousness in taking on the role. ‘Any time there is an element of trepidation or fear – it’s a really good thing. It forces you and motivates you to work harder and dig deeper. But the greater the challenge, I think the greater the outcome.’ Layton was also keen to tap into the actor’s more vulnerable side; ‘I had to find a way not to lose any of his incredible star power and magnetism, but to still find a way for him to be real,’ the director tells HA. Hemsworth chuckles at the recollection of Layton pointing out when some of Thor’s self confidence might be leaking into his performance. ‘Day to day on set, if there were default things I was slipping into, or moments where my physicality would shift into the familiar space of a more outwardly strong character I had played prior – he would say, “That’s not where we’re headed. Adjust the gait of the walk, or the vocal quality. Remember the tension in the chest…”. The voice was the big one for us, and it not having the same sort of register that I might have with Thor or the more outwardly projected strong characters I have played. It was more about the tension within the voice, and the cadence of how people spoke who are living on high alert, and in self-doubt.’

Of course the challenge was probably greater when working with another Avenger on-set. The Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, plays a crumpled LAPD cop who sees a pattern in the 101 heists and is determined to get his man. ‘That was interesting because Mark and I have done so much together, but in a heightened reality – mostly in a comedic improvisational way, especially with Thor: Ragnarok. And so we got on set, and immediately we’re like a couple of kids – old mates catching up – and having a laugh. But then as soon as the cameras rolled, it was quite uncomfortable. I was like, “Wow, this is very different. I can’t hide behind anything familiar here.”

It felt very exposed. And I think for both of us, it spurred on a real curiosity, and flights of hesitation, both of us trying to suss each other out, as the characters were. But having a shorthand with someone – a partner you trust who is a true team player – was just wonderful.’

Ruffalo is one of a stacked cast: with Halle Berry playing a high-net-worth Insurance broker who’s learning her own disposability as a woman, Barry Keoghan as a firebrand thief and antagonist, and Monica Barbaro as a woman who demands authenticity from Davis. ‘Working with Halle for the first time was absolutely amazing,’ Hemsworth enthuses. ‘I’m just the biggest fan of hers, and was quite intimidated. My character is performing with her character and I felt like that. I very much felt out of my comfort zone due to the admiration I have for her. It was like when I worked with Cate Blanchett. I would find myself just watching both of them as an audience member, and kind of going, “Oh, shit, I’ve got to respond. I’ve got to act here. I’ve got to do something.”’

Layton’s film casts Los Angeles as a character in itself and takes a look at the City of Angels through the prism of haves and have-nots, showing Skid Row alongside the mansions of Bel Air, the wealth disparity and the status anxiety of a moviemaking epicentre. Hemsworth admits that he recognises that portrayal of a city he works in. ‘The expendable nature of people in that town is quite evident. When I first moved to LA, it felt pretty overwhelming. The more time I spent there, you see the glitz and glamour on one hand, and then you see behind the curtain, and the grit, and the homelessness, and the mental health problems, and the crime, and so on. But there’s incredible things about the place, too. There’s a huge amount of artistry there, and motivation to build and create and be creative. But what Bart did so well is, he pulled back with the camera, and he allowed you to take in the expanse of both of those worlds, the entire spectrum. We had discussed at one point: could we replicate LA somewhere else in the world, and seek different tax credits for production purposes? But thank God, we didn’t. Because I just don’t think you’d be able to replicate LA in the way it’s been displayed here with such authenticity. You get a sense, in the way he shoots this film, how isolating and lonely that place can be. Even through times where I was having success, and it felt like all my problems and issues were solved, I had made it and so on – I would be in a lonely hotel room somewhere, going, “What is this all about? What does it mean?” So the deeper questions start to arise…’

Working with Halle for the first time was absolutely amazing. I’m just the biggest fan of hers, and was quite intimidated. My character is performing with her character and I felt like that. I very much felt out of my comfort zone due to the admiration I have for her

Those deeper questions about integrity, drive, finding meaning in the work are sometimes difficult to answer in the noise of Hollywood. Especially if you’ve had the sort of meteoric rise Hemsworth has enjoyed. So how does he keep a sense of purpose? ‘It’s having good people around. The team of people I work with, I’ve worked with for 15 or 20 years. They make the biggest difference to me, because I know not everyone has that. I’ve worked with people where I see it’s a different team each time, or they’re not fortunate enough to be able to bring the same people with them. It’s like going to a new school every couple of months, and trying to make a new set of friends. So that certainly keeps me grounded, and helps keep me sane.’

And in terms of creativity, the Aussie has plenty of other projects coming up to keep him motivated and challenged. Avengers: Doomsday lands in December, he’s just finished filming submarine thriller, Subversion and is in pre-production of Extraction 3. ‘Inhabiting material where there is true curiosity and enthusiasm – there’s the artistic journey. You’re not just there checking in, like, “What time do we finish? OK.” Clock in tomorrow. Clock out now. The aim is for it not to feel like work at all. And that really depends on whether I’ve chosen the right project or not. You know that pretty quick. He laughs. ‘There’s films that fly by, and you wish you could repeat them over and over again. And then there’s films that feel like they take forever… you know, “This might not have been the best choice.” I think for me the decisions are trickier because if it’s going to take me away from my family and my kids at this point, it needs to be special. And this one felt incredibly special…’

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Crime 101 is in cinemas now

hollywood authentic, greg williams, hollywood authentic magazine

Screening Room

CRIME 101

February 13, 2026

Words by MATT MAYTUM

Sometimes you don’t appreciate what you’ve been missing until you get the chance to sample it again. This supremely slick crime thriller is an emphatic reminder of the pleasures of smart, mainstream entertainment for grown-ups, playing in a cinema rather than episodically on the small screen. A theatrical staple for decades, this kind of star-powered vehicle has lost ground in multiplexes to franchise fare and IP with built-in awareness. But it’s good to have it back.

Barry Keoghan, Chris Hemsworth, Crime 101, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Monica Barbaro — Amazon MGM Studios

This film marks the fully fledged ‘fictional feature’ debut of writer/director Bart Layton, who previously made terrific fact/fiction-blending documentaries The Imposter and American Animals, the latter particularly blurring the lines as it intercuts between the real people involved in a university book heist and dramatic recreations. Though not based on a true story, Crime 101 – which is adapted from a novella by Don Winslow – has the rigour of a deeply researched undertaking. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo, whose narrative strands soon become entwined. Hemsworth is lone-wolf jewel thief Davis, whose MO is committing meticulously researched jobs along California’s 101 freeway. No one gets hurt, no trace of evidence remains. Detective Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo) is working a theory that some of these robberies might be connected. Meanwhile, insurance broker Sharon (Berry) sells eye-wateringly high-value policies to extremely wealthy clients, in return for little to no respect from colleagues at her firm.

This trio will soon be on a collision course catalysed by wild card crim Ormon (Barry Keoghan, reuniting with Layton after American Animals), who lobs a spanner in the works by taking on a job that Davis deemed too risky. Working with A-list and Oscar-celebrated talent, Layton seems to be a natural at eliciting top-end performances. Hemsworth tamps down his superhero rizz to play the nomadic thief living without any real social connection, and his Marvel ‘friend from work’ Ruffalo is compelling as ever as a stretched-thin cop whose obsessive nature is wrecking his homelife. Berry – in her most gratifying role for some time – gets to dig beneath the surface glamour as a woman coming to see with clarity how her experience and intelligence is being overlooked. Keoghan, meanwhile, is the firecracker popping off chaotically.

Adding to the sheen of class is the fact that even minor supporting roles are filled with significant talent – Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Corey Hawkins – and Monica Barbaro makes the most of limited screentime in Maya, a love interest who cracks Davis’ hermetically sealed shell. It’s also edited with confidence by Jacob Secher Schulsinger and Julian Hart, the separate story strands blended skilfully and often overlapping before you’ve even realised it. It all drives towards a satisfying conclusion that makes good on the build-up’s promise. And while there is a focus on character in this somewhat grounded world, there are a couple of impressively muscular, plot-serving car chases to get the adrenaline pumping, and the whole thing is shot sharply (with some innovative vehicle mounts) by DoP Erik Wilson. The pulsing electronic score by Blanck Mass also sets off the tone nicely.

Michael Mann’s Heat and Thief are clear touchstones, as is William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., and while it’s practically impossible for any new film to live up to those genre titans, it sure is enjoyable seeing someone giving it a go.

Pictures courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
Crime 101 opens in cinemas on 13 February

Screening Room

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

February 10, 2026

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Designed to titillate with its tongue very much in its flushed cheek, Emerald Fennell’s raunchy take on Charlotte Bronte’s doomy classic sets its stall out from the opening as a hanged man gets an erection, prompting carnality from the assembled crowd – including a shuddering nun. Death and sex continue to be inextricably linked in this tale of two Victorian pseudo-siblings who run wild on the Yorkshire moors and through each others’ dreams as they grow from children to cruel adults locked in a toxic romance. Jettisoning the novel’s bookended story of the fate of the family home, Wuthering Heights, and the generational trauma of the Earnshaws, screenwriter and director, Fennell concentrates on the lethal enmeshment of Cathy (Margot Robbie) and her adopted brother, Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) which sees them devouring each other in the rain, masturbating on rocky outcrops and smearing fingers through any wet thing they can find (snail trail, damp dough, a gelatined fish mouth, blood).

Alison Oliver, Emerald Fennell, Hong Chau, Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie, Shazad Latif — Warner Bros. Pictures

Designed in narrative and production aesthetic as a heaving Mills & Boon cover come to life, Fennell’s iteration has no interest in historical accuracy, Victorian properness or faithfulness to the source. Like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, this version of Wuthering Heights is more interested in vibe and feelings. So while Charli XCX’s anachronistic soundtrack thrums over the visuals-destined-to-be-memes, Heathcliff and Cathy pant over each other in deliberately artificial and heightened environments from Suzie Davis that will enrage purists but provide content for TikTokers. Wuthering Heights looks like a tiled abattoir, Thrushcross Grange belonging to third wheel love interest, Edgar (Shazad Latif, bringing real depth to a cock-blocked cuckold) is a pop music video dollhouse (scarlet lacquers floors, flesh walls, lurid gardens), a moors sunset is an atomic orange. And the costumes… Jacqueline Durran’s imagination is unfettered: a Gone With The Wind gown, a busty milkmaid get-up, neon ribboned fripperies for ditzy Isabella (Alison Oliver), a wedding night outfit that wraps Cathy like a boiled sweet. Put it this way, there’s plenty to go at for Halloween hot looks.

While the willful artifice will surely attract awards attention, the relationship at the (raging) heart of this tale needs to convince and Fennell is predictably unphased by making her characters complicated, messy. Cathy, in Robbie’s hands, is an intriguing OG drama queen, a prick tease, a brat. As he did in Frankenstein, Elordi does considerable heavy lifting in humanising a damaged man; seducing Cathy and audience alike with a spot-on West Yorkshire accent, palpable yearning and a mean streak a mile wide. If anyone needed more evidence that Elordi is destined to be a generational great, Wuthering Heights demonstrates his ability to play convincingly into lusty tropes (the way he says ‘I know’ at one point is likely to rival Colin Firth’s lake swim or Matthew McFadyen’s hand flex in bodice-buster obsessions) but also tap into the psychology of Heathcliff (Fennell’s most modern and interesting scene is a moment of consent in a coercive relationship) and almost single-handedly sell the tragedy of the piece. When he mourns the love lost while wind-whipped on the moors or clings to a silk bedsheet like drowning man, the truth and authenticity of Bronte’s prose is captured.

Flashy, brash, bombastic, hot and heavy – this Wuthering Heights is like no other, fully committing to its horny-teen concept with all the headlong passion of a ‘handsome brute’ falling for the wrong girl. On that level alone it’s worth seeing and debating. And as they say in Yorkshire: where there’s muck, there’s brass…

Pictures courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Wuthering Heights is in cinemas now

Dispatches

PATRICK DEMPSEY

January 30, 2026

Photographs by MATT BARNES
Interviews by MATT MAYTUM

Patrick Dempsey is used to working at high speed, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his new TV show – Memory of a Killer – came together so fast. ‘It was very quick,’ he tells Hollywood Authentic from New York. ‘So I got a call – I think it was maybe on the Tuesday, and they were like, ‘You’ve got to read this real quick. You have this offer on this project, and they need to make an announcement right away.’ So I read the scripts, and I liked it. I found the world really intriguing – the character and the dynamic and certainly the action aspect of it – it was a much darker character than I’ve had the opportunity to play. I spoke with the writers. I spoke with the producer. And then I said, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it.’’

Memory of a Killer, Odeya Rush, Patrick Dempsey, Porsche, Tag Heuer

Based on a 2003 Belgian film (which was itself adapted from a novel), Memory of a Killer stars Dempsey as an unassuming suburban dad and widower, who leads a double life as a sharp-suited, sharp-shooting assassin in NYC. And while juggling two existences might’ve already been complex enough, Angelo Doyle/Flannery (depending on which life he’s living) is also suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s, compromising his memory. ‘What I liked about it was certainly the character flaw – the aspect of dealing with someone who has early onset Alzheimer’s,’ considers Dempsey. ‘I thought it was really quite interesting. And then on top of that, this double life that he’s leading.’

The challenge of digging into those three facets of the character was a big part of the appeal for Dempsey. ‘You want to create a life in suburbia, and then you want to be able to play the vulnerability of losing your power and your faculties,’ he says. The hitman side of the character, in particular, offered the opportunity to flex a different muscle. ‘For me, what was appealing was to play the assassin, and to get an opportunity to do all the action,’ he smiles. ‘I don’t get that opportunity very often. So it was something different for me to go and do, and to show a different side of my nature.’

Though Angelo is a morally murky character, there’s a thrill to being able to play someone so slickly competent with such a dangerous skill-set. ‘You’re playing make-believe,’ he beams.

‘There’s nothing better than that. It goes back to when you were a kid, running around and doing all that stuff. Now you get to do it as an adult with all the great toys.’ Indeed, there’s almost a Batman element to the character as he leaves his home life, where he poses as a photocopier salesman, and drives off in his extremely practical, family-friendly vehicle, only to head to his hideout where there’s a Porsche, weaponry and hitman-appropriate attire waiting for him. ‘We start off in suburbia, and then we go into the Batcave, and we show the audience who he really is… That was fun for me to play, too.’

The role also allows Dempsey to tap into his own dual life – alongside his acting career, he’s been a successful racing driver, and brings some of those skills to Memory of a Killer’s car stunts. ‘The whole sequence with the Porsche going through the parking garage was something that I got to do, and it was really a lot of fun,’ he explains. ‘That’s really one of the reasons why I did it – to be able to, in my 60s, become an action actor… I love all of that.’ Dempsey may have turned 60 earlier this month, but he’s relaxed about strolling into this new decade. ‘I think going into my 50s was much harder than now going into my 60s,’ he considers. ‘I’ve come to terms with this next chapter… I hope I can just stay physically active, and be able to continue to work and enjoy life, and have a nice balance between the two. And you don’t take things as seriously.’

Talking of balance, Dempsey has managed to balance his passion for acting and racing, which he still participates in. After achieving key motorsports goals in 2015 like taking part in the World Endurance Championship, being on the podium at Le Mans, and winning in Japan and Fuji, Dempsey reached a turning point. ‘It was a tremendous sacrifice to my career and to my personal life,’ he says. ‘But then once I achieved those goals, there was a deep psychological turning point where I was like, ‘OK, now I can move on and do the next thing.’ The pressure was immense that year, and now I do it just for fun and the psychological, therapeutic benefits of it.’

Ongoing relationships with Porsche and Tag Heuer mean that he continues to have ‘these incredible adventures’. And, as he explains, it’s not like these twin passions don’t cross over. ‘There are amazing similarities,’ he says of acting and racing. ‘If you look at the car itself as sort of like the scripts – it’s what you drive – your engineer is the director. Your team principal is the producer. And the crews – the chemistry that you need to have, to have the right focus and the right energy, is very similar.’ The camaraderie and physicality also complement the two disciplines, as does the ‘meditative aspect’. ‘It’s the mind control… being present; being focused on what’s in front of you; being aware of what’s happening around you… it’s very much about being present.’

To return to a key theme of Memory of a Killer, Dempsey says while he hasn’t been directly impacted by Alzheimer’s in his own life, he could strongly relate to Angelo’s role as a caregiver (Angelo looks after his brother, who has a much further advanced condition than his own). Dempsey founded the Dempsey Center in 2008, which offers cancer patients treatment at no cost. ‘It’s very similar in that sense of, what does it mean to be a caregiver, and the pressures of that?’ he says. ‘I think it’s the most satisfying work in my life, outside of my family,’ he adds of the Center. ‘When you’re working with a group of people for the benefit of someone else, there is nothing better. And that’s really ultimately, I think, the meaning of life – it’s when you are here to serve.’

As for what’s around the next corner for his career, his future goals are clear and modest. ‘I think it’s just working with good material and really good directors,’ he says. ‘And just to continue to be a working actor…’

Memory of a Killer airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX, next day on Hulu and is coming to Prime Video in the UK and Ireland in February
Dempsey wears: (black suit) Garrison Bespoke (suit), The Row (shoes), Eton (shirt); (corduroy suit) Garrison Bespoke (suit and shirt), Barrett (shoes). Styling is by Marc Andrew Smith

Screening Room

NOUVELLE VAGUE

January 24, 2026

Words by MATT MAYTUM

Literally translated as ‘New Wave’, the term Nouvelle Vague refers to the movement in French cinema that began in the late 1950s and continued throughout the 60s, when a group of rule-breaking critics-turned-auteurs started defying conventions of film storytelling and grammar. It’s no surprise that director Richard Linklater would feel drawn to the movement – over a directing career that has spanned almost four decades, he’s been inventive and experimental in his own unshowy way, playing with time, fact/fiction, animation techniques and more. Here he documents the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic À bout de souffle (aka Breathless).

Aubry Dullin, Guillaume Marbeck, Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch — Altitude

That film remains vital and fresh today, its jump-cut editing and propulsive momentum as influential as its nonchalantly amoral heroes; it’s a fixture of Greatest Films of All Time lists and Film Studies courses. Risky territory for a contemporary filmmaker to explore, then, but Linklater manages to turn what could’ve felt either dryly academic or wilfully sacrilegious into an extremely fun hangout movie. If it is an exercise, it’s an immensely enjoyable one, carried off with no shortage of style and character. Cinematographer David Chambille shoots in black and white in Academy ratio. The score consists of jazzy, era-specific tracks. The dialogue is (almost entirely) in French, and even the subtitles have a pleasingly retro style. (Now and then, you can even see faux ‘cigarette burns’ pop up in the corner of the screen.) The storytelling is choppy and loose. It’s an extremely convincing recreation of the spirit of the era, and a pleasure to be immersed in.

The casting, too, is spot on. As Godard, Guillaume Marbeck has the necessary charisma to justify why the crew would continue to follow such a chaotic and capricious leader. He also has the insouciance to casually deliver some of the JLG’s celebrated aphorisms; “The best way to criticise a film is to make one,” he says early on of his transition from criticism to directing. Zoey Deutch (from Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!) is a fantastic foil as American actress Jean Seberg, providing valuable perspective on Godard’s often frustrating methods, and, like the audience, slowly warming to her new collaborators. Some of the supporting casting is uncannily physically uncanny: Aubry Dullin is an absolute doppelganger for Breathless actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, in looks and screen presence.

At times you even wonder if the film will get finished, as Godard continually seems to get in his own way with on-the-fly script revisions, short shooting days and tricky camera moves; it’s no wonder he ends up in a scuffle with his producer Georges ‘Beau Beau’ de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst) at one point. But throughout, there’s such an infectious spirit of creation, it’s like Linklater is making a rallying cry to grab a camera, get out there and just create. With friends, with conviction, and with gusto.

Pictures courtesy of Altitude
Nouvelle Vague is in cinemas now

Dispatches

JAY KELLY PREMIERE

January 23, 2026

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interviews by JANE CROWTHER

The team behind Noah Bambach’s Hollywood comedy talk dessert, watching their own movies and the loneliness of a movie star.

When Hollywood Authentic sits down with the cast of Jay Kelly and their writer-director in a suite at the Excelsior on Venice’s Lido we wonder why there’s no cheesecake on the table. At the heart of their film, the titular movie star, played by George Clooney, has an existential crisis during a jaunt across Europe with his longtime manager (Adam Sandler), his publicist (Laura Dern) and his hair and MUA (Emily Mortimer). On his rider everywhere he goes: a slice of vanilla cheesecake.

Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, Emily Mortimer, George Clooney, Jay Kelly, Jim Broadbent, Laura Dern, Noah Baumbach

‘No cheesecake,’ Mortimer laughs. Also, no Clooney, who has excused himself from Venice Film Festival with illness after soldiering on to walk the premiere red carpet with Greg Williams. ‘It stinks,’ sighs Sandler of his buddy’s absence. Still, it’s clear the remaining team enjoy each other’s company and also the process of filming the movie across France and Italy as well as Hollywood. ‘I had the idea of a movie star going on a journey – going from Los Angeles into Europe, and specifically Italy, it was a compelling idea for me,’ Baumbach explains of the genesis of the project on which he partnered with Mortimer as co-writer after the two spent time together on White Noise. Mortimer was accompanying her kids, Sam and May Nivola, who were playing the on-screen children of Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. ‘It wasn’t until Emily and I really got into it that I understood that making a movie about an actor is making a movie about performance and identity, and is a way to tell this story of how we’re all trying to meet ourselves as we go through life, and identify ourselves and who we are in all these different roles that we play in our lives.’

‘Noah came to me with a notion of this movie, but there was an awful lot of both of us that we shared,’ says Mortimer. ‘All the different ways in which living this pretend life can screw with your mind, and separate you from real life. And the kind of dedication and time that is required of you to do this job. Things like you see in the movie where you’re pretending to be in a family with a group of actors, and a fake kid, and a fake wife, and spending a lot of time getting to know each other in order to make the scene work and the film work. And, meanwhile, you’re leaving your real husband or wife or kids far, far away. So, yes, there was a lot that I could add, and also I spent a lot of time in Italy growing up. So I had lots of stories to tell about strange family holidays when I was a kid that tickled Noah.’

Of course, while Baumbach and Mortimer could pour their own experiences in their screenplay, it would only truly sing with the right person in the role of Jay, a charming, handsome movie star who has been famous and liked for decades. ‘It was clear that it should be somebody that the audience has a history with,’ says Baumbach. ‘Early on I felt it should be George. I’ve known him over the years a little bit, and always wanted to find something for him, and with him. I gave it to him, and the first thing he said after he read it, ‘You really wrote yourself into a corner with this, because there’s not many people who could play this part’. But George has that timeless quality, he feels like a movie star from any era. It was exciting doing it with him, because you’re asking the actor to reveal more and more of himself in the performance, while playing someone trying to hide.’

As Jay tries to hide, his erstwhile manager, Ron, tries to protect, juggling life with his wife (Greta Gerwig) and kids. Baumbach cast Adam Sandler, who has known Clooney for years in real life. ‘We played a few [basketball games] – we shot around a lot,’ says Sandler. ‘He’s a funny, decent person. But I never got to spend as much time as I did on the movie set, and being part of George’s family. You wish he was your concierge in real life. ‘What do I do today, George?’’ While the friendship with Clooney is replicated in real life, Sandler also recognises the movie star world of Jay Kelly from his own experiences.

‘When I see some movie star stuff that goes on in there, I’ve seen it in people I’ve worked with, or I’ve done it myself. In real life, I try to include my family and friends with what I do. But I will tell my family, ‘I’ve got a big day coming up, or a big couple of days in a row. I might not be as available to you’. And they’re cool with that. There was also a scene in the movie where I had to be very emotional, and Noah was cool enough to let my wife do the off-camera for me – a phone call – because I really had to feel things, and my wife and I have a nice closeness that it was allowing me to feel what I needed.’

Jay’s perfect life unravels after a meeting with an old friend, played by Billy Crudup. Having been mates as struggling actors, the two men have not seen each other for decades. They go for a drink and their lives are now starkly different, the emotions that are brought up by the reunion, charged. ‘There are so many features about [the film] that are about our lives, and about a very human expression of what it’s like to try to do this,’ says Crudup. ‘It’s probably a great analogue to everybody’s lives, you know? We make sacrifices in our work lives. Some of them are small, and some of them are catastrophic. You never know what’s going to come next, and how you’re going to manage your family in a certain period, or in a new portion of your life where you’re a parent, or you’ve lost a parent. All these different things were very relatable to me in the script. The first movie that I was in – as soon as the movie came out, I was hearing from people that I hadn’t heard from in a very long time. I can remember them not being very nice and that creates a kind of loneliness.’

Laura Dern as Jay’s exasperated publicist agrees; ‘The movie star is such a perfect choice of Emily and Noah, but it can be any career path. But simultaneously, this is not a drive of ego, but a shared drive that all of us here share, which is a deep love of cinema – it’s also this constant current in the film, with every choice, with every frame, with Noah’s work as well as Linus, our amazing cinematographer. You know, you’re falling in love with movies as you’re watching this cautionary tale about living the life of being in the movies.’

‘It’s not just a cautionary tale of how destructive pretending to be other people can be,’ Mortimer adds. ‘It’s also just innate to who we are as people – play-acting and pretending to be other people. And the fun of that, and the joy of that, and how much it can give to everybody.’ The film also shows a moment when Jay watches clips of his own films with an audience, seeing how his work affects other people. What is the experience for Mortimer when watching her own movies back?

‘I guess it’s just the same as looking at old photographs or something. You’re just like, ‘Oh my God, I looked so nice, and I was so young. What was I worrying about!’ For me, looking at old movies, I can’t really look at it in a way where I’m analysing my work as a professional – it does feel like a scrapbook or a photo album of your life somehow. And you mark your life through the movies that you make. You remember scenes from your own life through seeing the film and it gives me the sense of time passing in the blink of an eye.’

‘I certainly enjoyed being a lot skinnier back then,’ Sandler admits of watching his back catalogue. ‘My family will watch an old movie of mine, and I’ll walk in. I never sit and watch it for too long, but I do remember what happened, and what was going on – maybe even that day.’ He keenly remembers a specific day when asked what’s on his own rider (not cheesecake). ‘One movie I walked onto maybe 20 years ago, and it was too hot on the stage. And I said, ‘Where the hell is the air conditioning?’ I was yelling about it being too hot, and I’m sweating, and I can’t think straight. And now every time one of my productions is going, I step on the set, and it’s like 62 degrees, and everyone’s shivering. And I say, ‘What’s going on in here?’ And they’re like, ‘You said…’’ He chuckles. ‘That’s my cheesecake.’

Jay Kelly is in cinemas, and streaming on Netflix now

Screening Room

RENTAL FAMILY

January 16, 2026

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Brendan Fraser’s innate likeability is tapped for feel-good warmth in this lightweight drama following a washed-up actor eking out a living in Tokyo and finding an unexpected sense of family. Fraser plays the thesp, Phillip Vanderploeg, with the same sweetness he deployed in The Whale – less gay porn and gorging, but that perennially hopeful expression as he takes unfulfilling bit parts and shonky commercials, the glory days that brought him to Japan clearly long gone. When he’s called to play ‘sad American’ at a funeral (a lovely piece of physical comedy from Fraser as he uncomfortably tries to be inobtrusive) a new world of acting opens up.

Brendan Fraser, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Takehiro Hira — *James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures*

A rental service run by Shinji (Takehiro Hira) offers him a gig as a ‘token white guy’ taking on roles in real people’s lives. Need a fake boyfriend, fake boss, fake journalist to prevent embarrassment at social gatherings? Call big Phil. After a stumble playing a groom to a gay bride who is trying to mollify her trad parents, Phillip gets into the swing of turning up into domestic situations and putting his actor training to good use. So he’s easy-breezy when he’s booked to play a fake dad to a young girl, Mia,(Shannon Mahina Gorman) whose single mum thinks having two parents will go over better for a posh school application. Mia isn’t told of the ruse, she thinks Phillip is her real father, returned after an absence and, after a bumpy start, the duo start to gel. What could possibly go wrong?

Following a well-worn arc, this gentle comedy-drama may not surprise, but that it moves nonetheless is down to Fraser’s delightful screen presence. Whether squashed into the Japanese metro or watching the lives of his neighbours from his apartment window, Fraser exudes a forlorn yearning and optimism for connection that is immediately endearing. When he arrives in his clients’ lives he is respectful, engaged, gentle – less a conman than a guardian angel, his good intentions shining from his open face. And when he begins to bond with Mia, Phillip’s own childhood is revealed, adding emotional depth to a trope as old as Chaplin’s The Kid. Plus, in terms of travel porn, Rental Family makes Japan look beguiling; from a cosy izakaya and a quirky cat festival to Tokyo twinkling neon at night, to karaoke bars and lush green forests. It’s a trip worth taking.

Pictures courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
Rental Family is in cinemas now

Gongs/Premieres

GOLDEN GLOBES 2026

January 16, 2026

83rd Golden Globes, Golden Globes, Hollywood Authentic, Los Angeles — Jennifer Lopez, Timothée Chalamet

It was the night of Paul Thomas Anderson’s thriller, One Battle After Another, as the film scooped awards for best comedy or musical film, best director and screenplay at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday evening’s 83rd Golden Globe Awards. Teyana Taylor (in custom Schiaparelli) also claimed best supporting actress for her role in the film as anarchist Perdita Beverly Hills. The LA hotel’s usual red carpet was a sweeping staircase this year, allowing gowns to drape over the steps and in the case of Dwayne Johnson, stroll down with a glass of tequila.

The ceremony in the ballroom kicked off with host, Nikki Glaser, making cracks about contenders with awards being collected as guests nibbled on sushi designed by Nobu’s signature chef, Nobu Matsuhisa. Plates on the tables included a caviar cup, lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing, salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, and miso black cod while sushi rolls were made to order at a hideaway sushi station.

Timothée Chalamet sat chatting at his table wearing custom Chrome Hearts and Cartier with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner (in custom gold Ashi Studio) and Givenchy-clad Jennifer Lawrence, while Leonardo DiCaprio held court at another (wearing Dior). Chalamet took home the gong for best actor in a musical or comedy for Marty Supreme (saying his previous nominations at the event made the win ‘that much sweeter’), while Wagner Moura won best lead actor in a drama for his role in The Secret Agent, which also landed best film not in the English language.

Best drama film went to Hamnet – with the award picked up by producer Steven Spielberg, while Ryan Coogler’s Sinners took best original score and box office achievement awards. Nominated for her supporting role in Sinners, Wunmi Mosaku revealed her pregnancy in a custom made canary yellow gown from Matthew Reisman. Rose Byrne was named best lead female actor in a comedy for Sundance hit If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (and told the audience her husband Bobby Cannavale was at an exotic pet expo in New Jersey) as Stellan Skarsgård won male supporting actor for Sentimental Value. He implored audiences to support the theatrical experience of seeing films; ‘Hopefully you will see it in the cinema, because they are an extinguished species now. In a cinema, where the lights go down… That is magic. Cinema should be seen in cinemas.’

Both Anderson and Jessie Buckley (in Dior) expressed their love for their vocation when they ascended the winners podium. ‘I love doing what I do. So this is just fun,’ Anderson said, while Buckley declared ‘I love what I do and I love being part of this industry’. She also expressed a love of the Polish soup Hamnet key grip Tomasz Sternicki made on set.

Julia Roberts earned a standing ovation when she presented an award wearing Giorgio Armani Prive and Macauley Culkin returned to the Globes stage for the first time in 35 years to hand out an award. ‘I do exist all year round!’ he joked. Backstage, Snoop Dogg hung out with Fran Drescher, the Hamnet team celebrated their win and Sean Penn caught up with Guillermo Del Toro.

The evening was also dominated by TV with Adolescence taking home best limited TV series, best actor for Stephen Graham, best supporting actress for Erin Doherty and best supporting actor for British teenager Owen Cooper who rocked Bottega Veneta and admitted he probably should have been revising for his exams. The gang headed to Spago’s post ceremony for the Netflix after-party attended by revellers including George and Amal Clooney…

AWARD WINNERS

Best Picture – Comedy Or Musical
One Battle After Another

Best Picture – Drama
Hamnet

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Best Supporting Actress
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Best Supporting Actor
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

Best Original Song
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Ludwig Göransson – Sinners

Best Director – Motion Picture
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

Best Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

Best non-English Language Film
The Secret Agent

Best Animated Film
KPop Demon Hunters

Outstanding Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Sinners

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Words by JANE CROWTHER

Screening Room

HAMNET

January 9, 2026

Words by JANE CROWTHER

It’s a matter of common knowledge that Shakespeare lost a son, Hamnet, and his subsequent grief informed the crafting of one of his one most celebrated plays delving into sorrow, parenthood and death; Hamlet. The theatrical, narrative and emotionally resonant feat that Chloe Zhao pulls off with Hamnet – blindsiding audiences with devastation despite this prior intel – is uncommon, remarkable.

Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley, Joe Alwyn, Paul Mescal, Zac Wishart — *Focus Features/Universal Pictures*

Adapted by Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell (whose bestseller it is based on), Hamnet charts the romance of the Bard (Paul Mescal) with Agnes (Jessie Buckley) through to their shattering as a family and the premiere performance of Hamlet. While Will is a man of ideas (scraping money together as a teacher while he pens his masterpieces by candlelight at night), Agnes is of the earth – an elemental woman who practices folk magic, wanders the woods in her muddy dress and snoozes in piles of leaves at the foot of mossy, towering oak trees. She burns as brightly as her scarlet gown, a force of nature that knocks Shakespeare off his feet, their hot and fast romance quickly begetting an imminent child and a marriage. Their children are brought up in an atmosphere of love and respect for the earth, closely bonded to each other. Shakespeare travels to London to ply his playwriting, bidding fond farewells to his brood as he commutes (a bittersweet parting moment at a street corner will be recognised by all parents), and the spectre of the plague takes hold.

Death sits alongside family life; is examined when a pet dies, is fought when illness descends. Death destroys and remakes, renders the Shakepeares strangers to each other and also, ultimately, connects them. In exploring the undertow of grief – in a feral howl, in despair, in process and in using it as a tool, Zhao and O’Farrell unpick the universal experience of losing a loved one while also celebrating the power and yes, necessity, of art to reflect, unite and heal.

Key to that transference is the ability of Mescal and Buckley to fully inhabit their characters, convincing immediately of their connection, lust and love – and of their adoration of their onscreen children. Jacobi Jupe (brother of Noah) is astonishing as the boy at the centre of an experience that breaks them; cheeky, sweet, afraid, and vulnerable. The black hole to hell seen at the beginning of the film, the gaping mouth of a dank tunnel in the roots of a tree promises a dark journey of the heart, but even prepared for an emotional assault, what follows is heartbreaking.

Buckley is understandably getting awards heat for her delicate sketching of a woman out of time; both too modern and too grounded in ancient spirituality for Elizabethan life, a ‘witch’ whose ferocious fight for her child is painful and beautiful to watch. Mescal meets her at every step though his role is necessarily more contained, while the Tudor home and village that the couple inhabited (Weobley in Hertfordshire standing in for Stratford) is brought to such visceral life that it seems we can smell the fire smoke and the poultices, taste the food Agnes puts on her heavy wooden table, feel the cool mud splatter in the street. Zhao’s eye for detail and beauty has never been better.

One critic has gone so far as to call Hamnet the ‘greatest film ever made’ and while that description might be up to interpretation of each viewer, what is undeniable is that this is a picture of great humanity, artistry and heart – heavy though it may be.

Pictures courtesy of Focus Features/Universal Pictures
Hamnet is in cinemas now

Screening Room

SONG SUNG BLUE

December 23, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

The warmth of the real-life story of the Neil Diamond tribute band, Lightning & Thunder (aka Mike and Claire Sardina), gets a jukebox sorta-musical treatment in this sentimental fable of second chances, perseverance and hope. After the challenging year we’ve had with 2025, ringing in ’26 with a bit of ‘Sweet Caroline’ and human kindness might be just the ticket.

Ella Anderson, Fisher Stevens, Hugh Jackman, Jim Belushi, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Mustafa Shakir — *Focus Features/Universal Pictures*

For those who didn’t catch the 2008 documentary of the same name, the Sardinas found each other on the Milwaukee tribute circuit, two people who had already been through the ringer but who lived in optimism and joy. We first meet single dad Mike (Hugh Jackman in an alarming wig) as he strums his Neil Diamond anthem at an AA meeting, perennially grateful to have survived the military and alcoholism but still looking for a happily ever after. Mike steps on stage as ‘Lightning’, not exactly a Diamond impersonator, more of a channeller of the songwriter’s music. That’s not a niche that’s working out for him until he meets single mom, Claire (Kate Hudson in an alarming mullet) who does a mean Patsy Cline impression. Sparks fly, music is played and the duo blend their talents, families and possessions as a unique double-act, both on and off stage.

This should be the second act both players have been hoping for – complete with benediction from Pearl Jam (yes, really) and sell-out shows – but disaster strikes. How unconditional love, resolve and Diamond’s choice back catalogue sustain a family through dark times is how Song Sung Blue earns its emotional resonance. Jackman can of course sing and emote to tear-inducing levels, but twinned with Hudson’s bubbly persona and a bleak narrative arc, he’s perhaps the best he’s ever been in this genre. He embodies optimism, even when it’s hard to find, and his lusty renditions of ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’, ‘Crunchy Granola Suite’ and Diamond’s bonkers ‘Soolaimon’ are a cinematic euphoria shot. Hudson meets him musically and emotionally, delivering a weepie solo of ‘I’ve Been This Way Before’ in a button-pushing moment that is played tonally – like the rest of the movie – with such sweet sincerity that cynicism struggles to have a place.

If that sounds cheesy it’s because it is. Song Sung Blue (written and directed by Craig Brewer) unapologetically embraces dreamers, rhinestones and yes, the healing power of a banger tune; offering a chorus line of nice, earnest people just struggling to get by. There’s no worldwide fame or cash windfall at stake here; this is a film about the elation of being your true authentic self, of finding your tribe, of getting up when you’re knocked down. It’s a portrait of a small but good life, and the love that sustained it. Sweet, feel-good and positive, it also reminds audiences of how many Diamond songs are on the cultural hard drive. You’ll be adding to your karaoke list post-watch…

Pictures courtesy of Focus Features/Universal Pictures
Song Sung Blue is in cinemas now

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Gongs/Premieres

GOLDEN GLOBES 2026

January 16, 2026

Screening Room

HAMNET

January 9, 2026

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SONG SUNG BLUE

December 23, 2025

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