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  The long-awaited 25th outing for Ian Fleming’s superspy is a weird and self-aware epic with audacious surprises up its sleeve The standard bearer of British soft power is back, in a film yanked from cinemas back in the time of the toilet roll shortage, based on a literary character conceived when sugar and meat rationing was still in force, and now released as Britons are fighting for petrol on the forecourts. Bond, like Norma Desmond, is once again ready for his closeup – and   Daniel Craig   once again shows us his handsome-Shrek face and the lovable bat ears, flecked with the scars of yesterday’s punch-up, the lips as ever pursed in determination or disgust. For those whose cinematic consciousness predates “Star Wars,” the James Bond series may be the primordial experience of franchise films, with all the pleasures and limitations that they entail. The appealing predictability of familiar characters and the excitement of seeing variations on their themes has always g...

  Two young women from different eras form a psychic bond in Edgar Wright’s sumptuous and surprising horror movie. Early in Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” there’s a rapturous sequence showing Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a fashion student recently arrived in London, experiencing what seems to be a vivid dream. Entranced by a gorgeous young singer named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, a vision in pink chiffon and blonde bouffant), Eloise finds her on a busy street where Sean Connery in “Thunderball” blazes from a gigantic marquee. As the two women enter a glamorous nightclub and Cilla Black’s aching 1964 hit, “You’re My World,” throbs on the soundtrack, they become mirror images and their stories irrevocably fuse. Nothing in Wright’s previous work quite prepared me for “Last Night in Soho,” its easy seductiveness and spikes of sophistication. Dissolving the border between present and past, fact and fantasy, the director (aided by the euphoric talents of the cinematographer Chung-hoon ...

  The film starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck cratered when it arrived exclusively in theaters in late October. Ridley Scott knows who to blame for his epic  The   Last   Duel  bombing this fall — and it’s not Disney, which he contends did a great job promoting the historical drama. The Oscar-nominated director dropped by Marc Maron’s  WTF  podcast for an episode published Monday in which he discussed his iconic career. Maron said he was impressed that Scott had two enormous pictures out this year,  The   Last   Duel  and the upcoming  House   of   Gucci . When it arrived exclusively in theaters in late October, 20th Century’s  The Last Duel , starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck, cratered $27 million worldwide off a $100 million budget. Related Stories Scott’s explanation for the horrible box office performance? Apathetic millennia...

The Power of the Dog movie review: Jane Campion's return to cinema is a nuanced exploration of toxic masculinity that skillfully subverts expectations. Considered an Oscar favourite, the film is a rare masterpiece. There is a poetic, ruminative quality about  The Power of the Dog.  Adapted from the Thomas Savage novel by Kiwi filmmaker Jane Campion, who is returning to cinema after a hiatus of 12 years, this film is unlike any other western. The genre, with a few exceptions, has mostly been about bravado, duels, retreating world of outlaws and gunslingers, and the taming of the Old West. The Power of the Dog is a film that uses its setting, the boundary between the Wild West and the civilised world, to remark upon the nature of masculinity. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST : The new movie, "The Power Of The Dog," casts Benedict Cumberbatch as a rancher. He lives in Montana, so the scenery is beautiful, and so were the costumes since its 1925. But there's something ugly about the w...