Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane is a New Yorker staff writer. From 1993 to 2024, he served as a film critic. Before coming to the magazine, he worked at the Independent, in London, where he was appointed deputy literary editor in 1989 and, a year later, a film critic for the Independent on Sunday. In 2001, his reviews received the National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. His writings for The New Yorker are collected in the book “Nobody’s Perfect.”
Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?
Phone apps now offer to boil down entire books into micro-synopses. What they leave out is revealing.
The Moral Plea Behind Kate Middleton’s Cancer Disclosure
After weeks of conspiracy theories and online calls for her private medical information, the Princess of Wales offered an appeal for basic public decency.
Lord Byron Was More Than Just Byronic
Two centuries after his death, the works of the great Romantic poet reveal a sensibility whose restless meld of humor and melancholy feels thoroughly contemporary.
A Philosophy of Pleasure in “The Taste of Things”
The film, starring Juliette Binoche as a chef at a country manor, is devoted to the long-ripened skills and sheer hard work that go into the giving of rapture.
A Birthday Party to Die for in “Tótem”
In Lila Avilés’s family drama, a young girl must confront her father’s terminal illness at a gathering of relatives.
Michael Mann’s Beguiling “Ferrari”
The film, starring Adam Driver as the company’s founder, features the trusty components of a Mann movie: the smooth mechanics of professional labor, plus the exhaust manifold of men’s emotional lives.
The Year in Moviegoing
The year resounded with large, loud, and costly films—some of which were so poorly conceived they led me to wonder, why not get A.I. to write them?
“The Zone of Interest” Finds Banality in the Evil of Auschwitz
Jonathan Glazer’s film about the family life of the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss is calmly composed and fiercely controlled.
Grand Appetites and “Poor Things”
In Yorgos Lanthimos’s film, Emma Stone plays a young woman who was created by a scientist, and is forever tasting the world—eating, dancing, travelling, having sex—as if it were freshly made.
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” Cannot Quite Vanquish Its Subject
Joaquin Phoenix summons a man prowling the battlements of his own brain, but is Napoleon’s life just too big for any one movie?
“Maestro” Is a Leonard Bernstein Bio-Pic as Restless as Its Subject
Bradley Cooper stars in his own film about the great conductor-composer, but it is Carey Mulligan, as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia, who walks away with the movie.
“Priscilla” Presents the Echoing Void of Elvis’s Fame
It’s no knock to call Sofia Coppola’s bio-pic, starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley, superficial, because surfaces are Coppola’s subject.
“The Killer” Misses
Starring Michael Fassbender, David Fincher’s film aspires to the cool ruthlessness of its hit-man protagonist but has too many clever conceits to feel threatening.
Dramatic and Moral Ambitions Clash in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Martin Scorsese’s epic about the Osage murders honors Indigenous suffering, but the action keeps getting pulled back into the orbit of the white, male perpetrators.
Can Happiness Be Taught?
Bolstered by Oprah, a Harvard Business School professor thinks you should run your inner self like a company.
“Anatomy of a Fall” Is a Magnificently Slippery Thriller
In Justine Triet’s film, starring Sandra Hüller and Samuel Theis, a marriage and a death are subject to the minutest scrutiny.
“A Haunting in Venice” Has the Charm of Ridiculous Excess
The third of Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot films pushes their established formula—star casting, lush locations, gothic camp—to the limits.
“Gran Turismo” Is a Work of Pure Salesmanship
Encrusted with product placement, Neill Blomkamp’s video-game adaptation is flagrantly unembarrassed by its commercial obligations.
The Destructive Lusts of “Passages”
Ira Sachs’s relentlessly pessimistic film may look like a love triangle, but its shape keeps shifting right up to the bitter end.
Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?
Phone apps now offer to boil down entire books into micro-synopses. What they leave out is revealing.
The Moral Plea Behind Kate Middleton’s Cancer Disclosure
After weeks of conspiracy theories and online calls for her private medical information, the Princess of Wales offered an appeal for basic public decency.
Lord Byron Was More Than Just Byronic
Two centuries after his death, the works of the great Romantic poet reveal a sensibility whose restless meld of humor and melancholy feels thoroughly contemporary.
A Philosophy of Pleasure in “The Taste of Things”
The film, starring Juliette Binoche as a chef at a country manor, is devoted to the long-ripened skills and sheer hard work that go into the giving of rapture.
A Birthday Party to Die for in “Tótem”
In Lila Avilés’s family drama, a young girl must confront her father’s terminal illness at a gathering of relatives.
Michael Mann’s Beguiling “Ferrari”
The film, starring Adam Driver as the company’s founder, features the trusty components of a Mann movie: the smooth mechanics of professional labor, plus the exhaust manifold of men’s emotional lives.
The Year in Moviegoing
The year resounded with large, loud, and costly films—some of which were so poorly conceived they led me to wonder, why not get A.I. to write them?
“The Zone of Interest” Finds Banality in the Evil of Auschwitz
Jonathan Glazer’s film about the family life of the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss is calmly composed and fiercely controlled.
Grand Appetites and “Poor Things”
In Yorgos Lanthimos’s film, Emma Stone plays a young woman who was created by a scientist, and is forever tasting the world—eating, dancing, travelling, having sex—as if it were freshly made.
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” Cannot Quite Vanquish Its Subject
Joaquin Phoenix summons a man prowling the battlements of his own brain, but is Napoleon’s life just too big for any one movie?
“Maestro” Is a Leonard Bernstein Bio-Pic as Restless as Its Subject
Bradley Cooper stars in his own film about the great conductor-composer, but it is Carey Mulligan, as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia, who walks away with the movie.
“Priscilla” Presents the Echoing Void of Elvis’s Fame
It’s no knock to call Sofia Coppola’s bio-pic, starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley, superficial, because surfaces are Coppola’s subject.
“The Killer” Misses
Starring Michael Fassbender, David Fincher’s film aspires to the cool ruthlessness of its hit-man protagonist but has too many clever conceits to feel threatening.
Dramatic and Moral Ambitions Clash in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Martin Scorsese’s epic about the Osage murders honors Indigenous suffering, but the action keeps getting pulled back into the orbit of the white, male perpetrators.
Can Happiness Be Taught?
Bolstered by Oprah, a Harvard Business School professor thinks you should run your inner self like a company.
“Anatomy of a Fall” Is a Magnificently Slippery Thriller
In Justine Triet’s film, starring Sandra Hüller and Samuel Theis, a marriage and a death are subject to the minutest scrutiny.
“A Haunting in Venice” Has the Charm of Ridiculous Excess
The third of Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot films pushes their established formula—star casting, lush locations, gothic camp—to the limits.
“Gran Turismo” Is a Work of Pure Salesmanship
Encrusted with product placement, Neill Blomkamp’s video-game adaptation is flagrantly unembarrassed by its commercial obligations.
The Destructive Lusts of “Passages”
Ira Sachs’s relentlessly pessimistic film may look like a love triangle, but its shape keeps shifting right up to the bitter end.