'When you've not come through the education system of film, you have an imposter syndrome' - shane meadows

Self-doubts begone – with work like TwentyFourSeven, This is England and The Virtues, Shane Meadows is one of the finest British directors working today. So to mark the rerelease of his 2004 drama Dead Man’s Shoes, Total Film sits down with Meadows to discuss how his troubled youth infuses the personal and political nature of his work, and how he’s now entering a new chapter. ‘A full stop got put on something,’ he says.

RESIDENTS EVIL

R.M.N. Cristian Mungiu gives his home country Romania a cinematic brain scan...

CAN WE TALK ABOUT? - BARBENHEIMER

THE DOUBLE BILL THAT MIGHT JUST SAVE CINEMA.

NEXT BIG THING

WOODY NORMAN IS SAILING TO SUCCESS

LAST ORDERS

THE OLD OAK Ken Loach's final film - the tale of a Syrian refugee's bond with a pub landlord...

GUITAR HEROES

FLORA AND SON John Carney scores another low-key hit as a single mum learns the guitar...

CHRIS ALMIGHTY

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER David Gordon Green gets original star Ellen Burstyn to take a leap of faith...

JANE BIRKIN

From Gallic songs to Euro-cinema, activism to fashion, Jane Birkin brought style, daring and charm to all she did. The French Ministry of Culture called her a ‘timeless Francophone icon’, Emmanuel Macron a ‘complete artist’. When Birkin died aged 76 on 16 July 2023, stars from Brigitte Bardot to Iggy Pop paid reverential tribute: testimonies all to the cross-Channel multi-hyphenates multi-stranded talents.

OPPENHEIMER

Fission quest...

BARBIE

All Mattel breaks loose...

GRAN TURISMO

Wheel-life drama...

PAST LIVES

Childhood (bitter)sweethearts...

GAME OF PHONES

In the early 2000s, one smartphone dominated the market as high-flying executives craved instant communication. But as new movie BlackBerry shows, the creators flew too close to the sun. Total Film meets director Matt Johnson and his cast to talk gadgets, gangsters and Gordon Gekko.

MACHO LIBRE

The ultimate underdog tale, Cassandro tells the story of the real-life Mexican wrestler who both dominated the ring and changed attitudes towards homosexuality. Total Film meets director Roger Ross Williams and star Gael García Bernal to pay homage to one of the Spanish-speaking world's most iconic athletes.

ACT OF CREATION

WHILE TEAMING UP ON THE FAVOURITE, STAR EMMA STONE AND DIRECTOR YORGOS LANTHIMOS FORGED AN ELECTRIC CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP THAT SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN. WITH ECCENTRIC FEMINIST FRANKENSTEIN FABLE POOR THINGS UP NEXT, THE DUO TALK TO TOTAL FILM ABOUT THEIR 'ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CONNECTION'.

LOVE MATCH

Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist play tennis and wicked games in Challengers, Luca Guadagnino's sensual study of fierce friendship, competition and messy love triangles. Total Film sits down with the three champs as they serve up on sex scenes, tennis camp and Ratatouille.

YOU TALKIN' TO ME?

FILM QUOTES POSE AS QUESTIONS. FILM STARS TRY TO COPE.

HOT RIGHT NOW

FRAN DRESCHER IS SENDING OUT A WAKE-UP CALL...

BEYOND OUR KEN

A HAUNTING IN VENICE The 'tec with the 'tash grapples with the ghostly in Kenneth Branagh's third Poirot outing.

THE POWER OF THREE

A triple threat of the MCU’s most powerful women unite in The Marvels. Total Film meets the filmmakers to find out how Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan will contend with a formidable new foe, unexpected power-swaps and flerkens galore.

A Bug's Life

Blue Beetle Director Angel Manuel Soto burrows into the DCU.

SUPER TROUPERS

THEATER CAMP Kooky teachers try to save a youth programme in this mockumentary…

BAD HABIT

THE NUN II Sister Irene is back. And so is demon Valak. Director Michael Chaves conjures pure terror in 50s France…

SPINNING OUT

COBWEB Director Samuel Bodin peers into the dark worlds of Poe, Kubrick and Argento…

HOT RIGHT NOW

DAVID CORENSWET AND RACHEL BROSNAHAN ARE READY TO GO UP, UP AND AWAY…

ALAN ARKIN

Alan Arkin enjoyed such success in his later years playing cantankerous curmudgeons, you could be forgiven for assuming that was all he was capable of. Yet while parts such as the coarse-tongued grandad Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine and Argo’s tough-talking producer Lester Siegel fit him like a glove, earning him an Oscar in the first instance and an Oscar nomination in the second, he was in truth a far more versatile talent, as capable of projecting sinister menace and comedic desperation as he was at dispensing worldly wisdom or conveying world-weary resignation

CLASSIC TV QUATERMASS

An experiment in small-screen terror...

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Mission accomplished. Mostly...

JOY RIDE

Great trawl of China...

TALK TO ME

The hand that shocks...