Richard E. Grant – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

100 NIGHTS OF HERO – Review by Lynn Venhaus

December 5, 2025December 8, 2025 Lynn Venhaus 100 Nights of Hero, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, felicity jones, Isabel Greenberg, Julia Jackman, maika monroe, Nicholas Galitzine, Richard E. Grant, Sofia Sacomani, Susie Coulthard

A fantasy feminist fable that relies more on style than substance, 100 Nights of Hero is pretty – in people and surroundings – but at times, the story feels too flimsy to be an innovative take on elevating sisterhood over the pompous patriarchy. As a unifying anthem, the film waited too long to make a bold statement– and while motivation is always welcome, why dilly-dally instead of starting the rallying cry early? Nevertheless, give credit for showing that women can conjure their own happily ever after for themselves.

Festivals Reviews

NUREMBERG (TIFF 2025) – Review by Liz Braun

September 18, 2025September 19, 2025 Liz Braun Michael Shannon, rami malek, Richard E. Grant, russell crowe, TIFF 2025

Awards prognosticators have had Nuremberg on their list since even before the film had a world debut at TIFF 2025. Small wonder, given the important historical subject matter and a great cast that includes Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek and Richard E. Grant. There’s no doubt it has an important message: the atrocities of WWII happened because people let them happen: “They didn’t stand up until it was too late,” as one character says. Given that it’s already too late, let’s hope the film inspires viewers to take a good look around. And stand the hell up.

Reviews

DEATH OF A UNICORN – Review by Susan Granger

May 20, 2025May 30, 2025 Susan Granger Alex Scharfman, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Death of a Unicorn, Jenny Ortega, paul rudd, Richard E. Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter

Judging by its outlandish subject matter, I expected writer/director Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn to – at the very least – be an intriguing fantasy/satire. Instead it’s astoundingly awful! The overly complicated central conflict descends into predictably tedious mayhem with R-rated graphic gore revolving around monstrous CGI creatures whose shaggy heads resemble donkeys more than horses.

Reviews

SALTBURN – Review by Susan Granger

February 1, 2024February 7, 2024 Susan Granger Archie Madekwe, Barry Keoghan, Carey Mulligan, emerald fennell, Jacob Elordi, Linus Sandgren, Paul Rhys, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, saltburn

After Promising Young Woman (2022), Emerald Fennell’s auspicious writing/directing debut, her audacious second feature Saltburn is a disappointment. Set in 2006, it’s a twisted, kinky, social-climbing satire revolving around Oliver Quick (Irish actor Barry Keoghan), a guileless ‘scholarship’ Oxford undergrad who cleverly befriends handsome Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), an aristocratic yet surprisingly compassionate classmate. According to Oliver’s tragic backstory, his parents suffered addiction/mental health problems before his father’s recent death – which is why it’s so important to him to wangle an invitation to spend the summer at Catton’s family’s Baroque country estate called Saltburn.

Reviews

SALTBURN – Review by Nadine Whitney

November 27, 2023November 27, 2023 Nadine Whitney Archie Madekwe, Barry Keoghan, Carey Mulligan, emerald fennell, Jacob Elordi, Linus Sandgren, Paul Rhys, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, saltburn

Emerald Fennell’s baroque psychosexual thriller wants you to have fun. There are lines that are spun with a golden malice. She has no pity for the upper crust and delights in displaying how insular they are and how easily they wield their wealth and titles. Their peccadillos are supposed to be transgressive, but in effect they are just the result of bored rich people needing their fix from extending a form of noblesse oblige.

Reviews

SALTBURN – Review by Diane Carson

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 Diane Carson Barry Keoghan, bfi london film festival, Carey Mulligan, emerald fennell, Jacob Elordi, Linus Sandgren, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, saltburn

Saltburn satirizes the ultrarich in 2006 England. How can a scholarship student at posh Oxford University, England, possibly fit in or relate to his privileged, silver-spoon-in-their-mouths classmates? In writer/director Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, set in 2006, that’s the dilemma for poor Oliver Quick who looks as drab as others find him. But he has one advantageous attribute, i.e., he watches carefully and assesses individuals astutely.

Festivals Reviews

SALTBURN (Middleburg FF 2023) – Review by Leslie Combemale

October 30, 2023November 3, 2023 Leslie Combemale Barry Keoghan, bfi london film festival, Carey Mulligan, emerald fennell, Jacob Elordi, Linus Sandgren, Middleburg Film Festival, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, saltburn

From the moment the crimson red, Hammer horror-inspired opening titles show onscreen, the film warns it will not be your usual British uni coming of age story. It wouldn’t be, would it, given that it comes from Emerald Fennell, who brought us Promising Young Woman? That movie, Fennell’s feature debut as writer/director, won her a Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and speaking of promise, made audiences and critics frothy to see what she’d do with her sophomore feature. Though not nearly as original as her first, Saltburn, a sexually transgressive tale of privilege and the desire to belong, allows its lead performer to shine brighter than a diamond encrusted dagger.

Reviews

SALTBURN – Review by Serena Seghedoni

October 5, 2023October 6, 2023 Serena Seghedoni (Archived contributor) Barry Keoghan, bfi london film festival, Carey Mulligan, emerald fennell, Jacob Elordi, Linus Sandgren, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, saltburn

Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn is a wickedly subversive, exquisitely twisty character study that leaves no room for redemption and satisfying resolutions, and that’s the real genius of it. Fennell defies our expectations and delivers a clever character study disguised as an “eat the rich” satire, where everyone is a horrible person and absolutely deserves what they get.

Festivals Reviews

THE LESSON (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 9, 2023June 11, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Alex MacKeith, Alice Troughton, Daryl McCormack, Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant, The Lesson, Tribeca 2023

Alice Troughton’s The Lesson is an enthralling, captivating tale of ethics both personal and professional that sucks us in from its enigmatic opening and remains unrelenting in its suspense throughout. With its recent world premiere at Tribeca, its immaculate casting and watertight screenplay by playwright Alex MacKeith make The Lesson one of those rare viewing experiences where – when we are so clearly in the hands of people at the top of their game – we’re able to surrender completely to the experience, with the fully intuitive feeling of trust that nothing here will be predictable or pedestrian.