Jenny McCartney

Milan Kundera and the long argument with 'home'

it has been a long road back: the author milan kundera, perhaps the most famous living czech, recently had his citizenship restored to him a...

Northern Ireland's lesson for Brexit Britain

a depressing phenomenon has occurred in the years since britain voted to leave the european union back in june 2016. the national argument h...

Film: A pungent tale of corruption in Cairo

Film: The businessman who sailed into his own trap

The year titans toppled

Film: Just when you thought the romcom was dead...

Jenny McCartney: There’s more to Westminster than greasers and fixers

it was louis heren, a foreign correspondent for the times, who said – in words famously cited by jeremy paxman – that when a politician told...

Film: A voice for civil rights that can still mesmerise

in 1979, the black american author james baldwin wrote to his publisher proposing a book called remember this house, a personal memoir of th...

Film: McAvoy rescues a Shyamalan schlockfest

spilt (15, 117 mins, ★★★ ) m night shyamalan (the sixth sense, the village) has a reputation both for expertly disturbing his au...

Film: An ironic extravaganza with a joyous heart

la la land (12a, 132 mins, ★★★★ ) in his big-screen musical la la land, damien chazelle does for los angeles what woody allen di...

Oh, Boris! But actually, he was spot on

when my children were under the age of five, there was a book we enjoyed reading called oh, boris! it was the story of a large, enthusiastic...

Film: A convent tale of terror, chaos and new life

the innocents (12a, 100 mins, ★★★★ ) set mainly in a polish convent in 1945 and loosely based on a true story, the innocents is ...

The friendships that history forgot

the first time i attended a service in a catholic church i was 19 years old, and it was the funeral of our friend, the artist kieran mcgoran...

Jenny McCartney: I feel sorry for girls today

the journalist nick cohen – in an article lamenting the fact that organisers of literary festivals expect writers to give their time free of...

Film: The cop caper where everyone’s a smart aleck

war on everyone (cert pg, 100 mins, ★★ ) takes the writer/director john michael mcdonagh’s dark, antic spirit – in ireland for his last two ...

Film: Two actors trapped inside a dictator’s fantasy

the lovers and the despot cert pg, 100 mins, ★★★★ the extraordinary, true tale that unravels in the lovers and the despot, a documentary fro...

Film: The blind man who taught himself to see anew

notes on blindness ( u, 90 mins) ★★★★ in 1983, the british theologian john hull finally went completely blind. by the time the last flicker ...

Film: A graphic Roman tale of sin and its consequences

Film: Ibsen’s wild duck flaps its way onto the screen

Film: Terrence Malick - from transcendence to cliché

Film: Terrence Malick – from transcendence to cliché

Watching his latest film, Knight of Cups, is like being cornered in a bar by a handsome bore

Film: Seven compelling tales of capitalism gone wrong

Film: A Passion drama that lacks a sense of mystery

A Passion drama that lacks a sense of mystery

Risen offers a fresh look at an era studded with casual cruelties and beset by intrigue