Philip Bagnall

About Me

I am a London-based film critic, on the search for new outlets for my work.

My current outlets:

- Loud and Clear Reviews

- Next Best Picture

- Scannain

- Headstuff

I am co-host of 'Culture Corner' on Radio Harrow, and I also contribute to The 250 Podcast.

I am available for articles, reviews, interviews and festivals. I have previously attended and covered:

- Cannes Film Festival

- Venice Film Festival

- BFI London Film Festival,

- Dublin International Film Festival.

Member, Film Critics Association UK

If any journalists, editors, producers etc. like what they see here, get in touch:

Email: cynicalfilm@gmail.com

Bluesky/Instagram/Letterboxd: @CynicalFilm

Recent Work

HeadStuff •

Conclave | Ralph Fiennes Elevates Pulpy Papal Potboiler - HeadStuff

If history (Both recent and otherwise) has taught us anything, it’s that politics is a show. The demands of ceremony and functional government require us to facilitate the ego-stroking of the most ambitious and conniving members of society. Elections are (usually) big enough to dilute the megalomania somewhat, but the conclave of… er, Conclave comes down to a few dozen cardinals in the Sistine Chapel picking their next leader. Gossip and self-righteousness are the order of the day as the Catholi...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Interview: Producer Michael Jackman on Conclave

We interview Conclave producer Michael Jackman to discuss how to choose good films, avoiding trouble with the Vatican, and how to forget politics and have fun.


Among the potential nominees of this year’s awards season, Conclave is possibly the most ambitious from a narrative point of view. It’s a thriller, a character study, and a metaphor all at once. Adapted from Robert Harris’ novel, it’s a gripping peek behind the curtain at the assembly of cardinals to elect a new Pope, it has to balance...
HeadStuff •

Gladiator II | Paul Mescal's Blockbuster Debut is All Talk and No Toga - HeadStuff

You know what’s still a terrific film? Gladiator.


Against all the odds (including on-set rewrites, injuries aplenty, and the death of a major actor mid-shoot), Ridley Scott’s 2000 behemoth achieved box office and awards success, and briefly revived the swords-and-sandals epic as a viable genre. That trend died out a few years later (Scott’s own Kingdom of Heaven was a notable casualty, though the Director’s Cut is well worth seeking out), but the fondness for such old-school epics amongst dir...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Small Things Like These Review: Small Town, Big Secrets

Small Things Like These is modest in runtime and ambition, but it allows Cillian Murphy’s sublime performance to convey its message and anger.


He lifted his head up when everyone else was keeping theirs down, and what he saw changed his life forever. It’s an epic hook on a local scale. It’s a more painful story than The Quiet Girl, which was also adapted from a Keegan novel, but one that seeks to stir its audience in similar ways with its humility and grace.


The story of Ireland’s Magdalen...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Justin Kurzel on Ellis Park: LFF Interview

In this interview with Ellis Park director Justin Kurzel, he tells us about Warren Ellis, making his first documentary, creativity, and more.


It’s been a busy year for Justin Kurzel. The acclaimed director of the likes of Snowtown and Nitram has returned to the festival circuit with two films in one year. His domestic terrorist thriller The Order played at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, but his second film, Ellis Park, is a very different beast.


Ellis Park marks Kurzel’s first fora...
Next Best Picture •

"THAT CHRISTMAS" - Review

THE STORY – A blizzard hits a seaside town, setting off entwined tales of family, friends, love and loneliness – and Santa making a big mistake.
THE CAST – Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker & Bill Nighy
THE TEAM – Simon Otto (Director), Richard Curtis & Peter Souter (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 92 Minutes
Richard Curtis has created his fair share of mawkish onscreen Christmas moments, but surprisingly, the creator of “Love, Actually” and “About Time” has never made a film expressly for chil...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Hard Truths Review: A Late Leigh Stunner

Mike Leigh delivers a raw and timely domestic drama in Hard Truths. A fiery Marianne Jean-Baptiste leads a superb cast.


She might be named for a delicate flower, but Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is anything but. From the moment she wakes up (usually from a nightmare), she’s on edge all day. Finding fault in everyone and everything she encounters, she lashes out at anyone who does even the slightest thing to irritate her Shop staff, medical professionals, even the birds on her driveway; no-o...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

The End Review: The Beginning of Something Wonderful

Joshua Oppenheimer’s masterful post-apocalyptic musical The End soars on gorgeous filmmaking, confidence and raw emotion.


To complete an unlikely trilogy, we get The End. This could have had the campest approach to a post-apocalyptic story this side of Roland Emmerich, but it comes from a director who has turned unlikely displays of artistic expression into masterpieces before, and thankfully, he’s done it again.


Joshua Oppenheimer’s career as a filmmaker rests almost entirely on the backs...
HeadStuff •

Festival Review: One of the Year's Best Films | Anora is a breathless whirlwind of sex, oligarchs and dreams turned sour - HeadStuff

Sean Baker has become a most unlikely chronicler of the American Dream for Gen Z. That he gets to do so while never straying from his commitment to telling the stories of sex workers and societal outcasts is miraculous. At the core of all these stories, from Prince of Broadway to Tangerine to Red Rocket, is a desperation to move beyond one’s station in life, and all their protagonists can do is try to hustle their way out. It’s a universal sentiment, one shared by Anora (Mikey Madison), the hero...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Grand Tour Review: A Journey Well Worth Taking

Miguel Gomes’ Cannes-prizewinning Grand Tour is a dazzling marriage of past and present, and fact and fiction.


From some very disparate elements he sculpts a unique travelogue, one that exists behind a veil of sadness, and yet still captures the wonder of many wonderful destinations. This, Gomes’ first solo credit as director since 2015’s dreadfully indulgent Arabian Nights trilogy, returns to the dreamy stylishness of Tabu to create an dazzling (but not over-idealised) portrait of a time lon...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Soundtrack to a Coup d'État Review: Jazz at the End of Empire

Soundtrack To A Coup d’État is a mesmerizing (if overlong) look at how music can both inspire and placate the masses.


The death of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo, continues to be a black stain on the region’s history. Though only officially the prime minister of the newly independent nation for a number of months before being abducted and shot in 1961, Lumumba’s assassination remains emblematic of the post-colonial struggle in Africa. It’s a grim story,...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

La Máquina Episode 1 Review: Dos Amigos Strike TV Gold

Episode 1 of La Máquina overcomes clichés of the washed-up boxer with energetic pacing, plenty of laughs and charming leads.



Showrunner & Writer: Marco RamirezDirector: Gabriel RipsteinGenre: Sport DramaNumber of episodes: 6Starring: Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Eiza GonzálezRelease Date: October 9, 2024, all episodes at onceWhere to watch: Hulu (US) and Disney Plus (UK & Ireland)



Haven’t we been here before? A washed-up boxer looks for a way back into the ring, and into the hearts...
HeadStuff •

Festival Review: The Apprentice is Everything a Donald Trump Movie Should Be — Strangely Compelling to Watch, but Empty - HeadStuff

It’s official: playing second fiddle to Chris Evans is no longer the toughest gig Sebastian Stan has played. The one-time Winter Soldier goes from one untrustworthy patriot in Captain America to another in The Apprentice. Taking on the role of Donald J. Trump is an entirely thankless task. Unless you’re gurning for comedic kudos à la Alec Baldwin on SNL, there is precious little point in trying to bring depth to this most vacuous subject. Think what you might about Trump, but you have to believe...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Seeing the worst at his very best: Ed Wood at 30

Burton’s homage to his favourite filmmaker, Ed Wood, masks warmth, admiration and prescient life lessons in the guise of a standard biopic.


Edward D. Wood Jr. (1924 – 1978) is known to cinephiles as one of the worst directors to ever sit behind a camera. His repertoire of low-budget camp drama has earned him cult status among fans. The infamous likes of Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957) and Glen or Glenda (1953) are still watched with equal measures of derision and admiration to this day. Wood h...
HeadStuff •

An Elegant Crime | 25 years on, The Thomas Crown Affair shows how remakes should be done - HeadStuff

*This article contains spoilers for both the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair and the 1968 original film.*
The idea of a remake of an older film usually invites eye rolls from audiences, and it really shouldn’t be this way. So many of them leave no impact, which entirely misses the point of making a remake in the first place. In an ideal world, a remake will recontextualize the original work, infusing it with changes to allow the material to breathe anew. This is why remakes of beloved c...
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Interview: Carson Lund & Keith William Richards on Eephus

We interview writer-director Carson Lund and actor Keith William Richards on the Croisette to discuss their film Eephus, shortly after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Director’s Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) at the Cannes Film Festival is a welcome sidebar from the hustle and bustle of the main competition. It’s non-competitive, and focuses on showcasing new talents from all over the world, particularly those with bold new visions and filmmaking methods on display. In the 20
Loud And Clear Reviews •

The Shrouds review: A howl of grief from Cronenberg

Even if the plotting could be tighter, the ideas at work in The Shrouds mark it as Cronenberg’s most personal feature.

In The Shrouds, David Cronenberg touches on a great many worries, from the invasive prescience of AI, to the foreign infiltration of surveillance systems, to the rise of antisemitism. For all that, though, the primary takeaway from The Shrouds is that Cronenberg misses his wife. Carolyn Zeifman Cronenberg passed away in 2017, but the effect of her death weighs on her husband st
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Eephus review: Out with the old, but one more game first

With humour and insight, Carson Lund paints a vivid portrait of Americana in flux in baseball gem Eephus.

For his debut feature as director, the indie baseball comedy Eephus, he also co-wrote, co-produced, edited, and worked on the soundtrack. Our passions can mean the world to us, and Lund uses his debut to explore what happens when an outlet for those passions gets taken away. For all the brawny energy it brings, Eephus mourns the passing of tradition in subtle but potent ways.

It’s Sunday a
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Emilia Pérez Film Review: Audiard the Audacious

Emilia Pérez is about as unlikely as a musical gets, but bombastic performances and direction make it a very memorable watch.

The French director never shies away from a challenge. After forays into English and Tamil, Audiard hops to Mexico City for his Spanish language debut, and throws himself into the staging of this most unlikely sing-song. That any of it works at all is a miracle, but it gets by on sheer chutzpah.

As a story, Emilia Pérez is pure Audiard. As a screenwriter and filmmaker,
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Oh, Canada Review: Schrader's Cannes confession

Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada is a critical but moving account of confession in the face of one’s own mortality.

If the protagonist of Oh, Canada is an avatar of the writer/director, then his anger has curdled into sickness and loneliness. This is no bad thing. The bracing honesty of Oh, Canada is refreshing, not an adjective you expect to use for work from a 78-year-old filmmaker. It refreshes because the film is so open about its main character being a terrible person. Leonard Fife isn’t a facto
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Megalopolis Film Review: Coppola’s Grand Folly

Francis Ford Coppola’s self-made epic Megalopolis is big, brassy and dreadfully indulgent. Years of cult fandom and overanalysis await.

Coppola is one of the few filmmakers who can make projects of this scale, ambition and abrasiveness. Any fallout from his filmmaking remains to be seen, but Megalopolis should be appreciated for getting made in the first place, especially when risk-averse studios claim they can’t market such grandiosity and visual lunacy (How hard can it be to put “From the leg
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Unfrosted Film Review: Tastes Tart, Lacks Pop

Jerry Seinfeld’s corporate satire Unfrosted fails to bring many effective jokes or a strong message to the (breakfast) table.

Thankfully, Unfrosted is just that. Director/co-writer/star Jerry Seinfeld is the world’s best-known connoisseur of breakfast cereal (Can you think of any others?), and opts to take a curious side-eyed look at the creation of that snack that you might recall having a few times as a child, but haven’t given an active thought to in decades. No-one was screaming out for Unf
Loud And Clear Reviews •

Finding hope in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia

As Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia turns 25, we explore how it continues to offer hope to its characters and its audience.

*This article contains spoilers for the entirety of Magnolia.*

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past”


When William Faulkner wrote “Requiem For a Nun,” he couldn’t have imagined how much the lines above would stick with the general populace. We are all products of the past, but we are also slaves to it, never able to escape. Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnum opus Magn

Interview: Pat Collins on That They May Face The Rising Sun

John McGahern’s 2003 novel That They May Face The Rising Sun sounds like perfect material for writer-director Pat Collins. The acclaimed director of Song of Granite and Silence brings his calm and patient eye to this tale of two emigrés, Joe and Kate (Barry Ward and Anna Bederke), returning to Joe’s home in rural Ireland from London for a different pace of living. Collins and co-writer Éamon Little’s adaptation stays true to McGahern’s spirit. It honours the spirit of rural communities, while al
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