Leigh Singer
Film Journalist, Video Essayist/Editor, Festival Programmer
Sight & Sound, LWLies, BFI, NFTS, LFF, RSIFF & more
vimeo.com/user11355665
“Seemed that he was busy doing something close to nothing but different than the day before." His dad, via Prince
- Wild to think it's a whole spin around the sun since #DavidLynch left us, just a year and four days shy of his 80th birthday, which would’ve been today. Here's my video essay on my favourite of his films, MULHOLLAND DR., and why it epitomises his whole body of work. vimeo.com/223150206?sh...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerLucile Hadžihalilović's THE ICE TOWER is my favourite film from last year. You can watch it now on BFI Player alongside this really warm, generous and insightful interview with Hadžihalilović by @leighsinger.bsky.social about the film and her creative collaborators: player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...
- Such a pleasure to talk in depth with Lucile Hadžihalilović about her hypnotic film (and one of my favourites of 2025), The Ice Tower. Interview available for free on BFI Player (and so is the film)!
- Inconceivable. RIP Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. And for the director of my favourite comedy of all time, as well as many other great films he directed, and facilitated through Castle Rock, an incredibly tragic end to an incredibly meaningful life.
- Reposted by Leigh SingerA Few Good Men. Best in Show. A Mighty Wind. Miss Congeniality. Barcelona. All three movies in Linklater's "Before" trilogy. Music & Lyrics. Michael Clayton. All films that were able to be made because of the production company Reiner co-founded in order to give talented filmmakers creative freedom.
- an absolute honour to talk with one of the most significant creative forces in American film & TV for over 50 years. James L. Brooks on making his kind of comedy-dramas today, his fave Simpsons episode, Wes Anderson Jack Nicholson is coming back anytime soon & more… www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/j...
- For anyone not familiar with Lucile H’s haunting body of work, I also wrote a primer for BFI online. And don’t sleep on Innocence (2004), one of the best films of the 2000s. www.bfi.org.uk/features/whe...
- Marion Cotillard’s impressive performance as a glacial screen diva is matched by newcomer Clara Pacini in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s coolly calibrated vision of The Snow Queen. @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews The Ice Tower, out today. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerMarion Cotillard’s impressive performance as a glacial screen diva is matched by newcomer Clara Pacini in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s coolly calibrated vision of The Snow Queen. @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews The Ice Tower, out today. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh Singer🎥 32 years ago today, Peter Weir’s Fearless hit theaters—a profound journey through trauma, survival & rebirth. Revisit this underrated masterpiece in our deep dive: cinephiliabeyond.org/fearless/
- @lffstubs.bsky.social 1 ticket to the sold out screening of THE TRAVELERS, Friday 17th October, 12:00pm at BFI Southbank. Face value £13.00 ono whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...
- @lffstubs.bsky.social I have 1 ticket going for Lucrecia Martel's LANDMARKS screening this evening at 18:00 Thursday 16th October @BFI Southbank, NFT1, with director Q&A. Ticket face value £18.00, ono, get in touch asap! whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerJust a reminder of what an absolute c*nt Farage is: he wants to scrap the benefits of people who legally work and pay their taxes in Britain, yet the greasy f*cker happily slurps down his fat EU pension - paid for by the very European citizens he spent years spewing bile at. Parasite in a suit.
- pleasure to be back on the @lwlies.com Truth & Movies podcast, talking The Long Walk and the longer trudge that is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, a sequel to one of my all-time favourites that flirts with a certain infamous two-word review.
- It’s like, how much more disappointed could you get? And the answer is… none. None more disappointed… As a devoted Tap-head, this isn’t at all the review I wanted to write but here are my thoughts on Spinal Tap II - The End Continues for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerMore of Kirk’s “reasonable opinions”
- Reposted by Leigh SingerCharlie Kirk was a private citizen Melissa Hortman was a seated lawmaker in MN No Flags were flown half staff at the WH for her death by gun violence
- “Academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion. Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates.” Werner Herzog (Happy Birthday!)
- HBD New German Cinema legend Werner Herzog!! Daring choices in a career of relentless exploration More: Spectacular interview: nyti.ms/3doO4Tu Novel - rev via @msorrento.bsky.social: filmint.nu/werner-herzo... @leighsinger.bsky.social: www.bfi.org.uk/features/whe...
- It’s that time again… A pleasure as ever to be involved in selecting films for the #LFF. Among the high-profile draws there are some real unsung gems that I’ll flag up closer to the festival. Meantime, feast yer eyes! whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerHit like if you read film criticism weekly and repost if you read film criticism more than that
- Met him once to talk about his… chocolates. But such a down-to-earth guy, zero pretensions & talent to burn that, despite impressive credits, you felt was often under appreciated. Still, Billy Budd, Collector, Teorema, Madding Crowd, Superman II, The Hit, Priscilla QOTD, The Limey… RIP Terence Stamp
- Pravda.
- This is so depressingly true re: the arts / of criticism. But in the bigger picture I also go back to shitheel Tory politician Michael Gove’s phoney Brexit shibboleth that British people “have had enough of experts” to justify anti-intellectual, knee-jerk populism & how to control / profit from it.
- Et tu, @bsky.app? If this stellar, heartfelt Walter Chaw WEAPONS review is indicative of what can get you suspended on this site, have to question whether it’s worth sticking around here. filmfreakcentral.net/2025/08/weap...
- “UK civil liberties are trapped in a manufactured crisis. Peaceful citizens of conscience… have become terrorists, at the will of a human rights lawyer turned authoritarian who now lunges at opinions that expose the moral vacuum of his unrecognisable government. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
- This is fantastic, urge you to listen, especially if you think Still Bill is one of the most underrated albums out there…
- 🚨new video essay 🚨 How deep is your love - and memory - of Saturday Night Fever? The original is closer to Mean Streets than Grease, but that’s not how most people think of it… How Saturday Night Fever was remodelled for a PG audience for @lwlies.com. Full video here: youtu.be/KSniVr7-2_c?...
- New album cover art drop, courtesy of the fab European Film Festival Palić, FIPRESCI jury
- no words... but also no action taken by any governments to this ongoing slaughter, so it just continues. insanity.
- 🙏
- Great to rewatch THE NICE GUYS (2016), Shane Black's sweet family comedy about a grieving dad reconnecting with his young daughter through copious violence, nudity and swearing. A terrific new video essay by @leighsinger.bsky.social on @secondsightfilms.bsky.social Bluray illuminates Black's career.
- Reposted by Leigh SingerA Penguin editor looking around their office this morning.
- “Your producers were so preoccupied with whether they COULD, they never stopped to think about…” yadda yadda yadda, rinse & repeat
- At its best, Rebirth replicates some of Jurassic Park’s magic, but Gareth Edwards' blockbuster-savvy direction can’t save the subpar script. @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews Jurassic World Rebirth, out now. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- A really insightful interview with David Cronenberg by @hannahstrong.co.uk for @lwlies.com
- Good sound, good writer.
- All just a little bit of prehistory repeating… reviewed Jurassic World Rebirth for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social
- At its best, Rebirth replicates some of Jurassic Park’s magic, but Gareth Edwards' blockbuster-savvy direction can’t save the subpar script. @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews Jurassic World Rebirth, in cinemas July 2. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- in this utter sh*tshow of a world, we need to celebrate the positives when they come. fantastic news from NYC #ZohranMamdani
- please support this great site ✊⬇️
- C&B has been dying a slow death for months, and it seems that no one cares. Support articles like the one below; soon they won't be anywhere on the internet. If you want C&B to survive, now’s the time to show it: cinephiliabeyond.org/donate2024/
- also from @lwlies.com on Before Sunrise, a really beautiful piece by Jess Furseth: lwlies.com/in-praise-of...
- A highly personal look at three films that get more resonant and poignant as time goes by, Richard Linklater’s BEFORE… trilogy. New video essay for @lwlies.com, full link is here: youtu.be/7My0TSarYqA?...
- A highly personal look at three films that get more resonant and poignant as time goes by, Richard Linklater’s BEFORE… trilogy. New video essay for @lwlies.com, full link is here: youtu.be/7My0TSarYqA?...
- Reposted by Leigh Singer@secondsightfilms.bsky.social release of The Nice Guys is typically brilliant. Beautiful transfer and @leighsinger.bsky.social video essay “Lethal Weapon to Nice Guys” is a treat.
- Delighted to have my new video essay ’From Lethal Weapons to Nice Guys: How Shane Black Reinvented the Buddy Movie’ featured on the stellar new Blu-Ray release of THE NICE GUYS from @secondsightfilms.bsky.social
- Reposted by Leigh SingerThe Slow West director returns with a genre-splicing revenge tale about a teenage samurai performer on the run from a criminal gang in 18th century Scotland. @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews John Maclean’s Tornado, in cinemas Friday. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerDo you love crazy C19/20th history, ridiculously long and deadly rare snakes and a damn good read? If so, you'll be pleased to hear that @skyhorsepublishing.bsky.social will soon be relaunching BUSHMASTER: RAYMOND DITMARS AND THE HUNT FOR THE WORLD'S LARGEST VIPER. www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1628...
- Such a blast to buddy up again with the great @secondsightfilms.bsky.social and make a new video essay for this terrific film!
- It's finally done! A huge thank you to everyone who helped with this, including the awesome @jlalibs.bsky.social @leighsinger.bsky.social @nadinewhitney.bsky.social @mitchellbeaupre.bsky.social @priscillapage.bsky.social @hannahstrong.co.uk @jamie-graham.bsky.social #FilmSky 🙌
- Loved hosting the @regentstcinema.bsky.social Q&A of THE END with @joshuaoppenheimer.bsky.social and George Mackay at the weekend. Such an insightful and eloquent discussion of a film that grows in resonance on a repeat viewing and feels so prescient and human. Go see it where you can.
- Reposted by Leigh Singer[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Leigh SingerThe Gen X Career Meltdown www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- I’m hosting a Q&A tonight at @regentstcinema.bsky.social with @joshuaoppenheimer.bsky.social and George Mackay for their haunting apocalyptic musical THE END. A few tickets still left, come on down! www.regentstreetcinema.com/movie/the-en...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerBrexit will reduce UK trade by 15% in the long term, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility
- WTAF?
- Interviewed Sandhya Suri for her excellent feature debut SANTOSH for the new @sightsoundmag.bsky.social. Sandhya’s earlier documentary I FOR INDIA is an all-time favourite of mine, can’t recommend it highly enough.
- Reposted by Leigh Singer
Will @theacademyusa.bsky.social use its worldwide prominence to speak up for an Oscar-winning director? Hamdan Ballal was attacked and seriously injured—and the IDF arrested HIM while he was in the ambulance. No charges, no sign of him since. Where are you, AMPAS? chng.it/dzMJYfSbqM - Like evil doll horror. Quite like Geoffrey Rush. Love John Lithgow. Did not much care of The Rule of Jenny Pen. Review for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social ⬇️
- “Dead-eyed dolls are a horror staple… To give this mean-spirited chiller its due, you’ve probably never seen one terrorise care home denizens while attached to John Lithgow’s hand” @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews The Rules of Jenny Pen www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerIncredible. Gift version of article: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
- V pleased to have my new video essay ‘Anger Management: Cronenberg’s Brood & the Shapes of Cinematic Rage’ on the gorgeous new @secondsightfilms.bsky.social release of the seminal body horror / divorce metaphor. Made me wonder what Dave could’ve done with the Hulk…
- Reposted by Leigh Singerif you use ebay, you've been opted in to their AI training model, you can opt out here if you're in the EEA, UK or Switzerland accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/ai-preferences
- Often overshadowed by the glitching and general computering that followed but don’t think there’s a better traditional British rock album from the 90s (and certainly nothing from ‘Britpop’). Also… 30 YEARS?!?!
- Radiohead's The Bends turns 30 today. Between the grunge pastiche of Pablo Honey and the outsize art-rock of OK Computer, The Bends arrived as an unlikely milestone for Britpop and for Radiohead itself. See where The Bends ranks on our best albums of the '90s list: pitchfork.com/features/lis...
- Out today, BLACK BAG is exactly the sort of smart, stylish, witty, grownup crowdpleaser, with beautifully shot stars looking & sounding gorgeous that we always rue isn’t made any more. So, go support it at the cinema and be treated to one of Steven Soderbergh’s (and writer David Koepp’s) very best.
- Reposted by Leigh Singer“He wanted also to have the freedom to just be a photographer, not a Black photographer, not an anti-apartheid photographer, and that part was never allowed to him” @leighsinger.bsky.social speaks with director Raoul Peck about his new doc Ernest Cole: Lost and Found www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social, a real privilege to IV great Haitian director Raoul Peck for his terrific new doc ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND, on groundbreaking South African photographer who helped expose Apartheid. out now in the UK via @dogwoofdocs.bsky.social www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Opening the @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social last week, here's my @sightsoundmag.bsky.social review of John Maclean's fine follow up to his excellent 2015 neo-Western Slow West, TORNADO. www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- Reposted by Leigh SingerFor those UK folks yet to see it, Channel 4 are airing No Other Land tomorrow night at 11:15pm and it should be available on demand afterwards too. You need to watch it.
- Another #Oscars, another year of blatant Category Fraud, this time in two of the most locked sets of nominees. Which is why this video essay I made 10 whole years ago, analyzing the sorry, but highly effective ploy, is an evergreen. Link to the full video below: vimeo.com/155094133
- Appalling.
- Reposted by Leigh Singer“A key strength of James Mangold’s film is its attempt to nimbly navigate actuality, to get at a more impressionistic idea of the truth” @leighsinger.bsky.social reviews Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
- this is a terrific Gene Hackman obituary from @brofromanother.bsky.social, for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social. www.bfi.org.uk/features/gen...
- Just one of the best to ever do it. Precisely because you never, ever caught him doing it. Thank you, Gene Hackman. RIP.
- Non-problematically saluting whoever came up with this.
- This was a couple of weeks back but since it’s the great Mike Leigh’s birthday, here’s the @lwlies.com Truth & Movies podcast in which we discuss Hard Truths, Secrets and Lies and how Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s amazing performance was stone-cold robbed by the Oscars: open.spotify.com/episode/3yBR...
