Glenn Weldon

And the film itself and Soderbergh's camera is just obsessed with Cole's stillness, like this very self-possessed quality she's bringing.

Because McKellen, his character is always fidgeting and the handheld camera never stops moving.

But Cole just plants herself in the center of this film and everything kind of orbits around her.

You know, that's aping the style of like cinema verite.

Oh, we're just finding the characters in these rooms and we're using natural light.

But make no mistake.

Yeah.

When he is his own cinematographer, he credits himself as Peter Andrews, but it is Soderbergh.

He knows how to light black skin, which shouldn't be a big deal in 2026, but you see people screwing it up all the time.

And so much of this film takes place in the kind of planes of Cole's face that you just keep leaning in because you're waiting for her to...

to react and I don't remember her this about her as an actor in things like Chewing Gum or I May Destroy You but here she can be completely impassive but not blank right the features are still but the eyes are alive and it's a great performance I don't want to like slight what McKellen's doing because he was 85 when he made this he's a grand dame of theater he could have just chewed the scenery and gone home but he is in those scenes with her he is acting and reacting he's alive in the moment he's letting us see how

how much she's getting to Julian, even as Julian, the character, is endeavoring to hide that fact.

As you say, what a great two-hander, a great little chamber piece, but I do think this is Cole's movie.

Yeah.

Peak deployment, yes.

Peak deployment of James Corden.

There are moments that McKellen lets us see where he realizes that his patter, his usual approach, isn't working with her.

And they both register it in different ways.

And so he becomes curious about her in a way it's clear this character has not been curious about other people in a long time.

And this screenwriter is Ed Solomon, who has worked with Soderbergh before.