“The Christophers” looks like an art heist movie at first. A couple of wannabe heirs (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) hire a restoration specialist (Michaela Coel) to finish a series of paintings by their famous father (Ian McKellen), who wants nothing to do with them or the uncompleted works that would surely command an astronomical price tag.

The offspring, whom McKellen’s Julian Sklar vividly describes as wrecks — one a train wreck, one a shipwreck — feel they deserve an inheritance they’re smart enough to know they won’t receive through any will — or talent of their own. The specialist and sometimes forger Lori (Coel) has other motives. There’s the promise of paying rent, yes, but there’s also an element of revenge. Lori and Julian have a kind of history that the movie will reveal in time. She’s also been publicly critical of his later works.

But “The Christophers” is not an “Ocean’s” movie or a “Logan Lucky,” which is to say it’s not really a heist. There’s the tease of one, right up until the end, and the promise of the con. This latest film by the great and astonishingly prolific Steven Soderbergh is not out to give the audience what they think they want from him. Instead, it’s a meditation on art, legacy, creativity and the oh-so-touchy subject of who has the right to critique. It might sound a bit dreary, but Ed Solomon’s razor-sharp script and the brilliant pairing of McKellen and Coel make this lean two-hander breeze by.

You can read however much you want into how much Soderbergh (or Solomon) may or may not relate to Julian, who is determined to burn, bury and shred the unfinished “Christophers,” a series of paintings of a former boyfriend that became his most famous. It’s a fun and prickly exercise for any creative person to reconcile with the peaks and lulls of a long career in the arts — and Julian is luckier than most. He actually got famous and relatively wealthy from his paintings.

Julian huffs that “to judge art one must possess the skills to make said art.” It’s the kind of statement that, if given in an interview, might launch a thousand think pieces. Julian is both old and a devout rebel, with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom, wit and burned bridges in his arsenal. It’s a potent combination ripe for internet virality, but at the moment his online presence is mostly relegated to something akin to Cameo messages for 149 pounds a pop (249 if he mimes a signature).

When Lori arrives, he suddenly has an audience for his theatrical, nonstop musings: fun for McKellen, his character and the audience, but not so much for Lori, who absorbs the monologuing with steely indifference until she decides to take more control of the situation. There’s a bit of the generational disconnect that happens, but it’s somehow never cliche or predictable. The story zigs and zags with its characters as they work through the situation at hand and the larger issues both seem to be plagued by. The script throws a lot of ideas out there and, refreshingly, none of them is to be taken as dogma, especially not Julian’s comment about who has the right to judge art. Like many things he says, it’s probably just the most withering thing he could think of at the moment.

It is a funny thing, though, to critique a movie that does have so much to say about criticism, about what the person behind the keyboard might actually have the guts to say out loud to the person courageous enough to make something and put it out in the world. Perhaps it’s not actually that hard when the movie is as solid as “The Christophers,” or when the filmmaker in question is on a roll like Soderbergh with both “Presence” and “Black Bag.” His movies may have gotten smaller, but the verve remains.

“The Christophers,” a Neon release in New York and LA on Friday and nationwide on April 17, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language.” Running time: 100 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Watch Psycho Killer on VOD now

Psycho Killer was directed by Gavin Polone, who has produced a lot of amazing genre movies. These include Stephen King‘s Secret Window (2004), Cold Storage, and Zombieland: Double Tap, while also having produced projects in various other genres. As a director, this is his feature film debut, and I’m sorry to say I think this is the main issue of the finished product.

I say this because the screenplay was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who also wrote Se7en. Much of what I liked initially about Psycho Killer feels like classic Andrew Kevin Walker, so I’m hesitant to truly believe the story is bad. After all, the iconic Seven could also have been a very strange experience if not directed by David Fincher.

For the record, Seven is far from the only successful script by Andrew Kevin Walker. He also wrote Brainscan (1994), Hideaway (1995), 8MM (1999), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Wolfman (2010), Windfall (2022), and The Killer (2023). In other words, he is very far from being a one-hit wonder.

I don’t want to recommend that you skip this movie, because the first half of Psycho Killer shows what a brilliant serial killer horror slasher this could have been. So watch it, and try to prepare yourself for an ending that does not live up to that strong opening.

Psycho Killer is out on digital from April 7, 2026.

On August 13, 1982, Universal released teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High in theaters, marking the directorial debut of Amy Heckerling from a screenplay by Cameron Crowe. The film, featuring a breakout performance from Sean Penn, would go on to become a cult classic. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

Fast Times at Ridgemont High has it all Pac-Man, pizza, cruising, cursing, rockin’, rollin’ enough to keep even the most “totally awesome” teen tuned in all the way. And, given the recent success of almost every zany adolescent film, Fast Times should easily pull in its share of youngsters. What separates this Universal release from the pack, however, is its warmth. It may be a film about kids, but it’s for adults who have not forgotten what it’s like to be a kid.

Fast Times follows six teenagers through one year at Ridgemont High, clocking every escapade, from ordering a pizza for arrival during U.S. History to boyfriends and unwanted pregnancies. Screenwriter Cameron Crowe has adapted his bestselling book quite well, keeping a very personal perspective (Crowe actually went back to high school before writing the book, posing as a student for a year as research). Amy Heckerling, in her feature debut, has proven herself to be a truly gifted director, able to tickle the ribs with one hand while the other tugs at the heartstrings.

Although the high school setting might at first brand Fast Times as another Porky’s spin-off, the film stands on its own. If comparisons are to be made, they might better link Fast Times with the intimate portrayal of ’50s teens in American Graffiti. Both Graffiti and Times delve beneath the surface of their characters, showing in the process that teenagers haven’t changed all that much. They just quit cruising the main drag with Elvis. Now they “check out” the mall to the beat of the Go Go’s.

The cast approaches the picture with a delightfully devil-may-care sincerity, playing off of one another with a simple ease. It is these characterizations, as written by Crowe and under the skillful eye of Heckerling, that give the film its charm. The most flamboyant in his characterization is Sean Penn as Spicoli, the bleached-out surfer with the permanently blood-shot eyes and a half-smile pinned to his cheeks. Penn provides the wilder moments at Ridgemont High, and to his credit, never dropped the reality of his character in going for a madcap laugh.

Judge Reinhold’s Brad also adds consistent comic edge to the picture with his sad eyes and fast food attitude. Robert Romanus, as Damone, would scalp Ozzy Osbourne tickets to his grandmother, and yet deftly treads the tightrope between cockiness and desperation. Phoebe Cates play the nymphette Linda to the hilt, showing only now and again the lost little girl inside. Jennifer Jason Leigh, as the freshman with a lot to learn, proaches her Stacy with the most even of keels. Her performance, although quite natural, tends toward the monochromatic. Brian Hecker, as the would-be beau, has little to do other than proffer an embarrassed smile. Veteran actor Ray Walston, as the history teacher, plays a sour-pussed straight man to the constant shenanigans of Spicoli.

Music plays an important role in Fast Times, offering an ambience that varies from “Oingo Boingo” to Jackson Browne. Although the likes of the Go Go’s and the Cars are present at times, the soundtrack as a whole seems too staid to provide a backdrop for ’80s kids kicking around in the heyday of punk. Other technical credits include the fine work of Dan Lomin whose art direction gives the Sherman Oaks Galleria an intimacy it has never known. — Gina Friedlande, originally published on Aug. 11, 1982.