Lifestyle
You can’t fake this: ‘The Christophers’ is a witty film about forgery and friendship
Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen star in The Christophers.
Claudette Barius/NEON
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Claudette Barius/NEON
After Steven Soderbergh’s terrific 2025 double bill of Presence and Black Bag, I almost wish that, purely for the sake of variety, I could say that his new movie, The Christophers, is a dud. But I can’t. It’s terrific, and it’s the latest confirmation that Soderbergh is working with a nimbleness that no other American director at the moment can match. You might have to go back to the workhorse days of the old Hollywood studio system for such a consistent abundance of quantity and quality.
The Christophers, which was written by Ed Solomon, is a spry and witty chamber comedy, most of it set in the ramshackle London townhouse of a famous painter, Julian Sklar, played by a superb Ian McKellen. Not long after the movie begins, Julian takes on a new assistant, Lori Butler, played by Michaela Coel. What he doesn’t know is that Lori is a skilled art restorer, and that she’s been hired to infiltrate his home by his two greedy grown-up children, played by James Corden and Jessica Gunning.
Lori’s mission is to find several of Julian’s unfinished paintings — all portraits of his former lover Christopher — and finish them in Julian’s style. The plan is that when Julian dies, perhaps someday soon, the forged Christophers will be discovered and sold for millions. Lori will get a third of the proceeds.
Soderbergh has a deft way with heist and home-invasion movies, and The Christophers is, as you’d expect, full of twists and reversals. Lori has some moral qualms about taking on a forgery job, but she also has a personal gripe to settle with Julian that leads her to say yes. Also, she needs the money; as ever, Soderbergh is keenly attuned to his characters’ economic straits.
When she starts working at Julian’s townhouse, Lori mostly keeps her head down and pretends to know nothing about her boss or about art. But Julian can sense that his new assistant is more clever than she lets on.
We learn that Julian experienced a close brush with cancellation years ago, owing to some impolitic remarks he made about women artists. It’s one of many reasons his career has floundered in recent years — that, plus a general lack of inspiration and productivity.
McKellen has a sublime ability to combine gravitas with mischief, and he gives his strongest performance in years as this incorrigible old soul. I was reminded of his great Oscar-nominated turn in Gods and Monsters, as the Hollywood director James Whale, another queer artist in the twilight of a legendary career. But McKellen is matched, nuance for nuance, by Coel, an intensely magnetic screen presence whose work here is mesmerizing in its poise and restraint.
It’s no spoiler to note that Julian is too smart to be deceived by Lori for long, and once the truth begins to emerge, their battle of wits doesn’t just deepen; it turns inside out. Despite their differences — in race, gender, class, temperament and worldview — Julian and Lori are more alike than they realize, and what’s thrilling about The Christophers is the way it becomes a tart yet tender portrait of two kindred spirits.
Julian, for all his bloviating, turns out to be a more empathetic listener than he appears, and Lori, for all her initial reserve, turns out to be Julian’s rhetorical and intellectual equal. In the movie’s best scene, Lori dissects the history of Julian’s entire Christophers project, balancing rigorous analysis of his materials and techniques with unsparing insight into what each painting reveals of his emotional state at the time.
McKellen and Coel make such splendid company that I’d have gladly watched them simply trade insults for two hours. But Soderbergh and Solomon have grander ambitions, and every scene of The Christophers is springloaded with ideas. They know that it’s never been harder for artists to make a living doing what they do; it’s no coincidence that both Julian and Lori rely on side hustles just to get by.
The filmmakers also know the absurdities of the fine-art world, where the price of a painting can fluctuate wildly according to the whims of the market. Soderbergh, not for the first time, seems to be commenting at least in part on the struggles of independent filmmaking. Not unlike the New York pro-sports milieu in High Flying Bird or the Florida male strip club in Magic Mike, the studios and galleries of The Christophers can feel analogous to the movie industry itself — a place where, against crushing odds, art somehow manages to find a way.
Rose Byrne poses at a 2025 press conference in Berlin for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Europe
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Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Europe
Rose Byrne is one of the few actors to receive both an Oscar and a Tony nomination in the same year — the former for the film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and the latter for Fallen Angels on Broadway.
If I Had Legs was an intense indie film about a mother falling apart as she struggles to keep up with ever-increasing caregiving demands for her ill daughter. Byrne, who previously starred in blockbuster comedies like Neighbors and Bridesmaids, was praised for showing her range. Now, she’s returning to comedy in the revival of Noël Coward’s 1925 play about two wealthy women who find out a man they were each previously involved with is coming to town.
Kelli O’Hara, Mark Consuelos and Rose Byrne star in the Broadway revival of Fallen Angels.
Joan Marcus/Polk & Co.
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Joan Marcus/Polk & Co.
“I had long wanted to do a true comedic piece onstage, like it’s one of my dreams,” Byrne says of Fallen Angels. “We are trying to reach the back row, so physically, … I felt like I was screaming when I first got up [there], because we’re not wearing mics either.”
Byrne’s Fallen Angels character gets progressively drunk — and increasingly loud — throughout the play. She credits Coward’s “brilliant” writing and stage directions with guiding her performance.
“The language he used, the sort of linguistic gymnastics and the extraordinary vocabulary of Noël Coward is a delight,” she says. “I never tire of sitting backstage and I’m constantly rediscovering the words that he peppers throughout.”
Interview highlights
On her role in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Mary Bronstein wrote this incendiary screenplay and I just did not want to mess it up. It was such a creative opportunity. … We hit it off and had a real experience, one of those experiences in life that, creatively, has kind of changed me.
[The film] defies generalization or description, because it’s sort of like a fever dream, in a way. It has gallows humor in there. There’s horror tropes in the film, too. I think Mary Bronstein [who also directed the film] really broke the mold with the tone of the film, in many ways. She … tapped into the monster within and the fear of being a parent and the horror of being a parent, and some of the joy too, but obviously she’s in a really extraordinarily difficult situation, this woman. I still can’t believe the film got as far as it did, just because it was a small independent film.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was a small independent movie, says Byrne, “I still can’t believe the film got as far as it did.”
A24
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A24
On the constant beeping of medical equipment in the background of If I Had Legs
These noises get magnified and actually Mary Bronstein made those louder, just a bit, like the clock on the wall, the beeping of the machine, all those things were louder because they are in [the main character’s] point of view. And it is as a parent, those things become overstimulating. It’s relentless and, [Bronstein] wanted to capture that claustrophobia.
On why viewers don’t get to see the daughter or know what her illness is
The conceit of not seeing the daughter, and Mary has spoken to this many times, but [it’s] sort of a two-prong thing in that I don’t think Linda, my character, can see her daughter at this point. She’s so drowning and beginning this real descent into her mental health crisis. … Also for the audience to have that choice taken away to not see the daughter, you’re forced to reckon with the mother. Because as soon as you put a child on screen, your empathy, as it should, goes to the child. They’re so vulnerable, and immediately your concern will go to them, and so she takes that choice away from the viewer. So you are forced to be in the perspective of the mother.
On parenting after spending the day on set
Kids are so in-the-moment and grounding and — in the best way — they’re not particularly interested if you’ve had a hard day. But it’s so wonderful because you immediately snap into your role as mom, the greatest role, the most challenging, the most fun. And so for me, it’s church and state … leave it at work. I mean, obviously there were days when I was more exhausted or tired or [it’s] harder to let things go. But children are the great equalizer, as a parent.
On the thrill of filming the 2011 film Bridesmaids
We had such a fun time. It was a great group of actresses. I couldn’t believe I was there. … It’s already extraordinary to have that many scenes with just women. I’ve had that once since then when I did Mrs. America , [a] show for FX about the second wave of feminism. … But this was really, really special. And we had no idea that it would go on to become such a beloved movie and all of that. But the shooting of it was wonderful. It was an education in the brilliance of these comedic actresses and the performances. … It changed my life in so many ways. It really did. … The improv stuff, it’s just like a skillset that is still I marvel … they make it look effortless.
Therese Madden and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Anna Katherine Scanlon was having sushi in Marina Del Rey when she received an urgent text from her best friend.
“Just saw another place that was awful.”
Scanlon’s best friend, who was moving back to L.A. from Texas, had been apartment hunting for over a month and her moving deadline was creeping up.
In between bites of salmon nigiri, Scanlon began scrolling through apartment listings on her phone and came across a 1920s studio apartment in Los Feliz that she knew her best friend would swoon over.
“I sent it to her and was like ‘This is fabulous,’” she says. “I’m going to tour it immediately.”
Scanlon, an L.A.-based filmmaker who also works at a nonprofit, hopped into her car to see the rental, which had Art Deco tile, beautiful natural light, lots of storage and a stunning view of Griffith Observatory — a “rare find” for $1,900 in the sought-after neighborhood, Scanlon says. She sent a detailed video tour to her best friend, who applied instantly and signed the lease a few days later.
On the drive home, Scanlon, 33, had a light bulb moment: “What I love doing is something most people find totally overwhelming and exhausting,” she says. She could turn her knack for apartment hunting into something more.
So after finding apartments for several other friends (not to mention a dreamy 1927 storybook apartment in Echo Park for herself) and building a following on TikTok by posting apartment tours, Scanlon launched an apartment scouting business, LA Apartment Scout. She helps her busy clients find historic, characterful homes in L.A. within their budget.
She’s part of a rising group of apartment scouts — not licensed real estate agents, but savvy entrepreneurs who tour apartments, share videos on social media and, in some cases, work one-on-one with clients to find a place that fits their specific aesthetic and budget.
Unlike brokers — licensed professionals who act as intermediaries between landlords and tenants, commonly used in the apartment-hunting process in places like New York City, Boston and Austin, Texas, scouts operate outside the formal housing system. They aren’t connected to property owners and they don’t handle applications or negotiations. Instead, they act as digital lookouts who hunt for coveted vintage apartments that are otherwise hard to find without expertise.
The demand for apartment scouts highlights the pressures of L.A.’s competitive rental market, where vacancy is scarce and rental rates are among the highest in the country. According to Apartments.com, average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in L.A. was $2,182 as of May, which is 33% higher than the national average rent price of $1,642.
“To some extent, it reflects a dysfunctional housing market,” said Richard Kent Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. “It’s very hard for people to search and find what they’re looking for at the price they’re looking for, unlike many markets where it’s pretty straightforward.”
Apartment-scouting services tend to be especially appealing to younger Angelenos who feel priced out of homeownership, but still want spaces that reflect their personalities and tastes, rather than the increasingly common standard modern unit.
“There are tons of people who want to live in a home that reflects the character of the city, the beauty, glamour and drama, that is creatively inspiring or just cozy, unique, has character— not gray laminate floors,” Scanlon says.
Those seeking a scout might also be living out of town or simply too busy to endlessly search rental listing sites, Craigslist, Reddit and Facebook Marketplace, and then tour properties. One of Scanlon’s clients turned to her for help because they were finishing their PhD while getting ready for a new job at NASA.
Scanlon’s personalized services begin with a consultation call to understand the client’s needs, then she curates a list of apartments, tours the ones they love and provides videos of the space and the surrounding area. Scanlon says she works similarly to a local expert guide and relocation assistant. Since the apartment scout market is newer in Los Angeles, finding rates up front can be difficult (Scanlon did not wish to disclose her fees).
Indya Stewart, an interior designer and apartment scout, inside of a home.
(Gus Acord)
Indya Stewart, 24, of Hollywood is another L.A. apartment scout. In late April, the interior designer shared an eight-second TikTok with the words “hidden talent: finding chateau style apartments in L.A. for prices that feel illegal” and told people to contact her if they need help finding a place of their own.
“Omg pls put me on,” one person commented with an emoji crying face.
“Moving in the fall and I neeeeeed u,” another person said.
“Hmmm yes moving to LA in a month and can only live in a fairy castle sos,” commented another.
After receiving a flood of messages from people, she decided that instead of responding to each person individually, she would share her apartment picks on her interior design website. The list is free and is separated by region.
Unlike Scanlon, Stewart doesn’t tour apartments for people, rather she provides a curated list of vintage apartments for people to browse on their own.
“I spend so much of my free time looking for these places because I genuinely love the process,” says Stewart, who lives in a 1920s-style townhouse in Hollywood. “Sharing them just feels natural.”
Miesha Gantz of East Hollywood pivoted from dance to real esate.
(From Miesha Gantz)
While many apartment scouts do the work as an independent side gig, some like Miesha Gantz of East Hollywood are beginning to cross over into the formal real estate industry.
After stepping away from her professional dance career due to a massive pay cut, Gantz set out to find a more affordable apartment. Her criteria was specific: A 1920s or 1930s Spanish-style studio with oversize windows, lots of natural light, a fireplace, hardwood floors and character-rich tile work.
She began posting videos of her apartment-hunting journey on TikTok and before long people were asking her for help. Soon after, Gantz, who has a background in real estate, launched a membership-based website called the Hollywood Waitlist, where she posts listings of charming, vintage studios and one-bedroom apartments primarily based in Hollywood. She updates the website weekly with homes that are mostly under $2,500 per month. People can access the website for $6 for one week and $12 for one month.
As her social media and website gained traction, Gantz got connected with the Rental Girl, a boutique real estate brokerage based in L.A. and decided to reinstate her real estate license. She recently started working for the company’s concierge team, helping clients in a way that’s similar to her previous work as an apartment scout. However, the main difference is that she can now work directly with clients throughout the entire application process and help them secure the home.
Although finding the rental market is extremely competitive in L.A., these apartment scouts often foster a sense of community online. In TikTok comments, it’s common for people to offer tips from their own apartment-hunting experiences, sharing whether street parking is actually feasible in a particular neighborhood, if a building has a pest issue or if a listing agent was rude to them.
“When people know better, they do better,” says Gantz, who is also a filmmaker.
It’s worth noting that scams do exist in the world of rentals, so exercise caution when using social media. As demand for apartment scouts grows, Scanlon says she hopes others get involved, tackling different niches and neighborhoods.
“I don’t feel protective of it at all,” she says. “I’d love to see more people doing this.”
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday May 18, 2026.
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Broadcasting Inc.
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Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Broadcasting Inc.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert comes to an end this week amid a lot of changes in the business and the country. Some of the sources of tension include the economics of late night, the approaching merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers, and President Donald Trump’s constant criticism of late-night hosts. But for Colbert’s fans, it’s the end of a friendly, funny, candid show. So we’re talking about the legacy of Stephen Colbert in late night.
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