Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers is a deliciously sly, twisty, darkly comedic take on the art world starring Ian McKellen who has never been better on film. (Let’s not mention 2023’s The Critic ever again.) The trouble with McKellen is that for some people  (i.e., me) it’s hard not to always see Ian McKellen, but that’s not the case here.

Soderbergh is a big name (the Ocean’s trilogy, the Magic Mike trilogy, plus Traffic, Erin Brockovich and many more) but with this two-hander he’s gone small, pitting McKellen against Michaela Coel. She has the quieter role but more than holds her own. (I could look at the remarkable planes of her face all day.)

You can’t take your eye off either McKellen or Coel

You can’t take your eye off either McKellen or Coel

McKellen stars as Julian Sklar, a once-brilliant painter who hasn’t produced anything in 30 years and has served as a Simon Cowell type figure on a reality........

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