John Nathan

Latest from John Nathan

Film

Send Help review: gruesomely enjoyable modern-day castaway tale ★★★★

The master-slave tables are turned upside down in this tropical island thriller

2 min read

The bully and the bullied: Dylan O'Brien as Brad in Send Help

Masters of their craft: Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo

Guess How Much I Love You?: ‘the acting elevates the writing’ ★★★

1 min read

Chris Pratt (right) plays a cop called...Chris (Credit: Justin Lubin)

Mercy review: ‘less high-tech whodunnit and more Paw Patrol’ ★★

1 min read

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple review: ‘a knuckle-whitening climax to the trilogy’ ★★★★

1 min read

Challah, humour, the Holocaust and me

John Nathan meets a writer-performer whose latest show is inspired by her encounters with Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Cohen – and being the daughter of a Shoah survivor

4 min read

January 20, 2026 18:07

Hamnet review: ‘needs a middle ground between modern and Elizabethan English’ ★★★

The film’s climax is stunning, but producers Steven Spielberg and especially Sam Mendes have directed enough Shakespeare on stage to make the archaic language accessible to a contemporary audience

2 min read

January 12, 2026 13:14

Grieving process: Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare (centre) in Hamnet

Woman in Mind review: Sheridan Smith sparkles in Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy ★★★★★

The actor will surely be in line for an umpteenth Olivier nomination for her quicksilver performance of Susan and her disintegrating mind

1 min read

January 11, 2026 21:11

Mad release: Sheridan Smith and Sule Rimi as Susan and Andy (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Into The Woods review: Goyishe Brothers Grimm gloriously reinvented by a Jewish creative team ★★★★★

Jordan Fein’s masterpiece interpretation of this European fable draws from real life to subvert the idea of happily every after

2 min read

January 6, 2026 12:59

Katie Brayben as the baker's wife in Into The Woods. (Credit: Johan Persson)

Marty Supreme review: ‘Timothée Chalamet is monumental’ ★★★★★

The Jewishness of Chalamet’s Marty is both defining and lightly worn in Josh Safdie’s classic American fable

2 min read

December 29, 2025 18:27

Ping pong prodigy: Chalamet's bespectacled Marty is inspired by real-life Marty Reisman

Christmas Day review: A not-quite-realised effort at Jewish catharsis ★★★

Arguments over Jewish identity become super-heated in this dark comedy full of timely – although unfortunately random – elements

2 min read

December 24, 2025 14:41

Christmas Day at Almeida Theatre. (Photo: Marc Brenner)

2025 in review: Film

From a superhero to the very worst Friday night dinner – John Nathan picks his favourite Jewish representations on the silver screen

4 min read

December 24, 2025 13:35

2025 in review: Theatre

John Nathan chooses the best plays of the year, from a new stage adaptation of Mel Brooks’s musical The Producers to a comic revenge fantasy about the kidnap of Jeremy Corbyn

4 min read

December 24, 2025 13:09

It is called Christmas Day but it is about being Jewish

Nigel Lindsay on why he’s pleased to play a Jew on the London stage amid soaring antisemitism

5 min read

December 18, 2025 14:12

Short fuse: Nigel Lindsay in Christmas Day at Almeida Theatre (Photo: Marc Brenner)

This version of Roald Dahl’s BFG shows that giants can be small and pathetic ★★★★

Unlike The Witches in which Dahl was accused of having Jews in mind when he created the cabal of child-killers, Jewish theatregoers can relax with this adaptation

2 min read

December 16, 2025 17:40

Not so gentle: Ellemie Shivers (as Sophie) with the gargantuan puppet (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Peter Hujar’s Day review: ‘a hymn to the wet process of photography’ ★★★★

The Jewish, gay and fearless independent film-maker Ira Sachs turns an interview with the renowned photographer Peter Hujar into a captivating film

1 min read

December 10, 2025 13:22

Time capsule: Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hail in Ira Sach's film

A Dracula spoof to enjoy, but no fangs for my seat ★★★

Excellent music and the jokes come thick and fast. I just wish I could have seen what was happening centre stage!

1 min read

December 10, 2025 11:45

Ciarán Dowd in Dracapella (Photo: Craig Sugden)

1 2...96

John Nathan

Latest from John Nathan

Send Help review: gruesomely enjoyable modern-day castaway tale ★★★★

Guess How Much I Love You?: ‘the acting elevates the writing’ ★★★

Mercy review: ‘less high-tech whodunnit and more Paw Patrol’ ★★

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple review: ‘a knuckle-whitening climax to the trilogy’ ★★★★

More from John Nathan

Challah, humour, the Holocaust and me

Hamnet review: ‘needs a middle ground between modern and Elizabethan English’ ★★★

Woman in Mind review: Sheridan Smith sparkles in Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy ★★★★★

Into The Woods review: Goyishe Brothers Grimm gloriously reinvented by a Jewish creative team ★★★★★

Marty Supreme review: ‘Timothée Chalamet is monumental’ ★★★★★

Christmas Day review: A not-quite-realised effort at Jewish catharsis ★★★

2025 in review: Film

2025 in review: Theatre

It is called Christmas Day but it is about being Jewish

This version of Roald Dahl’s BFG shows that giants can be small and pathetic ★★★★

Peter Hujar’s Day review: ‘a hymn to the wet process of photography’ ★★★★

A Dracula spoof to enjoy, but no fangs for my seat ★★★