Sight & Sound Jun. 2025

On the cover: A world exclusive interview with Tom Cruise  

Inside: The latest edition of Black Film Bulletin, Wes Anderson on The Phoenician Scheme, the career of Mai Zetterling, the legacy of the Film Society, archive of the story of Japan's new wave

 "It took just a pink shirt, white socks and a slide. Into the public consciousness glided Tom Cruise, his bare left leg snapping taut in the beat before the intro to Bob Seger’s ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’ kicked in again in Risky Business (1983). He’s never left it. Over 40 years and 40 films after this nifty move into an empty frame and his raucous dance, lip-syncing into a candlestick, at 62 he’s still the world’s pre-eminent – and, some would argue, in our fragmented entertainment age the last – movie star."

 — Isabel Stevens introducing her cover feature, a world exclusive interview with Tom Cruise as he prepares to receive a BFI Fellowship. 

 

Into the lion's den:

The Phoenician Scheme, the tale of a shady businessman in the 1950s, hurtling around Europe and the Middle East to raise funds for a new enterprise and fending off assassination threats from rivals as he does so, returns Wes Anderson to the straightforward pleasures of the caper movie. He talks about writing the film for its star, Benicio del Toro, his fascination with charismatic, powerful men, and the influence of Luis Buñuel’s late movies. By Arjun Sajip. 

Black Film Bulletin:

In this edition of Black Film Bulletin, we explore the African American western with director Mario Van Peebles, Black Britishness with Lanre Bakare, and the pioneering work of a foundational figure in African cinema, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, with Tambay Obenson.