An incomparable talent with an extraordinary CV, Buckley has dominated the 2026 awards season conversation with nominations and wins for her fearless and flawless central turn in Chloé Zhao's devastating historical drama Hamnet.
He plays Cathy's drunk but generous, cruel yet humorous father in a part that could easily have drifted into the background. But he makes such an impression that the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw reckons he pretty much pinches the whole film.
The actress Mae West captured the elusive magic of movie stars best: "It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it. And how I look when I do it and say it." Stars are alluring but contradictory in nature, as much emblems of cinema's intimate magic as they are products of their time and place.
It happens again and again throughout the film, every time I watch, every time Meg Tilly is on screen as the titular Agnes. In one scene, she is being hypnotized, and though her eyes are closed tears still seep out-one glistens on her lashes like a gemstone-and I know with a knowledge that doesn't deal in words but rather in feeling that what I am seeing is the truth, the truth of a woman's experience.