Doing away with any pretense of docu-realism, Spencer is neither a film about specifics nor any of conventional biopic; it is instead a sort of haunted house chamber piece that doesn’t try to locate the real woman behind the legend — as the title might suggest — as it does to reimagine her within a wholly different pop lexicon.
Spencer
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Germany, Chile, United Kingdom · 2021
1h 56m
Director Pablo Larraín
Starring Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
In December of 1991, Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles has become strained due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. After receiving an apathetic reception at a Christmas Eve dinner with the rest of the royal family, she considers breaking off the marriage and taking the children with her, once and for all.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Not everything lands in Spencer, and I often wondered if the film was so set on bucking convention that it would alienate its audience. But it tells a sorrowful story we all think we know in a new and genuinely disturbing light.
All the right people are going to hate Spencer. That’s just how good it is.
Spencer is an intimate speculative drama that stays as close as it can to everything we know about Diana. At the same time, the movie is infused with a poetic extravagance.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
The 31-year-old Stewart – who will be instantly and justifiably awards-tipped for this – navigates this perilous terrain with total mastery, getting the voice and mannerisms just right but vamping everything up just a notch, in order to better lean into the film’s melodramatic, paranoiac and absurdist swerves.
Kristen Stewart proves entirely compelling in the title role. She gives an awkward and mannered performance as Diana, and this is entirely as it should be when one considers that Diana gave an awkward and mannered performance herself, garnishing her inbred posh hauteur with studied coquettish asides.
Users who liked this film also liked
Blink
What you can't see, can kill you.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States • 2022
- Director
- Cast Thales Egidio
- Genre Animation, Science Fiction, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
No
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet calls a plebiscite on his presidency under international political pressure.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Chile, France, Mexico • 2012
- Director Pablo Larraín
- Cast Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Néstor Cantillana, Luis Gnecco, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Fire at Sea
(Fuocoammare)
More than 17,000 people were reported to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last 15 years...
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 2016
- Director Gianfranco Rosi
- Cast Samuele Pucillo, Mattias Cucina, Samuele Caruana, Pietro Bartolo, Giuseppe Fragapane
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy, Hoopla
Bergman Island
Art imitates life and life imitates art.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2021
- Director Mia Hansen-Løve
- Cast Tim Roth, Vicky Krieps, Mia Wasikowska, Anders Danielsen Lie, Wouter Hendrickx, Gabe Klinger
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on MUBI, Hulu, Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Nightmare Alley
A carny teams up with a psychiatrist and poses as a psychic that can communicate with the dead.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Mexico, Canada • 2021
- Director Guillermo del Toro
- Cast Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Hulu, fuboTV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand, FXNow
The Power of the Dog
In Montana, in 1925, a rancher responds with cruelty when his brother brings home a new wife and her son.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Australia, United States • 2021
- Director Jane Campion
- Cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Frances Conroy
- Genre Drama, Western
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
(ལུང་ནག་ན)
A teacher in search of inspiration travels to the most remote school in the world.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Bhutan, China • 2019
- Director Pawo Choyning Dorji
- Cast Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Keldon Lhamo Gurung, Pem Zam, Chimi Dem
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Kanopy, Hoopla
The Duke
In 1961, a 60-year-old taxi driver commits the first and only theft of a painting from the National Gallery in London.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2021
- Director Roger Michell
- Cast Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Matthew Goode, Aimee Kelly, Fionn Whitehead, Charlotte Spencer
- Genre Drama
- Available on Hulu, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
All Hail
(Granizo)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina • 2022
- Director Marcos Carnevale
- Cast Guillermo Francella, Romina Fernandes, Peto Menahem, Martín Seefeld, Laurita Fernández, Nicolás Scarpino
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Petite Maman
(Petite maman)
A young girl ventures into the woods around her grandmother's house and forms a friendship with a lonely local girl.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2021
- Director Céline Sciamma
- Cast Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margot Abascal
- Genre Drama, Family, Fantasy
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Kanopy
Parallel Mothers
(Madres paralelas)
Two single mothers give birth at the same time in the same place, and their chance connection will change their lives forever.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain • 2021
- Director Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
Belfast
A young boy grows up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles of the late 1960s.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2021
- Director Kenneth Branagh
- Cast Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Lara McDonnell
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, FlixFling, AMC on Demand, Freevee
A very underrated film! Beautiful visuals paired with one of the best scores of 2021. The gothic elements of this film may be hit or miss for some, but I think it adds an interesting layer to a project about one of the most iconic and beloved royals. Biopics often run into the problem of being too generic, and I appreciate that Larraín took risks. Kristen Stewart is almost unrecognizable in this film; she is such a brilliant actor and is only getting better.