Review: The Critic (2023)
For those who only know master thespian Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Magneto, you have missed some of the finest acting this side of The Old Vic. Take, for example, his portrayal James Whale, the tortured director of Frankenstein in Gods and Monsters . Or his heartbreaking portrayal of an aged Sherlock Holmes battling dementia in Mr. Holmes . Now we have another impressive role to add to the long list of Mr. McKellen's accomplishments: that of the cruel and manipulative title character in The Critic . It's London, 1927. McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, a theatre critic for one of the biggest newspapers in circulation. For decades, he's been writing with a poison pen, living a decadent lifestyle and destroying the lives of those poor performers who fail to live up to his jaded expectations. But now the paper he writes for is under new management and with the change in leadership comes a change in expectation. Tone it down. Be kinder. Rein it in, he's told by Mark Strong, t...