The Christophers
The children of a once famous artist hire a forger to complete some unfinished, long ago abandoned canvases so they'll have an inheritance when he dies. (R, 100 min.)
Showtimes
Friday, April 17, 2026
(TBD)
A mainstay of the London art scene since his starry breakout in the creative explosion of the 1960’s, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) has drifted into a cluttered, self-imposed seclusion. His two estranged children (James Corden, Jessica Gunning) enlist Lori (Michaela Coel), a young painter and sometime-forger, to pose as a prospective assistant and gain access to a fabled series of unfinished canvases Julian has buried deep in his home studio, in a deceptive bid to secure an inheritance for themselves. [NEON]
Starring: Michaela Coel, Dmitri Prokopiev, Jessica Gunning, James Corden, Ian McKellen, Tilly Botsford
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre:
"A crackling original drama about artistic legacy in all its facets."
— Peter Debruge, Variety
"In the end, this film about artists becomes a work of art in its own right. The more you look at it, the more its many components reveal themselves to you."
— Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap
"The Christophers is a charming and challenging tennis match between two opposing acting styles, one of them confident with the certainty of youth and the other with the mastery of old age."
— Ty Burr, Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)
"It’s another exhilarating late career opportunity for McKellen to really bare teeth, following on from The Good Liar and The Critic, but this time he has a script that’s actually able to match him."
— Benjamin Lee, Guardian
"The film brims with hilarious dialogue, lightly satirical observations of a culture that treats art as a commodity, and satisfying payoffs to a number of story elements planted early on."
— Seth Katz, Slant Magazine
"In a test of wits and wills held mostly in a single-setting, Soderbergh pushes both characters to return to their former passions through philosophical conversations that reflect his own career."
— Robert Daniels, Screen International
"With Ian McKellen in superbly crotchety form and Michaela Coel exuding chilly cunning, it’s further proof that Soderbergh remains one of American cinema’s most inimitable, and adventurous, auteurs."
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
"While the battle of wits between Julian and Lori will have one reaching for the popcorn, it’s the personal struggle for both to appreciate what they’re capable of that makes 'The Christophers' a knockout."
— Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest
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