Alex Mackeith: Last News

Bleecker Street has snapped up U.S. rights to Alice Troughton’s feature directorial debut The Tutor, which will star Oscar nominees Richard E. Grant and Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack. Bleecker Street is planning a 2023 release in cinemas.

A sci-fi comedy by Mel Eslyn and a literary noir by Alice Troughton – who are, respectively, the longtime producer for the Duplass brothers, and an award-winning UK television director (Dr. Who, Cucumber, The Living And The Dead) — debut in limited release this weekend, alongside Adele Lim’s Joy Ride, a Lionsgate wide-release – marking first-time feature film debuts by three women.

A sci-fi comedy by Mel Eslyn and a literary noir by Alice Traughton – who are, respectively, the longtime producer for the Duplass brothers, and an award-winning U.K. television director (Dr. Who, Cucumber, The Living And The Dead) — debut in limited release this weekend, alongside Adele Lim’s Joy Ride, a Lionsgate wide-release – marking first-time feature film debuts by three women.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Films about fictitious great writers often stumble when it comes to the character’s actual writing: Viewers must suspend disbelief that a lofty literary reputation has been built on the purplest of screenwriter-devised prose. A blackly comic melodrama in which writerly ego, ambition and insecurity do increasingly destructive battle, “The Lesson” gets around that trap by folding questions of authorship into its arch country-house mystery: Who is writing what, and to what extent it matters, are the questions that keep director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith’s mutual debut feature interesting, even as it slides into occasional, overheated cliché. When the film’s own words don’t quite pass muster, however, a tight, tony ensemble of actors gives them some polish and punch. A big, ripe turn by Richard E. Grant — as a celebrated British novelist looking to emerge from a gloomy hiatus with one more masterwork — represents the chief selling point of this low-key Tribeca premiere, though as his wary potential protégé, it’s Irish up-and-comer Daryl McCormack (fresh off his BAFTA nomination for “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”) who carries the bulk of the film in quieter, wilier style. With a chablis-dry Julie Delpy playing intermediary in their passive-aggressive duel, this U.K.-German co-production is the kind of accessibly upscale fare more frequently served to its target audience in another European language; Bleecker Street will release it Stateside.

Manori Ravindran International EditorBleecker Street has bought a new thriller starring Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack.“The Tutor” marks the feature directorial debut of Alice Troughton, who’s known for directing TV shows such as “Baghdad Central,” “A Discovery of Witches” and “The Midwich Cuckoos.”Written by Alex MacKeith, “The Tutor” follows an aspiring young author, hungry for recognition and success, who takes a tutoring position at a legendary writer’s estate.