Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel turn an inheritance scam into a witty duel about creativity, ownership and artistic legacy. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Christophers is a compact art-world comedy with sharp dialogue, sly twists and two performers having an excellent time testing each other’s patience.
Film details
- Title: The Christophers
- Premiere date in the Netherlands: 30 July 2026
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Genre: Comedy, drama
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Dutch
- Age rating: All ages
- Content warning: Coarse language
- Cast: Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning and James Corden
- Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO, LantarenVenster and Cinerama
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What’s the vibe?
Julian Sklar was once a major figure in London’s pop-art scene. Now he is elderly, broke, creatively blocked and thoroughly unimpressed by almost everyone, including the two estranged children waiting for his valuable paintings to become their inheritance.
Those children hire Lori, an art restorer and former forger, to pose as Julian’s new assistant. Her secret assignment is to gain access to eight unfinished paintings, complete them in Julian’s recognisable style and return them to storage. Once Julian dies, the newly discovered works could be sold as authentic masterpieces.
What begins as a con becomes a battle between two artists with very different ideas about talent, recognition and ownership. Julian is sarcastic, theatrical and wounded. Lori is calm, observant and far less easy to manipulate than he initially assumes. Their exchanges give the film its energy, with every conversation quietly shifting who holds the power.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below.
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Why you might like it
- Eyes: Cluttered studios, unfinished canvases and London interiors photographed with Soderbergh’s lean, alert visual style.
- Heart: The growing connection between Julian and Lori gives the film a surprisingly tender centre beneath all the deception.
- Mind: It raises juicy questions about authorship, forgery and whether the value of art comes from the work itself or the famous name beneath it.
Critical reception.
The Christophers has earned strong reviews, with critics particularly enthusiastic about its two central performances. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at 95% from 171 reviews, with an 87% verified audience score. Its consensus praises Soderbergh’s light touch and describes Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel as being at their best.
Metacritic gives the film a score of 79 from 42 reviews, placing it in the generally favourable category. Thirty-seven of those reviews are positive, five are mixed and none are classified as negative.
The Guardian awarded the film five stars and called McKellen and Coel the screen partnership of the year. The New York Times was similarly impressed by their rapport, while The Boston Globe praised the pleasure of watching two experienced performers build their characters through dialogue.
The more reserved reviews tend to focus on the film’s modest scale and theatrical quality. Some critics felt the supporting characters and wider plot received less attention than the central relationship, while others found the art-world scheme slightly contrived. Even several of these reviews acknowledged the strength of the acting.
The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It later won the Stolman Audience Award for Best Film at the 2026 Sonoma International Film Festival.
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Scene to watch for
Watch the first extended conversation between Julian and Lori. He treats the meeting like an audition, interrogation and opportunity to hear himself speak, all at once. Lori appears to absorb the performance quietly, but her responses gradually reveal that she has been studying him just as closely.
The pleasure lies in the rhythm between the actors. McKellen fills the room with theatrical sarcasm, while Coel shows how much Lori is thinking without giving Julian, or the audience, immediate access to all of it.
Recommended pairing
Start with a gallery visit or a wander through an exhibition. The film becomes even more interesting when you arrive already thinking about artistic reputation, attribution and why one signature can add millions to a canvas.
Pair the screening with a light meal, a glass of wine or coffee and cake. Afterwards, try sketching each other’s portraits. The results may be terrible, but confidently signing somebody else’s name at the bottom would at least be thematically appropriate.
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Need-to-knows
The Christophers was written by Ed Solomon, whose earlier work with Soderbergh includes the crime thriller No Sudden Move. The film is largely structured as a two-hander, with Julian and Lori’s conversations carrying more weight than conventional action.
As he often does, Soderbergh also handled the cinematography and editing under his regular professional pseudonyms, Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard. David Holmes composed the score.
The title refers to an unfinished series of paintings depicting Christopher, a former lover and muse of Julian. The proposed forgery therefore involves more than copying an artistic style. Lori is attempting to complete work tied to someone else’s memory, desire and unfinished emotional history.
