Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton was born and raised in Middlesbrough in the north-east of England, not far from the giant chemical works that inspired the hellish opening shots of Blade Runner. He first wrote about music and film for the NME before moving on to Uncut, The Times and The Hollywood Reporter. He has also been published in Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Classic Rock, The Huffington Post, The Quietus and other esteemed journals. He currently lives in Somerset.

Articles by Stephen Dalton

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Children of Men: Why Alfonso Cuarón’s anti-Blade Runner looks more relevant than ever

It flopped on release in 2006, but Children of Men’s dystopian visions of Britain in 2027 feel more troubling every day.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Features
What Antonioni’s movies mean in the era of mindfulness and #MeToo

He defined cool modernism on screen, setting his characters adrift in a world defined by alienation and loneliness. But do the films of Michelangelo Antonioni still speak to us in the 21st century?

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Features
Velvet Goldmine: 20 years on, has the time come for Cool Britannia’s Citizen Kane?

In the Britpop era, few films came more wildly ambitious than Todd Haynes’ kaleidoscopic glamrock epic Velvet Goldmine. Now Bowie is dead and Britain has turned a corner, is it time for a reappraisal?

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Features
How we learned to start worrying and love conspiracy movies

Just because they’re paranoid doesn’t mean that conspiracy thrillers aren’t on to something. From Fritz Lang to Adam Curtis, filmmakers have pinpointed and predicted the dark turns in our politics leading to the post-truth era.

Monday, November 6, 2017

Features
I Am Not a Witch: ‘We’re in a time when it’s fashionable to get black female directors’

Welsh-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni has made a splash with her debut feature, a joyfully feminist and satirical story about a nine-year-old exiled to a ‘witch camp’. But, as she tells Stephen Dalton, in this industry she’s taking nothing for granted.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Interviews
Six ways cult show The Prisoner prepared us for the modern world

Fifty years after Patrick McGoohan’s surreal spy series The Prisoner first aired on TV, are we all now living in The Village?

Friday, September 29, 2017

Features
20 films to see at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

What to watch from the programme of more than 150 features at this year’s 70th Edinburgh festival?

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Features
How J.G. Ballard predicted 21st-century London

In his cult 1970s novel High-Rise, Ballard anticipated current trends in architecture and urban planning, predicting the London landscape of 2016.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Features
Blade Runner: anatomy of a classic

Back in cinemas in its definitive version, what can Blade Runner tell us about technology, politics, architecture, life, death and the human condition in 2015?

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Features