Network (15)

★★★★★ This terrific 1976 news satire is an anatomy of American discontent, for which Peter Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his uproarious performance as a swivel-eyed news anchor – a cross between Billy Graham and Donald Trump. ~ The Guardian.

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To mark the 100th anniversary of legendary director Sidney Lumet's birth, his 1976 classic returns to cinemas.

Winner of four Academy Awards (including Best Actor for Peter Finch and Best Actress for Faye Dunaway), Lumet's masterwork remains as powerful and urgent almost fifty years after its release.

A terrifying and timely satire packed with exhilarating performances, the time has never been better to tune back into Network.

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★★★★★ Network is typical of the cool intelligence of '70s American cinema. Directed by Sidney Lumet with the sureness that typified his work back then, and graced by William Holden's best late performance, the show is still comprehensively stolen by Faye Dunaway's conniving and utterly convincing career woman. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ Part of a cycle of 1970s conspiracy films and a sharp satire of the TV business, Network bitterly critiques corporate culture's impact on the spread of information and the resulting cult of the TV guru. ~ All Movie.

★★★★ This was a thunderous, strangely eerie swansong for Peter Finch, who plays a bilious and increasingly demented TV anchorman, ranting on air against his powerlessness. It's a bravura performance from Finch - who was awarded a posthumous Oscar -  and this remains one of the most devastating condemnations of the media's urge to exploit. ~ Radio Times.