The Christophers (film)

Julian Sklar is a well-known painter based in London, elderly and eccentric. In the 1990s, he completed two series of paintings called "The Christophers" based on his lover at the time; a third series of "Christophers" remained unfinished, and he has not worked on them in years. His reputation has faded as he has aged. His unscrupulous children Barnaby and Sallie hire Lori Butler, a young artist who has not exhibited in years, to pose as his assistant and finish the "Christophers" behind his back. They plan to sell the finished "Julian Sklar" paintings for a fortune after his death.

Lori meets Julian, who spends much of his time recording Cameos for his fans to earn a living. He soon orders her to shred the unfinished "Christophers;" instead, she forges doubles of each and shreds the fakes.

Julian, who is sharper than he initially appears, soon deduces that Lori is an artist and that she has been hired by his children. She confesses, and their friendship grows stronger as she demonstrates her knowledge of his work and criticizes his second series of "Christophers." Barnaby and Sallie, visiting to check on Lori's progress, are fooled by Julian and Lori into believing the shredded fakes were the real paintings, upsetting their scheme. Julian decides to burn the unfinished third series of "Christophers" and orders Lori to do it. She refuses and tells him to do it himself if he wishes.

When he hesitates, she brings them back up to his studio, where Julian decides to finish them in such a terrible manner that they will be unsaleable. In a moment of artistic joy, he adds glitter, feathers and other ornaments to two of the unfinished paintings before stopping. He accuses Lori of manipulating him into finishing the paintings and criticizes her work, which he has examined online. She leaves his employ.

Lori, frustrated, briefly renews her scheme with Barnaby and Sallie, deducing that they have already sold the paintings and are in debt. Later Julian visits her at her shared art studio and declares that he was wrong to judge her work without seeing it in person. He realizes that years earlier, he had criticized her harshly on a television program, leading her to stop exhibiting. They repair their relationship, and he asks her to return to work for him in a week or so. Before she can, Julian dies and is found with a paintbrush in hand by his masseuse.

Soon afterward, Lori takes the real "Christophers" from the house. She forges a letter in Julian's name granting ownership of the works to the actual Christopher—Julian's former lover. At a museum show honoring Julian's legacy, Christopher exhibits the portraits—all of them now finished in the "unsalable" style in which Sklar had begun his renewed work on them—though it is unclear whether it was Lori or Julian who actually completed them. Alongside them, Lori has produced a modern work honoring Julian by combining dozens of his Cameo videos. The masseuse gives Lori Julian's final painting—an unfinished self-portrait—signed "for Lori" on the back.

• Ian McKellen as Julian Sklar
• Michaela Coel as Lori Butler
• James Corden as Barnaby Sklar
• Jessica Gunning as Sallie Sklar

The film is written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film is produced by Department M, with Michael Schaefer and Mike Larocca as executive producers.^[5] The cast is led by Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning, and James Corden.^[5]

Principal photography took place in February 2025 in London.^[5][6] Filming locations included Fitzrovia in the London Borough of Camden.^[7][8] David Holmes composed the score for the film.^[9]

The Christophers premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025.^[1][10] In October, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film, scheduling it for a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York City on April 10, 2026, followed by a nationwide expansion later that spring.^[11][12] The film is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 15, by Picturehouse Entertainment.^[13]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 152 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A sly caper carried off with director Steven Soderbergh's characteristic panache, The Christophers is a superb two-hander featuring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel at their very best."^[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[15]

For Deadline, reviewer Damon Wise writes that because it's a Soderbergh film, one would expect a twist, but that "the twist here is that there isn't really a twist" and goes on to call it an "unusually emotional film for Soderbergh".^[16]