Cinequest 2026 Closing Night: The Christophers

Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh returns with a razor-sharp chamber comedy that skewers the art world’s vanity, greed, and moral gymnastics with wicked precision. Pairing the incomparable Ian McKellen with I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel, The Christophers is a brisk, urbane satire about who gets to claim authorship, ownership, and legacy.

Coel stars as Lori, a gifted but sidelined artist scraping by on restoration work, whose life takes a sharp turn when she’s recruited by the estranged heirs of legendary painter Julian Sklar. The plan is elegant, unethical, and enormously tempting: finish Sklar’s long-abandoned canvases, pass them off as originals, and cash in before time runs out. To pull it off, Lori embeds herself in Sklar’s home, where ego, suspicion, and buried resentments quickly complicate the con.

McKellen revels in the role of a towering artist clinging to relevance, while Coel brings cool intelligence and razor-dry wit to a woman caught between survival and self-respect. Written by Ed Solomon (Men in Black), The Christophers turns art-world intrigue into a high-wire game of performance, deception, and control, proving that sometimes the sharpest knives are hidden behind impeccable taste.

We'll meet around 7:00 in the lobby for the 7:15 pm showtime. Tickets can be purchased here: https://tickets.cinequest.org/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=594248~a12ee803-7eae-437e-8208-1c4d52da2020&epguid=83980c85-25e4-4e57-9648-95e2018763c5&mdy=3/22/2026&