Anonymous

Anonymous (2011) is Roland Emmerich's historical thriller, ready to watch online on iFILM. Elizabethan London, a court full of knives, and one provocative claim: the man from Stratford never wrote a single play.

The film hands authorship to Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), a nobleman barred by rank from signing his own verse. He slips his manuscripts to a barely literate actor named Shakespeare, who happily soaks up the applause. Around them swirl a plot against the ageing queen, the Essex rebellion, and a brutal fight over who inherits the throne. Vanessa Redgrave and her real-life daughter Joely Richardson play Elizabeth across the years, with David Thewlis scheming in the shadows.

Better known for blowing up the White House, Emmerich here builds a costume drama about whose name gets the genius and whose gets the silence. The Globe theatre is rebuilt down to the timber. Stream Anonymous (2011) online on iFILM.