This is such an interesting film by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Chevalier), and something that I appreciated more after hearing her talk in a Q&A afterwards.
Continue readingHarvest (2024)
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The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
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I was a bit worried when I walked into the cinema at 10am on a Sunday morning and found it full to capacity. This signals that the film I’m about to watch is possibly a very mainstream one, which is not a bad thing in itself but sometimes feels a bit disappointing at a film festival.
Continue readingHallow Road (2025)
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Hello road! Horror/thrillers are made or broken by their endings, although some are so good in every other respect that you can forgive an ending that doesn’t live up to its promise. I might have to think about this one for awhile because it feels like it is 90% great and 10% both heavy handed and enigmatic.
Continue readingThe Golden Spurtle (2025)
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Can a documentary be too quirkily perfect? This might be a good example of one, where, after thoroughly enjoying every perfectly framed moment and oddball character, I began to wonder if the whole thing was constructed like a Christopher Guest mockumentary.
Continue readingFirebrand (2023)
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Whatever I was feeling about this feminist historical drama about Henry VIII’s last wife Katherine Parr was knocked askew by the oddly contemporary credits.
Continue readingWe Live in Time (2024)
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It’s such a relief when a film is more than it seems. With an eminently forgettable title, so forgettable that I have to keep searching for Florence Pugh and then looking at her filmography to remember what it is called, the trailer for this makes it feel like you’re being shown the whole story.
Continue readingThe Return (2024)
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Greek heroes are arseholes. This is a rather serious and languid retelling of the end of the Odyssey when Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) returns home after 10 years to his wife and queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche).
Continue readingLee (2023)
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Do I have any right to be disappointed that the story of Lee Miller is book ended by her role and failures as a mother?
Continue readingPoor Things (2023)
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Such a relief! I thought this latest English language feature by Yorgos Lanthimos might have his incisive gaze diminished by Hollywood capitalism but it is on par with some of his early gems, albeit with a more inspiring, less bleak ending.
Continue readingThe Trouble With Jessica (2023)
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Director Matt Winn riffs off Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry in this ‘black comedy’ that modernises the vicissitudes of collective guilt and self interest.
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