Drama
The Phoenician Scheme Review
I confess: Wes Anderson films have never really done it for me. His cinema feels more architectural than visceral—films that seem made by and for the art-world elite, keeping the viewer at arm’s length. There’s a “you can look, but you can’t touch” energy to them. Don’t get me wrong: I went to film school. I fell in love with cinematography. I understand and respect the cra...
The Surfer Review
Nicholas Cage (Mandy, P I G) returns to cinema screens this week with The Surfer, directed by Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium). In short, the film is a strange one and you’ll either love it or hate it. Set in Western Australia, starring Nicholas Cage and written and directed by a couple of Irishmen. The film reaches high but doesn’t hit the mark. Lacking authenticity while haphazardly dabbling with them...
Hard Truths Review
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Fatman, The Sea Beast) effortlessly portrays a woman on the edge of an emotional breakdown. However, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths being an easily relatable week in the life of tale only goes so far. Moments of insult comedy laced with zingers aside, the film comes off underwhelming. Leigh’s (Peterloo, Vera Drake) direction and Dick Pope’s (The Air Up There) ci...
I’m Still Here Review
Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) isn’t just a film; it’s an emotional gut-punch, a reckoning with Brazil’s unhealed wounds through the eyes of a family that refused to be erased. This deeply personal and politically charged story earned a ten-minute standing ovation and the Best Screenplay award at Venice, and I’m not surprised. Salles’ long-standing connection with the Paiva...
Bird Review
Life ain’t always empty. Few directors capture working-class life as authentically as Andrea Arnold. Arnold is one of a very few class-conscious directors in the UK, where the industry is dominated by wealthy filmmakers who often depict working-class communities through a detached or exploitative lens. Having grown up on a council estate in Dartford, Kent—just miles from where Bird is set—she does...
The Last Showgirl Review
“This is the role I have been waiting for my entire career,” Pamela Anderson told the crowd at the Toronto Film Festival. Anderson has seen a long overdue career resurgence in the 2020’s, from her 2022 stint as Roxie in Chicago, to her 2023 Netflix documentary and autobiography. It was after seeing the documentary that director Gia Coppola decided to cast her in The Last Showgirl. In a world that’...
The Story of Souleymane Review
L’Histoire de Souleymane (or “Souleymane’s Story” in English) is a complex political storyline wrapped in a touching narrative of the titular Souleymane. Directed by Boris Lojkine, the story follows Souleyman, a Guinean food delivery driver in the heart of Paris, in the two days before he is due to be interviewed about his application for asylum. Since its debut in Un Certain Regard, it has ...
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Review
The opening hour of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy takes its sweet time—way too much of it, in fact. We meet Bridget several years after Bridget Jones’s Baby, where she and Mark had a son and got hitched. In Mad About the Boy, Bridget has become a widow and single parent to Billy and his younger sister, Mabel, after Mark died while on a humanitarian trip four years prior. This new reality ...
Queer Review
Sometimes films set out to be unpleasant and unsettling – putting their audiences in a state of discomfort ultimately drives them to a greater understanding of the overall subject matter, and for many art house films that works. However for Queer, an adaptation of the unfinished novella of the same name by the famed William Burroughs, the lack of follow through leaves the audience feeling well, ju...
We Live in Time Review
There is nothing that quite compares to a tear-jerker or a good romance and We Live in Time seems to be already demonstrating its prowess in both categories. While it isn’t reinventing the genre, honestly it’s almost a cliché – the determined beautiful-but- quirky heroine marries the quiet, bookish male lead but shockingly develops a terminal illness somewhere in the narrative. However, the ...
Conclave Review
Ed Berger’s Conclave is interesting. It may be tempting to skip a pontificating deep-dive into the ritual process of electing a new Pope, for fear of ponce and boredom. However, Conclave keeps its head above water for two hours by exploring the various ambitious tom foolery and backstabbing those left clutching the rosary will get up to, to be elected for the top job. Half the priests in the room ...
Nosferatu Review
Robert Eggers continues kicking goals with Nosferatu, released by Focus Features and Universal this New Year. Long story short: if you’re a fan of Eggers’ previous work, vampire flicks and the legend of Dracula in general- don’t hesitate to catch this one in cinemas. It’s a solid horror flick to sink your teeth into. Not much new can be said about Eggers as an auteur filmmaker. You either lo...