wed 02/04/2025

Film Reviews

Words on Bathroom Walls review - well-meaning but glib

Matt Wolf

Adam (Charlie Plummer) is being tested for glaucoma at the start of Words on Bathroom Walls, the director Thor Freudenthal's adaptation of Julia Walton's 2017 Young Adult novel.

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The Three Kings review – saluting Busby, Shankly and Stein

Graham Fuller

If Shakespeare had lived in post-war Britain, he surely would have dramatised the careers of the three towering contemporaneous Scottish football managers whose visions of how football should be played and its importance to ordinary people left a greater impact on the nation’s selfhood than any 20th century political...

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Queen of Hearts review - Trine Dyrholm stars as a stylish sexual predator

Markie Robson-Scott

“Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

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Luxor review - Andrea Riseborough stars in cathartic drama about healing old wounds

Joseph Walsh

Zeina Durras sophomore feature arrives on our screens a decade on from her debut, The Imperialists Are Still Alive! It was worth the wait.

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Relic review – a deadly disappearing act

Graham Fuller

The bleak power of the Australian horror movie Relic, Natalie Erika James’s feature debut, derives from its masterful use of a simple metaphor.

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The Witches review – new take lacks magic

Joseph Walsh

 A long shadow looms over Robert Zemeckisnew take on Roald Dahls classic 1980s book The Witches, starring Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway and newcomer Jahzir Bruno.

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Mogul Mowgli review - displacement and generational trauma

Owen Richards

When Mogul Mowgli was first announced, it was fair to expect something of a realist biopic. After all, you had documentary director Bassam Tariq and actor/musician extraordinaire Riz Ahmed helming a film about a British-Pakistani rapper.

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Shirley review - hothouse art film about American horror writer

Saskia Baron

Shirley is one of those films that the mood you’re in when you watch it will dictate whether you think it’s a great psychological horror movie or overheated and pretentious.

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The Secret Garden review - blooming charming

Owen Richards

With Netflix releasing Rebecca on Wednesday, who’d have thought that a kid’s film would be this week’s best adaptation about an estate haunted by the memory of the deceased lady of the manor?

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Rebecca review - mishap at Manderley

Graham Fuller

When it was announced that Ben Wheatley would be directing a new version of Rebecca, his fans must have wondered what kind of exciting damage he would do to the neo-Gothic template of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel – and how he might spin the material in a different way than did Alfred Hitchcock...

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One Man and His Shoes review - beautifully crafted, fast-paced documentary

Sarah Kent

“Black people, since the beginning of time, have always made things cool. Jazz, rock ’n’ roll… pick anything from a cultural standpoint and we have always been the arbitrators of cool,” says sports journalist Jamele Hill. “And it was really no different with sneakers.”

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Summer of 85 review - a tender, tragic coming-of-age

Tom Birchenough

Intriguingly, Summer of 85 could have been François Ozon’s very first film.

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Cordelia review – Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Johnny Flynn star in an off-kilter tale of trauma

Joseph Walsh

There's something deeply uncanny about Adrian Shergold's Cordelia. When the film's poster was released on social media, many mistook it for a kinky period drama with the power dynamics reversed. It definitely isn't a costume drama, but there's some kink.

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Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins review - a fitting tribute to a political hellraiser

Saskia Baron

It’s a brave film distributor who releases a documentary about an American journalist in the UK at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic, so first salute goes to Eve Gabereau at Modern Films for giving Raise Hell a proper launch.

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Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You, Apple TV+ review - his new album is a matter of life and death

Adam Sweeting

Towards the end of this new documentary, an account of how he recorded his new album Letter to You at his home studio in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen delivers a eulogy to the E Street Band.

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LFF 2020: Nomadland review - Francis McDormand gives a career-defining performance

Joseph Walsh

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider was a film of rare honesty and beauty. Who would have thought she’d be able to top the power of that majestic docudrama? But with Nomadland she has.

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DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance

“I knew I wanted all the effects practical and made for real. The movie is about flesh and bones, about women’s bodies.”

Coralie Fargeat,...