Film Reviews
Leap of Faith review – Alexandre O. Philippe examines ‘The Exorcist’Friday, 20 November 2020
“Films are about the mystery of fate or the mystery of faith,” proclaims director William Friedkin in Alexandre O. Philippe’s latest documentary, Leap of Faith. At 84 years old, Friedkin proves himself to be a master of storytelling, not only behind the camera but in front of it, spiritedly discussing the genesis of his horror masterpiece with Philippe. Read more... |
No Hard Feelings review - tough-minded yet tenderSaturday, 14 November 2020
Love triangles rarely feel more truthful or more tender than in No Hard Feelings, a beautiful film that announces debut director Faraz Shariat as a filmmaker worth reckoning with. Read more... |
Billie review – new documentary captures the rebelFriday, 13 November 2020
Listen to "The Blues are Brewin", "You Better Go Now", or even "I’ll be Seeing You", and you can hear the hurt reverberate in every note Billie Holiday sang. Her voice rang with the wisdom of experience – perhaps too much experience. Read more... |
Words on Bathroom Walls review - well-meaning but glibSaturday, 07 November 2020
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. Read more... |
The Three Kings review – saluting Busby, Shankly and SteinSaturday, 07 November 2020
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... Read more... |
Queen of Hearts review - Trine Dyrholm stars as a stylish sexual predatorFriday, 06 November 2020
“Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. Read more... |
Luxor review - Andrea Riseborough stars in cathartic drama about healing old woundsWednesday, 04 November 2020
Zeina Durra’s sophomore feature arrives on our screens a decade on from her debut, The Imperialists Are Still Alive! It was worth the wait. Read more... |
Relic review – a deadly disappearing actSaturday, 31 October 2020
The bleak power of the Australian horror movie Relic, Natalie Erika James’s feature debut, derives from its masterful use of a simple metaphor. Read more... |
The Witches review – new take lacks magicFriday, 30 October 2020
A long shadow looms over Robert Zemeckis’ new take on Roald Dahl’s classic 1980s book The Witches, starring Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway and newcomer Jahzir Bruno. Read more... |
Mogul Mowgli review - displacement and generational traumaThursday, 29 October 2020
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. Read more... |
Shirley review - hothouse art film about American horror writerThursday, 29 October 2020
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. Read more... |
The Secret Garden review - blooming charmingSunday, 25 October 2020
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? Read more... |
Rebecca review - mishap at ManderleySaturday, 24 October 2020
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... Read more... |
One Man and His Shoes review - beautifully crafted, fast-paced documentarySaturday, 24 October 2020
“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.” Read more... |
Summer of 85 review - a tender, tragic coming-of-ageFriday, 23 October 2020
Intriguingly, Summer of 85 could have been François Ozon’s very first film. Read more... |
Cordelia review – Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Johnny Flynn star in an off-kilter tale of traumaFriday, 23 October 2020
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. Read more... |
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