Film
DVD/Blu-ray: AftersunTuesday, 28 February 2023![]() Begin describing Aftersun to someone who’s not seen it and you’ll struggle. Charlotte Wells’ debut feature looks embarrassingly slight on paper, its 93 minutes following a young girl on a Turkish package holiday in the late 1990s with her youthful... Read more... |
What's Love Got to Do With It? review - Jemima Khan's feelgood romcomMonday, 27 February 2023![]() Here's a question. A romcom stars a man and woman, friends from childhood, both straight and with no romantic history. He's a Muslim and has decided to pursue an arranged marriage; she has a chaotic love life. What are the odds that they will end up... Read more... |
Joyland review - a tender tragedySaturday, 25 February 2023![]() Partially banned in Pakistan, Saim Sadiq’s debut uses a young man’s affair with a trans woman to reveal the sadness and brutality of the nation’s patriarchal norms. It’s also a deeply sympathetic character study written from under the country’s skin... Read more... |
Cocaine Bear review - comedy horror lacks the bare necessitiesSaturday, 25 February 2023![]() This is one of those films where it’s really best to stick with the trailer. The incompetence of the directing and screenwriting is easy to disguise when a crafty promo-maker has picked out the good bits from a large pile of bear scat. Cocaine... Read more... |
Creature review - Asif Kapadia shines light on a dark dance pieceFriday, 24 February 2023![]() Filmed ballets involve a different way of watching: you may know a piece well, but you aren’t used to staring into its lead dancers’ eyes as they perform their roles. Not all dancers give good close-up, either. But a new film by the Oscar-winning... Read more... |
Broker review - baby-selling in South KoreaThursday, 23 February 2023![]() The Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda chose to make Broker in South Korea, with Parasite star, Song Kang-ho. He plays one of two dodgy chaps who make a living selling abandoned babies to desperate couples. Although... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Ingmar Bergman Vol 4Tuesday, 21 February 2023![]() Another box-set from the BFI full of Bergman treasures, from core catalogue classics such as Fanny and Alexander (1982), Cries and Whispers (1972), Autumn Sonata (1978) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973) to less well-known films such as After the... Read more... |
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania review - Marvel head into infinity and beyondSunday, 19 February 2023![]() We’ve now reached film 31 and Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s increasingly baroque franchise. Four years after Avengers: Endgame’s false finale, Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is still basking in his role in reversing Thanos’s... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Adventures of Baron MunchausenSunday, 19 February 2023![]() “He won’t get far on hot air and fantasy,” Jonathan Pryce’s cruel bureaucrat huffs, as Baron Munchausen (John Neville) bests besieged city walls in a balloon sewn from a half-ton of knickers. “I hope this movie expands people’s ideas of what is... Read more... |
Nostalgia review - returning to Naples after 40 yearsFriday, 17 February 2023![]() “He’s my best friend, a brother,” says Felice Lasco (Pierfrancesco Favino) of his childhood buddy, Oreste Spasiano (Tomasso Ragno). After 40 years away, Felice, a successful, married businessman, has returned to Naples from Cairo to see his aged... Read more... |
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On review - small fry with a big heartFriday, 17 February 2023![]() Marcel the Shell the Shoes On tells the story of a one-eyed little shell who lives with his grandmother Connie in a house that became an Airbnb after its former occupants divorced. The man inadvertently carried away Marcel’s extended family in a... Read more... |
The Son review - is each unhappy family unhappy in its own way?Wednesday, 15 February 2023![]() The Son is one of those movies where everyone is acting their socks off, exhibiting their range and sensitivity to the point where one can imagine there was a bucket on the set positioned to drop in the expected awards. It may well work for... Read more... |
