Film
Longlegs review - like its titular killer, this summer's most hyped horror film leaves no traceSaturday, 13 July 2024
Apparently when actress Maika Monroe first saw Nicolas Cage in his full Longlegs get-up, her heart-rate skyrocketed to 170 bpm (her resting heart rate is 76). Or at least so a promotional video tells us. Whether true or not, it’s an example of the... Read more... |
Sleep review - things that go bump in the nightFriday, 12 July 2024
The question Korean director Jason Yu is asking in this eerie little spine-tingler (his debut feature) is “how well do you know your partner?” He may also be inquiring whether or not you believe in life after death, while planting nagging seeds of... Read more... |
Fly Me to the Moon review - NASA gets a Madison Avenue makeoverThursday, 11 July 2024
It’s over 50 years since men last landed on our orbiting space-neighbour, but director Greg Berlanti's Fly Me to the Moon transports us back to the feverish days in 1969 when Apollo 11 was about to tackle the feat for the first time. The film’s... Read more... |
MaXXXine review - a bloody star is bornWednesday, 10 July 2024
Mia Goth’s mighty Maxine finally makes it to Hollywood in Ti West’s brash conclusion to the trilogy he began with X (2022), which has become a visceral treatise on film’s 20th century allure, and the bloody downside of dreaming to escape.X riffed on... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta)Wednesday, 10 July 2024
There’s a lot to unpick in Zoltán Fabri’s 1956 film Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta). Take leading man Imre Soós’s disarming resemblance to a young Peter O’Toole, and a central love story which plays out like a Hungarian take on Romeo and Juliet with some... Read more... |
Heart of an Oak review - an adventure film starring a tree and its inhabitantsFriday, 05 July 2024
On one level, Heart of an Oak is the most spectacular nature film you are ever likely to see. The camera glides over a forest before honing in on a magnificent, 210 year old oak tree. It travels up the gnarled surface of the ancient trunk, which... Read more... |
The Nature of Love review - disappointing French-Canadian romanceFriday, 05 July 2024
The Nature of Love joins a recent spate of films where older women enjoy what a mealy-mouthed columnist would describe as an inappropriate relationship. Whether it’s Olivia Colman bedding a much younger black colleague in Empire of Light, ... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-Ray: Back to BlackTuesday, 02 July 2024
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic Back to Black, written by Matt Greenhalgh and starring Marisa Abela (Industry) as Amy Winehouse, has been criticised for its soft-focused approach.And its sympathetic portrayals of Blake Fielder-Civil (a punchy Jack O’... Read more... |
I Am: Celine Dion, Prime Video review - inside the superstar singer's living hellMonday, 01 July 2024
It was 20 years ago that Celine Dion first experienced the muscle spasming which would eventually be diagnosed as Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS). She suddenly found she couldn’t control the pitch of her voice, a calamitous occurrence for a singer... Read more... |
Kinds of Kindness review - too cruel to be kindSunday, 30 June 2024
Yorgos Lanthimos continues to navigate a highly distinctive, daring, one might even say sly path for himself. After attracting more mainstream audiences with his crowd-pleasing period romp The Favourite, and the gothic feminist fable Poor... Read more... |
Francis Alÿs: Ricochets, Barbican review - fun for the kids, yet I was moved to tearsFriday, 28 June 2024
Belgian artist, Francis Alÿs has filled the Barbican Art Gallery with films of children playing games the world over. Many of them are familiar; they’re playing five stones in Nepal (pictured below left), conkers in London, stone skimming in Morocco... Read more... |
Rose review - a long way from homeFriday, 28 June 2024
Rose has taken a while to get a release in the UK; this Danish comedy-drama opened in Scandinavia back in the autumn of 2022 and won positive reviews in the US last Christmas. Releasing a movie just as the sun finally appears to make spending... Read more... |
