Director: Jay Roach Stars: Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron We are in the midst of a very slow-moving sea change in how women are treated and depicted in the entertainment industry. I kind of hate that it's only taken me two sentences to get to Harvey Weinstein, but here we are. His name may … Continue reading Review: Bombshell
Looking through the local cinema listings, it is will dismal acceptance that I note that A Hidden Life - the new opus from one of cinema's living legends - is not playing anywhere near me. A privileged woe, granted. Blame poor distribution, a lack of faith from cinema chains, or the happenstance of the first busy release … Continue reading Ranked: Terrence Malick
Director: Robert Eggers Stars: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Valeriia Karaman The thankless, backbreaking toil of the working class; the promise of abundance higher up the economic ladder; entrenched homophobia and repressed homosexuality; the inescapable past; the ruination of alcoholism and its use as a tool to keep men down; the allure of a piscine vagina... … Continue reading Review: The Lighthouse
Directors: Joshua Safdie, Benny Safdie Stars: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Lakeith Stanfield Anyone familiar with the cinema of Joshua and Benny Safdie might well feel a sense of dislocation at the opening of their latest, Uncut Gems. The boys have come up and made a name for themselves with a brash, guerrilla-style of filmmaking back and … Continue reading Review: Uncut Gems
Director: Sam Mendes Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Andrew Scott Sam Mendes' latest film betrays a conspicuous fascination with the revelatory nature of time. It's there from the concise date-stamped title onward (the title card goes into further specificity, citing events as taking place on April 6th). The well-publicised gimmickry of shooting his Great War … Continue reading Review: 1917
Director: Bi Gan Stars: Huang Jue, Tang Wei, Sylvia Chang In a very specific but entirely fitting sense, Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night exists outside of time for me. The film was released in China on the last day of 2018. It received its (very limited) UK cinematic release in the last week … Continue reading Review: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
There are a handful of directors who compete, in my mind, for all-time greatest. Kelly Reichardt, David Lynch, Yasujiro Ozu, Abbas Kiarostami... Abbas Kiarostami. The late Iranian master who, between 1987 and 1994, directed three interconnected films that came to be known as The Koker Trilogy (a moniker he allowed but didn't coin). The three … Continue reading Minutiae: The Zig-Zag Path in The Koker Trilogy
Director: Taika Waititi Stars: Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie With nationalism on the rise - and closer to our doors than we'd often like to think - Taika Waititi's 'anti-hate' satire Jojo Rabbit couldn't be more timely... on paper. The whimsical director has developed a devout following between cult hits like What We Do In … Continue reading Review: Jojo Rabbit
Director: Tom Hooper Stars: Francesca Hayward, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift When I was 16 I took LSD for the first and only time in my life. I had anticipated, thanks to TV and film, to suddenly see conjured pink elephants and gateways to other dimensions. Time-lapsed flowering mushrooms and the like. That didn't really happen. … Continue reading Review: Cats
Director: J.J. Abrams Stars: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega You could feel it coming; a disturbance in the force. Gradually, as the press junkets for The Rise of Skywalker began, different members of the cast started speaking fondly of how Abrams' return felt so welcome. Abrams himself joined the fray. You could sense the urge … Continue reading Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Director: Sophia Takal Stars: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Cary Elwes In an early scene of Sophia Takal's unfairly derided Black Christmas, Imogen Poots' Riley is selected in her classic literature class to suppose a writer's intention. She responds that the context-free quote speaks of how men think and women feel; that because of this it is a man's … Continue reading Review: Black Christmas (2019)
Director: Greta Gerwig Stars: Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson There's a scene in Noah Baumbach's Mistress America in which Greta Gerwig's character Brooke has to pitch her idea for New York restaurant called Mom's. The place would have big chunky furniture; where at the end of the night the chef and the service staff joined the … Continue reading Review: Little Women
The top ten If Beale Street Could TalkUsMadeline's MadelineThe Farewell The Irishman/I Heard You Paint HousesEighth Grade Monos Burning Support The GirlsHomecoming - A Film by Beyoncé Film Of The YearIf Beale Street Could Talk "In a very real sense If Beale Street Could Talk is one of the most ecstatic expressions of romance to … Continue reading The Best of 2019
Director: Jake Kasdan Stars: Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito, Awkwafina When, in combination, The Greatest Showman and Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle took more money for Sony than the last Bond film, it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would be franchised as quickly as possible. Jumanji was the obvious choice. After all, it was … Continue reading Review: Jumanji: The Next Level
Director: Mati Diop Stars: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Nicole Sougou The Senegalese peninsular city of Dakar is one of West Africa's extremities, reaching out to the Atlantic. The city itself is eager to broaden its appeal to the developed world. In this earnest endeavour, disparities between rich and poor are ripe for observation, and … Continue reading Review: Atlantics
