Director: Karen Maine Stars: Natalia Dyer, Susan Blackwell, Francesca Reale A/S/L? You either blanked at the above or it threw you back to a very specific era of dial-up, MSN and Snake 2. Before social media, before memes... If we're now in the internet's melodramatic adolescence, Karen Maine's new comedy Yes, God, Yes is set in … Continue reading Review: Yes, God, Yes
Director: Rob Savage Stars: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb Horror filmmaking has long been at the forefront of social commentary and trends (sometimes even leading the charge), so it seems perfectly legitimate that the first high profile film of the lockdown age comes from the more ghoulish end of the cinematic spectrum. New … Continue reading Review: Host
Director: Alice Winocour Stars: Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Zélie Boulant With some trepidation today I took my first steps back into a cinema in nearly five months. A humid Saturday afternoon was cooled with an uneasy but pleasantly air-conditioned matinee. From behind my mask I was able to catch-up with familiar members of staff (behind … Continue reading Review: Proxima
Director: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter Stars: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Kelly Rowland, Lupita Nyong'o The visual album has become a linchpin of Beyoncé's release schedule for the past decade now - since she reclaimed her artistic vision from her father - and has increasingly belayed an artist's interest in the medium, something she more than capitalised upon last year … Continue reading Review: Black is King
Director: Coky Giedroyc Stars: Beanie Feldstein, Emma Thompson, Paddy Considine In the months before lockdown I went to see Chromatics, Angel Olsen, Jamila Woods and Melt-Banana, and I took all of it for granted. Our live music venues are currently in a state of crisis. COVID-19 has put an already precarious industry on its knees. … Continue reading Review: How To Build A Girl
Director: Joe Begos Stars: Dora Madison, Tru Collins, Jeremy Gardner Joe Begos had a productive 2019. His John Carpenter homage VFW recently hit Netflix and was one of two features he brought to bear. Eureka Entertainment have given his other feature Bliss a welcome physical outlet. A limited edition is already starting to seem scarce, … Continue reading Review: Bliss
Director: Chinonye Chukwu Stars: Alfre Woodard, Wendell Pierce, Aldis Hodge Clemency is a film about two people who are disappearing. The first of these is Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard), warden of a prison, borderline alcoholic and absentee wife. Her increasingly stifling and stressful work environment is eroding her attachments to life. Her marriage to Jonathan … Continue reading Review: Clemency
Director: Cory Finley Stars: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan COVID-19 has been bad for cinemas, undeniably, but also bad for films. While all the summer's planned blockbusters managed to get a pass - delayed until, yknow, whenever - it is most commonly the lower and mid-budget movies that have been allowed to slip through … Continue reading Review: Bad Education
Director: Kelly Reichardt Stars: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones Under the thumb of lockdown for months on end, one of the pervasive trends to sweep the UK has been a renewed interest in home cooking and baking. With restaurants and bakeries shuttered for months on end, social media networks became flooded with sourdoughs, farmhouse … Continue reading Review: First Cow
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood Stars: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts What is the strange draw of seeing our favourite actors buy it violently time and again? In recent years we've been encouraged to watch with glee as Tom Cruise died over and over in Edge of Tomorrow. For Happy Death Day, newcomer Jessica Rothe went through … Continue reading Review: The Old Guard
Director: Katharine O'Brien Stars: Juno Temple, Simon Pegg, Alexandra Daddario It was only this weekend just gone that I was lounging at home, revisiting itchy 2013 psychological thriller Magic Magic and wondering "where has Juno Temple gone?". Having impressed greatly in that movie and several others in the first half of the last decade, the … Continue reading Review: Lost Transmissions
It seems churlish to say, but for a little while there in the '00s, Hollywood horror movies got really... mean. In spite of Kevin Williamson's injection of post-modernist humour, the '90s weren't a vintage decade for the genre, at least, not in the West. This was kind of surprising, especially considering the pre-millennial tension that … Continue reading What About… House of Wax
Director: David Dobkin Stars: Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens It's been a long, shitty year and we're only halfway through this mutha. But enough good news; there's a new Will Ferrell comedy movie on Netflix. That's a little too snarky for my taste these days. Ferrell's comic stylings are well-established. Indeed, he's the Old … Continue reading Review: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Director: Olivier Assayas Stars: Edgar Ramírez, Ana de Armas, Penélope Cruz Olivier Assayas - a director with an extremely high-class filmography stretching back over the last 30 years - here makes a slight wobble as he returns to matters political. Wasp Network - available on Netflix following its Berlin premiere last year - sees Assayas … Continue reading Review: Wasp Network
Director: Marc Meyers Stars: Alexandra Daddario, Amy Forsyth, Maddie Hasson I have to confess; obnoxious as it may have seemed to some/most, I have a soft spot for illogical 3D cheese-fest Texas Chainsaw from the early '10s. It's one of my comfort blanket movies. Bright and dumb enough to sustain me when I want to switch … Continue reading Review: We Summon The Darkness
