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
Director: Susanne Bier Stars: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson In 1988 John Carpenter made They Live, an apocalyptic sci-fi yarn that spoke of the blindness in society to rampant, soulless consumerism and also complacent, illadvised trust in authority. It received lukewarm responses and achieved a middling box office performance. It has become a cult classic, as … Continue reading Review: Bird Box
The Transformers franchise, formerly wretched, gets an unexpected shot of heart. Director: Travis Knight Stars: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendebord Jr. There are things that you don't expect. Interesting music from Ed Sheeran. Reasonable answers about Brexit. Stagecoach buses. You don't expect them because of experience. Because for some things the well ran dry a long time ago and waiting on anything … Continue reading Review: Bumblebee
The top ten Phantom ThreadShoplifters120BPM (Beats Per Minute)SuspiriaAnnihilationThe Miseducation of Cameron PostWidowsBlack PantherFirst ManLady Bird Film Of The YearPhantom Thread "Despite their varying ways of hiding and protecting themselves, Reynolds and Alma are two of the most intimate and open characters that Anderson has yet presented us with, when wounded and when wicked." A beguiling, … Continue reading The Best of 2018
Director: Lars Von Trier Stars: Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Riley Keough Having been labelled a misogynist so many times for his films of intense female suffering, the idea of Lars Von Trier making a serial killer movie about a man who preys on women ought to be shocking. But it's not. That the film in question … Continue reading Review: The House That Jack Built
Director: Boots Riley Stars: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun Some stars are on the rise. Take Lakeith Stanfield, for example, whose jawdrop supporting performance in Short Term 12 five years ago has led to a slew of other notable supporting roles in films like Selma and Get Out. Or Tessa Thompson, joyfully everywhere right now, be that … Continue reading Review: Sorry To Bother You
Director: Alfonso Cuarón Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey The first sequence that truly resonated with me in Alfonso Cuarón's Roma was one in which a car squishes a dog poo. The patriarch of the family arrives home in his wide Ford Galaxy and rolls it with care into the narrow driveway, wing … Continue reading Review: Roma (2018)
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Renowned climber Alex Honnold is, at first glance, your typical extreme-sports type; gangly, obsessive, prodigiously selfish and prone to describing himself as "stoked". This film, made by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi in partnership with expert aerial cinematographer Jimmy Chin, documents Honnold. It acts as a character portrait, framed around his … Continue reading Review: Free Solo
Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman Stars: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Nicolas Cage It's too much, man! If it's not the brain-battering collision of every character imaginable in the MCU smashing their gloved fists into one another, it's the dreary drudgery of DC's Justice whathaveyous, the utter awfulness of Venom, the run-of-the-mill shenanigans of Ant-Man And … Continue reading Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Director: David Lowery Stars: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck The idea of legacies have haunted David Lowery's work lately. In 2017's A Ghost Story, deceased Casey Affleck was sent careering through his own life and love, covered up by a white sheet. The Old Man & The Gun, written and directed by Lowery and based on … Continue reading Review: The Old Man & The Gun
Director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda Stars: Lily Franky, Kirin Kiki, Sakura Andô More commonly than not, Hirokazu Kore-Eda's cinema is about family. His recent police procedural The Third Murder merely interrupted an ongoing streak. Shoplifters - which scooped the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier this year - revives the director's ongoing inquiries. Here, however, family is a broad term, open … Continue reading Review: Shoplifters
Director: Tim Wardle We've all heard of the theory of six degrees of separation (or six degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you prefer). How society is interwoven to the degree that you can join the dots between any six people and find some form of connection. Tim Wardle's enthused documentary Three Identical Strangers delves into this … Continue reading Review: Three Identical Strangers
Director: Sebastián Lelio Stars: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola Hot off of an Oscar win for Best Foreign Language Film (A Fantastic Woman released in the UK earlier this year), Sebastián Lelio cools off considerably with this 2017 holdover; a fatally overwrought tale of forbidden love in the orthodox Jewish community of North London. Community … Continue reading Review: Disobedience
Director: Clay Kaytis Stars: Kurt Russell, Darby Camp, Judah Lewis Christmas movies. To some they're the best part of the season. Shamelessly sentimental, cosy and familiar. Thanks to that ever-quickening calendar year they're among the movies we end up seeing the most, whether you have children or not. And regardless of quality. There's a get-out-of-jail-free … Continue reading Review: The Christmas Chronicles
Director: Daniel Goldhaber Stars: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters Of all professions, the oldest is among the most stigmatised by cinema. Sex workers do not carry much credo on the silver screen, especially in horror where they are almost always unsympathetic victims to whatever raving lunatic is wielding a knife this month. Don't get … Continue reading Review: Cam
