Director: David Lowery Stars: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Sarita Choudhury David Lowery's Arthurian odyssey ought to have played wide in cinemas here in the UK, but that ship sailed once Entertainment Film Distributors struck a deal with Jeff Bezo's shopping empire. As a result, you'll be very lucky if you have the opportunity to see … Continue reading Review: The Green Knight
Director: Ben Sharrock Stars: Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai, Sidse Babett Knudsen A car filled with disrespectful teenagers performs doughnuts in the wet sands of a Scottish estuary out in the middle of nowhere. In the backseat between two teenage girls, Syrian asylum-seeker Omar (Amir El-Masry) sits uncomfortably as he is spun around and around; promised … Continue reading Review: Limbo
Director: Sion Sono Stars: Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Bill Moseley Prisoners of the Ghostland opens on a push-in shot of a gumball machine brimming with brightly coloured candy balls, and it's as fitting an image for the unfolding tale as one might've hoped for. Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono has a cult following in the West … Continue reading Review: Prisoners of the Ghostland
Directors: Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy Stars: Ann Skelly, Aidan Gillen, Orla Brady I've recently been reading the second edition of Alexandra Heller-Nicholas' exceptional book Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study. Grueling subject matter, for sure, but Heller-Nicholas chisels down into the tropes of the subgenre, its myriad splinters, and its potential to provide therapy and catharsis … Continue reading Review: Rose Plays Julie
Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Miku Martineau, Jun Kunimura People wonder why other people watch slasher movies when - crude violence aside - so many of them are interchangeable. I watch my share and it's true; what you get in one isn't often much different to what you'll find in another. But therein … Continue reading Review: Kate
Director: Michael Mohan Stars: Sydney Sweeney, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Justice Smith Sydney Sweeney is so hot right now. Having starred in the best (by some distance) of last year's Welcome to the Blumhouse strand (Zu Quirke's Nocturne) and having very recently been a part of HBO's hot-topic Hawaiian holiday miniseries The White Lotus, the Instagram favourite … Continue reading Review: The Voyeurs
Director: James Wan Stars: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, Michole Brianna White Throughout an already significant tenure in popular horror cinema, James Wan has been most commonly creeped out by the idea of losing control. Be it succumbing to Jigsaw's traps or getting possessed by whatever malevolent ills stalk the shadows of Insidious and The Conjuring, … Continue reading Review: Malignant
Director: Michel Franco Stars: Naian Gonzalez Norvind, Diego Boneta, Darío Yazbek Bernal Bong Joon-Ho's globally lauded Parasite wasn't exactly sly with its observations on class disparity, but it seems positively nuanced when set beside the blunt force trauma of Michel Franco's latest offering from Mexico. New Order presents a rapidly escalating conflict between working and upper … Continue reading Review: New Order
Director: Nia DaCosta Stars: Teyonah Parris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo It's been nearly 30 years since Bernard Rose's Candyman sent an ungodly swarm of bees looming over Chicago and, ultimately, much further afield. Being of a (wince) certain age, I can remember the buzz of Candyman in the playground. Kids daring one another to go … Continue reading Review: Candyman (2021)
Director: Leos Carax Stars: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg One imagines a future retirement home for provocateur filmmakers. Gaspar Noé is sat in the games room, muttering to himself and playing checkers with an imaginary opponent. Almodóvar is causing trouble in the canteen, trying to meddle in the daily dishes. And out in the … Continue reading Review: Annette
Directors: Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed Stars: Amel Alzakout While fleeing Syria by sea in 2015, the boat carrying Amel Alzakout capsized, plunging her and many other refugees into the water. Attached to her wrist, Alzakout's GoPro captured the event in full, and from a vantage point that we couldn't possibly have been afforded otherwise. Purple Sea … Continue reading Review: Purple Sea
Director: David Bruckner Stars: Rebecca Hall, Stacy Martin, Vondie Curtis-Hall Showing nationwide in multiplexes, The Night House isn't the easily-digested Friday night thriller it sorta kinda looks like it is. It's tougher than that. Moodier. Actually, downright morose. It takes you places and makes you think about depressing things. Death, mainly, and the paralysing fear that … Continue reading Review: The Night House
Director: Michael Sarnoski Stars: Alex Wolff, Nicolas Cage, Adam Arkin While in the process of searching for his beloved truffle-hunting pig Apple, Rob (Nicolas Cage) visits an upmarket Portland restaurant with a 'concept'. The hook at Eurydice is the "deconstruction" of local cuisine; a dismantling of ingredients that attempts to create something new in the … Continue reading Review: Pig
Director: Anthony Scott Burns Stars: Julia Sarah Stone, Landon Liboiron, Carlee Ryski There must be something in the water up in Canada. Certainly it seems to be the place to go for indie treats that blur the boundaries between science fiction and horror, and a new generation is gamely taking up the baton. We have … Continue reading Review: Come True
Director: Jeanette Nordahl Stars: Sandra Gulberg Kampp, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Carla Philip Roder The gender politics of a small-time Danish crime family come under scrutiny in this assured directorial debut from Jeanette Nordahl; a punchy offering that opens with a car accident and ends on a scream. That description along with the film's title conjure … Continue reading Review: Wildland
