Director: Alexandre Aja Stars: Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi Cinemas may have reopened across the country (yay!), but there are still plenty of viewing options for those wary of rushing back to 'normal', And, around here at least, something new from Alexandre Aja is usually enough to pique curiosity. If you're cycling endlessly through … Continue reading Review: Oxygen
Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Rhea Seehorn, Natalia Dyer My only prior exposure to the work of directing duo Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini is 2003's American Splendor - one of the finest American indies of that year. It was witty, formally playful and anchored in performance. Evidently much has … Continue reading Review: Things Heard & Seen
Director: Joe Penna Stars: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim I recently watched Al Reinert's extraordinary 1989 documentary For All Mankind, which makes exceptional use of actual video diaries from NASA's astronauts as they make a pioneering journey out of our gravity on a mission to the moon. Landmark moments are captured with the … Continue reading Review: Stowaway
Director: Anna Elizabeth James Stars: Kristin Davis, Greer Grammer, Dermot Mulroney In 1988 and long before her Sex & the City stardom, Krstin Davis 'starred' as one of a handful of colourful teenage victims in campy slasher gem Doom Asylum. Given her success since, its safe to assume that this kooky credit isn't among Davis' … Continue reading Review: Deadly Illusions
Director: Sam Levinson Stars: Zendaya, John David Washington None of us want it, but pandemic cinema is coming to get us. It's already started of course (see Shudder's inventive and trim little Zoom horror Host), but are we fully prepared for the onslaught of clumsy offerings Hollywood and the streaming giants have in store? Malcolm … Continue reading Review: Malcolm & Marie
Director: Simon Stone Stars: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James While Film Dudes have suffered constant rug-pull release delays forr the latest James Bond outing over the course of the last 12 months, those invested in the indie scene have felt similar pangs over Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman - the well-hyped Carey Mulligan vehicle which … Continue reading Review: The Dig
Director: Kornél MundruczóStars: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Iliza Shlesinger It's so difficult, sometimes, to separate the artist from the art. Recent revelations about Shia LaBeouf's despicable behaviour toward FKAtwigs has put an immediate pall over his work. I love American Honey but I feel conflicted about revisiting it. I've added The Peanut Butter Falcon to … Continue reading Review: Pieces of a Woman
Director: George C Wolfe Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Glynn Turman On 28th August this year the world stopped at the news Chadwick Boseman had died. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom arrives now on Netflix labored with the weight of containing the last performance of this firebrand young actor, taken from us just as he was … Continue reading Review: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Director: David Fincher Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Tuppence Middleton Thanks to his episodic endeavours for Netflix - House of Cards but chiefly Mindhunter - it's been six long years since we were gifted A Film by David Fincher. The drought is up with this stylishly monochrome biopic of rummy Hollywood screenwriter Herman 'Mank' Mankiewicz. … Continue reading Review: Mank
Director: Remi Weekes Stars: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Malaika Wakoli-Abigaba Remi Weekes' film, new to Netflix, turns the apprehensions and traumas of two refugees arriving on UK soil into the stuff of empathetic nightmares. It's an odd but welcome get for the streaming service, which more often trades in the kind of louder, brighter material that can … Continue reading Review: His House
Director: Oz Rodriguez Stars: Jaden Michael, Sarah Gadon, Imani Lewis There are strong Attack the Block vibes coming off of this New York teen-horror picture new to Netflix. Set within the neighbourhood of the title, Oz Rodriguez's playful feature takes aim at opportunistic real estate firms buying up properties to wholesale gentrify urban communities. Capitalist … Continue reading Review: Vampires vs the Bronx
Director: Kirsten Johnson This year has seen a lot of people lose elderly relatives to the ongoing global pandemic and most families have been unable to say a traditional goodbye through funeral ceremonies. Reduced gatherings, social distancing... these things and more have been barriers at times, stopping us from communing when we most feel the … Continue reading Review: Dick Johnson is Dead
Director: Sarah Gavron Stars: Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali, Shaneigha-Monik Greyson Sarah Gavron first came to my attention with her quirky, singular documentary on life in a remote Greenland hamlet, Village at the End of the World. That film prominently featured a young man often dissatisfied and at odds with his environment. Gavron's latest - a narrative … Continue reading Review: Rocks
Director: Harry Bradbeer Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Helena Bonham Carter, Susan Wokoma Few if any fictional characters have been brought to both the large and small screens as exhaustively as Sherlock Holmes. Truth be told, this ubiquity has led to a certain weariness, on my part. Being confronted with yet another iteration? Fine, okay. Here, … Continue reading Review: Enola Holmes
Director: Antonio Campos Stars: Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough, Tom Holland The Southern States and the lineage of the American Gothic continue to attract creatives. Often the stories set among the forests of the Appalachian hills cleave close to the mythos of the American outlaw and also the roiling temperament of Man, and that nub of … Continue reading Review: The Devil All The Time
