I am not the first to bemoan our increasing lack of shared experience and our increasingly fractured, algorithm-driven culture, but the honestly transcendent experience I had at the Hamnet gala premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, really drove home what we risk losing. The London Film Festival is my favourite place to be. It always has…
Bradley Cooper returns to the director’s chair with a smaller-scale story than his previous outings and he further proves his directorial prowess with this perfectly-formed, hilarious and tender relationship study. The kind of adult comedy-drama that feels as though it is from a bygone age, Is This Thing On? is a beautifully crafted breath of fresh air.…
Arriving on the heels of breathless praise from the North American festivals, I was lucky enough to attend the gala premiere of Hamnet at the London Film Festival. Expectations were high, as was the buzz inside Royal Festival Hall, and the film delivered in full force with its audience left emotionally devastated yet bursting full of life.…
The Merc with a Mouth is back, with all of the trademark wit, crudity and fourth-wall breaking self-awareness that we know and love, but with one crucial difference. This film doesn’t enter the multiplexes as the cunning underdog hoping to connect; it comes with a raging fire of fans and expectations, and with a considerably…
The award-winning team behind Juno and Young Adult have returned to give us another intimate glimpse into a time in a woman’s life: motherhood. In Tully, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody have crafted a tender yet seemingly brutally honest account of the trials and tribulations that come with having small children in a character study that lends…
In light of the new Ocean’s 8 trailer released this week, I thought I’d take a look at what is quickly becoming a new trend in Hollywood: gender-flipping film franchises. With one already released, two more coming in the next few months and many in development, it seems as though the industry is sticking hard and…
The audience you’re with can have a big effect on your film experience, and I don’t just mean whether or not you get some inconsiderate popcorn rustlers, drink slurpers, mid-movie texters, man-spreaders or even vapers in your screen. Especially for films which are designed to evoke more audible reactions from their audiences (for example laughs…
*This is a modified repost of my LFF review* One of my favourite films of last year (and probably ever), Thoroughbreds is finally in cinemas. It is a deliciously dark and witty tale that eases in and out of thriller territory to provide an engrossing and unpredictable experience. Set in a wealthy area of Connecticut, the…
The horror genre can generally be quite hit or miss. A lot are scary enough for an entertaining ride, coasting on jump scares and lazy plotting, many are completely terrible, but some are absolute gems that rise above the aim of purely scaring their audience, to provide an engrossing and satisfying experience (and, of course,…
This month offers up a wide variety of DVDs, with the first award winners trickling in, and some of the most underseen (and best) films from the end of last year. Call Me by Your Name This beautiful coming-of-age story, adapted from André Caiman’s novel, is an authentic and touching romance, tinged with longing and…
