Author Phil W. Bayles

This article contains major spoilers for Midsommar.  Ari Aster doesn’t make horror movies; he makes anxiety movies. His filmography is less concerned with things that go bump in the night than provoking...

There’s a whole subgenre of superhero comics that came about from asking ‘what if?’ As in, what if Batman was a vampire? What if the Avengers had been around in Elizabethan England? Now David...

James Gunn has become an essential player in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe – so much so that even an idiotic campaign by right-wing internet trolls couldn’t keep him away. But as we eagerly await...

Neil Jordan's last film, the underrated vampire tale Byzantium, focused on an unconventional mother-daughter relationship to riveting effect. Now he returns to the same well for Greta, albeit with mixed...

The world of animation has been going through some major evolution in recent years, with films like The LEGO Movie and its spin-offs or Into the Spider-Verse pushing the boundaries of what the medium can look...

Disney is showing no signs of slowing down in its effort to remake all of its classic animated films, but it is easy to justify taking a crack at Dumbo. Clocking in at just over an hour long, the 1941 original...

Nobody expected The LEGO Movie to be anything more than a 90-minute commercial for the bricks it was based on. But, in a move that has quickly becoming their trademark, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller...

This review was originally published on 6/2/2019. In the age of Donald Trump, it's unsurprising that Ruth Bader Ginsburg – only the second woman in history to ascend to the US Supreme Court – has...

In the age of Donald Trump, it's unsurprising that Ruth Bader Ginsburg – only the second woman in history to ascend to the US Supreme Court – has become something of a superhero. And like many superhero...

With the How to Train Your Dragon movies, the talented folk at DreamWorks Animation have proven themselves capable of rivalling even the mighty Pixar. Now The Hidden World is here to bring the trilogy to a...

The How to Train Your Dragon movies are far and away the best work DreamWorks Animation have ever produced. For one thing, they’re simply gorgeous to look at, bursting with vibrantly designed creatures and...

Every once in a while a film comes along that is so electrifying it feels like the director is holding your eyes open, Ludovico style, to make sure you don’t miss a frame. Sorry to Bother You, the feature...

There's a line in Venom about a "turd in the wind" that seems tailor-made for angry critics. But to use it in a review would give the screenwriters too much credit. It would be easy to blame all the...

Don’t be fooled by trailers - A Simple Favour is far more than a Gone Girl knock-off. Heavily marketed as coming from ‘the dark side of Paul Feig,’ in practice it feels like Feig has remade a François...

Few documentary makers have a flair for cinematic storytelling quite like Bart Layton. His blistering debut, The Imposter, feels like a thriller despite being mostly a collection of talking head interviews....