Author Rachel Brook

The best films of 2021 marshalled all of the techniques of cinema to tell their stories in ways that could only be achieved within the medium of film. The Father mastered editing and production design, using...

The premise of Granada Nights heralds a Linklater-like Europhilic jaunt through the titular city, yet it’s quickly apparent that the dialogue isn’t up to Jesse and Celine standards. Before protagonist Ben...

This film was previously reviewed in June 2017 as part of our EIFF coverage. The Last Photograph is a unique, gently experimental film which offers two distinct yet equally well considered and touching...

This is the most visually striking Austen adaptation since Clueless. But unfortunately efforts have gone into the Grand Budapest-hued aesthetic above all else, leaving Emma with absolutely nothing new to...

Brie Larson’s Unicorn Store seems to take place in a neighbouring universe to that of Boots Riley’s celebrated Sorry to Bother You. Though it has less of an anarchic agenda, Unicorn Store combines surreal...

This review was originally published as part of our BFI Flare coverage on 05/04/2019. There’s no denying that the scandal and secrecy of writer JT LeRoy make for a fascinating story. In this retelling, it...

A cynical take on Two in the Bush might consider the slew of non-(hetero)normative identities and relationships it addresses – bisexuality, polyamory, dominatrices – a try-hard box-ticking attempt at...

With his second release of 2018, Sebastián Lelio attempts to trade one fantastic woman for two. But don’t be fooled by the promotional images of Rachel-on-Rachel (Weisz and McAdams). Disobedience isn’t a...

Like Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner, The Skier launches headlong into the vivid and colourful world of a determined child on a critical mission. Similarities between the two Middle East-set films end there...

Christina Choe’s superb feature debut Nancy is paradoxically both compelling and repulsive. Andrea Riseborough anchors the narrative by embodying a character whose odd behaviour is as riveting as it is...

Skate Kitchen is a fantastically evocative low-key tale of a teenage girl’s coming of age within the skate subculture of New York City. Of course, this subject matter recalls Drew Barrymore’s Ellen...

Crazy Rich Asians begins like an all-Asian Gossip Girl yet ascends to very dizzy heights, offering a worthy twenty-first century update of Ang Lee’s ‘90s romantic comedies. Once Rachel (Wu) and Nick...

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War is a far cry from the muggy atmosphere of his 2004 English-language feature My Summer of Love. As the title suggests, Cold War’s romance takes place in and is defined by...

Spike Lee is back with the characteristically audacious and opinionated BlacKkKlansman, and according to our Senior Features Ed, Tom, this is nothing but good. Tom awarded the latest Spike Lee joint a...

The Children Act is not the courtroom procedural you might expect. Ian McEwan’s screenplay – and his novel before it – has plenty up its sleeve beyond the premise’s proffering of a delicious...