Emma. – Review Rachel Brook February 13, 2020 Reviews 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...
Unicorn Store – Review Rachel Brook April 10, 2019 Reviews 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...
JT LeRoy – Review Rachel Brook April 5, 2019 Reviews 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...
Two in the Bush: A Love Story – BFI Flare 2019 Review Rachel Brook March 27, 2019 Reviews 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...
Disobedience – Review Rachel Brook December 2, 2018 Reviews 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...
The Skier – CFF 2018 Review Rachel Brook November 8, 2018 Reviews 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...
Nancy – CFF 2018 Review Rachel Brook November 7, 2018 Reviews 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 – Review Rachel Brook September 28, 2018 Reviews 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 – Review Rachel Brook September 15, 2018 Reviews 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...
Cold War is a Romantic Epic and an Ode to Hope Rachel Brook September 3, 2018 Reviews 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...
Team Talk – BlacKkKlansman Rachel Brook August 27, 2018 Reviews 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 – Review Rachel Brook August 27, 2018 Reviews 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...
Christopher Robin – Review Rachel Brook August 12, 2018 Reviews In this return to the Hundred Acre Wood, Disney do what they do best. Christopher Robin is proper old-fashioned filmmaking. Money is well spent on a perfectly cast Ewan McGregor and on bringing ‘40s London...
Mario – Review Rachel Brook July 15, 2018 Reviews In synopsis, you’d be forgiven for thinking Mario sounds a lot like Ben A. William’s The Pass. Both interrogate homophobia in the world of professional football via the highly emotive stories of two...
Adrift – Review Rachel Brook July 1, 2018 Reviews Adrift brings nothing new to the tradition of lost-at-sea movies, despite director Baltasar Kormákur’s prior experience with the genre – his similarly premised The Deep picked up a raft of European film...