Author Rachel Brook

Frances Ha fans, listen up. A new twenty-something struggling creative is in town, and she has a lot to say. As does writer-director Jim Strouse, whose brainchild Jessica James is an absolute joy to spend time...

Sundance hit The Big Sick lands in UK cinemas on Friday. This relationship comedy is unconventional for at least two reasons. First, its tale of illness renders the leading lady (Zoe Kazan) comatose for a...

Ranging from gently witty to laugh-out-loud funny, The Big Sick is a vibrant comedy-drama which always engages despite broadly conventional structure and lack of stylisation. What it lacks in style, it makes...

Although it’s hardly the most eagerly anticipated Pixar film of recent years, Cars 3 is great fun. While elements of the plot are nonsensical or just not adequately thought through, both the screenplay and...

French legends Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot go tête à tête in The Midwife. Despite the rather twee sun-dappled publicity images, Martin Provost’s film plays like a less grim and more substantial...

Tommy’s Honour makes for an enjoyable slice of social history and provides enough interest from community and familial drama to eclipse the attentions of the niche audience segment who care about the history...

The Last Word is a rare and unusual treat which ignores the obsessive boundaries of Hollywood genre filmmaking, and is all the richer for it. It takes a while to find its groove, however; the opening,...

Romans tells a mostly gripping and urgent story, but the film’s underwhelming and sometimes misjudged decisions keep it from rising above superior fare that tackles similar issues, namely Spotlight and...

On first introduction, Ove (Rolf Lassgård) is a grumbling, busybody stickler whose pedantic neighbourhood rule enforcement and chastisement is likely to be interpreted as over-the-top. The dry comedy of the...

This virtuoso display of editing weaves together a staggering volume of footage of contemporary London, addressing a wide spread of themes and geography with knife-sharp monochrome cinematography. Though...

In This Corner of the World starts in media res, offering early indication of the fragmentary structure it never quite overcomes. Though the soft-hued pastel palette is gorgeous to look at – particularly...

Like Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, Satan Said Dance is shot in 1:1 aspect ratio, amplifying the sense that the main character finds her life entrapping. Though Katarzyna Roslaniec’s film has flashy style and...

The 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival featured a film called My Name is Emily, by Simon Fitzmaurice. This year, It’s Not Yet Dark is billed as the story behind Fitzmaurice’s film. It both is and...

The Last Photograph is a unique, gently experimental film which offers two distinct yet equally well considered and touching portraits of grief. Though the climactic turn of events will be logical and maybe...

From the synopsis, Modern Life is Rubbish could be accused of rehashing High Fidelity, yet it more than justifies its existence. It’s a wonderfully evocative period drama of the past ten(ish) years, littered...