Author Rachel Brook

Pretty in Pink was the first John Hughes script to be produced following his cult favourite The Breakfast Club. Thirty years on Hughes is remembered by many as the godfather of the golden age of teen drama,...

Freeheld’s first act combines irrelevant police cases with an awkward early-stage romance that develops into a cheesy, sun-splashed love story. The deferral of the main narrative leaves room to thoroughly...

Though boldly stylised with, for instance, a winking Margot Robbie cameo, The Big Short fails to deliver a consistent moral standpoint, and ironically falls into the kind of cheap hypocrisy of some of its...

Donaghue’s adaptation of her own novel translates the vastly distinct sections of Room equally skilfully, and treats the recoveries of both Jack and Ma with nuance. It’s Jack’s charming perspective...

We all know Jennifer Lawrence as the Girl on Fire, or Katniss Everdeen, from the recently wrapped Hunger Games series. Throughout the saga - well, until Mockingjay Part 2 -  Lawrence’s acting was every bit...

Sisters is no Trainwreck, but it’s an absolute train wreck. That poor excuse for wordplay is funnier than any joke in this so-called comedy, which for half of its runtime resembles a Katy Perry video that...

With the final chapter of everyone’s favourite dystopian teen franchise, The Hunger Games (what else?), landing in cinemas this week, you may need some cinematic balm for the gaping hole it’s about to...

Light Years has the kitchen-sink stylistic trappings of an Andrea Arnold film, yet the conflict that drives the narrative is far less apparent. As a result it is at times laboriously low-key, but there are...

Somewhat understandably, Mr Gaga is overly reliant on enchanting and hypnotic footage of Naharin’s shows, and the film is bolstered by frank interview input from its subject. Rather than answer the...

In blending Jean-Pierre Jeunet-esque whimsical adventure with a sentimentalised recollection of past love Desplechin straddles and ultimately crosses the line between charm and irksomeness. Stylistically...

This painfully intimate family drama depicts the intense bond between sisters with uncanny power. Together Josephson and Deasismont embody both the joy and rivalry of siblinghood so recognisably that it’s...

A promising plot collapses into a completely shapeless and tedious film beefed up to feature length by the inclusion of a huge amount of irrelevant mundane detail, such as an odd obsession with the...

Queen of Earth's opening could be deleted footage from Perry’s Listen Up Philip, but the quality of this follow-up's script and performances soon distracts from the repetition. Moss and Waterston offer...

From its striking opening A Perfect Day is grubby and real, filled with weathered props and beautiful aerial shots of the suffering landscape. Though it has a well-defined style – established in part by...

Very Big Shot is a glorious surprise. What begins as a gangster drama twists itself into an uproarious cine-literate comedy. Though the plot begs comparisons to Affleck’s Argo, Chaaya takes himself much...