Author Tom Bond

Lars Von Trier is back with The House that Jack Built, a 150-minute grotesque epic going deep inside the mind of a serial killer. Does it confirm his genius and justify his provocations or is it the...

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Film franchises prompt that question on a daily basis, with every semi-successful character or creation plundered for as many sequels and spin-offs as audiences...

You may expect a film about the current Pope to be of interest only to religious viewers, but veteran director Wim Wenders tries his hardest to generate a broader audience for his gentle documentary. This is a...

Hirokazu Kore-eda is on familiar ground with Shoplifters, the story of an unconventional family unit on the fringes of society who beg, steal and borrow to get by. It’s the most fun Kore-eda has been in...

In 2012, when Obama was president and racism in America seemed to be fading, Django Unchained featured a notorious scene with the Ku Klux Klan. Squabbling about eyeholes and spare bags, the white supremacist...

Alice Rohrwacher’s gentle domestic comedy, Happy as Lazzaro, is a hard film to define. It’s full of grim social realism, light conversational comedy, and surreal jumps in time that warp reality to make...

Ray Bradbury’s iconoclastic 1953 novel has not been this relevant for a long time. Fahrenheit 451 was written as a defence of books and intellectualism against the growth of TV and other mindless...

The war on terror has never really ended since the touch paper was lit on 9/11. Troops landed, and left, enemies were vanquished, and changed, domestic threats grew, and faded. After all this time, it’s easy...

This review was published as part of our Cannes festival coverage on 13/05/2018. If you want to know what a film is, ask Jafar Panahi. Under the thumb of a repressive Iranian regime that censors its cinema,...

When Nic Cage’s performance is the most normal thing about a film, you know you’re dealing with something truly extraordinary. The first thing you notice about Mandy is its look. It’s like...

“Enjoy puberty while it lasts.” This well-meaning advice from the titular girl’s father (Arieh Worthalter) is a cruel joke to most teenagers, let alone trans teens. Lara is a 16-year-old trans girl,...

How many positive depictions of motherhood in cinema can you think of? Whether it’s with body horror or performance anxiety, filmmakers over the years have made it very clear that being a mother is no bed of...

Even if you saw Annihilation when it first hit Netflix a month ago, you probably haven’t been able to forget its most powerful scenes. Ostensibly a sci-fi mystery about a meteorite and the strange shimmering...

This film was previously reviewed on 21/05/17 as part of Cannes Film Festival. Acclaimed writer/director Robin Campillo returns with BPM (Beats Per Minute), an incendiary and challenging film about the Act...

Steven Spielberg: we’re not angry, we’re just disappointed. And also quite angry, to be honest. The man himself could be blindfolded and still direct one of the best films of any given year, but in...