Reviews

Hail to thee, Dan Stevens, once again a man with writer’s block, haunted by ghosts at his desk. In 2017, Charles Dickens, and now as Charles Condomine, the no-good cad at the heart of Noël Coward’s...

This film was previously reviewed in September 2020 as part of our TIFF 2020 coverage. “We have to be there for each other because ain’t nobody else understand what is like being one of us except us....

This film was previously reviewed in November 2020 as part of our Raindance 2020 coverage. Feathers were unquestionably ruffled when it was announced last year by Duncan Jones that the upcoming biopic of...

The opening scene of Pieces of a Woman may well prove to be the point which either wins or loses its audience. It begins with Martha (Vanessa Kirby) experiencing labour pains while her partner Sean (Shia...

This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our coverage for London Film Festival. Mogul Mowgli begins with a lightning bolt of energy, as up-and-coming rapper Zed (Riz Ahmed) explodes onto...

This film was originally reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets sets out to break the rules of cinema. Why do we have to distinguish between...

Midway through Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the eponymous singer – played by Viola Davis – sits with one of her band members in their studio. She has, until now, been portrayed as a diva: refusing to sing...

This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. Farewell Amor’s opening scene, a man clutching flowers at an airport as his long-awaited family arrives from...

Mercifully, an artificial intelligence-led revolt against humanity didn’t happen in 2020. If iHuman is to be believed, it’s not a matter of if, but when. A documentary which functions as much as a horror...

Towards the end of Wonder Woman 1984, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) desperately shouts “why are you doing this?” at the villain cackling maniacally down at her. It feels twistedly cathartic to hear this as an...

Kim Yong-hoon’s debut feature Beasts Clawing at Straws is a darkly comic thriller that is befitting of post-Parasite South Korean cinema.  This smart neo-noir is a slow burner that catalogues the...

This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. David Byrne’s American Utopia begins with what is almost a caricature of the man himself. Infamously awkward...

This film was previously reviewed in February 2020 as part of our Berlinale Film Festival coverage. While it may seem like Matteo Garrone is independently hopping on the recent live action Disney remakes...

This film was previously reviewed in September 2019 as part of our Venice Film Festival coverage. It’s hard to avoid the twin evils of mawkishness and misery when making a film about cancer, but Shannon...

Herman J. Mankiewicz is not anybody’s first choice for a prestige Hollywood biopic. He may have co-written one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane (and that’s debated), but to most people the...