Reviews

Casey Affleck is Lee, the quiet, unassuming face of Manchester by the Sea. Working as a janitor in snow-crusted Boston he busies himself in the background of other people’s lives. He does his work, he goes...

What makes a “bad film”? Does the whole shebang have to be rotten? Or is it just aspects - the director, the cast, the story, the idea? It might be these questions, and probably a few more, that will...

Damien Chazelle's third feature, La La Land, confirms two trends in the director's still relatively young career. Firstly, an inclination towards jazz. Secondly, a tendency to make thrilling, moving...

It's a new year, and eight days in we're already questioning whether God exists. Martin Scorsese's Silence came out on New Year's Day in the UK and it's rather divided audiences. Critics on our shores have...

Alex Gibney sits comfortably beside the likes of Asif Kapadia and Joshua Oppenheimer as one of the best documentarians working today. After the likes of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the Oscar winning...

For an adaptation such as this, the stonefaced take is bold and offers the film respectability and weight. Heavily influenced by his own last outing, Macbeth, Justin Kurzel sticks to his strengths as a...

It's the season for families to gather together. In Why Him? it's finally time for proud father Ned Fleming to meet his daughter's new boyfriend. Following a well-trodden comedy formula, he's not the...

Punchy, profound and deeply enchanting, A Monster Calls is a home run for all involved - particularly a stacked cast who all give moving performances tied to a tricky subject, and a director who balances...

Passengers opens with a genuinely cinematic sequence, free of dialogue and even human characters. We’re introduced to the Avalon – a hyper-futuristic spaceship which nevertheless still echoes 2001 with its...

The Eagle Huntress is a documentary that is full to the brim with girl power. Narrated by Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley, the film follows Aisholpan, a 13 year old girl who is the first female to become an Eagle...

The sound of Silence is astonishing. Insects, waves, weather, chanting, groaning and, yes, prolonged silence - these elements combine into a sensory experience at once rich and austere. The clash of languages...

Breathe. This is the prequel you were looking for. From the very first moments it's clear that Rogue One stands distinctly alone in style and tone, yet blends almost seamlessly into the existing canon - quite...

The Pass is a dramatic tour de force. Its simple conceit – a triptych of pairs of people talking in hotel rooms at five-year intervals – is masterfully executed thanks to clever ellipsis, cast chemistry,...

“This is an emergency!” Spike Lee proclaims at the outset of his latest feature. There is an anger coursing through Chi-Raq that hasn’t been felt in the director’s work for some time; as passionate as...

It’s tough being a teenager. Dealing with your parents, bullies and the opposite sex are all stressful enough on their own. One issue most teenagers don’t struggle with is the urge to kill. John (Max...