Gloria Bell – Review Jack King June 6, 2019 Reviews 2017's A Fantastic Woman, Chilean director Sebastián Lelio's fifth film, was celebrated as a critical darling for a multitude of well-earned reasons – not least being Lelio's rich characterisation of Marina...
After the Wedding – Sundance London Review Joni Blyth June 5, 2019 Reviews After the Wedding cuts through its own melodrama at a clippy pace. Third-act twists are delivered halfway through; director Bart Freundlich is more interested in living in the fallout than trying to shock you...
The Farewell – Sundance London Review Joni Blyth June 5, 2019 Reviews You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe at awkward speeches – The Farewell is like any good family wedding, or any good funeral come to think of it. In her sophomore feature, writer-director Lulu Wang...
X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Review James Andrews June 5, 2019 Reviews Critiquing an X-Men film is now all relative, given how increasingly hit and miss the series has become – but after the nadir of 2016's Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix proves a pleasant surprise. While not hitting...
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan – Review Marie-Célia Cannenpasse June 4, 2019 Reviews His style usually unleashing an extremely divisive response, Xavier Dolan’s latest opus The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is unlikely to drastically change audiences' minds. In this, the Québécois...
Ma – Review Jack King May 31, 2019 Reviews There's no prerequisite suggesting that a film must have something to say for it to be good. There are plenty of brilliant movies with the density of styrofoam. The realm of the genre flick, however –...
Sibyl – Cannes 2019 Review Marie-Célia Cannenpasse May 30, 2019 Reviews With a study of how one’s mind navigates between stability and insanity, french director Justine Triet’s latest feature Sibyl is a legitimate attempt at portraying the complexity within human imagination....
Godzilla: King of the Monsters – Review Jack King May 29, 2019 Reviews Despite the vacuous content we've come to expect from blockbuster films, they do conform to one ubiquitous truth: they're big, they're loud, and they're fun. Well, almost ubiquitous. In the case of Godzilla:...
Nina Wu – Cannes 2019 Review Tom Bond May 27, 2019 Reviews Nina Wu comes at a perfect moment, hot on the heels of the #MeToo movement which finally challenged longstanding abusive practices in the film industry. Its tale of power, control, and the male gaze is a...
Matthias & Maxime – Cannes 2019 Review Tom Bond May 27, 2019 Reviews Xavier Dolan's had a tough few years. The Canadian wunderkind's last two efforts It's Only the End of the World and The Death and Life of John F. Donovan have bombed hard, but in Matthias & Maxime he...
Booksmart – Review Alex Goldstein May 25, 2019 Reviews Booksmart takes the essentials of a rowdy, raunchy high school comedy and flips them, though it would be a disservice to suggest this is simply by putting girls in the driver’s seat. It’s much more nuanced...
Ice on Fire – Cannes 2019 Review Tom Bond May 23, 2019 Reviews In a sane world, Ice on Fire wouldn't exist. Mass global audiences would've been woken up by the comprehensive climate change warnings of An Inconvenient Truth back in 2006, rather than simply stirring in...
Aladdin – Review Tori Brazier May 23, 2019 Reviews Shining, shimmering... but not so splendid. Aladdin’s first 30 minutes almost condemn it as the worst Disney live action remake (and there’s plenty of competition!). Terrible pace and a garbled storyline...
La Belle Époque – Cannes 2019 Review Tom Bond May 22, 2019 Reviews What would you give to go back and experience any point in history however you wished? Time travel may be impossible, but considering the relentless march of technology and filmmaking it’s not inconceivable...
Young Ahmed – Cannes 2019 Review Tom Bond May 22, 2019 Reviews A film about a Muslim teenager’s radicalisation directed by two white men was always going to be controversial, no matter that those men are the legendary Dardennes brothers. The worry was that they would...