Reviews

New York in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk is pulsating, alive and wholly authentic – populated with little fanfare by people of all shades. Following up Moonlight – a watershed achievement...

Benjamin is a bleak and hilarious glimpse straight into the mind of Simon Amstell. His insecurities and witticisms are laid bare in a searing indictment of London, the arts and (of course) himself. “JUST...

While Melissa McCarthy has found name recognition, widespread acclaim and even an Academy Award nomination for her foul-mouthed comedy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is her first intentional foray into the awards...

In George Tillman Jr’s defiant The Hate U Give, Amandla Stenberg gives the performance of her young career as Starr, a girl forced to speak out after witnessing a friend’s murder at the hands of a white...

Assassination Nation kicks off with a slew of trigger warnings – a fun gag letting you know all the sordid topics to be covered. Graphic and disorienting, the film spends about an hour and a half punching...

Much like Scottie's consuming obsession in Vertigo, its hyperactive cousin, The Green Fog, is a labour of love. Directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson use San Francisco-based film and television...

In spite of its name, Dublin Oldschool spends very little time actually considering its distinct and characterful setting. Throughout, there’s a general disregard for any storytelling possibilities laid...

Shot dead at the age of 39 in a mundane dispute over a friend’s pension slip, Blaze Foley has been folded into country music legend – spoken of in whispers, his influences keenly felt but never explicitly...

It’s not often that you watch a two and a half hour film and think, ‘that could have been longer.’ Such is the power of Burning that it could last eight hours and it would still be compelling, a dark,...

This review was originally published as part of our London Film Festival coverage on 19/10/18. The White Crow has to walk a tricky line between period drama and dance movie – think Step Up 2: The Soviets....

The Hummingbird Project chronicles a quest of unfathomable proportions. Unfathomably boring proportions. “We’re building a four-inch pipe from Kansas to New Jersey!” just isn’t a catchy idea, no matter...

Based on an unlikely and incredible true story, Museum is a film with a mountain of ideas and things to say that sometimes finds itself swamped by its own ambition. Following Juan (Gael García Bernal), a...

This review was originally published as part of our London Film Festival coverage on 18/10/2018. The red dress of Peter Strickland’s In Fabric could represent anything: the toxic lure of consumerism, the...

Capernaum was an ancient city in what is now northern Israel on the sea of Galilee, thought to be the setting for a string of Jesus’ miraculous feats of healing. No such easy fixes come for those who...

This review was originally published as part of our London Film Festival coverage on 18/10/2018 Just as Embrace of the Serpent grounded itself in indigenous stories, so too does Ciro Guerra’s followup...