Film Reviews
The Whalebone Box review - documentary through unreliable surrealismWednesday, 01 April 2020
The UK-wide lockdown has thrown the cinematic release schedule into chaos. Some films are postponed indefinitely, while others have opted for direct digital releases. It’s not ideal for anyone, but in a strange way it may play to The Whalebone Box’s favour. Specialist arthouse streaming service MUBI has secured the exclusive rights, and their captive subscribers are the ideal audience for such a strange, hypnotic piece. Read more... |
The Perfect Candidate review - seeking status for women in SaudiSaturday, 28 March 2020
Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour is back on home territory with her new film, and you’ll recognise much here from her characterful 2012 debut Wadjda, itself the first-ever feature to emerge from her home country. Read more... |
Vivarium review – housing ladder to hellFriday, 27 March 2020
Imagine being trapped in your perfect home forever. It’s easy if you try now, as Vivarium’s allegory about property and parenthood is deepened by events. Read more... |
System Crasher review – a compelling portrait of childhood violence and painThursday, 26 March 2020
Benni, the central character in German writer-director Nora Fingscheidt's haunting new film, has a life of tragedy and violence. Read more... |
Fire Will Come review - slow-burning Spanish beautyMonday, 23 March 2020
This lovely, contemplative Cannes prize-winner has something to teach us in testing times. Filmed in director Oliver Laxe’s grandparents’ Galician village, it observes convicted arsonist Amador’s return from jail to the fire-prone landscape he’s blamed for devastating.... Read more... |
The Truth review - a potent Franco-Japanese pairingWednesday, 18 March 2020
It may offer veteran French star Catherine Deneuve as substantial and engaging a role as she has enjoyed in years, but the real surprise of The Truth is that it’s the work of Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda. Read more... |
Run review – wheels on fire in ScotlandSaturday, 14 March 2020
Run is the story of disgruntled 36-ish Finnie (Mark Stanley), a big, dour worker in a fish processing plant in the Aberdeenshire port of Fraserburgh – writer-director Scott Graham’s hometown. Read more... |
Calm with Horses review - a stirring debutFriday, 13 March 2020
Nick Rowland marks his breakout from TV drama with this very competent feature, an adaptation of Colin Barrett’s short story. Read more... |
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am review - a fitting tribute to a masterful storytellerFriday, 13 March 2020
When the Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison died last year, it was a chance to celebrate the remarkable life of a storyteller who shook the literary establishment. Her work, including her debut novel The Bluest Eye, broke radical new ground in depicting African American life. Read more... |
Misbehaviour review - crowd-pleaser tackles Seventies sexismThursday, 12 March 2020
Created in the mould of Made in Dagenham and Pride, Philippa Lowthrope offers up a cheery, kitschy British comedy centred around the 1970 Miss World Contest that was disrupted by feminist protests.  Read more... |
And Then We Danced review - glorious Georgian gay coming-of-age taleWednesday, 11 March 2020
The final sequence of Levan Akin’s coming-of-age drama And Then We Danced is as gloriously defiant a piece of dance action as anything you’ll remember falling for in Billy Elliot. Read more... |
Onward review - do you believe in magic?Friday, 06 March 2020
Welcome to New Mushroomton: a fantasy land that’s forgotten itself. This is how we’re introduced to Pixar’s Onward, which is set in a Dungeons & Dragons daydream of suburbia. Director Dan Scanlon’s film is a tribute to his late father, but it begins with a separate elegy. Read more... |
The Photograph review - star-powered romance mostly simmers, sometimes soarsFriday, 06 March 2020
The Photograph, from writer-director Stella Meghie, tells twin tales. The first is all flashback and follows Christine (Chanté Adams, pictured below with Y'lan Noel), a young photographer balancing love and ambition. Read more... |
Military Wives review - the surprising true story of the women who rocked the chartsThursday, 05 March 2020
There’s a lot of plucky British charm to Military Wives, from Peter Cattaneo, the director who won the nation's heart with his debut film The Full Monty over two decades ago. Read more... |
Escape from Pretoria review - fun but facile prison-break dramaWednesday, 04 March 2020
Based on the book by former political prisoner Tim Jenkin, Escape from Pretoria is an intermittently engaging jailbreak tale set in South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1970s, as well as further evidence of Daniel Radcliffe’s determination to run as far as possible in the opposite direction from his past life as Harry Potter. Its only problem is a troubling case of schizophrenia, since it’s not sure whether to be a pared-down thriller or a political statement. Read more... |
True History of the Kelly Gang review - anarchy in OzMonday, 02 March 2020
“Nothing you’re about to see is true,” this adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel about Australia’s iron-clad Victorian outlaw Ned Kelly declares. Read more... |
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