The Choral is the kind of movie at which the British film industry excels: made for audiences who like their stories flavoured strongly with nostalgia, and who like to read between the lines for their hard-hitting topics. These movies tend to play better overseas, where the historical trappings and the …
Richard Linklater brought two films to the festival crowds this year. The first being Blue Moon, a drama about the tragic Lorenz Hart, whose professional relationship with Richard Rodgers has mostly been lost to history. The second is Nouvelle Vague, a loving ode to French New Wave cinema. Both are …
After one year of waiting with bated breath to view the powerhouses of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo respectively reprising their roles as Glinda and Elphaba on the big screen, it almost seemed unbearable for fans and converted audiences alike. Audiences need not have feared as the Wicked: For Good immersed …
In November 2024, the film version of the 2003 Broadway musical Wicked finally hit theaters. The Broadway musical from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman is an adaptation of the book of the same title by Gregory Maguire. The film by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians & In the Heights) …
Gotham is still reeling from Joker’s attack on the city last year. Crime hasn’t gotten any better, even with Batman swinging around, and the city is like a fire looking for a match. And the Riddler is set to be that match. Backed by the Servants of Freedom, a paramilitary …
The Fence is Claire Denis’ isolated adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play Black Battles with Dogs, which subtly explores masculinity and colonialism. Set predominantly in one location over one night, The Fence never loses its stage show sensibilities, even if that forces Denis to reject her trademark visual lyricism. Set on …
Dragonfly is based on a simple idea: how dangerous it is to trust anyone while you’re weakened, whether through old age, disability or both. Unfortunately it is also so worried that we won’t understand the nuances of this very good idea that it overdoes things, and collapses. This is very …
In their last months of high school, two cisgender boys pretend to be transgender to get into the girls’ changing room. The concept sounds like a dangerous right-wing rhetoric, but She’s the He is a sweet coming-of-age comedy made by a predominantly trans and nonbinary cast and crew. Alex (Nico …
Despite the small territorial space, Iceland has been a potent force for cinema in recent decades. The little island in the Arctic gave us names like Rúnar Rúnarsson and Hylnur Pálmason. Both of them are popular presences at events like the Cannes Film Festival. Rúnarsson presented his When The Light …
My viewing of The Running Man was, honestly, one of the “blindest” I’ve had all year. I wasn’t familiar with the original novel by Stephen King, nor the first 1987 film adaptation. I managed to completely avoid any images, clips, or even reactions to this new release. My expectations, however, …
Enzo (Eloy Pohu) is sixteen or seventeen, a dangerous age. He’s still very much a child, but thinks he isn’t. Having a scooter and some limited amounts of freedom isn’t quite adulthood, but he is too young and too privileged to know that. He lives with his parents Marion and …
If the runaway success of The White Lotus is anything to go by, we as a society cannot get enough of (semi-)affluent white women on holiday. Bonus points if the women in question are trying to escape, find themselves, and / or reconnect with semi-estranged adult friends, and nothing quite …
This could have been a play and may well get a second life as a play, because its single set, very talky script and clever staging keep us in the room for the 100-minute runtime. It is heavily inspired by real events but also plays fast and loose as required …
Mark Jenkin’s formidable stamp as a director giving voice to Cornish voices has led to one of the best debuts of the last decade in the form of the breathtakingly unique Bait, a study of heightened tensions between the locals in a deprived fishing village and the rich-out-of-towners who have …
“Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning; it is best not to worry about either.” With these words early in his presidency, James Garfield may have sealed his fate. Shot by Charles J. Guiteau and dying six months after taking office in 1881, the United States …
I confess my expectations for a new entry in this saga were modest before Predator: Badlands, despite Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) returning. While Prey excelled at simplifying the formula and returning to basics, the ambition to completely shift the franchise’s point of view — transforming the antagonist into the protagonist — …
The first thing that becomes apparent when you set foot in Rotterdam; the home of Left of the Dial festival, is that there’s a statue of a dwarf with a buttplug right by the ticket collection office. The second is that it’s very, very wet – unfortunate at the best …
If you know anything at all about classic movies, you know about Kim Novak. She was one of the last actors to be molded for stardom under the old studio system, and she had such an unhappy time being set up as a rival to Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth …
When someone says that high school was the best years of their life, they clearly peaked way too early; at least that’s my thought. Sure, there are some things that may seem simpler in retrospect, but existing within the same space as hundreds of other pubescent teenagers with varying levels …
Content Note: The following contains spoilers for episode 2 of It: Welcome to Derry. The show also deals with child death/harm and mental institutions, so proceed with caution if those are sensitive subjects. The end of episode 1 of It: Welcome to Derry was a significant shocker, with several kids who seemed like …