It’s over, the Joker is dead, and Gotham is saved. There is a lot of cleaning up to do and a lot of people who need help, but Bruce Wayne can handle it; Batman is no longer needed. Or is he? There is still a lot of crime in Gotham. …
Throughout the complicated formation of Latin America, Catholicism became the norm for the so-called civilization of native populations. Hence, ever since its inception, the new continent has been a Catholic region, colonized mainly by the Portuguese and Spanish. Despite the colonial wounds, the imperial process carries severe traumas, particularly in …
Most people don’t feel terror when it comes to walking. Even if they don’t particularly like walking or reaching 10,000 steps a day seems like a lot, they still don’t have nightmares over it. But in The Long Walk, Stephen King tries to turn this everyday activity into the stuff …
It seems that Train Dreams is so named because of how spectacular and innovative the technology of train travel was to the life at the centre of the film. It is set almost entirely in Idaho and western Washington state and shows a style of living that might as well …
The greatest glory of Pillion is that its sexual boldness is in service to an important point about self-determination and personal desire. We can watch this for the action, the message, or both. Though don’t get your hopes up too high: not a great deal of ‘action’ is shown, although …
Amir El-Masry is the lucky owner of one of the great faces in modern cinema, and he got to show it off not once but twice at this year’s London Film Festival. Unfortunately in neither case was it shown off to his best advantage. Giant managed somehow not to be …
H For Hawk, based on Helen MacDonald’s eloquent memoir about grief, is a moving guide to processing loss. The film and the book follow Helen unravelling mind as she tries to distract herself after the death of her father by adopting a goshawk. Academic Helen (Claire Foy) is not the …
Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1982 debut novel, A Pale View of Hills, is an elegant and nuanced examination of identity for post-war Japan. Kei Ishikawa’s ambitious but unsubtle adaptation can’t capture the spirit of his gorgeous writing. The novel and the film are narrated by Etsuko, who appears in two timelines. In …
“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 …
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 …
A pillion is a seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist. This simple, not-overly-familiar word captures the whole experience of Colin (Harry Melling) in Harry Lighton’s feature directorial debut adapted from the 2020 novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones. In Pillion, Colin is shy, still living at home with his …
Back when I was younger, Nicholas Sparks had cornered the market of romance books, with some of the most heartbreaking novels that have ever taken the world by storm. From The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John, Sparks’ stories were designed to make readers cry as they volley …
“Just Hedda is fine.” With these prickly, precise words, Hedda (Tessa Thompson) immediately establishes her self-image and control thereof. Hedda is the recently married wife of up-and-coming scholar George Tesman (Tom Bateman), but the legacy left by her father General Gabler – including his guns – is one she takes …
I have been a Stephen King fan since high school. And despite its numerous questionable aspects, It has remained my favorite of his novels. The screen adaptations have had varying levels of success, and Andy Muschietti, along with Bill Skarsgård, did a great job of updating Pennywise for a new …
It is always, always interesting to see art about the making of other art. The choices people make, why those choices resonate, whether those choices were deliberate or accidental, and how much people get into their own way is always fascinating to watch. It certainly helps if you have a …
Curiosity and hope were my personal feelings going into the cinema to see Hamlet (2025). I knew beforehand this would be another transposition of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy into a contemporary context, an exercise that’s always risky in itself. However, the decisive factor in giving the film a chance was, without …
The emotional rollercoaster Giacomo Covi’s character undergoes in A Year of School is so relatable it’s obvious why he won the Best Actor prize in the Orrizonti strand of this year’s Venice Film Festival: a new prince has been crowned. In fact all four of the main actors in A …
In 2021 a small French movie called The World After Us played the festival circuit because it was one of the first modern movies to address life in the modern gig economy. It was a direct precursor to At Work, in that they are both about a novelist in Paris …
In the nail-biting conclusion to the Twilight saga, Bella finally gets everything she wants, only to face the possibility of losing it all. In a fight to save her family, Bella will discover depths she didn’t know she had. And she’ll learn that even in the face of immortality, there …
There are certain movies which only exist because someone has needed to make them. They are too weird to be mainstream and too proud of their unusual style to truly be weird. This is by no means a complaint. When people lean very hard into style over substance it is …