It’s wonderful when filmmakers decide they have nothing to lose. If you are going to make an outrageous quest through the kink scene of Paris you might as well hold nothing back. And indeed Jim Queen holds nothing, and I mean NOTHING, back. This is probably why the film is …
This charming little movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does do three things. It makes the case that Haley Bennett is one of our most overlooked movie stars, it introduces Austrian actor Elyas M’Barek to English-speaking audiences, and it tells a serious story of unsupported female ambition with a …
When a genre is ‘alive and kicking’ nobody bothers to look into its roots. But judging by the sheer volume and declining quality of spoof comedies, it’s safe to say this kind of movie is mostly living of its past. You ask any cinephile, and they’ll quickly point to Airplane!, …
Romantic movies told from the male point of view tend to focus on the guy, especially a guy able to recognise something in a woman – beauty, brains, talent – that she didn’t know she had. Through the guy’s actions the woman is able to get what she deserves, which …
Netflix’s Beef, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, was a phenomenon upon its release in 2023. At the time, everyone thought that the show would be nothing more than a limited series. Now in 2026, Beef has taken the anthology route with a brand new eight-episode season. Beef season two …
Travel remains one of life’s luxuries where, for a few hours whilst in the air, passengers are encouraged to switch off from outside distractions and disconnect those online connections. Therefore to be a designated ‘travel companion’ to receive free flights, on standby, is a perk that few are unlikely to …
For anyone who is, knows, or aspires to be a dad, Finnegan’s Foursome is the perfect movie. The stakes are low, the banter is high, and there’s so much golf that anyone who’s ever fallen asleep in front of Sunday afternoon television will feel right at home. Edward Burns has …
Director Jamie Adams has a no-budget niche. He finds a location and maybe six actors, prepares a concept and character arcs, starts the camera rolling, and allows the cast to improvise their way to the aimed-for ending. Within a week. His shooting schedule for his films lasts approximately a week. …
The title is wrong, but what Deepfake gets right is the sense that, for too many people, life is a performance for the approval of strangers instead of something to please yourself. This movie was clearly made for no money, filmed almost entirely in a single Manhattan apartment, and with …
The Four Seasons returns for a second series on Netflix, following the same group of friends throughout the year. The first season was a masterpiece of observation about love, life and middle age. It could be argued that it was so good it didn’t need a second series, and mostly …
Surrealism is not my favorite film genre, but I will make a massive exception if it’s in the hands of Boots Riley. Not unlike his debut, Riley’s latest feature, I Love Boosters, is a weird, vibrant, funny, thoughtful, hopeful thesis on collective action and workers’ rights. At a time when …
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives” utters the popular opening credits narration from the daytime soap, Days of Our Lives. This also rings true for Ferzan Özpetek’s latest film Diamanti, which heavily peers through time’s hourglass in its depiction of the past and present …
Note: This review contains some mild spoilers for season 5 of The Boys. Back in 2019, The Boys burst onto the scene by having a supe burst through an actual person. This year, we have the fifth and final season, and it is an absolutely wild ride to an explosive …
Babe: Pig in the City this ain’t. There are some similarities, in that Hen was filmed using real animals with humans as incidental to the plot, but this Hungarian film set in Greece is so disturbing that it’s definitely not for kids. It is from the perspective of a black …
Cinema’s focus on the youth market ignores that there are considerable older audiences who love going to the movies but are generally underserved. From this perspective, most movies are either too violent or aimed at teenagers, none of which makes them travel to the theatre and take their money out …
Before discussing Hacks season five, I would like to give some context into my relationship with the show. Hacks premiered in 2021 as one of the first highly acclaimed MAX (Known as HBO Max at the time) series. Having started watching the show at the time, it became one of …
Not a lot of franchises manage to retain the ‘freshness’ after six entries. The few that do achieve this impressive feat through reinvention: a new director, a rebranding through self-awareness, or a pivot anchored on a ‘back to basics’ frame. Torrente for President (Torrente, presidente), the sixth entry in a …
The Cannes Film Festival normally chooses a lighthearted French movie as its opener, mainly to celebrate the kind of movie that doesn’t always get its due. Tragedy can be very easy to make, but comedy – especially romantic comedy – is tough. You need great control over mood, you need …
Someday a movie featuring an argument about Predator vs Hobbit fanfiction will deserve a negative review, but today is not that day. The Incomer is completely deranged (complimentary), and its derangement is entirely character-based, giving the actors the freedom to go as wild as possible, which they did. It’s a …
The concept of Run Amok is alarmingly close to bad taste. The execution of the concept of Run Amok also requires all the adults here to be really bad at adulting, which is unlikely. But if you can get past both of those things – a pretty large if – …