Timestalker Movie Review

‘Timestalker’ Review: Delightfully Off-kilter Time-hopping British Comedy

Timestalker, the sophomore directorial feature of writer-director Alice Lowe, takes the Shakespearean adage “The course of true love never did run smooth” to its most extreme and fantastical conclusion. Lowe plays Agnes, a woman who lives an ordinary life with only a nagging, unplaceable inkling that something is missing. More …

Read more

Lollipop Movie Review

‘Lollipop’ Review: Life-affirming Drama Propelled by Strong Performances

The title of writer-director Daisy-May Hudson’s latest feature, Lollipop, hearkens to a sticky-sweet childhood candy and its colorful, innocent connotations. Yet this film opens with a collect phone call playing over the BFI funding title card, notifying the recipient that it is from a British prison and how to decline …

Read more

Smiles and Kisses You Documentary Review

*smiles and kisses you* Documentary Review (Edinburgh)

The documentary genre is well acquainted with the strangest facets of the human experience, but *smiles and kisses you* – the sophomore documentary feature from director Brian Carberry – broaches an unorthodox relationship with an almost reckless candor. The film follows Chris, a 36-year-old gas station cashier in rural North …

Read more

Gala and Kiwi Movie Review

Gala & Kiwi Review: Enthralling Two-hander Deals Too Many Twists (Edinburgh)

Stories of young adulthood’s unique growing pains are familiar fodder for feature films, and writer, director, and film editor Axel Cheb Terrab’s first feature Gala & Kiwi is a startling, rough-around-the-edges look at a friendship gone awry in these turbulent years. This time of life immediately after leaving one’s family …

Read more

Steppenwolf Movie Review

‘Steppenwolf’ Review: Brutally Nihilist Work is Not Without Beauty (Edinburgh)

After opening with a quote from Herman Hesse’s famous novel of social and spiritual isolation, Steppenwolf – the latest from director Adilkhan Yerzhanov – moves away from the German-Swiss author’s work that shares its name into another interpretation of “a wolf of the steppes.” This takes the form of an …

Read more

Sing Sing Movie Review

‘Sing Sing’ Movie Review – An Excellent Drama (Edinburgh)

Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing opens from the wings of a theatre. The camera moves hazily through sparkling streamers hanging from the stage ceiling before emerging on John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Rapturous applause breaks out, and the entire cast joins …

Read more

The Outrun Movie Review

‘The Outrun’ Movie Review: Rote Evocation of Astonishing Memoir

Amy Liptrot’s breathtakingly poignant and unsparing memoir The Outrun has been acclaimed by critics and adored by readers across the world since its 2016 publication. Eight years later, the book loses none of its effect – the description of a very personal journey through familial mental illness, addiction, substance abuse, …

Read more