Alicia Vikander has had an impressive year of making extremely interesting choices but, with the noble exception of Hope, unfortunately those choices have not worked out. Some of that is because of the difficulty of the topics, but in the case of The Echo Chamber it’s because of its frightful …
In the UK Sense and Sensibility has a U rating – suitable for all – which is the equivalent of an American G rating. For a movie about the romantic choices of two adult sisters this is an incredible achievement, even if it’s an adaption of a Jane Austen novel. …
It’s officially fall, and that means it’s Christmas movie season in my house. So it was an instant watch when I saw A Royal Date for Christmas in the Netflix carousel. This film originally aired on the Great American Family channel around Thanksgiving in 2023. Directed by Bradley Walsh and …
Does anyone have reverence for Griffin Dunne’s Practical Magic? Scratch that – did anyone actively ask for a sequel to Practical Magic? Because, as far as I’m concerned, Susanne Bier’s Practical Magic 2 has no genuine justification for existing. It’s a toothless, unfunny, dull “comedy” that proves the detractors of …
In The Black Ball directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (known as Los Javis) and cinematographer Gris Jordana have created an unusually beautiful work of art. The Black Ball is kind and tender, very clear-eyed about the trauma of war and the misery of addiction. But above all it is …
The algorithm recently recommended that I watch the third The Cutting Edge movie, Chasing the Dream. It’s a little strange to suggest a deep cut like that, but since I’m on my umpteenth rewatch of Timeless (starring Matt Lanter, among others) and recently finished Off-Campus, it’s a little less crazy. …
Sally’s girls have grown up, and she’s successfully kept them away from magic. Despite their own innate powers, the girls believe that magic is nothing more than fairy tales, and they don’t live in constant fear of the curse. Ignorance is bliss, until it isn’t. Kylie has fallen in love, …
The Owens women have a very long history of magic in their blood. Magic is a curse their ancestor, Maria Owens, placed on them. Almost three hundred years ago, she was sentenced to hang for witchcraft by the man she loved, the father of her child. As she faced her …
The Owens family is an interesting study. A family of bloodline witches who are born with incredible power and a powerful curse. We first met them in Alice Hoffman’s book Practical Magic. Sister Sally and Gillian face evil and learn to love more, not less. In Hoffman’s book, we go …
Olive Smith loves rom-coms: funny, cute meets, impractical circumstances, unlikely love- it’s great. But not when she’s living one! You see, her best friend, Anh, is really into a guy that Olive dated like once and didn’t even like that much. But Anh won’t date him because of “girl-code”. Olive …
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. What a perfect opening line. Immediately, you are drawn in. Who are the Owens women? Why are they blamed for everything? Why not the Owens men? You have to keep …
Back to the 90s is a story of friendship, self-discovery, and incredible music. Directed by Facundo Scalerandi and written by Marian Grönwoldt, Juliana Lima Dehne, and Joy C. Mitchell, it is the most unexpected sort of time travel story. It’s a German-language film, but because of the music, English-speaking audiences will …
It is a pleasant surprise that the two lead performances of Coward shared the Best Actor prize at this year’s Cannes. In the announcement, the jury mentioned that is because these performances change how masculinity is normally portrayed onscreen. But what the performances in Coward do is meet the current …
The existence of art for art’s sake is always wonderful to see. It might not necessarily meet the moment or fill a need, but people have gone to some trouble to create it and this hard work and good cheer is always fascinating. The Man I Love is precisely just …
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 …
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 …
In A Kiss of Crimson Ash, we bounce between four main characters: Taara, the new queen; Garjan, her new husband; Bhediya, his mistress; and Roland, a thief. Their relationships shape everything that happens in A Kiss of Crimson Ash. The Goddess has chosen them to save the empire; if they fail, all …
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 …
Jocasta just wants to have a normal life. But let’s face it, as Death’s only child, that was never going to happen. So far, she has mostly managed to steer clear of the chaos that comes with being a child of old ones. She’s found a place, a small college …
For a movie designed around a teenage pregnancy it’s a surprise that We Are All Strangers focuses on the baby’s father. What writer-director Anthony Chen is exploring here is how family responsibilities force young men to grow up. The assumption seems to be that women have achieved maturity already, regardless …