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 …
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) …
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 …
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 …
Continuing his prolific year, the Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude releases his second high-profile work of the year, his highly anticipated Dracula. Previously known as Dracula Park, its production name has had the growing hype since Jude’s last fiction work: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. …
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 …
It’s something of a surprise that Roofman has done the festival circuit. It’s the kind of comfortable movie that Hollywood used to churn out by the dozen: casually dripping with stars, a plot that handles serious issues with a light touch, product placement that combines the American fervours for nostalgia …
Plainclothes follows closeted 90s police officer Lucas (Tom Blyth) who spends his workday luring gay men into the toilet at the mall before arresting them. Set in 1997’s America, a story about cops luring men into bathrooms to out them a few years ago would have been a distant shudder …
Forty-four minutes into Magellan, we see the eponymous Portuguese navigator at the film’s center, deftly portrayed by Gael García Bernal, sitting still inside a 16th-century tavern, his mind drifting elsewhere. He grips a walking cane on one hand, then an oversized hat on the other. Lit candles beside him quietly …
Director Maryam Touzani, who co-wrote Calle Málaga with Nabil Ayouch, starts extremely strongly with this tale of an elderly woman finally making her own choices in life, but loses the courage of her convictions. This is ironic as this is very much a story of how you cannot have your …
I am always on the lookout for a new Christmas movie to throw into the rotation. I love a happy, silly film, but my all-time favorite is It’s A Wonderful Life, the Christmas-adjacent movie that my dad forced me to watch as a teenager and has remained a staple ever …
I got married for the first time when I was 23. I was pregnant just a few months later, and that kid recently celebrated his 27th birthday. I’m no longer with my first husband, and it’s always interesting to consume media that helps me continue to process that split, even …
In her fourth directorial effort, the Serbian director Ivana Mladenović returns to the Locarno Film Festival, where she premiered her 2019 film Ivana the Terrible, now with Sorella di Clausura. The director, who currently resides in Romania, presents a story about a wasted Romanian talent – someone who never reached …
The Austrian director Elsa Kremser and the German director Levin Peter are known for their documentaries Space Dogs and Dreaming Dogs, which approach the reality of stray dogs in Moscow. In Kremser’s fiction debut, they present White Snail, a romantic drama set in Belarus. The film narrates the story of …
In recent years, films that set out to explore non-traditional relationships or unconventional family dynamics have become more common, but they don’t always manage to do so with the necessary depth. Most fall into the trap of using the theme as a mere gimmick, without delving into the genuine emotions …
Toronto-based filmmaker Grace Glowicki is no stranger to the bizarre. Recently she, along with husband Ben Petrie, starred in the schlocky, romantic gothic horror Honey Bunch which premiered at Berlin in 2025. Her feature debut, Tito, was an offbeat comedy where she herself played an agoraphobic man whose world is …
Winner of the Bronze audience prize for Best Asian Feature at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival, I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn is a captivating romantic comedy that functions as yet another endearing paean to independent horror cinema from Japanese cult filmmaker Kenichi Ugana, following …
The prison of British masculinity is explored in On The Sea, the latest film from writer and director Helen Walsh. On the outside, Jack (Barry Ward) has a stable, traditional life. He has been married to Maggie (Liz White) for decades, and they expected to raise their son Tom (Henry …