Sirât Review – A Winding Road to Catharsis ★★★½

Sirât truly is as wild as people say, but not in the way people usually mean. This is the first feature in six years from Oliver Laxe, who has said he “died and came back to life making this film.” That intensity sits over the whole experience. Laxe often describes cinema as cathartic. Sirât tries to reach that space, though it […]

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Review ★★★.5

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a man is sent back in time to present-day LA to prevent a sentient AI from taking over the world and ushering in the apocalypse. This is not only the plot of the better part of the Terminator franchise but also the simplest description of the new […]

Mickey17 Deserves to be Discussed More: Here’s Why (spoiler-free)

At this time of year, there’s often a look back at the strongest films of the year, and discussions around awards always begin, too. While the debated tokenism of awards can be left by the wayside for now, one of the absences I’ve noticed from this year’s top film discussions isn’t an indie darling – […]

Marty Supreme & the New Age of Movie Hype

Marty Supreme is a spectacular film. From start to finish it’s an adrenaline rush, with Timothée Chalamet delivering an Oscar-worthy central performance. But you don’t need me to rave about the film itself – that’s already happening everywhere. What’s far more interesting is how the chaos around it unfolded, and what that chaos might mean for the future of cinema. Let’s rewind. It’s Sunday, February […]

Lurker Review- An Adrenaline Inducing Ride ★★★★

Today I saw Alex Russell’s directorial debut, Lurker, and I left the cinema completely floored by what an intense ride it was. I honestly can’t remember the last time a film made me feel so deeply uncomfortable and so adrenaline-fueled at the same time. When it ended, I had to sit in my car for […]

Pillion Review: A Dom Com ★★★★

Pillion is the feature-directorial debut from Harry Lighton and an adaptation of Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 novel Box Hill. The film opens in a very British pub in Bromley, where we meet Colin (Harry Melling) singing in a 1950s-style quartet with his dad and brother. As the camera slowly pans around the room, we spot Ray […]

Iain Forbes on his Oscar-Qualifying Short Film- After Dark and his Career so far

Emerging filmmaker Iain Forbes brings a striking new voice to the short-film landscape with After Dark, a brooding and imaginative work that blurs the line between the intimate and the uncanny. Known for his meticulous visual style and instinctive feel for human vulnerability, Forbes crafts films that linger long after the final frame. With After […]

Bond of Today: How Has The Franchise Endured for Sixty Years?

For over sixty years, James Bond has been killing, seducing, drinking, and quipping on cinema screens to the delight of generations of viewers who have enjoyed watching him do so. […] It is the intention of this essay to analyse how the Bond franchise has adapted in a post 9/11 world whilst retaining its core identity.

Soot, Steel & Spirits: Tradition and Modernity in Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997)

Studio Ghibli has contributed towards making some of the greatest animated films of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, two of which are Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001). Through examining the attitudes towards tradition and modernity found in both these films, it can be argued that they serve as critiques on how Western practice, such as mass industrialisation and consumerism, have led to the neglect of the country’s cultural roots in modern day Japan.

One Battle After Another: Loved By Critics, But Loses Commercially

At a time where the viewership of non-commercial cinema seems to be falling, Paul Thomas Anderson reminds us of how social, political and historical context can completely reshape a film’s meaning and perspective. In an era when politics seems to be going back, Anderson makes a daring attempt to give us One Battle After Another, […]