Rental families have been a huge business in Japan since the 80s. They are companies that hire actors to serve as family members or friends for events or to fill emotional gaps. This is something that I certainly haven’t heard about before, but now, with the arrival of Rental Family, a sweet, gentle comedy drama,…
Tag: drama
The Voice of Hind Rajab
It’s not often you sit in a cinema with a packed audience in stunned silence during the end credits (unless there is some sequence you are expecting). Still, it happened with The Voice of Hind Rajab, a powerful, gut-wrenching drama based on actual events during the Israeli-Gaza war, that doesn’t need to be seen; it…
Hamnet
The awards season is upon us, and one of the front-runners for major awards is Hamnet, based on a best-selling book by Maggie O’Farrell and directed by Oscar-winning Chloe Zhao, returning to human drama after dabbling with the big-budget Marvel flop, Eternals. It has to be said that this isn’t a film if you are…
Marty Supreme
The thought of watching a movie about a man who wants to be the face of table tennis in the 1950s might not sound like the most exciting experience, but this is far more than just that. Marty Supreme is from director Josh Safdie, part of the Safdie brothers who brought us the intense Uncut…
Song Sung Blue
Trailers can be very deceiving. Take, for example, the one for The Holdovers. It doesn’t sell the film well, and yet it’s one of the best Christmas movies around. The same could be said of Song Sung Blue, a biopic of a married couple who became a Neil Diamond tribute act. It doesn’t do the…
Peter Hujar’s Day
There is never an issue if you see a film about someone you’ve never heard of before, as, if you become invested in the movie, you want to find out more about them. Peter Hujar was a gay photographer from the 70s, whom I didn’t know a thing about when entering Peter Hujar’s Day, and…
Eternity
They often say that they don’t make them like they used to. Once in a while, a film tries to debunk that accusation. Eternity is one such film, a screwball romantic comedy that takes the beats and rhythms of past movies and gives them a modern edge. While it might not be entirely successful, you…
Wicked: For Good
Last year, we had the first part of an epic musical adaptation of Wicked, the hugely successful Broadway and West End hit. Now we have the sequel, Wicked: For Good, or as it should be called, Wicked Act Two, for this is precisely what it is. The first film was predominantly the first act, with…
The Ice Tower
One of my fears about cinema has always been the lack of originality and the way movie makers rely on stories already told. This could be said of The Ice Tower, an unusual retelling of The Snow Queen, which has already inspired a huge adaptation in Disney’s Frozen. Yet this is as far removed from…
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
Back in 2013, a starry-stacked heist movie involving magicians appeared without much fanfare, even though it included big names like Michael Caine. Then the completely forgettable sequel came out, with Daniel Radcliffe as the villain, and no one even remembers it being released. So it’s astounding to see that a third film has escaped and…
Alpha
Julia Ducournau is one of the most original horror directors around, having served up the brilliant Raw and the bonkers body horror Titane. There was excitement when her new film, Alpha, was announced —an examination of a family in crisis, dealing with trauma, and an allegory for the AIDS epidemic. However, what starts off with…
The Choral
The Choral is the new collaboration from director Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett, having worked together on The History Boys, The Lady in the Van and The Madness of King George. It has all the elements of a typical British comedy drama, set during World War 1, an unlikely bunch of characters thrown together…
Stu Loves Film 