The Penguin Lessons

When you watch a trailer for a new film, you can get a sense of what it’s going to be about.. The Penguin Lessons gives you the idea that this is going to be a cute tale of a man and his penguin, a perfect selling point. However, while there are moments of cuteness, this…

The Amateur

If you were to describe a typical action hero from the movies, you’d probably say something like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis or a James Bond type. You might even say Jason Bourne, although that is not quite the norm Hollywood would produce. Now we have an action hero who doesn’t fit any previous categories…

Death Of A Unicorn

Of all the production companies that have constantly delivered innovative and exciting movies over the past few years, A24 really stands out. They have created medium hit after hit, especially in horror, with movies like Hereditary, Midsommar and more recently hits like The Brutalist, Heretic, and We Live In Time. It was a little surprising…

A Minecraft Movie

What I know about the computer game Minecraft could be written on the back of a postage stamp. Going into A Minecraft Movie, I thought I would learn what it was all about. What I left the film with is an utter feeling of dread and despair. If this is the future of cinema, then…

Holland

Holland is the new film by director Mimi Cave, who made the interesting horror film Fresh a few years ago. This film borrows heavily from other material, like Don’t Worry Darling and Blue Velvet. While it looks impressive, and the cast works well, the whole thing is a mess that needs a director with more…

Disney’s Snow White

This is a call-out to someone who has influence over the executives at Disney. Could you tell them to stop green-lighting these live-action remakes of their classic animations? They are ruining a legacy that has had over 100 years of quality entertainment for the family. By creating these monstrosities like The Lion King, Pinocchio and…

Flow

Recently, we had the fabulous The Wild Robot, which captured a world of beauty and innocence with an animation that was a treat for the eyes and all the senses. Now we have Flow, another animation from Latvia that would make for a perfect companion piece to the Dreamworks feature, for this simple yet incredibly…

Black Bag

When The Holdovers was advertised last year, I wasn’t very excited, but I was pleasantly surprised, and it became one of my favourite films. I had the same initial thoughts when watching the trailer for Black Bag. It was very underwhelming. I should have remembered the Alexander Payne comedy drama because Steven Soderbergh’s second film…

Mickey 17

Not many directors whose names are attached to a movie make you sit up and take note. Spielberg, Scorsese and Nolan all have that power. Now we have Bong Joon Ho, who gave us the masterpiece Parasite. He is a modern filmmaker who instantly draws you to his movies. Just from his past reputation and…

The Last Showgirl

Las Vegas has been used as a backdrop to so many movies, mainly for the glitz and glamour. The Last Showgirl, from Gia Coppola, the granddaughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, has taken a different approach. This is a film about the death of old Vegas, with the kind of cabaret show that is…

The Monkey

Last year, Osgood Perkins produced one of the creepiest films, the psychological horror Longlegs. Continuing his trait with horror, we now have The Monkey, based on a short story by Stephen King and as different a film as you could get from his previous outing. While Longlegs is a film built around atmosphere and being…

I’m Still Here

One thing that cinema does so well is telling us about historical events that have either been forgotten or we knew little about. I didn’t know much about the Brazilian dictatorship in the early 1970s, but thanks to Walter Salles’s exceptional drama, I’m Still Here, I have become more aware. It also seems very appropriate…