Reviews in Retrospect: Smoke 2 weeks ago Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's 1995 indie comedy drama explores the interconnectivity of personal stories and the prospect of recovery through community and connection.
Reviews in Retrospect: One Hour Photo 10 July 2020 A heartbreaking portrayal of loneliness and isolation - and arguably Robin Williams' finest hour in film.
The Story of Plastic 10 June 2020 The last decade has seen a profound shift in our relationship with the environment. The spotlight has been on climate change, habitat destr…
The Lighthouse: An American myth 1 March 2020 Salt-crusted wood and flaky green metal, the lightest footprint of civilisation already ruined and retaken by the sea and sand of a lonely i…
Parasite: Them...and us 20 February 2020 Bong Joon-Ho's tale of the clashing worlds of the wealthy Park family and the impoverished Kim family relies on a wilful ignorance of what e…
Uncut Gems: Rat, meet maze 1 February 2020 The Safdie Brothers' anxiety-riddled Uncut Gems is a film about escape; a film about an indebted gambler scheming against all the odds that …
Honey Boy: Healing in Motion 1 January 2020 There comes a point in Honey Boy, a semi-autobiographical film that explores child actor Otis Lort's relationship with his outlaw father, wh…
Knives Out: Whodunnit? Riandiddit 3 December 2019 A picturesque, secluded home, a gallery of guests with bones to pick and a wealthy patriarch with his throat slit. It's almost too perfect a…
The Irishman: Scorsese's Third Act 2 December 2019 The Irishman is a funereal film. It's one of those melancholy retrospectives that a master of cinema might create as they approach their twi…
Beanpole: 'Remarkably assured' Cannes winner 1 December 2019 Beanpole is a film about the lasting, traumatic brutality of war in which not a single shot is fired and the most shocking scenes are quiet,…
Joker 1 November 2019 Something like Joker was inevitable. With the superhero genre having long since conquered contemporary cinema, it was only a matter of time …
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie 21 October 2019 When Breaking Bad, among the most groundbreaking and beloved TV shows this side of The Sopranos, drew to a close in 2013, showrunner Vince G…
Ad Astra: James Gray's Galactic Contemplation 1 October 2019 James Gray looks to the stars with his genre flirtation, Ad Astra, about lonesome astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), who has believed his fa…
Bait: 'Uncanny and singular' 25 September 2019 Bait is a film about a familiar and very contemporary conflict: the locals of a tiny Cornish fishing village being squeezed out by an influx…
The Souvenir - A semi-autobiographical knockout 16 September 2019 From Joanna Hogg comes The Souvenir, a rich semi-autobiographical knockout that recounts the director's personal experience at film school i…
The Farewell 1 September 2019 The set-up of The Farewell could be that of a straightforward melodrama or dark comedy. Billi (Awkwafina), a struggling writer in New York, …
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood 15 August 2019 Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is a perfectly fine 90-minute movie hidden inside an overlong mess that drags on for 159 minutes, which for so…
The Dead Don't Die 1 August 2019 Art-weird cinema tackles the zombie film in The Dead Don't Die, a shaggy, near-meaningless and characteristically deadpan half-parody from …
In Fabric 1 July 2019 Having very much enjoyed Peter Strickland's previous offerings, Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy, I attended a screening of h…
Spectre at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019 1 July 2019 Part of this year's Alternative Realities programme, Sheffield Doc/Fest's mixed reality offering, Spectre by Bill Posters and Dr Daniel Howe…
