All posts by Jim Ross

Jim has written about film since freelance since 2010, and is a co-founder and the Editor-in-Chief of TAKE ONE Magazine. From 2011-2014 he was a regular co-host of Cambridge 105FM's film review show. Since moving back to Edinburgh he is a regular review and debate contributor on EH-FM radio's Cinetopia film show. He has worked on the submissions panel at Cambridge Film Festival and Edinburgh Short Film Festival, hosted Q&As there and at Edinburgh's Africa In Motion, and is a former Deputy Director of Cambridge African Film Festival. He is Scottish, which you would easily guess from his accent.

Oppenheimer

There are no more significant potential ramifications than the end of the world, and that awful looming mushroom cloud haunts every frame of OPPENHEIMER’s tense and emotionally violent portrait.

Unclenching the Fists

UNCLENCHING THE FISTS explores the struggles of a young woman named Ada, and is a powerful portrayal of the impact of patriarchal structures – societal and familial – on the women within.

Cinema Will Live Forever or Die Trying

Reports of cinema’s death are greatly exaggerated, but the attack on the ‘big screen experience’ is coming from inside the building. As the focus on films continues to dwindle, and more and more desperate attempts are made to augment a diminished core experience, cinemagoing increasingly resembles an embodiment of a famous Groucho Marx quote: “I intend to live forever, or die trying.”

Girl

Adura Onashile’s GIRL is a gentle and sometimes hypnotic view of a life laced with the after-effects of trauma. The film is an elegantly slow-burning drama, and its willingness to let the visuals and understated performances establish an atmosphere allows the audience to feel Grace and Ama’s emotions all the more keenly.

Infinity Pool

INFINITY POOL is a compelling film that effectively garners visceral and spontaneous reactions to thoughtfully constructed grotesqueries. However, the scant implementation of the ideas driving the characters’ behaviour leaves it like that hotel leisure showpiece; the lack of boundaries is an intricately and considerately engineered illusion. A look beneath its glistening surface and the safe confinement becomes all too apparent.

Aftersun

Charlotte Wells’ feature debut showcases the assured hand she had already demonstrated in her short film work and enhances it further to balance tone and pace throughout a touching story of a daughter and her troubled father on holiday. Calum (Paul Mescal) takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) on a package holiday to Turkey, … Continue reading Aftersun

After Yang

AFTER YANG is a film steeped in humanity despite its gently dystopian subject: an android sibling of an adopted child. Koganada’s feature includes many thought-provoking strands focused on family privacy, technological dependence, and what makes someone – or something – belong to a family unit. Still, its imagination and sincerity when dealing with memory and … Continue reading After Yang