Tornado
TORNADO’s blending of genres is not always entirely successful, occasionally creating an uncanny feeling, but the film isn’t afraid to proudly showcase its influences and try something new with them.
All posts by Simon Bowie
Homegrown
Watching in 2025, we unfortunately know that the story of American neo-fascism has only continued, and so the ending of documentary HOMEGROWN seems both sad and premature.
Stealing Pulp Fiction
STEALING PULP FICTION has an ironic postmodern sensibility combining a reverence for cinema and the cinema-going experience – midnight screenings, overflowing tubs of popcorn, the smell of 35mm prints – with an ironic appreciation of Quentin Tarantino’s own postmodern work.
Mr. K
While it’s visually striking and Crispin Glover gives a wonderful performance as the main character, MR. K’s web of allusions to other works grows a little thin and leaves you wondering what the film says on its own.
Presence
PRESENCE may be destined to simply be another formally experimental work for Soderbergh, but there is enough compelling drama and character work that it deserves more consideration than that.
Bird
Andrea Arnold’s latest film, BIRD, is a beguiling blend of British social realism and magical realism, exposing the deep yearning towards nature in a dying England left adrift at the end of the world.
Woken
WOKEN is a sci-fi thriller that packs a punch disproportionate to its small scale and short length. Despite some unfortunately clumsy tropes deployed in the third act, WOKEN still has enough twists and turns and enough contemporary relevance to be a thriller worth checking out.
Sorcery (Brujería)
Though there are resonant anti-colonial themes and an interesting perspective on witchcraft as a resistance practice, SORCERY is sluggish, with too much focus on atmosphere and not enough on character.
La Chimera
Its odd tempo and mythic resonances make LA CHIMERA feel like a half-remembered story that you first heard years ago. The film’s surprising richness will bury itself in your mind in a way that finds you stumbling across it afterwards.
The Vourdalak
While THE VOURDALAK may not entirely succeed as a film, there is something fascinating about how this early vampire story emphasises the queerness that has always been part and parcel of vampire stories in folklore.