No Time To Die
NO TIME TO DIE is a viscerally effective send-off for Daniel Craig’s tenure. Still, a deep thematic confusion prevents it from resonating beyond the increasingly narrow confines of what a James Bond movie is seemingly allowed to be.
Category Archives: Reviews
Next Door (Nebenan)
In his debut as a director, the actor Daniel Brühl delivers a more than halfway effective psychological thriller: that is to say at around the forty-five-minute mark the carefully built-up tension and dark comedy suddenly dissipates into something more familiar in movie terms and consequently less involving.
The Green Knight
The only mystery in THE GREEN KNIGHT is why it’s so mild, when it should be something rich and strange. Marc Nelson reviews.
When I Consume You
Perry Blackshear’s WHEN I CONSUME YOU leads its viewership down a winding tunnel of despair and depravity – making the horrors bubbling under the surface expected but still unrelentingly devastating.
Rose Plays Julie
ROSE PLAYS JULIE thrives in discomfort. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s drama opens with a veterinary school lecture on euthanising healthy animals – a common occurrence, often for behavioural reasons – and then spends each following scene contrasting characters’ assumptions and knowledge about their lives and loved ones. Carmen Paddock reviews.
Violet
Justine Bateman’s feature film debut is full of ideas but desperately needs to triage them to let the best of them – and Olivia Munn’s excellent performance – breathe.
The Guilty
Too little is established in Jake Gyllenhaal’s main character for the tension to pierce or upend our understanding of him, and the focus on him in THE GUILTY is so intense that any broader metaphors or statements fail to emerge from that dense wildfire smoke.
Encounter
An awkward narrative transition, combined with a plurality of readings, could indicate a messy and unfocused story, but Riz Ahmed’s performance and the consistent tone created by director Michael Pearce ensure ENCOUNTER remains a captivating experience.
The Story of Looking
Over Britain’s documentary and film commentary sectors, Mark Cousins exerts something like an inexorable influence. Such recognisability means he’s a favourite of film festivals, such as Sheffield Doc/Fest, where his latest, THE STORY OF LOOKING, premiered as the closing night film.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES takes a clever sci-fi concept and fully explores its limits to the edge of complexity while never losing sight of the people at the heart of this time anomaly.