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.
The unashamedly heartfelt actions of a radical educator deserve an equally heartfelt film, and RADICAL is top of the class.
JERICHO RIDGE understands the pure thrill of a well-executed standoff, and never once lets the pace drop.
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.
The magnitude of pathos acheived by ROBOT DREAMS without dialogue while being a visual and witty delight is a miraculous achievement.
The effect isn’t unlike nostalgia, a longing for when humour appealed to our childish side, uncomplicated and universal; it is the easiest way to plaster a smile across your face for 100 minutes. You are unlikely to find a funnier or more inventive film this year.
FALLING INTO PLACE echoes Sally Rooney’s Normal People: it follows two young lovers who come in and out of each other’s lives while trying to come to terms with the heartbreaking hands they have been dealt.
THE DEAD DON’T HURT is a clear labour of love and a throwback to an earlier era of Western, for better and worse. Carmen Paddock reviews.
If this franchise has its Romulus in Ridley Scott, and ALIEN is his Rome, Fede Alvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS is the fall of the Roman Empire: a scattered jumble of icons and monuments faintly echoing a triumphant past.
George Jaques’s BLACK DOG shows a lack of confidence in storytelling, but his next film can be great should the choices be bolder and more confident.
