The Holdovers
THE HOLDOVERS is cosy because it is bittersweet, and in the same way, it is a comedy because it is sad. David Hemingson’s script, which draws from his own life, understands the close proximity of these seemingly conflicting emotions.
Category Archives: Reviews
Mean Girls (2024)
Scepticism can be left at the door; with its spark, originality, and excellent performances, MEAN GIRLS (2024) is heartily enjoyable on its own merits.
Priscilla
Never meet your heroes, the saying goes. Sofia Coppola’s PRISCILLA would posit that neither should you marry them, have a kid with them, or agree to live in their gilded cage.
Poor Things
Leave it to Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek purveyor of oddities, to attempt the supposedly unadaptable POOR THINGS, Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of conflicting points of view, paratextual playfulness, and his trademark commentary on Glaswegian goings-on. The film follows Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, a woman reanimated after her death with the brain of an unborn baby, … Continue reading Poor Things
Tchaikovsky’s Wife
TCHAIKOVSKY’S WIFE becomes stranger and richer on reflection, and with other quasi-historical biopics having recently made waves, it feels well-timed to enter the canon and reexamine a doomed relationship.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is ugly, prosaic, and dull, pandering to an audience willing to be spoon-fed lines that they once recognised and moves as gracefully as its geriatric lead.
Fallen Leaves
Aki Kaurismäki’s first film since 2017 continues with his trademark mix of deadpan humour and social realism in a clear-eyed take on class politics, mobility, and never succumbing to hopelessness.
Fingernails
Christos Nikou’s second feature doesn’t quite reach memorable comic and painful heights, but does have something to say about modernity’s continual perversion of the human experience and the need to dissect, categorise, and package it. Romance is far from dead, but FINGERNAILS takes a forlorn look at what might kill it.
Is There Anybody Out There?
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? is a cry for solidarity outside the bounds of what society considers normal. Filmmaker Ella Glendining is as exacting and rigorous with her assumptions as she is in challenging others, encouraging an empathetic reflection as the film’s ending scenes roll.
Anatomy of a Fall
A competent, intriguing drama like this gaining award traction feels more symptomatic of it being the kind of good film that is now a rare occurrence within the film zeitgeist, rather than one that feels like it will be remembered after the award cycle.