Film Reviews
The Mastermind review - another slim but nourishing slice of Americana from Kelly ReichardtFriday, 24 October 2025
The clatter of cool jazz on the soundtrack announces writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s latest project, the kind of score that back in the day would have announced a film by a maverick new talent. The film, her ninth, has been given a faded and vintage look, tricked out in shades of greige and tan that you see in ageing photos of the 1970s, as if it too was shot then. Read more... |
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere review - the story of the Boss who isn't boss of his own headFriday, 24 October 2025
There’s something about hauntingly performed songs written in the first person that can draw us in like nothing else. As songs from Robert Johnson to Leonard Cohen remind us, they can take us into the mental recesses of their subjects – for instance, malcontents and killers – better even than a novel or a movie. We’re kidnapped by the voice. |
The Perfect Neighbor, Netflix review - Florida found-footage documentary is a harrowing watchTuesday, 21 October 2025
Another day, another shooting: this is Florida, USA, where the "Stand Your Ground" self-defence law allows people to use lethal force when they perceive a threat to their lives. The idea may be shocking to Britons, but such laws have become prevalent in America, even though they may be providing cover for straight-up murder. Read more... |
Frankenstein review - the Prometheus of the charnel houseMonday, 20 October 2025
Guillermo del Toro strains every sinew to bring his dream film to life, steeping it in religious symbolism and the history of art, cannily restitching Mary Shelley’s narrative and aiming grandly high. He can’t sustain Frankenstein’s heartbeat over two-and-a-half hours which try to justify a lifetime’s devotion to the subject. There are, though, marvellous passages where the ages of reason and magic meet. Read more... |
London Film Festival 2025 - a Korean masterclass in black comedy and a Camus classic effectively realisedSaturday, 18 October 2025
No Other Choice Read more... |
After the Hunt review - muddled #MeToo provocationFriday, 17 October 2025
The last few years have seen the much-needed positivity of the #MeToo movement followed by a raft of ethical confrontations, whether it’s differences over the feminist generation gap, or those for and against cancel culture. Read more... |
London Film Festival 2025 - Bradley Cooper channels John Bishop, the Boss goes to Nebraska, and a French pandemicFriday, 17 October 2025
Is This Thing On? Read more... |
Ballad of a Small Player review - Colin Farrell's all in as a gambler down on his luckFriday, 17 October 2025
Whether it’s the trenches of the First World War, or the halls and chambers of Vatican City, we’re becoming used to director Edward Berger creating highly believable, evocative and immersive environments for his stories. His latest is no different – except in one very particular way. Read more... |
London Film Festival 2025 - from paranoia in Brazil and Iran, to light relief in New York and TuscanyWednesday, 15 October 2025
Film festivals are a bran tub: what you find in them may be unexpected, and not always in a good way. Here are six I pulled out in my first week (minus one of my favourites, The Mastermind, which I will review when it goes on general release next week). Jay Kelly Read more... |
Iron Ladies review - working-class heroines of the Miners' StrikeTuesday, 14 October 2025
The enduring image of the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike is that of men standing arm in arm against police and of mass protests devolving into mayhem – with protesters being beaten and knocked to the ground. Read more... |
The Woman in Cabin 10 review - Scandi noir meets Agatha Christie on a superyachtMonday, 13 October 2025
A fizzy mystery cocktail with a twist and a splash, The Woman in Cabin 10, based on Ruth Ware’s bestseller, sails along like the sleek superyacht that provides its deadly setting. Read more... |
London Film Festival 2025 - crime, punishment, pop stars and shrinksFriday, 10 October 2025
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Read more... |
I Swear review - taking stock of Tourette'sFriday, 10 October 2025
People sometimes go to the movies for the violence and maybe even for the sex. Until recently they didn’t particularly buy a ticket for the bad language, but lately, British cinema has been making this a selling point. |
A House of Dynamite review - the final countdownTuesday, 07 October 2025
Armageddon is here again, as Kathryn Bigelow’s first film in eight years examines the minutes before a nuclear missile hits Chicago from multiple perspectives, finding no hope anywhere. Read more... |
Urchin review - superb homeless dramaFriday, 03 October 2025
Urchin feels like a genuine moment in British cinema. Thematically, it offers a highly original, thoughtful, affecting account of the endless cycle of misfortune and institutional ineptness that can trap someone in homelessness. At the same time, it marks the coming of age in the careers of two brilliant young talents. Read more... |
Mr Blake at Your Service review - John Malkovich in unlikely role as an English butlerThursday, 02 October 2025
This genial oddity – its pithier French title is Complètement Cramé, meaning something along the lines of completely burnt out – stars John Malkovich and Fanny Ardant and is directed by best-selling author Gilles Legardinier, who adapted it from his own novel. Its goofiness works, some of the time, partly because of Malkovich’s French, which is fluent yet delivered in a halting drawl with an English/American accent so bad it’s almost good. Read more... |
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