Director: Ross Killeen Featuring: Asbestos Running Time: 77 minutes Terry Pratchett once wrote that the span of someone’s life is only the core of their existence, that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, a powerful and poignant sentiment that can guide us also while those people…
Director: Damian McCarthy Starring: Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, Tadhg Murphy, Steve Wall, Caroline Menton Running Time: 98 minutes Growing up as a devout horror fan in the West of Ireland, I spent my time watching tales of monsters, murder & mystery take place anywhere else but on the Emerald Isle. Classics whisked me away to…
Director: Tilman Singer Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick Running Time: 103 minutes German filmmaker Tilman Singer is at the helm for Cuckoo in only his second full-length feature since his 2018 Supernatural horror Luz. Like his first entry, Cuckoo conjures up some stylish and hypnotic horror, but its story and pacing will likely…
Director: WEI SHUJUN Starring: YILONG ZHU, CHLOE MAAYAN, TIANLAI HOU Running Time: 102 minutes The film’s poster riffs on The Scream painting. It opens with a Camus quote and is scored with the mournful keys of the Moonlight Sonata. Only the River Flows is a noir that wears its pretentions on its sleeve, and its…
Director: Levan Akin Starring: Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava, Deniz Dumanlı Running Time: 106 minutes Crossing begins with an explanation that both Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages. On both sides of the border, elderly Georgian teacher Ms. Lia asks after her niece, and the English subtitles afford us an acceptance of the missing woman’s gender…
Director: Lee Isaac Chung Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos Running Time: 122 minutes The air smells different. Heavier. You lick your finger and hold it to the wind – has it changed direction. You breath deeply through the nose. A buttery scent. You hear it before you see it, pop – pop –…
Director: Osgood Perkins Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicholas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt Running Time: 101 minutes The Blair Witch Project played coy about its credentials and rode the intrigue about it being ‘real’ all the way to the box office (leaving the undercompensated actors lost in the woods). Hitchcock insisted on keeping spoilers secure with…
Directors: Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Running Time: 115 minutes Every movie in the now-4-part Bad Boys series is a mindless action movie, but it is important to distinguish the different flavours of mindlessness. The first two, as directed by Michael Bay are pure meathead madness, slickly produced, gleefully cruel intentional excess. Since…
Director: George Miller Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne Running Time: 148 minutes We are told that Hope and Hate live in separate places. That the Fury Road can’t possibly lead to reconciliation. I say ‘we’, but women are told this most of all, the bad faith argument that emancipation from the…
Director: Luca Guadagnino Starring: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor Running Time: 131 minutes It’s a film of thrusting, grasping, sweating, screaming. Every time that safe, successful Art Donaldson and self-conscious bad boy Patrick Zweig volley the ball back towards each other, it’s about so much more for the former pals than winning the low-profile tennis…
