Sometimes a film will come along and, even though the premise seems all too familiar and worn, it’ll leave you beaming. Send Help is that film and has a little but of something for everyone. If you just want a bit of fun from your next cinema trip, something that'll trigger all the senses, this has to be your next watch. A film with one of the best jump scares of the year that also contains some of the most laugh out loud sequences of 2026, it is a constant surprise and a con

As enjoyable as a coming of age story is or a traditional rom-com, there seems to be an increasing amount of more adult relationship dramas being released. Bradley Cooper’s newest directorial effort Is This Thing On? Is a great example of the form. Whilst it contains the ‘romantic’ and ‘comedy’ elements, this drama is more nuanced, slow, deliberate and patient with its story of a divorcing couple finding a way to reconnect. Whilst loosely based on John Bishop’s story of findi

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is cinema as experience and, more specifically, cinema as panic attack. A sensory overload tour-de-force of stress and constant pressure and anxiety, this film does everything to put you in the shoes of Rose Byrne’s Linda. An awards-worthy performance of a mother on the edge, Byrne and Director Mary Bronstein ensure you’re never quite exactly sure what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. As Linda is thrown constant challenges and is being qu

No Other Choice is another blazing social satire to come out of South Korea. If Parasite and Squid Game hadn’t already perfected the form, here’s another to add to the list. To balance this level of artistry, cinematography, humour, metaphor, thrills and satire is simply masterful and Park Chan-wook has created something here which stands up next to the aforementioned Parasite. That film was a Best Picture winner and No Other Choice is hard done by not to make the list for th

Mercy is yet another example of a classic ‘Black Mirror’-esque concept. On this occasion, perhaps Charlie Brooker and the gang could have done a slightly better job but it’s nonetheless a fun way to spend an evening in the cinema. A sci-fi thriller with an action bent rather than the usual brainless action fodder, this sees Chris Pratt awaken in a ‘mercy court’ unaware of what he’s doing there. In the future, this court is a 90 minute trial by AI lawyer where, if you can’t pr

After waiting almost 28 years for a continuing of the franchise, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple comes hot on the heels of its predecessor. It’s an absolutely unhinged successor to the first film, providing a wild and visceral middle chapter to a trilogy which could have a very interesting ending. Last year’s film felt fresh and different whilst still honouring what came before. The Bone Temple keeps us very much in that world but luxuriates in the gore, the horror and the me

Hamnet seeks to find the source of Hamlet, one of history’s most famous stories. Chloe Zhao’s film is based on the book of the same name, a fictionalised account but rooted in what truth we do have of the years around the writing of William Shakespeare’s tragic play and the death of his young son that may have inspired it. It can therefore tow the line between historical interest and fiction and is at once achingly romantic and achingly tragic. Shakespeare and Agnes meet, mar

Marty Supreme is a frantic, kinetic, frenzied American epic and might be somewhere in the ‘best of the decade’ list by the time we reach 2030. Josh Safdie’s pseudo-sports non-biopic about semi-fictional table tennis player Marty Mauser is actually a treatise on the American Dream and all of its foibles. You can indulge as much or as little metaphor as you like on this tale. In some respects, the more you think of it in those terms the better it’ll seem (like There Will Be Blo

The Brighton Film Club presents the Films of the Year 2025 after another stacked year for our screens. As usual, these are films released into UK cinemas or made available on streaming sites in the UK between January and December 2025. After the customary squabbles and more shuffles than a Vegas casino, here then are The Brighton Film Club’s Films of the Year 2025: 30. F1 29. Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning 28. Pillion 27. I Swear 26. The Surfer 25. Friendship 24. Cau

When does a magic trick cease to be a magic trick? How do you split judgement between the merits of something on a creative level and the actual underlying substance of what you are watching? Two (of many) questions to ponder when watching Avatar: Fire & Ash. This franchise is constantly baffling. It breaks ground in terms of the very fundamentals of film development and generates huge numbers at the box office. All the while it confounds critics and audiences whose bums no d

Another year where the number of albums in the below list has had to be bumped up and still doesn't do justice to what's been released. I present to you, after the customary squabbles and more shuffles than a Vegas casino, The Brighton Film Club’s Albums of the Year 2025: 50. Divorce - Drive to Goldenhammer 49. Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out 48. HotWax - Hot Shock 47. Heartworms - Glutton For Punishment 46. Little Simz - Lotus 45. Tyler, The Creator - DON'T TAP THE GLASS 44. Al

Eternity is a film with a great idea that doesn’t quite reach the sum of its parts. It’s a common thing. The hook is so good that you expect everything else just to fall into place. Unfortunately, it’s easy to notice where this hasn’t quite cohered. It’s a shame as it really is a great idea and such an enjoyable film to watch. You’ll root for it, you’ll recommend it and it’s mostly delightful. In a Good Place-esque sci-fi depiction of the afterlife, Joan must choose between s