Going down the ‘feature-length and theatrically-released anime’ path to continue the Lord of the Rings story is something I’m sure many didn’t see coming. After the, relative, underperformance (at least critically) of The Hobbit films, which clearly didn’t need to be a full-fledged trilogy, and Amazon’s multi-million investment in The Rings of Power which, again, perhaps is starting to already feel longer than it should, a plus-two-hour anime telling of one of Tolkien’s appen

What’s more surprising? That the superhero boom has led to a solo film for Spider-Man antagonist Kraven the Hunter? That Sony’s non-Spidey featuring ‘universe’ has made it to a sixth film? That this film hasn’t really succeeded in terms of box office and critical opinion? Certainly not the latter, but someone somewhere at Sony clearly had the expectation that this would score. It’s all too easy to continue to kick the ‘SPUMC’ whilst it’s down and, by all accounts, this film i

Releasing two films in one year is a pretty impressive feat for any director. Bizarrely, for the second time this year, a celebrated auteur has followed, arguably, a breakout work hastily with a fearsomely well made, but largely impenetrable, companion piece that will capture audiences keen to see what they did next but also may slightly alienate them. First, it was Yorgos Lanthimos following the Oscar-winning Poor Things with the beautiful but bonkers Kinds of Kindness and n

Bring your 'laugh and cry tissues' to the cinema to start the year with the Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh led We Live in Time. Levelling up the romantic comedy by throwing some serious drama into the mix, this is a thoroughly British movie set to rank in the upper echelons of British romantic film. As the narrative hops throughout the timeline of their multifaceted relationship, we learn more about Garfield’s Tobius and Pugh’s Almut as they meet-cute (well, ish, as they f

The revival of the cinema-packing musical can’t help but bring a smile to your face. Whether it’s biopics, adaptations or originals, it’s lovely to see a more traditional and old-fashioned type of blockbuster reaching so many people and packing out multiplexes. There was no doubt that Wicked was going to be a hugely popular undertaking, regardless of trends, but it looks set to take its crown at the top of this particular crop. Pushing those nostalgia buttons but still feelin

Capping a trilogy after two top-tier films often proves a difficult task. It’s easy to count those trilogies that keep the quality across three films consistent (The Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight) and much harder to count those that don’t quite get there because there’s just too many. Paddington in Peru is the latest to fall foul of this and, whilst a solid movie in its own right, doesn’t stack up to its predecessors. In fairness, having films o

There’s no limit to how much time can pass, no limit to the standalone nature of an original film and no limit to the success, both critically and commercially, in terms of whether something will get a legacy sequel. Indeed, some of the more successful have been from those deemed most unlikely: Top Gun, Trainspotting, Mad Max and Blade Runner to name some of the frontrunners of the trend. It’s a nailing of the ‘tone’ that is key, modernising something whilst still retaining t

Conclave turns the process of electing a new Pope into an intense and gripping thriller. Based on the novel by Robert Harris, this is a serious film for serious people with serious actors and, as such, feels wonderfully refreshing. A pulse-pounding score intermingles with the absolutely stunning cinematography and scenery of the Vatican to create a ‘political thriller’ experience within this world of religion, differences, tradition and pomposity. By all accounts faithful to

There’s no doubt that Red One is definitely better off for being a ‘Christmas film.’ That descriptor has its limitations as well as its benefits. Sure, often there’s only one period of the year where you’d watch these films but there’s also the potential to watch them EVERY year if they stick with you. Also, the seasonal goodwill can often gloss over some more obvious cinematic defects. The idea of a generic, The Rock-starring action movie (with [sigh] ‘franchise potential’)

Age is just a number in cinema and Clint Eastwood (94!) has given us another thought-provoking and effortlessly well-made drama with Juror #2. A watertight script by Jonathan Abrams introduces us to Justin, a personable husband with a baby on the way, called up to jury service. Once there, he realises that he may be involved in the murder case he’s assigned to. It’s a great premise and the plot propels nicely along without feeling the need to go into soapy or overly dramatic

Venom: The Last Dance concludes the maligned series with an actual scene of the titular character dancing. To Abba. For no reason. At a quite key part in the story. At a quite key part in the story where, it’s explained, that should Venom be in his full form he will be caught by some sort of indestructible killing machine hell bent on symbiote destruction. And this is still not even the worst or most confusing part of the film, despite it being a truly cringe moment to, maybe

2024 seems to be the year of great directors choosing absurdism/ choosing violence/choosing to challenge/getting poetic license/losing the plot. Delete as appropriate there. Film should, in some cases, be challenging and, sometimes, require effort to understand and carry metaphor and meaning beyond its surface level. However, there have been instances this year (Kinds of Kindness, Joker: Folie à Deux, The Book of Clarence) where there’s an argument that the films fall the wro