The Fall Guy has brought the fact that stunt performers are not afforded Oscars recognition by having their own award into light and may just bring about a pretty significant industry change. That just in itself would be enough of an offering but the fact that the film is also an absolutely solid action/comedy summer blockbuster is a bonus. The sort of film just not really prevalent enough this follows in the path of Argylle, Bullet Train, The Lost City et al. as a thoroughly

Apparently, it seems a requirement to star in a tennis movie after playing the key love interest role in a Spider-Man franchise. Strange, coincidental jokes aside, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers isn’t really a tennis movie at all, despite featuring an awful lot of the sport. Instead, the game is merely a conduit in which to channel the trauma, aggression, obsession and competition of a decade-long tryst. Two young tennis prodigies Art and Patrick obsess over Tashi, seemingly t

The life of Amy Winehouse has enough depth to fill a TV series. From her sheer talent, pioneering style and success based on songs that felt like pieces of her soul, to the London culture of the noughties and press and public scrutiny that hounded her until her untimely death. The negative reviews and criticism of the biopic Back to Black have brought back a little reminder of that horrible time in the media and brings to light questions of how much things have really changed

Debating what Alex Garland’s best project is has just got a whole lot harder. The much-talked-about and hyped Civil War breaks the doors down to take a seat at the top table of not just Garland’s stacked oeuvre, and not just 2024’s even more stacked year to date, but possibly even beyond that. It’s important to note that the amount of chatter about the film and the marketing campaign may be setting you up for something that it is not. This is not the next action blockbuster f

It’s a satisfying moment where the cultural significance and influence of a film or series is realised in real time. It doesn’t happen to a lot of modern films as so much has been done before but, after a watch of Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, it’s clear that the John Wick franchise has cemented itself as an influential and important pillar of action cinema (with a mention, as well, to The Raid, 3 years the senior.) Monkey Man is no mere pastiche or homage to these modern touchston

The Book of Clarence isn’t quite what you may expect with this subject matter and with LaKeith Stansfield in the title role. Of course, directors are usually those who have a set ‘style’ and actors are largely known for their versatility (indeed, Stansfield has performed brilliantly within lots of genres) but, given the film’s marketing and his predilection for particularly prescient, intelligent and insightful projects like Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, Judas and the Black M

The ‘sequel to the reboot’ has become it’s own bonafide subgenre in recent times and is an unfortunate example of studio apprehension and diminishing returns for franchise blockbuster filming. There’s been a few decent examples but, quite often, these are cynical cash-grabs trying to push more nostalgia and familiarity onto families who’ve got to fork out a fair amount to venture into the cinema. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the most recent entrant into this most peculiar o

Sometimes, you just need a sub-90-minute, screwball comedy/crime caper to blow the cobwebs off. Drive-Away Dolls is the latest example, following in a long and great lineage of short and sweet firecracker movies surely designed to catch eyes on streaming services for groups looking for a quick hit. This is in the top league of such fare with a cracking cast littered with starry cameos, a fresh, funny, sharp and original queer spin on the formula and an actual Coen brother (Et

A film that explores the way a story can change when looked at from different perspectives, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster is an absolutely gripping watch. Ostensibly a simple and small-scale story of two boys, their respective single parents and their teacher, this film becomes an all-encompassing treatise on everything by the time the credits roll. Keeping the outline details this small really works for the premise. Relaying the story three times leads to every dropped detail

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we get a surprise at the Oscars this weekend and American Fiction walked away with Best Picture. It may even get my vote if I was lucky enough to get a say in the selection of that Holy Grail of trophies. There are a lot of ‘moral,’ ‘socially conscious’ and ‘culturally satirical’ films but not many that so deftly and gently traverse these particular waters without slapping the audience round the face, without pandering or demeaning them and w

Despite it being advertised as a culture-clash comedy, The Persian Version is, first and foremost, a truly moving and nuanced mother/daughter family drama that just happens to be lightened at opportune moments with some hilarious comedy. It’s a striking and original film, happy to move quickly through fourth-wall breaks, random dance sequences, stylised montages and entire swathes of generational flashbacks. It doesn’t stop moving but always keeps things entertaining and watc

Dune: Part Two is sci-fi/fantasy filmmaking on such a ridiculously epic scale, it might be better to make a comparison with some kind of theme park ride rather than a film. As we wrap the story of book one (with a mooted Part Three set to adapt the next book in the series) we could be on for another all-timer movie trilogy. The collective power of Christopher Nolan’s ‘hard science’ films and Game of Thrones' ‘accessible hard fantasy’ have paved the way for Denis Villeneuve to