The new musical moment continues with another 'theatrical version of the stage-show musical version of the original, non-musical, theatrical film based on a novel (also non-musical).' Got that? The Color Purple follows hot on the heels of Mean Girls and is another glorious endeavour that, strangely, hasn’t really been advertised as sitting within the musical genre. Not sure why this is, surely musicals still appeal to a wide audience base? And, surely, it’s important to make

I think it was when espousing the values of In the Heights a few years back that I commented on the relative lack of theatrically released musicals compared to the genre’s heyday. Well, maybe we’ll come to declare the current moment as the 'second age' with a slate of them upcoming and starting with the 2024 update of Mean Girls. Remaking the original should have had as much chance of success as making 'fetch' happen but, with the stage show’s popularity and Tina Fey back onb

How much you enjoy Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom might come down to how appealing you find the idea of Jason Momoa punching an oversized bug in the face or your proclivity for watching Nicole Kidman riding some sort of armoured/roboticised shark (and guessing quite why she made the decision to come back for this sequel.) That, or watching the DCEU go out with something worse than a whimper. In some ways, it’s actually just sad that this film was even made and released in the f

It’s now customary to kick off the first review of a new year by mentioning the fact that January is the time for all of the previous year’s worldwide (mainly US) releases to drop on these shores. Whilst it’s great to have lots to look forward to in the first month of the year, it’s frustrating that we lag so far behind sometimes. This year feels particularly backwards with plenty of UK ‘best of 2024’ lists set to resemble a lot of American publication’s ‘best of 2023.’ Poor

To say it’s been an interesting year for film just doesn’t cut it. There’s no way I can fit all of 2023’s talking points into this blurb...

There are always two ways to tell a story and Priscilla deserves praise for being a truly brave and autonomous movie, especially when Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis looms so large in the rear-view. Make no mistake, this isn’t a flip reversal, not an account to sour a legacy. This is merely a fair and honest reflection of another’s perspective and an opportunity for the audience to draw their own conclusions. Sofia Coppola’s languid, deliberate and sumptuous aesthetic is a perfect fit f

Well those twelve months sure went quick! That’s how I started the Albums of the Year rundown back in December 2022 and it doesn’t feel...

Adam Driver plays an important Italian figure of history in a stylish biopic called [checks notes] not House of Gucci but, instead, Ferrari. Ok, so that’s a reductive and easy joke to make but the comparisons certainly don’t end there when comparing these two particular films. Both are slightly self-serious, extremely stylish and interesting portrayals that should simply be better than they actually are. Unfortunately, Ferrari doesn’t match up to House of Gucci which in itsel

‘Tis the season for a sweet treat and, whilst not anything to do with Christmas, Wonka hits quite a lot of the festive buttons: fun, light-hearted, colourful and one for all the family. With much of the Paddington team behind this, it delivers that quintessentially English, quirky family film that its forebear (pun intended) achieved but sprinkled with a little bit of Cruella in its prequel backstory to a familiar character. It doesn’t present the titular chocolatier as a vil

As the flagship film and centrepiece to Disney’s centenary celebrations, Wish has a lot of pressure riding on it. Walking into a large cinema screen to find the auditorium completely empty, just a few days after the film’s wider release, can’t have been what Disney were expecting. However, the mixed marketing and clear confusion Disney have caused by dropping films onto their streaming service so quickly after theatrical release is fairly indicative of Wish in general. Wish i

Abba sung about Waterloo in under 3 minutes whereas, for Ridley Scott, his tale of that particular battle, and the life of Napoleon, is closer to 3 hours with an even longer, supposedly 4-hour version coming to AppleTV+. Enough with the facetiousness, Scott’s film of this titanic (but, ironically, pint-sized) figure unfortunately isn’t quite the definite article. Cramming the life of the Emperor, his myriad battles and the ongoing political circumstances, both in France and E

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes presents an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, any opportunity to venture back into Suzanne Collins’ brilliantly realised world is one to be relished. This is a horrifying dystopia that is interestingly free of anything ordinarily fantastical or sci-fi-esque and, therefore, has always made surprising ‘sense’, making it all the easier to fall deeply into. The counterpoint to this is having to follow another prequel plot,