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,

It might be a bit of an easy description to label a film as being 'Black Mirror-esque' but it’s such an apt descriptor for those thoughtful and challenging bits of pseudo-sci-fi we’ve been seeing a lot of recently. Dream Scenario perfectly fits this new ‘genre’ and is a wildly original, thought-provoking and nigh-on spot-on tragicomic tale of cancel culture, social media fame, virality and our desperate need for attention. Another A24 masterclass, this sees an awards-worthy N

The Loki season two finale and The Marvels dropping on the same day has given the MCU a little shot in the arm. Despite the histrionics and clickbait, the MCU is not in any trouble. Yes, the current phase has dipped in quality from the Infinity saga but to follow some of the best films of all time (superhero or otherwise) and successfully expand into TV, whilst still producing top-quality cinematic entertainment, is nothing to be sniffed at. For once, can we all take a step b

Sophie Ellis-Bextor and The Cheeky Girls mixing it on a soundtrack with Handel might sound an 'off' concoction but aptly serves to somewhat describe the eclecticism of Saltburn, the new film from Emerald Fennell. Following the astonishing Promising Young Woman is no easy task and this is a wildly different film, a takedown of class set in 2006 at Oxford University. Straight up, whilst it largely delivers its message efficiently this is not as thought-provoking or hard-hitting