Ok, let’s cut straight to the chase: for its first two-thirds Shazam! Fury of the Gods is well in the running to be the DCEU’s best film. That’s definitely something not many saw coming, with the first a cloying, infuriatingly old-fashioned CGI mess with no tangible links to the rest of its ‘dark and serious’ brethren. That this also comes with more questions than answers as to the standing of this character in James Gunn’s new refreshed slate (with key characters confirmed t

In a cinematic landscape awash with sub-franchises, shared universes and a seemingly considered tactic to make film runtimes longer, a sub-90-minute, entirely original, London-set romantic comedy might just be the film of the year so far. First time director Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane is a wildly enjoyable, laugh-out-loud and stylistically invigorating film in a genre that has quietly been shoved aside in recent times (remember the days when a Richard Curtis film would be

There are many perilous and taxing journeys in film history. From Frodo’s arduous ring delivery service to Han Solo somehow completing the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, despite that being a unit of distance rather than time. I’ve got to put forward the 15km in Adam Driver’s new film 65 as nearing the top of the list of gruelling undertakings I’d like to complete the least. A lean and mean, 90-minute thriller; 65 is just as stressful as directing duo Bryan Woods and Scot

How do you settle the great debate about who’s the MCU’s greatest villain? In Creed III, the decision to put two of the challengers into a boxing ring is actually a pretty good idea! Jokes aside, the third (and, hopefully, final) film in the excellent Creed series is a suitably solid chapter. Even without Ryan Coogler behind the camera (with Michael B. Jordan doing an excellent job taking over the reins as director) and Sylvester Stallone (whose own lack of involvement has ca

What have the Barden Bellas and a black bear on Class A drugs got in common you ask? Elizabeth Banks follows the brilliant Pitch Perfect trilogy (and her Charlie's Angels reboot) with a film that, to all intents and purposes, should be a slam-dunk with a trailer that got some feverish word of mouth. An embellished (very embellished) story of a drug drop gone wrong which resulted in a bear consuming a fatal amount of cocaine, the film is an 80’s B-movie pastiche trying to capi

Take a trip to the Quantum Realm. They’ve got Star Wars-like cantinas, talking pieces of broccoli and beautiful, if trippy, natural vistas. You might even spot Bill Murray. Probably not ATOL-protected. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (get tit – quANTuMANia has Ant-Man in the title) kicks off the MCU’s Phase 5 and the second part of the ‘Multiverse Saga’ with exactly what you’d expect: a fun, exciting, villain-introducing romp sealed with Marvel’s usual wit, pizzazz, stacked

Would you sacrifice a member of your family to save the world? That’s the very simple but gripping premise of the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan: Knock at the Cabin. Based on the similarly named novel: The Cabin at the End of the World, this film doesn’t have any pretence in going above or beyond that set up. Four strangers interrupt a blissful family holiday to deliver that exact ultimatum, leaving Jonathan Groff’s Eric, Ben Aldridge’s Andrew and their seven-year-old da

Much has been made of the comeback of Brendan Fraser in Darren Aronofsky’s latest: The Whale. Awards talk aplenty (and a likely Best Actor Oscar recipient) but not much mentioned about the actual film itself. This is unfair as the film absolutely matches its towering lead performance. Aronofsky has long been a master at creating enthralling character portraits, from Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler through to Black Swan and Jackie, and The Whale is another masterpiece. Ba

It’s getting increasingly rare to see true originality in cinema but 2018’s Searching certainly got into that bracket. Told as if the cinema screen was the screen of a computer, it was a gripping thriller of a father on the search for his missing daughter. On the heels of its success comes Missing, a quasi-sequel with the same set-up and style but a different story. This time, an eighteen-year-old’s mother goes missing whilst on holiday with her new boyfriend. In terms of plo

Nostalgia, reflection, family and the love of film, and cinema in particular, has been a theme in recent times. Particularly post-pandemic, our greatest directors have seemingly been imploring people to return to the big screen. Before screenings of his latest film: The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg even has a little pre-recorded intro’ saying how special the cinema is and the part it still has to play in our lives. The movie itself is a dramatised version of Spielberg’s own co

A quite bonkers, lit-firework of a film, Babylon has, quite understandably, divided audiences and critics. Launching the start of a cinematic year can put extra spotlight on a film and it’s certainly the spotlight that Babylon wants and deserves, but this is quite the departure from La La Land and Whiplash. Taking the musicality of those two films and multiplying everything by 1000, Damien Chazelle truly lets loose here. Pitched somewhere between a Fellini-inspired acid trip

Happy New Year from The Brighton Film Club. Before we move into 2023 let’s reflect on another excellent year for film. Here are our Films...