Entertaining. Mostly: Dream Scenario reviewed
Dream Scenario is a high-concept dark comedy about celebrity and cancel culture. It stars our old pal Nicolas Cage who,…
Outstanding and eye-opening doc about North Korea: Beyond Utopia review
The documentary Beyond Utopia follows various families as they attempt to flee North Korea. It is eye-opening and outstanding. In…
Basic, plodding and lacking any actual horror: Doctor Jekyll reviewed
Tis the season of horror, as it’s Halloween, which we celebrate in this house by turning off all the lights…
Epic, immersive and tiresomely long: Killers of the Flower Moon reviewed
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is a Western crime drama that runs to three-and-a-half hours. (Sit on that,…
Wing and a prayer
The Miracle Club, which is about a group of Irish women who travel to Lourdes, has a magnificent cast –…
Last orders
Ken Loach has said The Old Oak will be his last film – he’s 87; the golf course probably beckons.…
Gods and monsters
The Lesson is a literary thriller that is occasionally heavy-handed but also menacingly entertaining, plus you get Richard E. Grant…
Wet, wet, wet
A Haunting in Venice is Kenneth Branagh’s third Poirot film (after Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the…
A drama without drama
Past Lives is an exquisite film made with great precision and care about what could have been, even if what…
Crimes of Paris
Georges Simenon’s lugubrious detective Maigret has appeared in umpteen screen adaptations and dozens of actors have played him. Now it’s…
Fighting spirit
Scrapper is a film about a working-class kid who, after her mother dies, has to look after herself. I know…
Going to the dogs
Based on the poster showing two cute dogs – a border terrier and a Boston terrier – I had assumed…
Splitting headache
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant quantum physicist and ‘father of the atomic bomb’ who…
Feminist phooey
Finally, the Barbie film is here, for which we must be thankful, as the tsunami of pre-publicity meant you probably…
Breaking the sound barrier
You’d have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by Name Me Lawand. It’s a documentary about…
Business as usual
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final film in the franchise so it’s Harrison Ford’s…
False notes
Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…
A fight to the Finnish
When I went into the Sisu screening I knew only that it was a Finnish film, so was expecting an…
Girl’s world
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is an adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal young adult novel (1970) about an…
The end is in sight
Plan 75 is a dystopian Japanese drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia programme introduced to address Japan’s ageing society. Aged 75…
