If any setting was just made for Guillermo del Toro, it’s got to be the circus. Colour, spectacle, carnies, creepy clowns, “freaks” – it positively screams for treatment from the modern master of smart horror. But del Toro is mercurial. Just as he turned his hand to big-budget action in Pacific Rim, he pivots in…
I found it hell to watch a tortured Princess Diana splitting apart in Spencer, the latest film from Pablo Larraín (Jackie). Spencer is a fairy tale. It re-imagines three days over Christmas as the royal family gathers at Sandringham to celebrate the festive season, a decade after Diana (Kristen Stewart) was first invited there. Now…
Writer-director Ben Sharrock draws on his own experiences of living in Syria and working with refugees in Algeria to shape Limbo. This bittersweet drama explores the loss of identity and self often felt by refugees waiting in limbo for their situation to change. The film centres around Omar (Egyptian actor Amir el Masry), a Syrian…
Simon Kinberg is a hugely experienced screenwriter. He provided the scripts for Mr & Mrs Smith, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr version) and four movies in the X-Men series. So he knows his way around an action movie. After making his directorial debut with the flop X-Men: Dark Phoenix, he returns to the director’s chair…
Scream (2022-style) is a slasher movie that deals with other slasher movies and fans of slasher movies. Being familiar with the series that dates back to 1996 would undoubtedly aid understanding, but it’s not mandatory. I, for instance, hadn’t seen the four Scream films before this one and yet followed the story line. Ghostface is…
A pushy tennis dad or a man on a mission? Or both? You can be the judge with Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic King Richard. The film follows Richard Williams’ (Will Smith) journey to bring child tennis prodigies Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton) to the world stage. The focus of the film is Richard’s…
What a woman! As the saying goes, they broke the mould when they created her, as shown in Matthew Walker’s documentary I’m Wanita. The Wanita of the title likes to be known as Australia’s queen of honky-tonk. In her late 40s, she’s autistic, a binge drinker, a smoker and a prostitute of 18 years who…
A washed-up porn actor falls on hard times in Sean Baker’s new film, Red Rocket. It is 2016. Mikey (Simon Rex) turns up unannounced (and broke) at the dilapidated Texas home of his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). They want nothing to do with him. But he inveigles himself…
After Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, director Matthew Vaughn delivers a prequel. The King’s Man is the origin story, explaining how and why the spy organisation the Kingsman was formed. And it’s jam-packed full of action. The story starts in South Africa in 1902. Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) from the Red…
Nicole Kidman’s star turn as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos is an acting masterclass. She gives an awe-inspiring, nuanced performance (an Oscar nomination awaits) alongside another seriously good showing from Javier Bardem; and impressive turns from JK Simmons and Nina Arianda. The action takes place during a single production week for an episode of…
