Jesse Eisenberg: ‘Is our modern pain valid?’
A Real Pain, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, follows David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), making their way round Poland on a tour in honour of their recently departed grandmother. The bickering cousins with an odd couple dynamic visit Majdanek concentration camp as well as the childhood home of their beloved ancestor, a Holocaust More...
Architecton review – taps into the short-order nature of modern construction
People tend to have a sixth sense when they’re standinginside a building that they know is not very robust. And it’s a sense that is leaned upon more and more regularly in a world where fast and cheap is the More...
The Damned review – haunting but disappointing
In 19th century Iceland, the young widower Eve (Odessa Young) finds herself in charge of a fishing crew (Rory McCann, Siobhan Finneran, Turlough Convery, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee and Mícheál Óg Lane), More...
The Girl With The Needle review – politically pertinent Gothic horror story
It helps to have some vague stylistic or thematic justification for choosing to shoot your modern film in black and white. Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle thankfully has both, in its gothic, crepuscular More...
Maria review – a tender eulogy for a remarkable talent
In a 1983 televised tribute to Maria Callas, Leonard Bernstein referred to the soprano as “the bible of opera”, such was her impact upon the art form. Before her untimely death in 1977 at the age of 53, Callas More...
Babygirl review – intelligent, elegant adult filmmaking
While the internet continues to debate the “necessity” of sex scenes in cinema, the sickos and freaks among us are crying out for more carnal pleasure on screen. To deny the existence and power of desire is More...
A Real Pain review – an amusing and compelling inquiry into human pain and suffering
Trying to comprehend the root cause of pain and the depths of the human soul is an ambitious task. It’s one which writer, director and actor Jesse Eisenberg approaches with poignant reflection and laugh-out-loud humour More...
We Live in Time review – every generation gets the cancer romance it deserves
Every generation gets the cancer romance it deserves. In We Live in Time, terminal illness gives an extra sense of urgency to an echt-millennial story about the push-pull of professional ambition and family obligation More...
100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part two
Here it is! The second half of our mammoth preview of films we’re expecting (or hoping) to see hit festivals and cinemas in 2025. Have we missed your most anticipated films? Let us know what you’re excited More...
Dylan in the Movies
It may have taken decades for Bob Dylan to receive Academy-bait biopic treatment, but finally it happened. A Complete Unknown is James Mangold’s film about Dylan’s West Village ascension in the early 1960s, More...
