Alpha, 2025. Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau. Starring Mélissa Boros, Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, and Emma Mackey. SYNOPSIS: Alpha, 13, is a troubled teenager who lives alone with her mother. Their world comes crashing down the day she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm. Julia Ducournau’s astonishing debut Raw and […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Giant
Giant, 2025. Written and Directed by Rowan Athale. Starring Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan, Ali Saleh, Ghaith Saleh, Katherine Dow Blyton, Olivia Barrowclough, Elika Ashoori, Austin Haynes, Rocco Haynes, Oliver Joseph Brooke, Arian Nik, Big Jake, Kelvin Ade, and Mehdi Mangoli. SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the real-life story of Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed, a British-Yemeni boxer, and […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – The Choral
The Choral, 2025. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Amara Okereke, Simon Russell Beale and Thomas Howes. SYNOPSIS: A choral society’s male members enlist in World War I, leaving the demanding Dr. Guthrie to recruit teenagers. Together, they experience the joy of singing while the young boys grapple with their impending conscription […]
Movie Review – Dreams (2025)
Dreams, 2025. Written and directed by Michel Franco. Starring Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernández, Rupert Friend, Marshall Bell, Eligio Meléndez, and Mercedes Hernández. SYNOPSIS: Romance blossoms between a wealthy socialite and a Mexican ballet dancer, intertwining their contrasting lives and cultures. Following 2023’s excellent Memory, Mexican writer-director Michel Franco’s second collaboration with Jessica Chastain is a […]
Exclusive Interview – Daisy Ridley on her new film Magpie
Dan Barnes chats with Daisy Ridley about her new film Magpie… Directed by Sam Yates (The Hope Rooms, All’s Well That Ends Well, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cymbeline), Magpie received its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival in March 2024. The film follows Anette (Daisy Ridley), an isolated wife and mother who finds herself […]
Movie Review – The Wasp (2024)
The Wasp, 2024. Directed by Guillem Morales. Starring Naomie Harris, Natalie Dormer, and Dominic Allburn. SYNOPSIS: Guillem Morales’ The Wasp, the screen adaptation of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s acclaimed play of the same name, sees depressed housewife Heather approach former childhood friend Carla with a proposition: she wants her to help kill her husband. Trapped in […]
Exclusive Interview – Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer talk The Wasp
Dan Barnes chats with Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer about their new film The Wasp… Directed by Guillem Morales (Back Room, The Uninvited Guest, Julia’s Eyes, Inside No. 9), The Wasp received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. Adapted from Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s acclaimed play of the same name, the film […]
2020 BFI London Film Festival Review – Another Round
Another Round, 2020 Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe and Magnus Millang. SYNOPSIS: Four friends, all high school teachers, test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood. ‘It’s not just a film about drinking. Our ambition was to […]
Movie Review – Wildfire (2020)
Wildfire, 2020. Directed by Cathy Brady. Starring Nika McGuigan, Nora-Jane Noone, Kate Dickie, Martin McCann and Olga Wehrly. SYNOPSIS: The story of two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has been missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is re-ignited. Together they unearth their […]
Movie Review – Herself (2020)
Herself, 2020 Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Starring Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill, Molly McCann, Ruby Rose O’Hara, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Cathy Belton and Sarah Kinlen. SYNOPSIS: This is the story of young mother Sandra who escapes her abusive husband and fights back against a broken housing system. She sets out to build her own […]
