Hamnet, 2025. Directed by Chloe Zhao. Starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal. Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson, Jacobi Jupe, and Noah Jupe. SYNOPSIS: A powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. Shakespeare’s works are known the world over, and his personal life has been examined before on screen, notably […]
Movie Review – Alpha (2025)
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 […]
Exclusive Interview – Ballad of a Small Player screenwriter Rowan Joffé
Chris Connor chats with Ballad of a Small Player screenwriter Rowan Joffé… Fresh off its gala screening at the London Film Festival, we spoke with Ballad of a Small Player’s screenwriter Rowan Joffé about the challenges of bringing Lawrence Osborne’s acclaimed source material to life. The film like the novel, follows Lord Doyle a down […]
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 […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Left-Handed Girl
Left-Handed Girl, 2025. Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou. Starring Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye, and Brando Huang. SYNOPSIS: A single mother and her two daughters relocate to Taipei to open a night market stall, each navigating the challenges of adapting to their new environment while striving to maintain family unity. Fresh off four Oscar wins […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Retreat
Retreat, 2025. Directed by Ted Evans. Starring Anne Zander, Sophie Stone, James Joseph Boyle, Ace Mahbaz, Tianah Hodding, Anna Seymore, Brian Duffy, and Naomi Postawa-Husar. SYNOPSIS: In an isolated deaf community, Matt’s idyllic world cracks when Eva arrives, making him question his identity and the costs of maintaining his supposedly utopian society. Ted Evans’ Retreat […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Nouvelle Vague
Nouvelle Vague, 2025 Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Adrien Rouyard, Antoine Besson, Jodie Ruth-Forest, Bruno Dreyfürst, Benjamin Clery, Matthieu Penchinat, Pauline Belle, Paolo Luka-Noé and Jade Phan-Gia. SYNOPSIS: After writing for Cahiers du cinéma, young Godard decides making films is the best film criticism. He gets Beauregard to fund […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Saipan
Saipan, 2025. Directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa. Starring Steve Coogan, Éanna Hardwicke, Jack Hickey, Harriet Cains, Alice Lowe, Jamie Beamish, Alex Murphy, and Peter McDonald. SYNOPSIS: On the eve of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Irish captain Roy Keane forfeits his place in the squad at the team’s preparation base in […]
2025 BFI London Film Festival Review – Good Boy
Good Boy, 2025. Directed by Jan Komasa Starring Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon. SYNOPSIS: Nineteen-year-old Tommy lives an unruly life of criminality until he is kidnapped by a stranger. He soon finds himself trapped in a dysfunctional family dynamic, where he is forced to change his behaviour to become a ‘good boy’. Jan […]
2025 London Film Festival Review – The Mastermind
The Mastermind, 2025. Directed by Kelly Reichardt. Starring Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, and Bill Camp. SYNOPSIS: An unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief plans his first big heist, and when things go haywire, his life unravels. Kelly Reichardt is a hard director to pin down; she has built a […]
