cinema

Film review: 100 Nights of Hero

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Maika Monroe cemented herself as the go-to indie ‘scream queen’ over a decade ago with her breakthrough in It Follows, and has furthered this reputation with more recent turns in Watcher and Longlegs. Whilst her leading role in Julia Jackman’s sophomore feature 100 Nights of Hero is a departure from the traditions of this genre, there’s something to be said about the horrors of female oppression in this folk fantasy fairytale.

 Based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, it centres around noblewoman Cherry (Monroe) who is given 101 nights to conceive an heir. As her cowardly husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry) abruptly leaves, her friendship with devoted maid Hero (Emma Corrin) develops and hunky houseguest Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) arrives at their castle.

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cinema

Film review: Twinless

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After premiering at Sundance just over a year ago, psychological black comedy Twinless has been decorated with numerous festival awards. It marks the sophomore feature from filmmaker James Sweeney who not only directs, but produces, writes and acts in the piece as well. The story begins at a funeral where thirty-something Roman (Dylan O’Brien) grieves the tragic death of his identical twin brother Rocky, who O’Brien also portrays in flashback sequences. At an emotional support group for twinless twins, he meets Dennis (Sweeney) and the pair strike up an unlikely bond, united in their shared experience of grief. However, as their friendship develops and the plot thickens, we discover that all is not as it seems.

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cinema

Film review: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

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 It’s been less than a year since this post-apocalyptic zombie series was revived by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, and Nia DaCosta has taken on the directorial duties for the latest instalment. Bridging the gap between the beginning and end of this sequel trilogy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up directly where the last one left off. Reeling from the tragic death of his mother, young Spike (Alfie Williams) has been taken under the wing of cult leader Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his gang of followers. Meanwhile, Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) forms an unlikely friendship with “Samson” (Chi Lewis-Parry) who has been infected by the ‘rage virus’.

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cinema

Film review: Marty Supreme

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 Still in the relatively early days of their filmmaking career with acclaimed indies such as Good Time and Uncut Gems to their names, it was a surprise when the Safdies announced they would go their separate creative ways. While younger sibling Benny took quite a departure in form with his biographical sports movie The Smashing Machine, elder brother Josh has played the hits to a degree with his own solo directorial debut. A biographical sports movie of sorts in itself, comedy drama Marty Supreme is set in 1950s New York City and follows the relentless efforts of shoe salesman Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) to become a table tennis champion. As childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) and actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) become embroiled in his schemes, he risks everything he has to get anything he wants.

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cinema

Film review: Oh, Canada

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Self-reflection is almost always on the cards for veteran writer and director Paul Schrader, who has returned with his first feature since his thematically linked ‘Man in a Room’ trilogy; a trio of tales which boldly explored redemption through lost souls living in solitude. In his latest drama Oh, Canada, the room is crowded and the man is Leonard Fife (Richard Gere), a dying documentary filmmaker turned professor who has agreed to sit for an interview about his illustrious life and career. Based on the 2021 novel Foregone by Russell Banks, the plot sees the acclaimed creative revisit his checkered past as his wife Emma (Uma Thurman) and former students Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill) watch on.

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cinema

Film review: It Was Just an Accident

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 A key player within the new wave of Iranian cinema, writer and director Jafar Panahi has pushed boundaries for decades through his metacinematic tales of contemporary state surveillance. His latest piece is It Was Just an Accident, a darkly comic thriller that centres around a bizarre mystery. When mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) recognises the distinctive squeak of a prosthetic leg from a customer (Ebrahim Azizi), he suspects him to be his former tormentor from a stint in prison. Impulsively, he kidnaps the man, bundling him into the back of his van. However, as doubts set in over his true identity, he rallies together a line-up of fellow victims to help uncover the truth.

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cinema

Film review: Sentimental Value

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 The works of director Joachim Trier are often tied together by their tender explorations of existential emotions, the last of which, The Worst Person in the World, catapulted him into the hipster cinephile consciousness. This closed the chapter on his acclaimed ‘Oslo trilogy’ but his latest feature dabbles in the same thematic territory. Family drama Sentimental Value centres around theatre actor Nora (Renate Reinsve) who’s appearing in a stage production but suffers a severe panic attack backstage. When her mother passes away, she unites in grief with sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and reconnects with her estranged filmmaking father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) who wants her to star in his new movie.

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cinema

Film review: Bugonia

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 Since they first collaborated on period piece The Favourite in 2018, director Yorgos Lanthimos and actor Emma Stone have had a fruitful working relationship which led to the latter’s Best Actress win at the Oscars for fantastical comedy Poor Things. They have come together again for their fourth feature with satirical thriller, Bugonia.

 An English-language remake of South Korean sci-fi Save the Green Planet! from 2003, the plot follows conspiracy theorist cousins Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis) who kidnap ‘big pharma’ CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an alien sent to destroy the planet. Tying her up in their basement and shaving her head, they begin torturing her in pursuit of the truth.

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cinema · EIFF25 · Interviews

Dragonfly Interview: Paul Andrew Williams – ‘If there’s a story I can tell that makes people feel something, I want to do that’.

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Since breaking into the British independent film scene with his excellent low-budget debut London to Brighton, writer and director Paul Andrew Williams has worked extensively in television and cinema from directing episodes of ITV dramas such as Broadchurch to crafting his own stories like 2021 revenge flick, Bull. His latest feature is Dragonfly, a social-realist drama with psychological thriller elements set in a working-class English town. When old-age pensioner Elsie (Brenda Blethyn) feels neglected by the nurses that visit her daily, her rough-around-the-edges neighbour Colleen (Andrea Riseborough) steps in to care for her, accompanied by her enormous bull terrier, Sabre. The women strike up an unlikely friendship but Elsie’s son John (Jason Watkins) worries that all is not as it seems.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with filmmaker Williams to discuss the piece… 

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DVD & Digital

Film review: After the Hunt

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Since the #MeToo movement ripped through Hollywood a little under a decade ago, there have been a spate of misconduct stories on the big screen, from Kitty Green’s The Assistant to Maria Schrader’s She Said. The latest in this contemporary sub-genre wave is psychological thriller After the Hunt by director Luca Guadagnino. Unravelling in and around Yale University, the plot follows esteemed philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) who is up for tenure. After she and her husband Frederick (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party, her PhD student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s colleague and close friend Hank (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault.

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