Film review: Freaky Tales

April 30, 2025August 27, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

After a foray into the mega-budget mainstream with comic book movie Captain Marvel in 2019, writer and director duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have made a welcomed return to their indie roots for their latest piece Freaky Tales, an action-horror comedy anthology set in late ‘80s Oakland, California. As the paths of hitman Clint (Pedro Pascal), corrupt cop (Ben Mendelsohn), and basketball star Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis) cross with punks, skinheads, and underground rappers, their interconnected stories are tied together by strange supernatural happenings and blood-soaked vengeance.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Warfare

April 27, 2025August 27, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Off the back of imagining fictional combat through a journalistic lens in dystopian thriller Civil War, filmmaker Alex Garland has turned his hand to a very real and recent conflict in his latest feature. Sharing the writing and directing credits on this picture is Ray Mendoza, the former U.S. Navy SEAL who has based the script on his own experience and the memories of his comrades. Set in 2006 Iraq, the plot recalls a mission carried out by platoon Alpha One which included Sam (Joseph Quinn), Erik (Will Poulter), Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis) and Mendoza himself, portrayed on-screen by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. As their plan is severely curtailed by a devastating explosion, they must pull together to survive.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Death of a Unicorn

April 13, 2025July 14, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Since the release of whodunnit Knives Out in 2019, we’ve seen a flurry of glossy one-location productions with various genre twists on the format. Whether it’s in fine-dining terror The Menu, social satire slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies, or sci-fi thriller Companion, we’re quickly learning that whenever a group of individuals get together somewhere fancy for the weekend, things are going to get dark. Horror comedy Death of a Unicorn is the latest to fall into this category, marking the debut of writer and director Alex Scharfman. The plot follows lawyer Elliot (Paul Rudd) as he travels to the family estate of his billionaire boss Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), taking his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) along for the ride. On the way, they accidentally hit an animal on the road, and the fantastical fallout of the incident tests their fractured father-and-daughter relationship.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Reputation

April 5, 2025September 21, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Working class life in Britain is often depicted in a gritty or bleak manner that was coined as kitchen-sink realism back in mid 20^th century. It would perhaps be more accurate to describe crime drama Reputation as kitchen-knife realism as the first-time feature filmmaker Martin Law brings a streak of threat and violence to this tale of woe.

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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital

Film review: Late Shift (Heldin)

March 9, 2025December 15, 2025 Garry Arnot1 Comment

After working mostly in television across her career, actor Leonie Benesch has garnered acclaim on the big screen of late with standout appearances in The Teachers’ Lounge and September 5 – both of which see her character’s work life take traumatic turns for the worse. Her latest portrayal is in another workplace thriller as she stars in Swiss-German feature Late Shift. Written and directed by Petra Volpe, the plot follows a hectic day in the life of surgical nurse Floria at a severely understaffed hospital ward. As problems mount from challenging patients and their family members, she comes under intense pressure.

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DVD & Digital · GFF25

Film review: On Falling

March 4, 2025December 15, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

For over fifty years, Ken Loach’s films have become synonymous with working-class life in Britain, his important ‘kitchen-sink’ stories giving a cinematic voice to the undervalued. It would appear that he’s ready to call it a day, the veteran filmmaker stating that his 2023 drama The Old Oak would be his last.

The latest feature from his production company is On Falling, marking the debut of writer and director Laura Carreira. Set in and around Edinburgh, the social-realist plot follows the humdrum routine of Aurora (Joana Santos), a Portuguese migrant that works long hours as a warehouse picker for an unnamed conglomerate. Struggling to make ends meet, she becomes increasingly lonely and worn down by her daily grind.

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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital · EIFF25

Film review: Islands

March 2, 2025December 15, 2025 Garry Arnot1 Comment

Set on the scorched island of Fuerteventura, mystery drama Islands marks the third feature from German writer and director Jan-Ole Gerster. The neo-noir plot follows washed-up tennis coach Tom (Sam Riley) who slipped through the net of turning professional, now working at a luxury resort. Spending his evenings raving in the local nightclub and his days nursing hangovers while showing tourists how to improve their forehand swing, his hedonistic lifestyle is interrupted when British couple Anne (Stacy Martin) and Dave (Jack Farthing) arrive and ask that he gives their young son Anton (Dylan Torrell) some private lessons.

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DVD & Digital · GFF25

Film review: Sew Torn

February 27, 2025August 27, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Based on his own short of the same name, indie thriller Sew Torn is the first feature from writer and director Freddy Macdonald. Set in a picturesque village nestled in the Alpine mountains, the plot follows seamstress Barbara (Eve Connolly) who is grieving her mother’s death whilst struggling to keep the family business afloat.

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DVD & Digital · GFF25

Film review: Stealing Pulp Fiction

February 26, 2025August 27, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

From spaghetti westerns to blaxploitation flicks and martial arts action, iconic auteur Quentin Tarantino has made a habit of celebrating cinema within his own work. Carrying this on to a degree by paying homage to QT himself, writer and director Danny Turkiewicz presents Stealing Pulp Fiction.

Developed from his own 2020 short, the plot follows cinephile pals Jonathan (John Rudnitsky) and Steve (Karan Soni) as they attend a special screening of cult classic Pulp Fiction in Los Angeles. After they discover that the 35mm print they’re watching is the director’s personal copy, they hatch a plan to steal the reels.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: La Cocina

February 2, 2025June 2, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

As central locations go, restaurants have proven themselves to be hotbeds of big screen drama in recent years with the success of films such as Boiling Point, The Menu, and The Taste of Things and writer and director Alonso Ruizpalacios has put his own artistic spin on this recipe for his New York-based piece, La Cocina.

Based on the 1957 stage play by Arnold Wesker, the plot follows a group of colleagues at tourist trap Times Square eatery The Grill during a hectic lunch service. After some cash goes missing from the register and a broken drinks machine causes a flood, tensions rise between cook Pedro (Raúl Briones), waiter Julia (Rooney Mara), new start Estela (Anna Diaz) and the rest of the staff.

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