Film review: A Complete Unknown

January 21, 2025May 5, 2025 Garry Arnot1 Comment

Twenty years on from his critically acclaimed Johnny Cash picture, writer and director James Mangold returns to the musical biopic sub-genre with 1960s drama A Complete Unknown. Based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, the plot follows a young Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) on his sudden rise to fame. Arriving in New York with nothing but his guitar, he begins a relationship with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) then after meeting fellow singers Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), he is welcomed into the city’s bohemian folk scene.

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Film review: A Real Pain

January 11, 2025April 7, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Anxiety and mental health issues have become part of our daily conversations on the trials and tribulations of modern life. In his sophomore directorial effort, actor-turned-filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg pits these challenges against the backdrop of acknowledging the trauma of his own ancestors in comedy drama A Real Pain. The plot follows estranged Jewish cousins David (played by Eisenberg himself) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) as they embark on a trip to Poland to honour their late grandmother. Throughout the tour, the pair both bond and bicker as they navigate their grief in different ways.

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Film review: Better Man

January 1, 2025April 7, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

The musician biographical drama is a subgenre that has become increasingly saturated of late, with Elton John, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan among others having their stories told on the big screen within the past five years. The latest in the category is Better Man, which tells the rags to riches tale of controversial pop performer Robbie Williams who rose to fame in boyband Take That before embarking on a successful solo career. Directed by Australian visual artist turned filmmaker Michael Gracey, known for his work on the Greatest Showman, there’s a trick that separates this biopic from the rest – the star is portrayed as a CGI-animated monkey.

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Film review: Queer

December 23, 2024May 26, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

A key figure of the Beat Generation movement, author William S. Burroughs was known for his experimental and often controversial literature. Romantic drama Queer is based on his 1985 novella of the same name and is directed by Luca Guadagnino, a filmmaker that’s no stranger to a taboo topic himself. Set in 1950s Mexico City, the plot follows middle-aged American expat William Lee (Daniel Craig) who lives a lonely existence in and around his local bars. His spirits are lifted when young intellectual Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) arrives in town, but his pursuit of a meaningful connection is mired by his dependency to opioids.

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Film review: We Live in Time

December 15, 2024March 24, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Folding a ‘weepie’ into the cosy comfort of the British romcom genre, We Live in Time is the latest feature from John Crowley, an Irish director perhaps best known for his work on 2015 period piece Brookyln. His non-linear plot follows the relationship between thriving chef Almut (Florence Pugh) and downtrodden divorcée Tobias (Andrew Garfield) over the course of a decade, cutting between humour and heartache as their lives in modern-day London are rocked by a cancer diagnosis.

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Film review: Grand Theft Hamlet

December 2, 2024May 5, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

While many of us baked countless loaves of banana bread, learned new musical instruments, or binged our favourite boxsets, some used the COVID lockdowns as an opportunity to explore more off-piste creative endeavours. For British actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, a period of unemployment led them to a very unusual undertaking in 2021 where they attempted to stage a production of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet within the unhinged virtual world of the Grand Theft Auto Online videogame. Co-written and directed by Crane and his filmmaker wife Pinny Grylls, who joined them on their mission, the documentary Grand Theft Hamlet illustrates their efforts.

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Film review: Joker: Folie à Deux

October 17, 2024January 9, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Following on from the awards success and critical acclaim of 2019’s psychological thriller Joker, director Todd Phillips is back with a second chapter on DC Comic’s iconic villain. Joker: Folie à Deux picks up the story two years on, with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) incarcerated in Arkham Asylum and awaiting trial after his killing spree. At a therapy session, he meets troubled inmate Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) and the pair form a bond which is explored through fantastical jukebox musical interludes.

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Film review: To Kill a Wolf

October 12, 2024December 31, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Many of our favourite fairy tales date back to pre-17^th-century Europe and the stories have been continually revised, reimagined and reinterpreted over hundreds of years. The debut feature of writer and director Kelsey Taylor is a contemporary take on Little Red Riding Hood. Set in the Oregon’s beautiful, wooded wilderness, the drama follows teenager Dani (Maddison Brown) who is discovered sleeping rough in the forest by a bearded man played by Ivan Martin, credited only as The Woodsman. He takes her in, providing food and shelter, and we soon come to learn of the fraught situation she is running away from.

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Film review: Lee

September 15, 2024August 27, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

With a background that includes fiction pieces, documentaries, commercials, and music videos, cinematographer Ellen Kuras turns her experienced hand to directing with historical drama Lee, marking her feature debut. Based on the 1985 biography The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose, the plot follows American journalist Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) through various stages of her fascinating life, from her time as a Vogue fashion model to enlisting as a war correspondent during World War II. Through her marriage to British artist Roland (Alexander Skarsgård) and her working relationships with editor Audrey (Andrea Riseborough) and fellow photographer David Scherman (Andy Samberg), the film provides an insight to the woman behind the iconic images she took.

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Film review: Blue Sun Palace

September 1, 2024December 31, 2025 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

In recent years we’ve seen a surge in cinema that has tapped into emotional aspects of Asian-American culture and identity, with the likes of Lulu Wang’s poignant comedy The Farewell, Lee Isaac Chung’s family tale Minari, and Celine Song’s complex romance Past Lives. An arthouse entry into this niche space is Blue Sun Palace, a social-realist drama from writer and director Constance Tsang. Taking place within the Chinese community of Queen’s, New York, the story follows Didi (Haipeng Xu), Amy (Ke-Xi Wu), and Cheung (Kang-sheng Lee) as they navigate life, love, and loss.

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