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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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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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital

Film review: Peter Hujar’s Day

February 22, 2025May 25, 2026 Garry ArnotLeave a comment

The downtown scene of New York City in the 1970s was rich in culture, innovation and edge, with key figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Fran Lebowitz, and Andy Warhol pioneering an avant-garde community of creatives. Behind many of the iconic images of this time was photographer Peter Hujar, who mostly captured his subjects in a striking black and white. Inspired by a 2021 book of the same name, Peter Hujar’s Day is the latest piece from writer and director Ira Sachs that brings to life a tape recording that was discovered years later in amongst the archives of his work. Set entirely in his Manhattan apartment in December 1974, journalist Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) and Hujar (Ben Whishaw) have an in-depth conversation where he talks her through what he did the previous day.

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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital

Film review: Blue Moon

February 20, 2025June 1, 2026 Garry Arnot1 Comment

It’s been thirty years since the first collaboration between actor Ethan Hawke and filmmaker Richard Linklater, when they began working on the now beloved ‘Before’ trilogy. They have reunited for period piece Blue Moon which, like a lot of the director’s work, takes place across one day – or one evening in this case to be more specific.

Set almost entirely in a New York City bar in 1943, the historical snapshot plot centres around troubled lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) after he attends the opening night of stage musical Oklahoma! on Broadway. Feeling bitter about his writing partner Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) success in his new duo with Oscar Hammerstein II, he distracts himself and everyone else around him by regaling them with stories of his infatuation for Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old student who he claims is his latest protégé.

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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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