Berlin25 · DVD & Digital · EIFF25

Film review: Islands

 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: Stealing Pulp Fiction

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 · cinema

Film review: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

 A gear shift from her mumblecore beginnings, writer and director Mary Bronstein has joined forces with the team behind the Safdie productions for her latest feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. An anxiety-horror of sorts, the plot follows psychotherapist Linda (Rose Byrne) whose life takes a turn when her ceiling caves in from a flood in the apartment above. With her husband out of town on a work trip, she and her sick daughter (Delaney Quinn) move into a shabby motel, and things go from bad to worse when her vulnerable patient Caroline (Danielle Macdonald) goes missing.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: Peter Hujar’s Day

 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 · cinema

Film review: Blue Moon

 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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Berlin25 · Features

Top 5 Must-See Movies of Berlinale 2025

This year marks the 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, often referred to simply as Berlinale. It’s set to be a star-studded 11 days of cinema with festival favourite Tilda Swinton announced to collect an Honorary Golden Bear award and Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet in attendance to celebrate the German premiere of James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. I will be covering the event for the very first time, and have picked out five pieces from the programme that I have my eye on…

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DVD & Digital

Film review: La Cocina

 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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DVD & Digital

Film review: A Complete Unknown

 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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