Reviews

Film Review: Him revels in its own divisive, demented personality

Much has been said about Jordan Peele‘s attachment to Him.  Though, like Peele’s own directorial efforts (the thematically complex Get Out, Us, and Nope), Justin Tipping‘s film bathes in its horror elements and topical commentary, it’s more in tune with other producorial efforts (Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and Dev Patel’s Monkey Man), proving a feature that…

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Film Review: The Smashing Machine; Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are formidable in visceral MMA biopic

Despite his absolute monstrous size at the time of his career and just how brutal he proved in the ring of mixed martial arts, Mark Kerr was – and still is – a figure that defied the expectations many would presumably put upon him from a personal standpoint.  Softly spoken, with an emotional sense that…

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Film Review: The Strangers: Chapter 2; promising concept can’t overcome uninspired execution

With the release of last year’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, a retreading of Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion chiller The Strangers, director Renny Harlin and screenwriters Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland delivered a largely uninspired, familiar horror effort that hoped it would justify its existence by promising to be the essential springboard for a…

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Film Review: One Battle After Another is one of the most significant films you’ll see this year

An acquired taste in cinema, but one that proves important regardless of how you personally react to his esoteric, boundary-pushing temperament, Paul Thomas Anderson has been responsible for some of the most important and, arguably, brilliant films across cinema the last four decades; Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, and Licorice Pizza,…

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Poetic License; Maude Apatow proves herself as a comedic director with hilarious, charming debut feature: Toronto International Film Festival Review

When it was revealed that Maude Apatow (daughter of filmmaker Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann) had helmed her first feature film, and one that starred the likes of Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Nico Parker (daughter of actress Thandiwe Newton and filmmaker Ol Parker) to boot, the “nepo baby”…

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Frankenstein; Guillermo del Toro injects new life into a familiar tale: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Though it’s been a story told countless times before, you can’t help but still be monstrously excited at the prospect of Guillermo del Toro adapting Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein.  His name above the title just feels correct, and not just because the director has been talking about helming his version of the story for close…

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Series Review: Gen V Season 2 eases fans back into its world of exuberant violence and satire

Two years after the wildly popular spin off of The Boys, the highly anticipated series Gen V premiered the first three episodes of season 2 on September 17 2025, hitting the ground running from the get go. Developed by Craig Rosenberg, Evan Goldberg, and Eric Kripke, the Prime Video series serves as the fifth instalment…

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Film Review: Swiped; Lily James elevates conventional biopic detailing the foundation of the dating app

Whilst the story behind how Whitney Wolfe Herd both co-founded Tinder and its eventual competition, Bumble, is exciting and full of suitable intrigue, Swiped, with its understandable embellishments, never quite graduates beyond surface level interest.  It’s an entertaining film, without question, with another committed Lily James performance at its core, but The Social Network this…

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Eleanor the Great; Scarlett Johansson directs bittersweet, moving drama: Toronto International Film Festival Review

One of the most poignant lines of Eleanor the Great is “Talk about the things that make you sad,” and it’s with such a notion that Scarlett Johansson‘s affecting dramedy takes it on as a throughline.  A film that so easily could have been about deception becomes something far greater and more profound, transforming itself…

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Couture; Angelina Jolie delivers understated, career-best work in delicate fashion-centric drama: Toronto International Film Festival Review

There’s a quiet sense of artistic rage that lingers under the surface of Alice Winocour‘s delicate Couture, a small drama that looks at the intersecting lives of a trio of women in Paris, all working in one capacity or another around the fashion industry.  Creation and the unexpected interruptions that can derail one’s own process…

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Film Review: Not even Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie can save A Big Bold Beautiful Journey from its own escapist ambition

Director Kogonada (After Yang) and screenwriter Seth Reiss (The Menu) ask a lot of their audience with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.  It’s a hopeful romance of sorts that intends to utilise its magical realism to sweep viewers away into its odyssey of fantastical nature, with the added bonus of proven charm inhabitants Colin Farrell…

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Film Review: The Bad Guys 2; zany sequel delights as it celebrates its heist movie inspirations

There’s been no shortage of sequels thus far across cinema screens in 2025. And, for the most part, they’ve all proven themselves worthy of existence (Freakier Friday), been a satisfactory entrant in their franchise (The Final Reckoning), or, at least, gone for broke in their attempt to distance from their predecessor (M3GAN 2.0). So where…

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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery; Neo-Gothic-inspired sequel is as divisive as it is exciting: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Skilled filmmaker and whodunnit expert Rian Johnson has, once again, subverted the expectation of what should constitute a Knives Out mystery.  Whereas the first film in this now continuing franchise was a tight riddle and the sequel (Glass Onion) indulged in its vacation villainy, Wake Up Dead Man takes its cues from such gothic fiction…

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Dust to Dreams; Idris Elba directs rich short film that serves as a meditation on music and reconciliation: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Selected for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Short Cuts program, Dust to Dreams, courtesy of actor Idris Elba flexing his directorial muscle once more, is a soft meditation on on love, music, and reconciliation, set against the backdrop of Lagos, Nigeria. There’s such a rich tapestry of narrative and the emotional outlay that comes from…

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The Smashing Machine; Dwayne Johnson is a revelation in brutal, emotional biopic: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Despite his absolute monstrous size at the time of his career and just how brutal he proved in the ring of mixed martial arts, Mark Kerr was – and still is – a figure that defied the expectations many would presumably put upon him from a personal standpoint.  Softly spoken, with an emotional sense that…

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Eternity is a shining example of the romantic comedy: Toronto International Film Festival Review

There’s something rather amusing about what constitutes an “A24” movie.  There’s an expectation placed upon the studio as of late regarding the type of film it releases into theatres, and within its own genre, the A24 comedy has rarely been as wholesome as what Eternity projects.  Between the the darker fare of Sorry, Baby and…

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The Lost Bus; Matthew McConaughey anchors tragic true story telling: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Paul Greengrass is a filmmaker who over the course of his career has quite masterfully tackled both the action and biographical genres; The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Captain Phillips just a slew of examples.  For his latest, The Lost Bus, he comes close to blending the two together, looking at the everyday man…

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California Schemin’ is an entertaining, if safe directorial debut from James McAvoy: Toronto International Film Festival Review

As confident as it is a little unsure of its tone, California Schemin’ serves as the directorial debut of James McAvoy, who takes the rather wilder-than-fiction tale of a duo of Scottish rappers (Silibil N’ Brains) who faked American accents in a bid to secure a record deal that they believed they wouldn’t have secured…

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Good Fortune is a sweet, timely comedy showcasing the genre prowess of Keanu Reeves: Toronto International Film Festival Review

A rougher slog to get to his directorial “debut” as a feature filmmaker than he would have liked, Aziz Ansari – seven years after he was accused of sexual misconduct and three years after his planned first feature, Being Mortal, was shut down over the inappropriate behaviour of its lead actor, Bill Murray – finally…

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Film Review: Bad Man; Seann William Scott exudes scrappy charm in neatly packaged crime flick

Despite being headlined by Seann William Scott (best known as Stifler from the American Pie films) and advertising itself as an action-comedy, Michael Diliberti‘s Bad Man leans into more of a sense of seriousness overall.  It isn’t without its chuckles, but it doesn’t have quite an entire hold of blending both genres, leaving the film…

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Carolina Caroline is a charming crime road movie that unapologetically steals your heart: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Looking at the premise of Carolina Caroline on the surface, it’s all too easy to compare it to something like Bonnie & Clyde.  Sure, Adam Carter Rehmeier‘s focuses on a loved-up couple and their cross country crime spree, but Tom Dean‘s script is far deeper than that set-up.  For starters, the initial “criminal” of the…

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Sydney Sweeney is a knockout in Christy: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Sydney Sweeney has really been doing a commendable job of proving that, as an actress, she’s so much more than what we see on Euphoria.  Whilst there have been the expected streaming filmic choices (a Netflix horror effort, an Amazon sex thriller) and a dip into the superhero subsect (farewell Madame Web, we hardly knew…

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Motor City; near-silent action film indulges in its gritty physicality: Toronto International Film Festival Review

In a time when so many action movies have a sense of the recycled about them, you have to admire the approach taken with Motor City.  It’s working off a gimmick, sure, and that in itself means Potsy Ponciroli‘s gritty, violent actioner won’t be for everyone, but if you want a genre feature that embraces…

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The Choral is a sweet-natured reminder of the power of music: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Set in 1916 during World War I, The Choral takes a look at a certain group of community who, in their time of hardship, come together to uphold a tradition that serves as a spiritual lifting. The choral society at the centre of the film have come to a crossroads.  Their choral director has been…

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Charlie Harper speaks to the beauty and emotional brutality of love: Toronto International Film Festival Review

Young love and all the amazing, traumatic things that come with such are explored in Charlie Harper, Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean‘s emotional, non-linear romance dramedy, anchored by the moving performances – and palpable chemistry – of its leads, Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson. Centering around the two halves of its titular coupling (so no,…

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Hamlet; Riz Ahmed dominates unrelenting modern-day telling of Shakespeare’s classic: Toronto International Film Festival Review

From the opening sequence of Aneil Karia‘s Hamlet it’s evident that the Shakespeare tale we know won’t be simply rehashed on screen.  This isn’t your school production or even Broadway, with Karia maintaining the classic tongue of the prose, but bringing its setting to modern day London within the South Asian community. Following the moment…

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Film Review: Splitsville; self-advertised “unromantic comedy” finds its humour in its surprising earnestness

If you are one of the many audience members seemingly disappointed that Dakota Johnson‘s love triangle with Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal’s in Materialists earlier in the year wasn’t as romantic as you were led to believe, then it’s possible that Michael Angelo Covino‘s Splitsville may be the antidote.  Of course, this self advertised “unromantic…

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Film Review: The Conjuring: Last Rites sends off the horror series with a sense of heart

From relatively humble horror beginnings, The Conjuring Universe – as it was so dubbed the more sequels it garnered – is coming to a close after over a decade of mixed scares and box office bullion. And whilst The Conjuring: Last Rites, the ninth installment in the franchise overall (following the previous three Conjuring films,…

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Film Review: Sorry, Baby; darkly comedic, devastating drama revels in its moments of silent poignancy

When trauma is experienced, how does one move on with a semblance of normalcy? That is the question indirectly asked at the centre of Eva Victor‘s stunning Sorry, Baby, a darkly comedic, at times devastating drama that unfolds in the more mundane moments that follow an act of sexual assault; in a wisely unseen moment,…

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Film Review: The Roses; Colman and Cumberbatch prove acidic in black-hearted laugher

There’s something rather ironic in Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn describing Warren Adler‘s novel The War of the Roses as “Terrifying, black-humored, black-hearted and bristling,” something that many would liken to her own works.  She isn’t wrong, and she would certainly know a thing or two about detailing the deterioration of a once-loving marriage, but…

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