Alex Garland is fighting a new battle. In the past, Garland has tackled such topics as the dangers of A.I. (Ex Machina) and toxic masculinity (Men). But now, in his latest film, Civil War, the director has set his sights on the brutality of a divided America. Set in...
John Krasinski is Jack Ryan. Not literally, of course. (Although I guess I don’t know what he does in his spare time.) But, when the man best known as ‘Jim’ from The Office was cast as the iconic character, I don’t know if anyone truly believed...
Can a song save your life? The Greatest Hits hopes so. In The Greatest Hits, Harriet (Lucy Boynton) is still devastated after the tragic death of her boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet). But when she realizes that her favourite songs transport her back in...
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. But which America? That’s the key question in Alex Garland’s Civil War, a film that may be set in the near future but feels all too real in the present. Set in the near future, Civil...
In many ways, it feels unfair (and even, sexist) to compare Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Girls State to their previous effort, Boys State. (After all, the pairing of these documentaries hardly creates a ‘franchise’.) Quite frankly, the two films are...
Directed by Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker, Carol Doda: Topless at the Condor transports the viewer back to San Francisco in the 1960s. Here, we meet Carol Doda, the first dancer to go topless in the booming nightclub scene. In doing so, Doda became an...
‘It’s not our pub anymore, innit?’ No, it’s something far better. Directed by Ken Loach, The Old Oak is a pub that’s hanging on by a thread. Barely holding together, the place is still seen as a community hub and its humble owner, TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) does his...
There’s joy in pulp romances. Having grown up watching soap operas, I have a genuine fondness for the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous, especially as their scandals are uncovered and secrets are revealed. It’s through this lens that I can...
Reviving the classic franchise, The First Omen takes the viewer back to the beginning and introduces us to Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free), a young American woman sent to Rome where she intends on dedicating her life to the church. However, as she begins...