The Fortune Hotel

Stephen Mangan in The Fortune Hotel (2024)

Stephen Mangan hosts the ITV format show, offering a uniquely devilish twist on the simple premise of ‘follow the money’. Over two weeks, contestants become hotel residents, except when they get into their rooms, a briefcase is waiting for them, and for one lucky pair, their case could contain £250,000. However, for another pair, the…… Continue reading The Fortune Hotel

Doctor Who: Space Babies

Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as The Doctor and Ruby Sunday in Doctor Who: Space Babies (2024)

Doctor Who is back on screens, beginning its first season with a double bill, Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord. Space Babies has the Doctor and companion Ruby travelling the cosmos before discovering a baby farm trapped in orbit, haunted by the Bogeyman. The first episode of a new series is a tough sell. Returning…… Continue reading Doctor Who: Space Babies

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord (2024)

Doctor Who is back on screens, beginning its first season with a double bill, Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord. The Devil’s Chord hits all the right notes with the introduction of villainous Maestro, even if the series is yet to find its groove. Leading straight on from Space Babies, the two episodes released simultaneously for…… Continue reading Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

Civil War

Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as Lee and Jessie in Civil War (2024)

Civil War may present itself as a dystopian timeline, bringing with it the desolation of the United States. But while this may be a concept worth discussing, Alex Garland offers more to dissect and explore than the inevitable political discourse for the presidential election. Imagining a world where the United States disbands, each state fighting…… Continue reading Civil War

Back to Black

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black (2024)

Amy Winehouse’s life is fictionalised in Back to Black directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, exhuming all the traumas and distasteful stories, when the musician should just be allowed to rest in peace. Everything about Back to Black oozes discomfort, a fictionalised biopic about Amy Winehouse directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, whose last directed biopic, Nowhere Boy (2009),…… Continue reading Back to Black

Seize Them!

Aimee Lou Wood as Queen Dagan in Seize Them! (2024)

Seize Them! seeks a quest for comedy with its cast of Aimee Lou Wood and Nicola Coughlan, but no jester would keep their head after pedalling this amount of detritus for an hour and a half. Seize Them!, directed by Curtis Vowell, was screened early as part of a new national initiative funded by the…… Continue reading Seize Them!

Late Night with the Devil

David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy in Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Waning late night talk-show host Jack Delroy made television history in 1977 when his Halloween special of Night Owls went fatally wrong. Four decades on, Late Night with the Devil is an expose of the footage from that night. Jack Delroy, introduced in a true crime mockumentary style, is the talk show host for late…… Continue reading Late Night with the Devil

Baltimore

Imogen Poots as Rose Dugdale in Baltimore (2023)

Imogen Poots encapsulates the rage of the late Rose Dugdale in a slow-burn drama by Joe Lawlor and Christine Malloy. Heiress Rose Dugdale died aged 82 on 18 March 2024 and is best known for her contributions to the efforts of the IRA in acting towards an Irish republic. By orchestrating an art heist worth…… Continue reading Baltimore

The Persian Version

There’s a heartfelt story by Iranian-American Maryam Keshavarz in The Persian Version buried deep within its Gen-Z fourth-wall-breaking narration. Yet, there’s a lot to wade through to get to its heartfelt acknowledgement of mothering and sacrifice. In Keshavarz’s semi-autobiographical film, The Persian Version, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a lesbian filmmaker in her 20s, the youngest…… Continue reading The Persian Version

Motherboard

Victoria Mapplebeck and Jim at the beach in Motherboard (2024)

Motherboard is a video diary from BAFTA-winner Victoria Mapplebeck spanning twenty years following the upbringing of her son Jim. Motherboard was screened as part of the 2024 Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) programme. A video diary from BAFTA-winner Victoria Mapplebeck, functioning as both a self-portrait and a time capsule of her son’s childhood, this…… Continue reading Motherboard