With its indie soundtrack and a charming coming-of-age tale about a socially awkward teen finding solace through music, Bonus Track feels like plucked from a checklist of my tastes. A shame then, that it failed to deliver on an emotionally engaging film separate to its pitch perfect comedy. Unfortunately, whilst it achieved a baseline of…… Continue reading Bonus Track
Category: Movie Reviews
Saltburn
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn delivers as a follow-up to her socially relevant Promising Young Woman with a wickedly character-lead performance by Barry Keoghan. Keoghan, following his awards season success in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, maintains his reputation as a triumphant actor to mould his delivery and his identity to fit its setting, even though…… Continue reading Saltburn
The Creator
Gareth Edwards’ science fiction epic, The Creator, is a visual behemoth that deserves seeing, with its relevant and timely discussion on the role and developments of artificial intelligence becoming all too poignant as Hollywood strikes continue. Whilst not always perfect in its storytelling, Gareth Edwards’ latest directorial and writing project is an evident celebration of the…… Continue reading The Creator
Rally Road Racers
Rally Road Racers could be better in all purposes, with neither animation nor story doing quite enough to justify itself as worth watching. Riffing off both Kung Fu Panda and Hanna-Barbera’s Wacky Races, Rally Road Racers directed by Ross Venokur, aims to recreate the family appeal with Zhi (Jimmy O. Yang), a slow loris, racing…… Continue reading Rally Road Racers
Scrapper
Writer-director Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper is a surreal, quirky, independent melodrama exploring the relationship between family and grief. 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) lives alone, raising herself and managing grief with the bold sensibility typically associated with adults, after being catapulted into adulthood when her mother died from an unnamed illness. Except with the arrival of her…… Continue reading Scrapper
Haunted Mansion
Adapted from the theme park ride of the same name and acting as a remake of its 2003 predecessor, Haunted Mansion is the most faithful version to the dark ride attraction, even if it sacrifices the art of telling an enjoyable story to do so. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, the 2023 Haunted Mansion swaps Eddie Murphy’s…… Continue reading Haunted Mansion
Oppenheimer
A visually stunning epic about the splitting of the atom. An utter shame, then, that its moral judgement is lost in favour of a toxic white male narrative. “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”, so ripples J. Robert Oppenheimer across time. His words immortalised as both warning and an apology for his…… Continue reading Oppenheimer
Barbie
Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls. But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until there was Barbie. Ever since Barbies were invented, they have served as a way to allow children to express their imagination through the toy. Initially conceived for children to…… Continue reading Barbie
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Some guy called Isaac once said that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s Law persists throughout Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s marvellously mad but incomplete sequel to 2018’s Into The Spider-Verse directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Drawing inspiration from famous…… Continue reading Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Greatest Days
Greatest Days shines bright, perfectly capturing the power of music, friendship, and how we are never beyond the mysticism of childhood. A musical adaption of Take That’s greatest hits is undoubtedly a hard sell for audiences who don’t have a close affiliation with the 90s boyband. Thankfully, Greatest Days directed by Coky Giedroyc radiates its joy,…… Continue reading Greatest Days