VOD: The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (dir: Michelle Garza Cervera, 2025)

"You think if you try hard enough, you can stop bad things from happening, but you can't.  Nobody can."

This dreary 2025 're-imagining' of a crowd-favourite 90s schlocker seems to be aiming for a more glossy and sophisticated take on the material and falls short of the mark, as it re-tells the story of a young woman (Polly, played by Maika Monroe) who inveigles her way into the home of under-pressure career woman Caitlin (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as an indispensable home-help/babysitter and manipulates them to her own destructive ends.  Here, the film wastes no time in laying out Polly's deep-rooted problems and malicious intentions from the outset with a complete lack of subtlety.  It feels very one-note, not helped by a constantly whining soundtrack/soundscape that irritates quickly.  Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are both very strong actresses, but here their range feels mostly (and disappointingly) blunted.  A couple of quite gory deaths seem jarring fail to lift the generally dour approach taken this time.
 

VOD: A House Of Dynamite (dir: Kathryn Bigelow, 2025)

"Give me a shoutout if the world's gonna end!"

The high-concept premise of Kathryn Bigelow's excellent directorial return with Netflix's A House Of Dynamite finds America targeted by an ICBM of unknown origin and follows the responses of the different levels of command, replaying the same tense time frame via differing perspectives from the Alaskan tracking station that first picks up the incoming threat right up to The White House in more-or-less real time.  The high-powered and very capable ensemble cast is a treat to watch in action, notably the magnificent Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba (as POTUS) and Jared Harris, and the range of character reactions to the rapidly-developing scenario (ranging from the efficient to emotional to hard-bitten) makes for absorbing viewing and enables the viewer to find their own point of identification.  Bigelow's signature style of naturalistic dialogue delivery and kinetic camerawork are major strengths of the movie, giving it an immediacy and alarming credibility that that is very engaging indeed, with a relentless sense of at-times unbearable tension that is amplified by the seeming real-world plausibility that plays well against the current backdrop of global security uncertainty.   

The notorious ending of the movie may be divisive but it is deliberately challenging and thought-provoking, and in many ways this film fits comfortably amongst other flashy Netflix contemporary political thrillers, but A House Of Dynamite has great writing, a powerhouse cast that delivers, and it is superbly executed with real impact.

 

VOD: The Ballad Of Wallis Island (dir: James Griffiths, 2025)

"You don't love me.  You love the past."

A reclusive and socially-awkward lotter winner hires his favourite folk-music duo to perform on his remote island, but reuniting the former couple reveals insecurities and old wounds re-open in this delightfully sharp, very warm-hearted, joyous and genuinely funny movie.  Its gentle whimsy plays beautifully alongside its heartfelt humanity, with a consistently snappy, well-written and entertaining script, which mines the fine detail of the characters and their relationship(s) extremely well.  Carey Mulligan is fragile and charming, and Tim Key delights as the well-meaning and frequently inappropriate host who is the perfect foil for the talented Tom Basden as the bewildered and committed musician dropped into this bizarre situation, their odd-couple relationship being great fun to watch, as is the difficult and sometimes abrasive relationship between the former singing partners.   The acoustic performances by Basden and Mulligan are rather lovely and authentic, and as a testament to love, creativity and savouring the good times, The Ballad Of Wallis Island is simply an utter joy to watch.
 

VOD: Sinners (dir: Ryan Coogler, 2025)

"You keep dancing with The Devil, one day he's gonna follow you home."

Ryan Coogler reunites with Michael B. Jordan in this period piece set in the fiercely-religious Bible Belt, where griots - African musicians who can bridge the human and spirit worlds - can conjure up spirits past and present and attract both good and evil in this stylish and interesting mystery-thriller that was unexpectedly big at the box-office.  Taking in a heady mix of culture, race, magic, religion, sex and good vs evil, it is a powerful concoction of ideas that challenges and plays with the audience.  It is shot beautifully and luxuriates in its period recreations (notably settings and music), but the shooting style and occasional clever fusion of old/new times infuse the film with a fresh, modern feel.  The formidably talented Michael B. Jordan naturally excels in the dual lead roles of twins Smoke and Stack, who battle against the odds and open an ill-fated blues club, with a very strong supporting cast of richly-drwan characters and strong performers, including a very neat character performance by a near-unrecognisable Jack O'Connell.  Sinners is an impressive  and very entertaining film to experience, even if it plays somwhat like an elevated-horror version of From Dusk Till Dawn.  Note the mid-credits and end-of-credits scenes.

 

VOD: V/H/S/Halloween (dirs: Bryan M. Ferguson, Casper Kelly, R.H.Norman, Alex Ross Perry, Micheline Pitt, Paco Plaza and Anna Zlokovic, 2025)

"Happy Halloween, kids!"

The V/H/S/ franchise, under the aegis of streamer Shudder, gets cranked up once again for another motley anthology of lo-fi tales, this time finally getting round to a collection based around the theme of Halloween.  Cue trick-or-treating going horribly wrong, deadly new soft-drink trials, a police procedural investigation of a murderous Halloween party seance, a very unusual bowl of  candy, a town suffering a spate of child murders and a neighbourhood House Of Horrors that turns all too real.  As is often the case with these packages, the short films vary from the silly/cheesy to the rather unpleasant, the relentless use of shaky-cam and The Blair Witch Project tropes are patience-testing and there is a lot of running around dark corridors screaming, but this is one of the more coherent, consistent and reasonably watchable collections in the V/H/S/ series.
 

VOD: Screamboat (dir: Steven LaMorte, 2025)

"Everything gets recycled, over and over again...to save money!"

New York's Staten Island Ferry provides the backdrop for this limp comedy-horror - part of the trend of scarifying newly-out-of-copyright children's  characters in cheap-as-chips horrors - in which a 'large killer mouse' takes the place of the standard masked killer and picks off crew and random night-travellers, including a group of obnoxious princesses celebrating a birthday night out amongst other broadly-drawn stereotypes.  Apart from some nice shots of the city at night, the film follows well-worn 1980s slasher conventions quite slavishly in a lethargic manner, right down to its simple gloopy physical effects and synth-orchestral soundtrack.  Indeed, the kills are basic, relying on copious blood-spatter for effect, although one bravura scene dispenses with most of the supporting cast in one fell swoop, and the attempts at comedy mostly fail to land.  Even with David Howard Thornton - Art The Clown himself - playing Screamboat Willie, the character/physical work is much less effective here than in his signature Terrifier role.  Whilst Screamboat is nowhere near as weak as Winnie-The-Pooh - Blood And Honey, it is still rather weak overall.
 

FILM: Tron Ares (dir: Joachim Roenning, 2025)

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"Maybe there is something wrong with me..."

"...or maybe there is something eight with you."

Some critics have decided to give this third cinematic entry in the Tron franchise a good kicking, but how you respond to the film will basically be determined by whether or not you are fan of the series and of sci-fi in general, as for fans there is much to enjoy.  Dispensing with the first two films with an opening breakneck-speed montage that also introduces two battling tech giants, Encom (working for humanitarian good) and Dillinger (militarising The Grid's supersoldiers, led by new Master Control security program Ares), with both seeking Flynn's Permanence Code that will enable anything brought from computer world into real world to last beyond twenty-nine minutes.  The film does have three basic issues: the script/dialogue is clunky; Jared Leto (as Ares) has little presence, with Greta Lee (as Head of Encom) faring little better; and the whole film feels emotionally flat and unengaging.  However, Evan Peters (as the determinedly ruthless Head of Dillinger) and Gillian Anderson (as his icy matriarch) are great, the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is absolutely glorious, there is lots and lots of world-of-Tron-styled digital eye-candy (with even a cheeky recreation of a famous Akira motorbike shot), and there are many pleasing fan-service moments and big lively set pieces (notably the whole of the third act).  The film is a fairly relentless assault on the senses, which non-fans will dismiss as noisy sci-fi nonsense, but Tron fans will have a very entertaining couple of hours,  (Note the brief scene that appears shortly into the end credits; let us hope that it does not take another fifteen years for the next sequel to appear).

 

VOD: Elio (dirs: Madelaine Sharafian and Domee Shi, 2025)

"It's happening!  It's really happening!"

Pixar brings this heartwarming and perhaps familiar tale of orphaned Elio, a small boy who dreams big about space travel  and unexpectedly has his wish come true when a quirky collection of aliens intercept the Voyager probe and - believing Elio is Earth's leader - take Elio on a grand adventure to the Communiverse (a child's-entry metaphor for the United Nations) - as his perky clone take his place back on Earth.  The film is an appealing mix of wry knockabout humour, melancholy, joy and wonder that encapsulates the titular young character wonderfully.  Inevitably this junior coming-of-age tale takes in a thematic tour of grief and acceptance, friendship and realisation of self-worth, as it breezes along and Elio takes on a 'big bad' (with a rather sudden ending), and whilst Elio may be fairly standard Pixar/junior animated-sci-fi fodder,  it is also busy, colourful and fun to watch.
 

VOD: Steve (dir: Tim Mielants, 2025)

"Full speed into the abyss..."

Set in 1996 - and all the more devastating for being still very relevant today - and following a "clusterf**k" twenty-fours, Steve (Cillian Murphy) is the beleaguered headteacher of crumbling Stanton Wood Manor, a last-chance residential intervention centre for a handful of troubled teenage boys, including the emotionally-intelligent but lost seventeen-year-old Shy (Jay Lycurgo).  Flitting between a largely kinetic fly-on-the-wall documentary style and an actual TV news crew filming an end-piece with interviews and a more detached viewpoint, the film pulls no punches in presenting its confrontational emotional raw honesty and the ever-present simmering and explosive tension.   It is bleak and crushingly sad but not without its moments of genuine humour, and the well-placed use of a Chekhov's Gun leads to a heartbreaking moment of realisation on the part of the viewer of an event that is about to happen at one point.  Cillian Murphy gives yet another of his incredibly immersive and impactful performances as the leader trying to carry everyone's demons as well as his own, ably backed up by Jay Lycurgo's control and range as Shy and Tracey Ullman 's poised counterpoint as Steve's deputy.  Steve is not an easy watch, but it is very rewarding and impressive indeed.
 

VOD: The Penguin Lessons (dir: Peter Cattaneo, 2025)

"Life changes you."

Inspired by a true story, this gentle and charming comedy-drama sees Steve Coogan play a disaffected English teacher arriving to tach at a private school in 1976 Argentina who, on a break to Uruguay, adopts - or is adopted by - a penguin which he rescues from an oil slick. The early lighter part of the film that follows Coogan reluctantly and hesitantly bonding with his new charge gives way to the real historical background of the military coup that provides the film with an increasingly sombre edge, but the film balances both strands very nicely in the second half as the penguin changes not only the teacher's life but those around him as well.  Steve Coogan's understated and sardonic is utterly delightful and at the centre of the film's success.  On paper it is the bizarre love-child of Dead Poets Society and Mr Popper's Penguins, but in actuality the script is warm and wry, the location work is attractive and both the chucklesome situations and the heartfelt dramatic thread work very well.  Also, it goes without saying: the penguin is the cutest creature imaginable!