This blog is on short hiatus while I move house - expect to return with more reviews later this Summer (2026)!
Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Monday, 15 June 2026
VOD: Is This Thing On? (dir: Bradley Cooper, 2025)
"Is it funny?"
Middle-class middle-aged couple Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess (Laura Dern) face the end of their marriage just as Alex accidentally stumbles into an unexpected life as a confessional stand-up comedian at a city bar comedy club. Shot in a naturalistic semi-documentary style, dialogue flows easily and both the city and the marital home become places of curious alienation, and the comedy club scenes are quick-witted and feel low-key authentic. Arnett and Dern smash their roles and have great on-screen chemistry and honesty as the faded couple . With moments of uncomfortable awkwardness, brutal honesty, profound melancholy and introspective loneliness, Is This Thing On? is a mature, thoughtful, intimate, rather sad but very satisfying exploration of navigating and negotiating uncharted territory in a long-standing relationship, delivered with aplomb by two great leads and a confident director.
FILM: Disclosure Day (dir: Steven Spielberg, 2026)
"No."
"Are they people?"
"No."
"Are they human?"
If you want evidence that Steven Spielberg is still a storyteller supreme, Disclosure Day kept a cinema audience still and spellbound for over two hours. From an excellently-constructed and tight David Koepp script, in some respects this is Close Encounters filtered through the lens of an old-school conspiracy thriller, as parallel narratives steadily bring together the lives of Margaret (Emily Blunt), a local weather presenter, and Daniel (Josh O'Connor), a renegade Government cyber-security specialist, both with particular 'gifts' that stem from mysterious childhood events and who are destined to change the world by revealing long-hidden secrets. It has great set pieces, some typically smart Spielberg visual flourishes, and a superb and surprisingly tight core cast that includes an impressively excellent performance from Emily Blunt (particularly in the final act), more winning character work from Josh O'Connor, and Colin Firth exuding barely-restrained menace as the pair's nemesis. Typical Spielberg themes of religion, fairy tales/Disney, all inform this (for the most part\) restrained yet powerful film. childhood trauma, covert Government goings-on and - yes - extra-terrestrials in this (for the most part) quite restrained yet powerful film. With heightened modern geopolitics pushed to the background, Spielberg's eternal optimism for humanity may play a little quaintly in the current climate, but this fusion of classic and modern Spielberg is both impressive in its storytelling and absorbing to watch.
VOD: Twinless (dir: James Sweeney, 2026)
In this unusual and extremely accomplished drama, Roman (Dylan O'Brien) and Dennis (James Sweeney) meet at a support club for bereaved twins and strike up an awkward friendship, two very different people but seemingly linked by their experience of grief and struggling in their own ways, but they are also connected by a slowly-revealed secret that looms over the second half of the film in particular and ultimately explodes. It is creatively constructed and presented, exquisitely written and beautifully played by the two leads as it explores loss, loneliness, identity and male friendship by going in truly unexpected directions. This is a film to be savoured and enjoyed as it unfolds; even the trailer misdirects intriguingly. Twinless is a quirky, admirable, intimate and singular drama that breaks your heart and makes you laugh out loud unexpectedly, and it is a terrific achievement by actor?producer O'Brien and writer/director/actor Sweeney.
VOD: Primate (dir: Johannes Roberts, 2026)
A professor adopts a chimpanzee, names him Ben and develops his intelligence and communication skills, and after her death her daughter Lucy returns to the family's fabulous isolated Hawaiian home with her group of pretty young people, but an unfortunate case of rabies turns Ben from cute animal friend to murderous enemy who traps, terrorises and picks off most of the disposable cast. After the well-constructed shock prologue, the tale flashes back to tell the events of the preceding thirty-six hours with rather slow set-up, but the film then switches up a few gears to become a zippy and atmospheric thriller/slasher, in which the young women take centre stage and the males are the Shreddies. The film makes clever use of limited sets/locations, with Carpenter's original Halloween a clear touchstone here. Inclusion through sign language and the deaf father is a positive integral part of the plot, it certainly does not skimp on the quite nasty injury detail, and this simple, low-key tale is delivered very efficiently and effectively enough for genre fans.
VOD: The Long Walk (dir: Francis Lawrence, 2026)
Another day, another Stephen King adaptation, and The Long Walk sees fifty young men (supposedly older teens), one from each US state, competing in the titular brutal contest in an impoverished dystopian near/alt-future, with the simple premise that the competitors keep walking, having to keep up with the pace or be shot mercilessly, last one standing winning a fortune. Originally reflecting young soldiers being sent to the Vietnam War, it is reframed unforgivingly here to reflect the current social, economic and political climate. Starting off seemingly light with the competitors getting to know each other through easy banter on the first few miles (reminiscent of Stand By Me), but it does not take long before the first brutally visceral shock execution of the first participant to fall occurs. As an effective metaphor for how economic stresses can drive people to extreme measures and a commentary on reality TV (like a stripped-back Hunger Games), the film's lean and simple concept and unwavering focus keeps it morbidly engaging throughout, especially as the weather, exhaustion, injuries and even bodily functions take their toll on the ever-diminishing group. With a strong and invested cast, Brit David Jonsson is a clear standout from the start. As the film progresses and even the core cast members start to be picked off, this excellent but grim and distressing watch leads to an inevitable final head-to-head and a conclusion that the viewer knows is coming and does not want to see.
VOD: The Strangers Chapter 3 (dir: Renny Harlin, 2026)
Picking up from Chapter 2's ending, with the unfortunate Maya having still eluded the now-revealed killers, the inevitable happens and she is taken captive, her only option to stay alive being to become one of the murderous gang whilst the town's hidden past starts to unravel. There is a difference between atmospheric and slow, and here the film crawls along with astonishing pauses in the delivery of dialogue in the first act in particular, demonstrating the thinness of the material once again. There are some positives - some atmospheric lighting, a decently-staged jump-scare early on, brief and sudden acts of violence to keep the viewer awake and a fair sequence with a caravan - but little of consequence happens in this empty and largely uninteresting trilogy-capper to a weak series.
Friday, 22 May 2026
FILM: The Mandalorian And Grogu a.k.a. Star Wars - The Mandalorian And Grogu (dir: Jon Favreau, 2026)
"I try to avoid violence..."
Seven years on from Star Wars IX in cinemas, and with Andor wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion, the second of the more successful Star Wars-universe TV series makes the jump to the big screen with this completely stand-alone/side-mission tale that sees Din Djarin and his sidekick/ward working for the New Republic to find an Imperial warlord via Jabba The Hutt's twin siblings. with Jabba's son held prisoner by the bad guys and Mando also tasked with retrieving him. With Favreau as director/co-writer, it cleaves closely and authentically to its TV roots and looks great, with sufficient expansion to justify its cinematic format here. It flits briskly from planet to planet as action set-pieces are delivered efficiently, (mostly) effectively and feel over quite quickly. There are plenty of nice fan-service details and moments to please the die-hards right from the start, but sometimes over-familiar tropes (another Hutt pit, another arena battle royale, another high-speed chase through a Blade Runner-esque city) lack invention although executed well. Ludwig Goransson's score is terrific, mixing classical-style Williams nods with signature modern/ethnic themes and stylings from the TV show. Its two titular stars are inevitably the big draw here, with Pedro Pascal delivering more of what makes his characterisation so successful, Grogu - as always - an utter delight, notably when he gets more extended screen time in the second half of the film, and Sigourney Weaver fits well as Mando's Republic boss. It is also interesting to see a younger and more active Hutt in action, with the great Jeremy Allen White making Rotta (in voice acting) a sympathetic Hutt. Not quite 'classic' Star Wars, all of the ingredients are here, but oddly you spend a lot of the movie waiting for a big 'moment' that never quite happens which suggests a slight lack of storytelling ambition, and there is never any real sense of jeopardy which neuters the narrative to a degree. Overall The Mandalrian And Grogu is a very good, solid and entertaining enough outing for the much-loved duo that sticks to its TV origins whilst making just enough development for a cinema showing.
VOD: Remarkably Bright Creatures (dir: Olivia Newman, 2026)
Starting off with a voiceover from a smart old octopus called Marcellus, who is trapped in a public aquarium, the film then introduces the aquarium's night cleaner Tova (Sally Field) facing an old-age life change and drifter Cameron (Lewis Pullman), whose camper van breaks down in the sleepy waterside town of Sowell Bay, and the story brings together the unlikely trio as they learn life lessons and how to face the future in this gentle, whimsical and contemplative drama. It is, of course, all one big metaphor for looking beyond that which limits you and escaping your confines, as well as dealing with family and reconciling with the past. The writing is excellent, as Tora and Cameron gradually find common ground and learn from each other as their cross-generational friendship develops. Sally Field is - as expected - simply wonderful, Lewis Pullman is very strong as a foil to her straight-talking ways whilst establishing his character and arc very well in his own right as the directionless Cameron, and Colm Meaney does another of his effortlessly watchable character performances as the local store owner. The conclusion is perhaps expectedly mawkish (if have not by that point pieced together all the clues), but overall Remarkably Bright Creatures is a simple tale that is delivered impeccably.
VOD: Song Sung Blue (dir: Craig Brewer, 2026)
Based on real events and set in the extraordinary world of low-rent music tribute acts, Mike (Hugh Jackman), part-time singer and recovering alcoholic, meets single-mother Claire (Kate Hudson), and they develop a Neil Diamond 'experience' alongside their personal relationship, with a shock mid-point tragedy that moves the film into darker territory and explores their personal struggles and triumphs. The film smartly reflects the strange duality of the tribute act, simultaneously knowingly artificial but striving to providing an authentic experience of the artist. With Neil Diamond's music providing the core of the film, one banger after another reminds us of the power and joy of his back catalogue which is deployed beautifully here. Both Hudson and Jackman are utterly charming, heartbreaking and likeable here in a film which certainly gives them range to convey, using their easy-going chemistry to good effect and both leaning into their now-more-mature star personae for their characters that works very well. Song Sung Blue is a sweet musical romantic drama that blends its darker moments and heartwarming comedy in a way that is ultimately entertaining and uplifting
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