VOD: Spoiler Alert (dir: Michael Showalter, 2022)

"What are you? Drunkard or junkie?"
"I'm a photographer."
"Both, then!"

This quiet comedy-drama follows the relationship between photographer Kit and TV journalist Michael over thirteen years from its first steps to its tragic ending.  The first half is firmly in warm and fuzzy rom-com territory but with snappy and sparky dialogue and some charmingly funny moments - with the bonus of Sally Field and Bill Irwin, both magnificent as Kits' parents - until it takes a much sadder and ultimately heartbreaking turn in the second half.  Based on a real-life experience, the film is very well-written, with even Michael's seemingly-superfluous sit-com-styled flashbacks ultimately carrying real weight.  Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge are terrific in their roles, nailing both the comedy and dramatic elements with aplomb and creating effectively a couple to root for.  Playing like a more charming, witty and likeable version of the same year's Bros but with the trajectory of Hiller's classic Love Story, Spoiler Alert succeeds very well as both a sweet comedy and as a romantic weepie and is very enjoyable, made all the more poignant by a brief clip of the real-life Kit during the credits.

 

VOD: The Brutalist (dir: Brady Corbet, 2024)

"What was it like, the war? We hear some stories here that make one's toes curl."
"I would not know where to begin, Mrs Hoffmann."

Getting away from post-War Europe and forcibly separated from his wife in 1947, Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (a composite of real-life characters) travels to make a new life in America, and the film follows his journey from struggling immigrant to the subsequent rise, fall and reappraisal in both his architectural and personal worlds.  Part American social history lesson and part classic underdog tale, for the most part director Corbet's passion project balances its ambitious scope with the deeply personal tale deftly.  Adrien Brody excels in the lead role which is tailor-made for his particular brand of sensitive, haunted character work, with Guy Pearce also a standout in a strong cast as wealthy patron Harrison Lee Van Buren who recognises and nurtures Toth's talent in what becomes an increasingly fractious relationship.  Daniel Blumberg's stark score reflects not only Toth's design but also his inner demons to great effect.  It is a heavy and difficult film that is not entirely successful in its third act, but it impresses with its scale, ambition and storytelling.

 

VOD: Nosferatu (dir: Robert Eggers, 2024)

"Dream of me.  Only me."

Eggers sets his long-gestating variation on the Nosferatu property in 1838, when a newly-married Thomas Hutter is sent to Carpathia in order to secure a property deal with the aged and reclusive Count Orlock that puts both bride and groom on a terrible path of fate.  The ever-reliable Nicholas Hoult performs well as the eager Hutter, with an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgard giving the sparingly-used Count an effectively other-worldly feel and strong work from Simon McBurney, Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp.  Blending the occult and the sexual undercurrents works well here, giving this curious love story a strange romanticism.  The film's slightly colour-drained look gives it an old, classic feel, with the mostly wintry chilly blue-tinted settings almost nodding to black-and-white at times.  Its period world-building is very impressive, allied to a consistently unsettling score/soundscape and gorgeous use of wide landscapes that contrast well with claustrophobic intimate shots.  Offering the director's signature style, with interesting use of camera and artfully-constructed hallucinatory moments, this is in some ways Eggers's most mainstream so far with a bleak, dread-filled iteration of a familiar tale.
 

VOD: Kraven The Hunter (dir: J.C. Chandor, 2024)

"I don't hate people.  I hate what people do."

After an opening breakout from a remote Russian prison demonstrates our protagonist's considerable physical strength and skills, the film flashes back to the teenage Kravinoff half-brothers and a painfully-laboured origin story that sees young Sergei given his powers (which include an affinity with animals) when healed by an ancient potion following a hunting accident.  Sandwiched between half-decent action sequences are stodgy dialogue scenes and Kraven's crusade to take out vaguely-sketched criminal antagonists.  It is perhaps more male-centric, bloody and more 'adult' than most recent Sony/MCU films, with a firm focus on the male family dynamic, including Russell Crowe doing Russell Crowe as the uncompromising gang-boss father, and Kraven's more sensitive 'weak' half-brother Dmitri, who gets kidnapped and requires rescuing (a far-from-subtle act of gender-stereotyping subtext).  Aaron Taylor-Johnson always delivers and here he is a great fit for the title character, giving an impressive and powerful performance that is way beyond anything else that this film has to offer.
 

VOD: Heretic (dirs: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 2024)

"Are we talking about religion...or board games...or music?"

A24's popular creepfest sees a pair of optimistic young Mormon missionaries paying a visit to a man who has expressed an interest in their faith, but as the discussion and situation becomes increasingly uneasy and a snowstorm settles in, the young women find themselves trapped  with this plausible zealot with a very different perspective on religion and a specific reason for keeping his captives.  Mostly a claustrophobic three-handed bottle show, Hugh Grant paces his sinister performance extremely effectively, with Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East both conveying the Sisters' situation very well.  It has an eerie sound design and oppressive visual mise-en-scene, both of which contribute greatly to the film.  It is rather talky, but the collision of thriller tropes and the discussion of religion/faith/philosophy makes for an unsettling and interesting movie, even if it does run out of steam in the second half.
 

VOD: Small Things Like These (dir: Tim Mielants, 2024)

"Do you want to get on in this life?"

Reflecting true-life events and set in a very bleak 1980s December, an Irish coal-delivery merchant, Bill, questions the dark secrets of the local convent in this quiet and sombre drama that has simmering rage at injustice at its heart.  The film's gloomy mise-en-scene, melancholy soundscape and depiction of a repetitive and limited existence reflects Bill's family/internal lives very effectively, and sound design that foregrounds tiny details within near-silence is very well-handled.  Cillian Murphy is the film's firm focus as he delivers another of his excellent wonderfully-considered soulful character performances as the gentle, hard-working and stoic family man, struggling to cope with the weight of his own childhood (told through well-placed flashbacks) and fearful of the world into which his young girls are growing up.  The film's deliberate pace and grim feel at times makes it feel rather restrained, but it is subtly powerful, superbly made and the protagonist's growing turmoil is portrayed beautifully.
 

VOD: Fear Street - Prom Queen (dir: Matt Palmer, 2025)

"This is where it all went down: Shadyside, where the future crawls to die."

This follow-up to Netflix's successful Fear Street trilogy takes us back to Shadyside in 1988 and specifically the two days leading up to a particularly fateful Prom Night.  With a predictable jukebox hit playlist (Billy Idol, Bananarama, Roxette, Rick Astley, etc) and six heavily-stereotyped potential Prom Queens/victims, the story focuses on the stoic downtrodden underdog Lori, whose parents' past ties in to the wider mythology of Shadyside and Prom Night. In spite of being fairly and squarely aimed at young teenage girls in every respect, with the males mostly disposable and barely registering, from the horror genre point of view its (unusually for this franchise) straightforward kills and squelchy moments are executed with absolute relish.  It has a very strong synth-driven 80s-style score, and it trots along at a fair lick for its ninety-minutes runtime.  The film does not have an original bone in its body, and it is certainly not as much fun or effective as the first two Fear Street movies (1994 and 1978), but it works reasonably well as an homage to late-80s horror movies.  If the prospect of an unlikely awkward dance-off set to Laura Branigan's Gloria is your idea of fun or not, then that may well be your testing point for this movie.

 

VOD: Transformers One (dir: Josh Cooley, 2024)

"Don't you want to choose your own path - do whatever you want?"

This shiny hyperactive animated origin story of young Orion Pax (the future Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron) shows how the giant robotic creatures evolved from being best friends to sworn enemies, starting off as working miner-bots (who cannot transform) who enter the spectacular Iacon 5000 cross-city race, go on a quest to find the legendary Matrix Of Leadership, uncover a huge secret about the war with the Quintessons, gain their transformer powers and go after the duplicitous Sentinel Prime - all in one movie!  The film uses a visually appealing fusion of anime and photorealistic styles, which employs extraordinary depth and level of detail.  It boasts a quality starry lead voice cast (including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johansson), who deliver the snappy dialogue with ease), and other familar Transformers characters pop up along their journey.  The editing - at times almost flashcutting - and coverage give the film an engaging and exhausting momentum that is nevertheless hugely impressive for an animated film of this scale, supported by the breadth of storytelling that it offers within its runtime.  The eventual scene that marks the turning point in the duo's relationship and its aftermath are surprisingly shocking, and if nothing else this lively action-adventure serves as a very good primer for the Bay-verse live-action movies. 
 

VOD: The Library Boys (dir: Zane Borg, 2022)

"Nah, man - you did NOT keep THAT!"
"For a souvenir!"

Imagine American Pie done in the style of Ayoade's Submarine with the sweet heart of The Inbetweeners and you are pretty much there with this enjoyably fun little Australian indie coming-of-age comedy.  Consisting mainly of banter-filled chats between our three 'teenage' protagonists in their last year of school, mostly about sex, with silly pranks and interactions with caricatured teachers (including a Mr. Gilbert-style Head of 6th Form) and a very eventful party, its low-key approach captures what seems like seismic events in their lives at that time.  All three leads are easy-going and likeable and breathe life into their characters very well, with Jack Kenny perhaps the standout as the not-quite-so-bright Zane, nailing both the comedy and the more plaintive moments to very precise effect.  With some laugh-out-loud gags and very poignant moments (especially towards the end), together with the different and grounded relationships explored with their respective girlfriends, the genuine camaraderie of the trio makes The Library Boys a slight but very entertaining movie.
 

VOD: Lick (dir: Louise Alston, 2025)

"Rule number two: we do these conversations with our shirts off."

Saddled with an awful title, this silly book adaptation charts the unlikely romance of a young Portland student/barista who celebrates her birthday with her best friend and wakes up the next morning to discover that she has got married to a pretty-boy rock star.  Travis Burns acts via having his shirt off a lot of the time, Brooke Lee struggles to convince as a 21-year-old architect student, with the only real sign of life coming from Joseph McNabb as the band's likeable sparky drummer.  Not a lot of consequence happens as they try to discover if there is an actual relationship to be had, and - as is often the case with this type of nonsensical romantic drama - not one jot of it rings true for this deeply dull couple.