FILM: Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy (dir: Michael Morris, 2025)

"You're still in pretty good nick."

Getting on for a decade after the last film, the fourth film of the Bridget Jones series is perhaps unexpectedly very good indeed, doing so by not being a typical rom-com but a rather poignant study of grief, acceptance, relationships and parenthood, following the slight shift away from its ditsy comedy roots that was emerging in the previous entry.  With the extended prologue capably revealing what has happened in Bridget's life in the intervening years, the passage of time finds the main characters mostly approaching middle age, giving the movie a more mature, reflective and thoughtful outlook, ditching the broader silly comedy elements but with some flashes and call-backs to signature funny moments that work well and some killer responses and one-liners along the way.  Zellweger naturally owns the movie, making Bridget still chaotic but with a wonderfully measured depth here, but both of her love interests - the younger Leo Woodall and her son's science teacher Chiwetel Ejiofor - have genuine character arcs of their own and give excellent performances.  Hugh Grant has become the secret weapon for any movie recently, here including an hilariously-delivered early scene with Bridget's children and a heartbreaking later one that he nails perfectly, and the many returning characters give the film a familiar warmth.  Along the way, there are genuine moments of unadulterated joy and pure melancholy that make this a slick, professional, well-made and yet surprising and very heartfelt entertaining movie.

 

VOD: La Dolce Villa (dir: Mark Waters, 2025)

"Anything worth loving is worth fighting for."
 

An American father travels to Italy - not his favourite place after a bad student experience - to find his estranged independent young daughter, who has bought a one-euro wreck of a villa in a picturesque rural town in this gentle, sunny and pleasantly entertaining Netflix rom-(with a little bit of)com.  Of course, it is not just the house that gets renovated, with the father-daughter relationship slowly being repaired and the widowed father tentatively falling for the town's also-conveniently-widowed lady mayor.  The location is the real star here, as the film takes every opportunity to show off the gorgeous countryside and the dream-escape-perfect town, complete with its three comedy nonnas who sit at the town square fountain.  The film benefits from its focus on the older characters, and there is some polite awareness-raising of outsiders destroying rural communities, but whilst the film treads some similar ground to the 2020 Neeson-and-son vehicle Made In Italy, La Dolce Villa delivers a rom-com triple-threat of pretty scenery, Italian cooking and a good-looking cast.  The film flies past with abundant and easy charm in this somewhat more mature, relaxed and less silly take on the genre that is pleasant to watch.

VOD: Joker - Folie A Deux (dir: Todd Phillips, 2024)

"You got a joke for me today?"
 

This much-maligned sequel finds a broken Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) incarcerated and signed up for a music therapy group where he meets Lee (Lady Gaga), the proto-Harley Quinn, and goes to trial, all in the form of a bizarre mix of psychological drama and jukebox musical.  In this classic case of the audience not being given what it thought it wanted, most of the vitriol has been aimed at the choice of quasi-musical format, which does indeed deviate a step too far from the much-lauded grounded take on the mythology used in the first film, but it does fit the classic central love story and Arthur's dissociation from reality.  The trial is compelling enough, and Phoenix and Gaga are of course very strong indeed, with a nicely-judged performance from Catherine Keener as Arthur's world-weary lawyer, but the film never escapes the feeling that the lead characters could have been developed more and that it might have worked better as a straightforward drama, of which there are frustrating flashes of potential throughout.

VOD: Smile 2 (dir: Parker Finn, 2024)

"It just stares at me...smiling..."

Parker Finn delivers a lot more of the same in his sequel to his original film, as after a full-on opening sequence that grabs attention, the focus shifts to the glamorous world of recovering singing superstar Skye (Naomi Scott), into whose life the cursed cycle of smile-inducing passed-on self-inflicted violence enters.  The film does a fair job of portraying a young woman dealing with the downsides of fame and addiction, struggling with both her inner demons and the supernatural curse - both seemingly beyond her control - but little is actually done to develop from the original movie here.  The brutally-distorted soundscape and unpredictable use of camera at times are unsettlingly effective alongside the usual jump-scare hallucinatory visions.  With a running time of over two hours, this sequel is often way too languorous for its own good, not helped by the unnecessary diversions into music performances that the lead character entails, making Smile 2 an adequate continuation of the original film if somewhat testing of patience. 
 

VOD: The New Boy (dir: Warwick Thornton, 2024)

"Where's that new boy gone?"
"There he is. Hugging a tree."

This fascinating and contemplative Australian movie sees the imperious Cate Blanchett as Sister Eileen, a nun taking charge of an isolated outback orphanage at a time when the Australian Government undertook enforced separation of indigenous children from their parents, and we follow his progress from a bewildered, uncommunicative and feral new arrival to trying to make sense of his new situation and religion.   Blanchett is a joy to watch as the devout, tough, sincere and strong mother-figure, with a delightful performance by young Aswan Reid as the titular new boy.  The vast landscape is shot exquisitely, used effectively as a backdrop to religious iconography and the exploration of faith and spirituality through the contrasting eyes of Sister Eileen and the indigenous young newcomer, while at the same time telling a very human story of separation, cultural identity and belief in this simple, powerful and evocative film.  

 

VOD: Elevation (dir: George Nolfi, 2024)

"You swear a lot."
"F**k you, Katie!"

'From the producers of A Quiet Place' comes this unashamedly similar high concept movie win which invading murderous subterranean creatures (Reapers) pick off most of the world's population (by detecting carbon dioxide?), with the remnants of humankind only able to survive above 8,000 feet.  Jumping forward three years, a sickly boy forces his father (Anthony Mackie) to descend into the danger zone for medical supplies, accompanied by an embittered scientist (Morena Baccarin) and a feisty world-curious young woman (Maddie Hasson).  Mackie and Baccarin give committed and watchable performances as expected, but they are given little with which to work.  It is all rather simple, small-scale and low-key, although the set pieces are quite effective and creature design is good, but Elevation offers very little that you would not expect from the post-apocalyptic creature-feature genres.   
 

VOD: Queer (dir: Luca Guadagnino, 2024)

"It's hot on the outside, and cold inside."
 

Split conveniently into three chapters and an epilogue and based on another notoriously-difficult to-adapt William S. Burroughs novel, Daniel Craig plays William Lee, a dissolute older gay writer living in 1950s Mexico, who pursues his younger enigmatic object of desire (Drew Starkey's Eugene) as they navigate their fragile relationship that ultimately takes them on an ayahuasca-fuelled voyage of discovery in the jungles of Ecuador.  As ever, Guadagnino creates a film that is richly atmospheric, intimate and in its own way romantic, maintaining Burroughs's psychedelic signature whilst at times feeling like a tribute to Visconti and Fassbinder.  Justin Kuritzkes's screenplay is interesting, full of awkward conversation and blunt openness.  Daniel Craig delivers a terrific character performance here, full of detail and idiosyncrasy, with Drew Starkey providing a good counter-balance in a more controlled and slightly unknowable role.  The contemporary-styled soundtrack by Atticus/Ross adds good flavour to the richly-realised settings.  The divisive trippy finale certainly brings some interesting imagery to the screen but adds little and veers the film a little too close to silliness, leading to an odd quasi-2001-style ending, but for the most part this is another boldy-realised and interesting Guadagnino film.

FILM: Captain America Brave New World 3D (dir: Julius Onah, 2025)

"...and yet, here we are..."

If ever a movie screamed 'course correction', it is this one.  Post-Endgame - and possibly derailed by the pandemic, some underwhelming TV shows, losing its next overarching major villain plus the Hollywood strikes - the MCU's Phases Four and Five have felt lacking in connective tissue and momentum, with new characters left dangling and some of the films perhaps unfairly maligned.  Following the smash success of Deadpool & Wolverine, the Marvel machine appears to be swinging back into full throttle with its release slate, and much more so than recent movies Brave New World throws in many references to the franchise past and yet to come.  The film itself is a rather mixed bag, but with some strong positives.  A thrilling aerial America-Japan battle at Celestial Island (from The Eternals, nicely included as a key plot point here) and the Red Hulk reveal moment and subsequent smackdown both deliver very effectively, but as the story leans into the political conspiracy genre for the most part, the first two acts are often talky, choppy and a bit dull - this is certainly not Captain America The Winter Soldier - and the script is not that smartly written. In his first leading solo film in the role, Anthony Mackie's more grounded take on Captain America works with ease, the introduction of Danny Ramirez as Falcon protégé Joaquin Torres is very promising indeed, and Harrison Ford (replacing the late William Hurt) as now-President Ross is apt casting for the needs of the role in this film.  With Phase Five almost concluded, and Captain America charged with 'assembling The Avengers' and an end-credits threat, it will be interesting to see if Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four First Steps can round out what could be Marvel's revival year.

 

VOD: You're Cordially Invited (dir: Nicholas Stoller, 2025)

"Well, I've got this situation under control!"
"Doesn't seem like it..."

In this mature family comedy that plays in a universe that only exists in the movies, single parent Will Ferrell books an exclusive island for his daughter's wedding, but an unexpected (fatal) error means that Reese Witherspoon double-books the venue with her younger sister's nuptials and comedy chaos ensues.  As well as the escalating wedding complications, the culture clash of the uptight/raucous families plus various generational clashes all generate plenty of material as the film dutifully grinds through all the expected wedding-comedy structural gears, including a duet that will be familiar to fans of Gavin and Stacey.  The script is snappy and surprisingly sweary (including a magnificent c-bomb late in the day), with Ferrell and Witherspoon trading barbed insults and rapid-fire showdowns with glee.  Indeed, Witherspoon delivers her usual very effective and polished professional performance well, and in spite of occasionally straying into his usual improv tics, Ferrell creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the father of the bride, with a significantly strong supporting cast overall.  The result is a pleasant if familiar comedy that breezes by quite entertainingly, and it is certainly one of the more bearable examples of the genre.
 

VOD: Star Trek Section 31 (dir: Olatunde Osunsanmi, 2025)

"Why are you laughing?"
"Because I can't imagine things getting much worse."

Having gone through various story and format permutations - originally conceived as a standard TV series - this character spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery lands as a 'television event movie', in which Emperor Georgiou is tracked down to join The Federation's clandestine operations unit to infiltrate a universe-scale terrorist threat from beyond Federation space.  After a strong and promising flashback opening that reveals Georgiou's early days, the film quickly sets itself up as a noisy, talky, bog-standard Mission: Impossible-styled sci-fi runaround that tries to do something different from the veteran franchise but is quite dull in spite of some whizzy VFX sequences, as the team chases the MacGuffin (here, a Terran biotech weapon) from one location to the next.  Michelle Yeoh, the driving force behind this enterprise, is clearly having fun and plays her familiar character with relish, which the rest of the anonymous Section 31 team makes very little impression, apart from Brit Rob Kazinsky as a gobby cyber-Hicks who does not get enough screen time.  The Star Trek universe has always relied on the interactions and relationships between its characters built up over time, making a one-off such as this difficult with which to fully engage.