Quiz Lady (2023)  ★★★ AWKWAFINA and Sandra Oh have some great chemistry in the overlooked American comedy Quiz Lady. The pair play sisters in a love-hate relationship who are forced together to help their gambling addicted mother. Anne (Awkwafina) is the younger sibling. On paper she has her life together, […]

Comedy has a lot of answers

Anatomy of a Fall (2024)  ★★★★ SAVE some time and money and give the Oscar to Sandra Hüller now. The German actress is quite simply brilliant as the protagonist, Sandra Voyter, in the French drama/thriller Anatomy of a Fall. Granted, the words that Hüller has at her disposal are wonderful, […]

French thriller ascends the ranks

Suitable Flesh ★½ SUITABLE Flesh received good buzz on the 2023 festival horror film circuit. I’m not sure why, as it left me underwhelmed. Heather Graham plays a psychiatrist who becomes obsessed with one of her young male patients, leading her into a dark path of demonic possession. Firstly, we […]

Stupid is as stupid does

V/H/S/85 ★★★ THE V/H/S found footage horror anthology film series has had its ups and downs since starting in 2012. There have been six instalments to date and the latest, 2023’s V/H/S/85, sits squarely in the middle, both in terms of the overall impact and comprising, as usual, good and […]

Anthology series in the black

Friday the 13th Part 4 ★★★ DEVOTING the first three minutes of a 90-minute film to recapping the previous three instalments might suggest a franchise was in trouble. But that’s the kind of weird decisions that were made by producers and studios back in the 1980s and ‘90s when they were […]

Sequels an up and down affair

Insidious: The Red Door ★★½ INSIDIOUS franchise stalwart Patrick Wilson takes the helm for the fifth instalment Insidious: The Red Door. It’s the actor’s directorial debut and while he does a decent job it fails to reinvigorate a film series that continues to spin its wheels. Unlike the adjacent Annabelle […]

Insidious franchise spinning its wheels

Them ★★★½ FRENCH critics love certain foreign directors, including Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood and Roman Polanski. But they especially love the late Alfred Hitchcock whose techniques continue to serve as a template for many thrillers. Them, released in 2006, is a case in point; a nerve-jangling thriller full of Hitchcockian […]

French pay homage to master

Dream Scenario ★★★½ WHAT a great end to the 2023 film year. Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s Fourth feature, Dream Scenario, is a wonderfully black comedy that tears massive holes in contemporary non-sensical thinking and lifestyles. It also provides Nic Cage with another great role following his recent efforts in Pig and […]

Dreams provide captivating scenario

Priscilla ★★★ ITS hard to determine what to ultimately make of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. It’s doubtless well made but, like most of her recent output, doesn’t reach the heights attained by her first three films – The Virgin Suicides in 1999, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. Some key observations. […]

The King’s crown slips

Maestro ★★★½ IS there anything Bradley Cooper can’t do? Let me see…he can act, write, direct, produce, play guitar, play piano, conduct an orchestra, speak fluent French, perform open heart surgery. Maybe not the last one; but his second film as director, Maestro, confirms he is going to be around […]

What can’t Bradley Cooper do?

Anyone But You ★½ BRYAN Brown must be kidding. He’s in the ensemble cast of American comedy Anyone But You, which is loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. In an interview Brown claims the Bard would have been happy with the film. I very much doubt it. He […]

The Bard would be bored

Wonka ★★★½ FAMILY films or musicals are not my first choice, but Wonka is a pleasant surprise, despite being in both genres. Timothy Chalamet shows his versatility in the lead role of the gifted, idealistic young chocolate maker who arrives in the city with 10 gold sovereigns and big dreams. […]

Wonka one for all the family