REVIEW: May December [London Film Festival 2023]

The latest film from director Todd Haynes, May December is a misleadingly sunny exploration of uncomfortable truths.

Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) is a popular actor who has travelled to Savannah, Georgia, to spend some time with Gracie (Julianne Moore), who she is due to play in an upcoming TV movie.…

PODCAST: Ready Player One & Annihilation [Electric Shadows]

In episode 41 of The Electric Shadows Podcast Robs Daniel & myself journey deep into pop culture and sci-fi when delivering our verdicts on Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and Alex Garland’s Annihilation.

In a typically all-encompassing discussion, Rob D explains why he dug the pop-culture geek-gasm of RP1, while I reveal his reservations about Spielberg’s latest.…

REVIEW: Annihilation

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Alex Garland is one of the relatively few directors working today who truly deserves to be called a visionary.

His latest film, Annihilation,  a dreamlike adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name, is, to say the least, a smart, ambitious, multi-ethnic, female-led sci-fi.…

REVIEW: Jackie reveals what we will do to put a mask on ambition & grief

Blackness. Orchestral strings rise up magisterially but sink almost immediately into discord; the wooziest of dying falls.

A beautiful woman, resplendent in pink, with jet-black bouffant hair, porcelain hair, and cheekbones to shame Bette Davis, coolly applies her makeup in an airplane mirror.…

Ponderous and imponderable, Knight of Cups is, like its protagonist, easily led


 

Knight of Cups is a film you could drown in – a vast thematic ocean lapping against the distant shore of some grand, obscure vision. And I don’t have any f**king trunks.

As a director-philosopher (or should that be philosopher-director?),…

Thor: The Dark World makes for a fun, forgettable outing in the MCU

 

Marvel Studios is the cinematic juggernaut of our time, perhaps all time.

Spanning eight films over five years, it has so far grossed in excess of $5 billion. Bi-annual releases were common in Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – films ranging from 2008’s Iron Man to The Avengers last year – and, as of 2013, seems likely to become standard practice.…