In Review
Welcome to In Review! Check out the latest reviews across film, TV, theatre and so much more…
Japanese Film Fest 2025 Review - Cloud
It is clear that Cloud is a well-made film with effective cinematography and performances. It’s just a shame that the narrative isn’t stronger and more confident in what it is trying to do or say.
Japanese Film Fest 2025 Review - Serpent’s Path
Serpent’s Path is filled to the brim with such evocative images of mundane criminality and the bleak and brooding horror of industrial spaces, seen so often in crime films but rarely shot as atmospherically as with Kurosawa’s hand.
Film Review - Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
Now You See Me: Know You Don’t is a magic act you’ve seen before.
MIFF 2025 Film Review - It Was Just an Accident
It swings so big that its highs are much more memorable than its lows.
Film Review - One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another is an instant classic: a restless, thrilling action flick that’s concerned not with some war in a fictional universe or far-off land, but an honest-to-god boots-on-the-ground war within modern America.
Film Review - The Thread
The Thread is an understated courtroom drama that is guaranteed to leave you questioning absolutely everything by its end.
Film Review - From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
As with any spin-off, it’s difficult not to compare what you are watching to the original; needless to say, Ballerina embraces this challenge by continuing to change the form of what we know the world to be, innovating its tropes and style.
Film Review - Beating Hearts
Beating Hearts is a film of great indulgence, over saturating you with love, violence and earnestness, and asking for no more than an open heart and a not-so-critical mind.
Film Review - The Phoenician Scheme
Whilst certainly not as memorable as his previous works, The Phoenician Scheme still brings Anderson’s classic charm and style in spades.
Film Review - The Alto Knights
While it most likely won’t be regarded as a mobster classic when compared to some of Scorsese’s other masterpieces it is trying to channel, The Alto Knights is still a well-enough-made film that fans of the mobster genre will be able to glean some enjoyment from the feature.
Film Review - The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Rasoulof brings the audience directly into Tehran - this film will most likely be the closest thing we’ll ever have to see into the lives of those who have been oppressed in Iran.
Film Review - Inside
Inside is a well-directed debut feature that is unforgiving, and filled with stand out moments from the whole cast.
Europa Europa Film Fest 2025 - Shoot the Piano Player
Visually, this film feels like a masterclass of instinctive storytelling.
Europa Europa Film Fest 2025 - Finally, Sunday!
Occasionally awkward performances and deliveries are mostly forgiven by this fine adaption of a scandalous mystery.
Film Review - Joker: Folie À Deux
It's interesting that for all the film's grappling with Arthur's identity crisis, Folie à Deux winds up having one of its own
Film Review - NT Live: Prima Facie
Prima Facie is a play that refuses to be taken at face value.
TV Review - The Penguin Episode 1
Drawing out the melancholic chaos of its cinematic counterpart, The Penguin’s premiere episode enables a seamless transition in format – offering a richly textured character study which hooks you from minute aught.
Film Review - Strange Darling
Emerging from the festival circuit in all its adrenalised glory, Strange Darling is a nightmarishly visceral masterclass in subversion which keeps you on your toes from the get-go.
Film Review - Trap
The result is a refreshingly modern and idiosyncratic film that feels almost antithetical to the filmic formula that the studio system often caters for, and left me excited that a filmmaker like Shyamalan is still exercising his creative hand in original and tonally ambitious ways.