In Review
Welcome to In Review! Check out the latest reviews across film, TV, theatre and so much more…
Monster Fest Weekender Film Review: Hatching
Following a seemingly idyllic family as the daughter [..], winds up raising a grotesque creature with whom she shares a telepathic connection, the film uses horror as a vessel to explore themes of vanity, coming-of-age, and beauty, while also offering up a healthy dose of criticism aimed squarely at family vloggers.
Monster Fest Weekender Film Review: Miami Connection
Unashamedly self-indulgent and barely cognizant of any sort of budgetary limitation […], Miami Connection is wicked fun for the midnight movie crowd that'll have you puzzling over how a movie like this even got made.
Film Review: Firebird
A peak behind the Iron Curtain exponentially aided in submerging myself into the story, one that relished in exploring the different ways people learn to accept themselves. Some just don’t, which leads to one of the most frustrating, yet compelling, revelations Firebird presents to its audience.
Spanish Film Festival Film Review: Official Competition
Personally, the whole meta-inception-story-within-a-story is not my usual cup of tea. However, Official Competition doesn’t fade into using conventions of the trope. What separates it, is that rather than focusing on production and the movie-making process it's focused entirely on the actors and their craft.
Film Review: Operation Mincemeat
The bizarre true story of a WWII operation that saw British intelligence plant false documents on a corpse and leave it for the Nazis to find, Operation Mincemeat is nonetheless a very familiar piece of modern British mid-scale filmmaking.
Film Review: How to Please a Woman
A funny and heart-warming liberation story for women who have been afraid to ask for what they want – at home, at work and in the bedroom.
Film Review: Baraka
Baraka is a must-see for anyone who finds themselves with a proclivity towards social sciences, theology, or spirituality.
Film Review: Love in Bright Landscapes
Jonathan Alley’s version of David McComb’s life is poetic and striking, positioning itself as a deeply affecting Australian story.
Film Review: Paddington 2
I haven’t seen a movie juggle the human range of emotions with such ease in years, although I can recall one movie that did it pretty well not too long ago: Paddington [1].
Film Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (SPOILER FREE)
Shackled by crowd-pleasing and Disney-pleasing obligations, the greatest victory of the MCU’s latest is, blessedly, that it’s a Sam Raimi Film.
Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - Possession (4K Restoration)
Set against the harsh backdrop of the Berlin Wall, Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 cult classic Possession is a genre-defying chronicle of marriage in decay.
Spanish Film Festival Film Review: Girlfriends
Featuring four of Spain’s most exciting young film and TV stars, first-time director Carol Rodríguez Colas’ Girlfriends is a fresh, sincere depiction of what it means to come to terms with who you are.
Spanish Film Festival Film Review: House of Snails
The debut fiction feature from director Macarena Astorga, The House of Snails is a slow burn psychological thriller filled with twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Film Review: Petite Maman
Petite Maman shows respect for its audience and reverence for its central themes, opting not to over-explain its time travel logic, or even bother spending too much time ruminating on whether that's actually the case. Above all, this is a story about motherly love.
Film Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s second feature release of the last year is a beguiling three-in-one Lego set of lean, focused short-form storytelling.
Film Review: After Yang
Deliberate in pace yet nimble on its toes, After Yang lulls the audience into a world not too distant from the one we live in; serene and serendipitous in its own, melancholic way.
Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - After Blue (Dirty Paradise)
All in all, After Blue (Dirty Paradise) is a wild and weird dreamscape of a film, complete with glowing crystals, high fashion accessories, and no less than 25 mentions of the words “Kate Bush”
Film Review: The Northman
The Northman is an unyielding hell song of blood, dirt and firelight. Robert Eggers hasn't changed a bit and it's a blessing to us all.
Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - Dreams on Fire
Like a well thought out stage performance, Dreams on Fire aims not just to thrill, but also to move. Pulsing through its veins is a rich marriage of emotion and style, resulting in a film experience that commands attention, intoxicating the audience with an audio-visual assault on the senses.
Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - Absolute Denial
One of the defining contentions of the film is who is justified in this situation, or rather who is the true captor and who is the true victim? Is it David, an obsessive programmer who didn’t think of the consequences of his actions? Or is it Al, a supercomputer who didn’t ask to be made but will stop at nothing to be free?