Available on Apple TV+.

Christos Nikou writes and directs this dark “love story”. Anne (Jesse Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) are a couple who live in a world where love is scientifically tested. A positive test removes uncertainty in realtionships, or at least that’s the idea. Anne, an out of work teacher, gets the opportunity to work at a Love training centre, which helps people learn to love before they test. Here Anne is paired with Amir (Riz Ahmed), who is to be her mentor as she learns the job. But the longer they work together Anne’s feelings towards him begin to change and raise questions about the accuracy of the love test.

Fingernails is 2/3rds a good film, a Black Mirror episode that builds an intriguingly dark romcom, if that’s a thing, but runs out of steam by its final act.

Set in an unspecified time in the near past, it looks at “love”, with a bizarre fingernail extraction based test, and peoples desperation to have scientific proof of their compatibility. And for most of the film it uses its premise well to tell a story that is unsettling and kept me intrigued with a feeling that something was amiss.

Jesse Buckley and Riz Ahmed’s excellent performances are key to that, both outwardly happy, but an undercurrent of something not being quite right in their own lives. They are also well supported by Allen White, as the “complacent” partner and Luke Wilson as the head of the Love institute, who adds to that feeling of unease.

But ultimately it fails to fully execute on the good work of the first two acts. That feeling of unease, that there is something going on that we can’t see, disapates and we end up with characters making decisions that made me stop caring or been interested in them. Which is a pity as the setup had been intriguing.

Fingernails is a dark romcom with two strong central performance. It builds an intriguing premise, which has you ill at ease. But it runs out of steam by the final act and delivers a weak ending. Worth a watch for the first bit, can take or leave the end.

Martin Scorsese (co-written with Eric Roth) tells the true story of the 1920’s killings of the oil rich Osage Nation People in Oklahoma. Ernest Buckhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from war to his uncle’s (Robert De Nero), William Hale, ranch to find opportunity. He starts as a driver where he meets Molly (Lily Gladstone), one of the Osage Nations wealthy. Their realtionship grows and they marry, but they marry against an increasing amount of un-investigated and unexplained deaths of the Osage. The Osage realise that their wealth has brought with it external greed, and an already wealthy class who want more and will kill to get it.

This is a long film at 3h26m. But, if a story is worth telling, and is done well it can justify a lengthy run time. Killers of the Flower Moon does that in spades and is a great bit of compelling storytelling. It engages from the start and never drags.

It’s a story that Scorsese knows how to tell. Power, corruption, greed and the willingness to do what it takes to gain and keep it. De Nero is magnificent as Hale. It’s a performance full of menace, under a thin veneer of respectably. DiCaprio matches him as his nephew, never quite as smart as he thinks, but portrays some semblance of conscience as he does his uncle’s bidding. Both revolve around Lily Gladstone’s portrayal of Molly, who offers a stoic charm in the face of what is been done to her people, and you feel every bit of her pain and desperation.

There isn’t a false step from the cast especially its native cast who always portray calm dignity. But Scorsese also shows the issues and traps the money brought.

If there is a criticism the final 30 minutes didn’t quite work fully for me including a final scene that took me a little out of the story.

Killers of the Flower Moon is an ambitious piece of storytelling. But is totally absorbing for its entire runtime. Built on three fabulous performances from De Nero, DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. It’s a dark and horrifying story brought to life brilliantly. So settle down because it’s worth every one of its 206 minutes.

Written and directed by John Carney is this good hearted comedy drama. Flora (Eve Hewson) is a single mum of her 14 year old son Max (Orén Kinlan). Both Mum and Son are a little lost, neither really sure where there life is heading. Flora occasionally resenting giving up so much at a young age. Son resenting his Mum like 14 year olds can. Flora then presents Max with a guitar and hopes it will rekindle his love of music. But it doesn’t work out as she hopes, but rather than throw it away she starts online guitar lessons with Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). A decision that opens up new relationships for Flora with Jeff, Max, and Max’s father Ian (Jack Reynor). As with all new relationships things don’t go smoothly. But thanks to music it may just work out.

Flora and Son, while predictable, is a good hearted story about relationships and hope. And although not perfect it is funny and engaging, with characters who you invest in during its relatively short 97 minutes runtime.

Where it is at its very best is when it focusses on Flora and Max’s realtionship. A wholly believable young mother, teenage son realtionship.bA son growing up and a mother who has lost her way. But it’s this story that lifts it above an average romcom.

This is less true for the romcom realtionship between Flora and Jeff her online guitar teacher. It’s a realtionship that never feels believable. The connection never really convinces and the film would have worked just as well without it.

The script zips along nicely with plenty of humour and the original songs fit in well. And it builds well to its satisfying and touching end.

Flora and Son is a predictable but enjoyable and warm hearted story. It’s at its best when it focuses on its engaging mother and son relationship, rather than the disposable romcom story. While it has its problems, overall it’s an engaging touching and very enjoyable story about realtionship and hope.

Available on Apple TV+.

Matt Johnson directs and stars in this story based on the rise and fall of Blackberry, the company that revolutionised business communication in the 1990’s. Johnson and Jay Baruchel play RIM founders Douglas Fregin, Mike Lazaridis and their enthusiastic team of engineers, who had the skills but lacked the business acumen to make RIM grow. This changed when investor Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) forced his way onboard. He brought experience, money and drive, but also a single mindedness for aggressive growth of the company, in what was a new frontier in the technology industry, with all the excesses, characters and questionable practices a frontier brings. All which leads to the companies ultimate demise.

Shot in a documentary style (like The Office) Johnson does a great job at capturing the time and the excesses of behaviour that came with tech innovation of the 90’s. Loud and bullying behaviour, huge wealth, shady business practices, all built on the backs of smart and innovative engineers, who just wanted to build “cool tech”.

The film does a great job of building a real sense of the chaos, peril and pressure of a build fast, innovate fast and make money fast culture, that the business looked to thrive in. And how they used this to challenge the status quo and build a product that became the symbol of modern businesses and a status symbol for executives.

While it looses a bit of energy towards the end, it’s overall a compelling and engaging telling of the creation of a technology that would culminate in the smartphone that changed the world.

Blackberry is a compelling and entertaining telling of a modern tech industry story and the rapid rise of an innovative company whose hubris was its undoing. It brilliantly captures the tension and chaos of the time and is anchored in three solid central performances. While it does loose a bit of energy at the end, it’s overall an entertaining modern rise and fall story.

Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz team up for their latest Sci-fi adventure. Humanity is at war with the AI it once developed and embraced. That all changed when a sentient AI turned on it and exploded a nuclear weapon on Los Angeles. The west outlawed AI, however, in New Asia it is still developed with robots and synthetics part of society as equals. When the west hears of a new AI super weapon, they step up their aggression. Key to this is Joshua (John David Washington) a former special ops soldier who had once been undercover in Asia where he married and fathered a child with Maya (Gemma Chan). He is to be part Colonel Howall’s (Alison Janney) strike force to recover the weapon. However, when Joshua discovers the weapon is a child (Madeline Yuna Voyles) it puts him in conflict with his country and opens his eyes to a different reality.

Occasionally you see a film that is relatively well received by critics and audiences alike, that makes you wonder if you’ve watched a different film. The Creator for me is one of those.

Let’s start with the positives. Shot for a relatively modest budget ($80m), the world building and effects are incredible. While CGI heavy, there is a wonderful practical feel which is absorbing. John David Washington and Allison Janney are always watchable.

But that said, what a mess of a film. It has a narrative that makes one unconnected leap after another. This leads to character relationships that make no sense. The realtionships it wants us to believe between Joshua, his wife, the child or former soldiers are unearned. Yet we’re to believe that they would make sacrifices for each other. This left me uninvested in any of the them and unengaged in the supposed emotional final act

The Creator, on a relatively small budget, looks incredible. But it’s where the positives stop. The storyline is a mess, leaping from one unconnected moment to another. This leaves characters under developed and realtionships that make no sense. Sadly as great as it looks, it was all rather dull and unengaging for me.

Ken Loach’s latest film, written by Paul Laverty, is a story of a small Northumbrian town that finds itself home to a group of refugees. TJ (Dave Turner) owns the local pub, The Old Oak, run down, struggling to survive like the community it serves. TJ also volunteers alongside Laura (Claire Rodgerson) to help house Syrian refugees in the local community. One of these is the family of Yara (Ebla Mari). She’s smart and a talented photographer and strikes up a friendship with TJ. He learns of her family, she learns of a community ravaged by the miners strike and in decline ever since. As they try to bring the community together, they face hostility but the communities slowly realise they have a lot in common.

The Old Oak shows Loach doing what he does best, shining a light on some of the hardest hit parts of society. It would have been easy to turn into a story of the uneducated, full of casual (and not so casual) racism, embittered by “foreigners” treated better than they are. But Loach is smarter than that. Instead he spends his time exploring why, why these put upon and forgotten communities react as they do. These are communities that have had industry, self respect and hope taken from them and in return find themselves as a “dumping ground” for those less fortunate. While the story can feel relentlessly grim, it is interspersed with hope, moments of sweetness and in the end it at least leaves us with a positive message.

The cast is broadly non-professional and while committed, performances are uneven, with the exception of Ebla Mari, who looks anything but a first time performer. That said the performances do add a realism to the storytelling which helps.

The Old Oak is a thoughtful and tough look at communities that have been abandoned. An often grim story, but one that ultimately delivers hope. This is the kind of story Loach brilliantly tells and while some will hate it, it should give the rest of us plenty to think about.

Dumb Money is based on the true story of how a co-ordinated investment strategy of 1000’s of small investors ended up costing hedge funds billions of dollars. Based on Ben Mezrich’s book and directed by Craig Gillespie, Paul Dano plays Keith Gill. Gill is an amateur investor and internet influencer. When he spots an investment opportunity, in the undervalued GameStop, he shares this with his followers. As investor numbers grow this catches the attention of powerful Wall Street figures especially Steve Gibson (Vincent D’Onofrio), Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman) and Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) whose firm, is taking an investment gamble in GameStop’s failure, a gamble that Gill’s influence threatens and starts a battle between Wall Street Goliath’s and the small investor David’s.

I am usually a fan of this kind of story. I often find them fascinating, engaging and astounding in how one side gets away with flagrant abuse of its position. But while Dumb Money has all of the ingredients, I was left disappointed in what felt a rather flat and souless bit of storytelling.

The problem is possibly the story itself, while interesting it feels, at least in Gillespie’s telling, that it lacks any truly engaging characters to cheer for or rail against. The main protagonists seem to go about their business, with never any feel of peril to emotionally engage you. Gill is driving the investment, but it never seems to weigh on him or excite him. Plotkin, whose investment company is the one impacted, never seems to bothered by the billions he is losing. And the small investors represented by the characters of America Ferrara, Anthony Ramos, Talia Ryder and others, could all be taking high stakes risks, but it is never clear whether the are so ultimately I found it hard to care about any of them.

Dumb Money, while based on a fascinating story, is a strangely flat telling of it. It doesn’t really engage, lacks characters to care about, or present any jeopardy. This probably makes a great documentary, but not sure it makes a great film.

Alice Troughton makes her directorial debut with a film penned by Alex MacKeith. Liam (Daryl McCormack) is a writer and tutor. He is given an opportunity to tutor Bertie (Stephen McMillan) the son of famous writer J.M Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) and his wife Helene (Julie Delpay). Liam finds a home that is far from happy. Instead it is an oppressive household, mourning the death of Bertie’s brother, with fractured relationships between father, wife and son. But at least Sinclair is writing, inspired by a new story, but a story with a dark secret, a secret that Liam soon finds himself pulled in to.

This is an odd, but often intriguing film. It’s not one that fully works, but has plenty in it to keep you engaged and interested enough to stick with it. It’s a story that feels a bit like a classic TV thriller/horror of the 70’s (think Tales of the Unexpected, Hammer Horror) including its sometimes stilted dialogue and unusual angle camera shots. All part of trying to keep you off balance as the story takes its twists and turns.

The cast do a decent job with the solid enough script, playing out it’s intriguing story, that keeps you guessing up to and including its final act twist.

But there is something about it that doesn’t quite work and I’m not quite sure what. It is perhaps that it stretches the story a little bit, or tries to be a little bit cleverer than it really is. But while it doesn’t fully work, it does work just about enough.

This is an odd and uneven film that feels like a throwback to TV thrillers of the 1970’s. But while it didn’t completely work for me, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. The story is intriguing and engaging and the cast more than watchable. While not destined to be a classic, it’s still worth a watch.

Kenneth Branagh directs his latest outing as Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Poirot (Branagh) is retired to Venice, protected from the desperate, seeking his help, by former policeman Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio). That’s until old friend and author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) comes to visit and invites Hercule to a séance at a local “haunted” Palazzo. A chance to meet famed medium Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) and prove her a fraud. Reynold’s “customer” is Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) a mother who mourns the loss of her daughter. The scene is set, a stormy night in a haunted house, a grieving mother desperate for contact with her daughter and a mystery to solve for a reluctant detective. But the mystery takes a twist when a murder occurs, is it angry spirits? Or is there a killer at the séance? it’s up to Poirot to find out.

Full disclosure, I’m a sucker for a murder mystery and I really enjoy Branagh as Poirot and after the disappointing Death on the Nile, Haunting was a return to form that did not disappoint.

Haunting plays well with its “other worldy” premise, building tension in a “hammer house” old school manner with ghostly voices, movements in the shadows and mysterious bangs and crashes. Supported by its atmospheric score.

While the mystery is perhaps no real surprise it’s delivered well by its strong cast. Which, alongside its main protagonists features good support from Jamie Dornan, Camille Cotton and Jude Hill as precocious youngster Leo. All allowing Branagh to have plenty of fun again as the famous detective.

I am a fan of Branagh’s Poirot so was already well disposed to this and wasn’t disappointed. The setting is sumptuous, the story suitably spooky and a star studied cast deliver an enjoyable old school whodunnit. It may not be a classic but I found it a really enjoyable, atmospheric murder mystery.

Now on Amazon Prime.

Sarah Polley writes and directs this Oscar winning adaptation of Miriam Toews book. Set in 2010, the women live in a Mennonite community, mostly isolated from the modern world. For years women have awoken beaten, bruised, blooded and sexually assaulted. Told for generations that the attackers were ghosts or the devil, this changes when the women catch a male from the community in the act. The women, unschooled, unprotected in an abusive environment, decide they must take action. The community leaders come together to discuss their options, should they do nothing, stay and fight the men or leave. What ensues is a complicated discussion about the pro’s and cons of each, the future and their roles in it.

Women Talking is exactly as it describes. It is a film primarily set in a barn where a group of, while uneducated, intelligent women discuss what their lives have been, what the community they live in has done to them and what their futures hold. But it does this in a hugely compelling and engaging way.

It’s a story that at times is raw and shocking, sometimes humourous, sometimes devastatingly sad. It shows the complexity of abuse at all levels mental, physical and institutional. Because while the horrific abuse they suffer would suggest an easy decision, the script smartly explores all of the difficulties that come with escaping abuse of any sort.

There is a strong cast that deliver compelling performances inclusing Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Jesse Buckley, Shiela McCarthy, Judith Ivey and Ben Wishaw.

It’s not perfect, it does move slowly at times and it sometimes feels a bit stagey, but these are minor gripes about what is a smart, complex and thought provoking film.

Women Talking, now on Amazon Prime, deals with the complexity of abuse mental, physical and institutional. Full of strong performances from an excellent cast it presents a powerful message. While it’s basically women talking in a barn, don’t be fooled as this is a compelling, intelligent piece of storytelling.