Director Jake Schreier

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is disillusioned with her “cleaning up” job for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). When offered the chance to change, after one last mission, Yelena finds herself brought together with some unlikely allies including John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the mysterious, Bob (Lewis Pullman) a seemingly innocent member of the public. But, when a dark presence threatens New York, the unlikely group, with some help from Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Yelena’s father Alexei, the Red Guardian (David Harbour), team together to take it on and become unlikely heroes.

Thunderbolts* is another attempt to restart the Marvel machine. While it’s not perfect, it is a much more successful than some other recent ones.

It’s a film that does try to do something a little different, with a story that mixes a light touch, with a much darker story that explores loneliness and depression, and does it pretty successfully.

The balance is helped hugely by the excellent Florence Pugh, whose Yelena has been a recent Marvel high point. She manages to bring both real fun, balanced perfectly with the gravitas that the darker elements of the story need to ensure they are handled with sensitivity. Her pairing with Pullman’s Bob is the serious heart of the film, while it’s her fun back and forth with Harbour’s Alexei that is its light heart.

The action is fun, but it’s not an action filled adventure it is attempting to be a bit more than that. However that does mean at times it’s a little glacial in its pacing. But overall a more than solid effort.

Thunderbolts* is the latest rebooting of the Marvel machine and is a pretty decent attempt. Led by the imperious Florence Pugh, it tries to tell a more interesting story, with an exploration of depression and loneliness, balanced well with a light fun touch. While it does move a little slowly at times, there’s a solid story and a cast that comes together well, to give you plenty to enjoy.

Director: Peter Cattaneo

This film is inspired by Tom Michell’s novel, The Penguin Lessons, telling the story of his time spent as an English teacher at an exclusive school in Argentina. Set in 1976 Michell (Steve Coogan) joins the school at the start of a military coup. After a few days in Uruguay, he finds himself returning to the school with a new friend, a penguin. The penguin soon becomes a key part of school life, helping Michell to inspire his students, a confidant to other staff members and helps Michell breakdown barriers and make friends. But life changes when the military police begin taking people from the streets and when this strikes close to home, Michell and his penguin become an inspiration to make a difference.

This is a film that is set against Argentina’s military dictatorship and the 30,000 people who “disappeared” under their control. But if you are looking for a gritty tense exploration of the Argentinian junta, this is not that film, rather, this is a gentle tale that focuses on transformation and inspiration, rather than the terrifying reality of a military dictatorship.

Coogan plays a role you’ve seen him in before, the world weary, cynic who carries the weight of his own tragedy and does it with warmth and wit. He’s well supported, Björn Gustafsson as a fellow teacher, Jonathan Pryce as the school headmaster, Vivian El Jaber, as school cleaner and grandmother and of course the Penguin(s) who brings quite the personality to the role!

The Penguin Lessons, while set against the horrors of dictatorship and Argentina’s disappeared, tells a warm and inspirational story about hope and overcoming tragedy. Steve Coogan alongside his Penguin co-star both deliver plenty of heart and warmth to the story.  It’s no gritty look at the horrors of a military dictatorship, but it is a charming, inspirational story. Plus, it does have a Penguin!

Writer/Directors: Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland

Set in Ramadi, Iraq in 2006, a platoon of Navy SEALs take control of an Iraqi family home to monitor the activities of local combatants, but when their position is compromised they come under heavy attack. Warfare tells their true story. 

Alex Garland, who directed the excellent Civil War, again places you right at the heart of a warzone. This time, using the recollections of his co-director, Ray Mendoza, and Mendoza’s platoon, to take you on an incredibly tense, stressful, and visceral 95 minute cinema journey.

This is not a war film that makes judgments. Nor is it a film about heroes and villains. Instead, it focuses on those impacted directly, the combatants and, in this case, an Iraqi family caught right in the centre. From the start, it builds a sense of foreboding, until an incident accelerates both the stakes and the pace of the action, sending you spiralling into a nerve-shredding, disorienting world of survival and terror.

This is not a film of big performances, but authentic ones. Each of the platoon is believable, Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-Awho and Cosmo Jarvis are at the heart of much of it, but none of the characters misses a beat.

It’s a film without a score. Instead, it uses the sights and sounds of this tight, enclosed space. It’s a soundscape, filled with explosions and bullets. Crackling radio messages as the units communicate with support teams. It’s moments of tense silence and of horrific pain. Amongst it are characters, who, while never panicked, are never in control, having to make countless immediate decisions that could be the difference between life and death.

Warfare is possibly the most tense, nerve shredding, stressful 95 minutes you may spend in a cinema! It places you right at the heart of the warzone. As terrifying as any horror, as you find yourself, not with a team of heroes, but a group of young men, trying to desperately keep each other alive. Not a film for the faint-hearted, but one that deserves your attention.

Director: James Hawes

Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a technology and decryption expert. He is happily married to Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), but his life changes when Sarah, on a business trip to London, is involved in a terror attack and killed. Devastated, he uses his skills to work out a timeline and identifies those responsible. He negotiates the chance to take revenge with his Langley bosses, but after training with a CIA operational expert (Laurence Fishburne), it becomes clear he’s no cold-hearted killer. But not to be deterred, he instead uses his skills, intelligence and determination to seek justice and revenge for his wife’s death.

I’m a fan of spy thrillers and love a bit of a caper, where smart people use ingenuity to set traps and pull off unlikely tasks. So on paper, The Amateur should have been an entertaining thriller. But for me it’s strangely inert, slow-moving, and even dull. All the ingredients are there but it really didn’t land for me.

Malek’s character is part of the problem. He’s a calm, smart, deliberate character but also very monotone. These characters really need something to grab your attention, a bit of wit and energy, and that is lacking.

Malek’s character isn’t helped by the slow-moving story, which has more holes than a colander. It starts with a very long setup before we get into Heller on his mission, but even then, the film only briefly bursts into life. It struggles to balance Heller’s angst with his drive for justice. It’s also disjointed, with storylines around the core story that never feel relevant or coherent.

The Amateur has so many good ingredients that it should be an exciting Bourne-type thriller. But instead, it’s a slow-moving, disjointed, and rather dull revenge flick. It’s not helped by a central character who lacks the energy or wit needed to carry these films or a story that is slow-moving and full of holes. It’s not terrible; it’s just disappointing.

Writer/Director: Alex Scharfman

Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) are heading to spend a weekend with his ill boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), and his family (Téa Leoni and Will Poulter), in their impressive home, situated in a nature reserve they sponsor. Their weekend takes a turn when they hit a strange creature on the way to the house. It turns out it’s a Unicorn, a creature as magical as myth and legend suggests. But rather than take care of it, they try to exploit it, which has serious consequences for everyone involved.

This film delivers exactly what you expect from a comedy horror, home invasion,  Unicorns with attitude story. It’s not a film of major surprises, but it does deliver some tension, even if some of the story beats you see coming. Much you’ve seen before, although perhaps with more unicorns. It is silly, splattery fun, through its 107 minutes running time.

In the tradition of comedy horror, the film has a conscience. There are comments on “big pharma”, humanities endless attempts to exploit nature regardless of the consequences, the super wealthy looking after each other, the risks that come with greedy businessmen having influence rather than elected politicians and how people use “family” as a defence for the questionable decisions they make.

There are plenty of enjoyable performances. Ortega and Rudd at its heart, while Richard E. Grant laps up the self-obsessed superrich with delusions of immortality. Will Poulter is the pampered and equally delusional billionaire child. Sunita Mani provides good support as a scientist who soon becomes disillusioned with the rich people’s folly. Anthony Carrigan often steals the show as the put-upon Butler Griff.

Death of a Unicorn is an entertaining, if likely unmemorable, comedy horror. It’s as silly as its premise suggests, with some splattery fun, social commentary, and home invasion tension, all wrapped up with unicorns! While there’s not much original, if you want some dark fun with unicorns, this will suit you nicely!

Writer & Director: Gints Zilbalodis

Writer: Matīss Kaža

Flow is set in a flooded land where the only inhabitants seem to be animals, both domesticated and wild. When the water levels continue to rise, a timid and isolated cat realises it must find safe land. But the cat can’t do it alone and needs to learn to trust in others to survive. On its adventures the cat finds a group of similarly stranded animals including a Dog, Lemur, Capybara and a Secretarybird, who together set sail on a boat to travel the water filled lands to find safety.

Flow is an Oscar winning, dialogue free, survival adventure. Using animals rather than humans, it tells a touching tale of bravery, ingenuity, trust and most importantly friendship.

Even without a word of dialogue or any obvious anthropomorphic transformation of its animal cast, you fully buy into the individual personalities of each of the animals at the story’s centre. The cat, in particular. takes you on a journey and engages you with every look, purr, and movement. Together, you see the animals bond as they learn to overcome their differences, work together, and help each other survive the challenges in front of them.

It’s gorgeously animated, the animals are not meant to be  photo realistic but give you all you need to see every character nuance. The landscape is hugely detailed, especially the incredible animation of the water and the life in it.

The film does have some mild peril and its moments of tension, but overall it’s a wonderfully told, animal based action adventure, suitable for the young and not so young.

Flow is a fabulously made animated adventure. A dialogue-free story of a cat and a band of animal friends looking to survive. It’s a thoroughly engaging tale fully absorbing you in each character, their personality and battle to safety. A beautifully told story of bravery and friendship—animation at its best.

Director: Marc Webb

In the latest live-action remake of a Disney classic, Rachel Zegler stars as Snow White. After her mother dies and her father remarries, a beautiful  princess (Gal Gadot), who quickly turns into an evil Queen (Gal Gadot), Snow White is banished from the castle. While hiding in the woods, she finds herself in the home of seven gem-mining dwarves. Together they team up with Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a bandit leader hiding in the woods, with the aim to reclaim the castle from the wicked Queen and restore peace to the land.

This film has stirred some controversy in the lead-up to its release, ranging from casting choices to reported tensions between its stars. I’ll leave those issues for you to decide what you think about them. For me, the real question is whether this live-action version serves a purpose. Ultimately, it’s okay, but nothing more than that. It probably also suffers in comparison to the recent behemoth, “Wicked,” which demonstrates just what a musical fairy tale can be.

There are things to enjoy. Nothing more than Gal Gadot fully embracing the pantomime villainy of the evil Queen. Both her and Rachel Zegler knock out the classics and a couple of decent, if unmemorable, new tunes.

It looks impressive, with the Snow White world nicely recreated. Although I couldn’t make out if the CGI dwarves were great, or a bit disturbing!

The story has had an update and there is a solid message around not letting those in power convince us, that looking out for ourselves is the only way to be. And by showing kindness and generosity to each other we can be better.

Admittedly, I’m not Snow White’s target audience, but it all felt a bit of a non-event. The performances are okay, and Gal Gadot is entertaining, camping it up as the evil Queen. There’s a solid message at its centre. The well-known songs are well done, the new ones are fine, and it looks good. Hopefully, it works for its target audience. But, ultimately, for me, it was a bit meh.

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Writer: David Koepp

George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) are a married couple, who work for the intelligence services. Dedicated to each other, George finds his dedication tested when Kathryn is highlighted as a possible intelligence leak, alongside five of their friends and colleagues. George has to use his particular set of intelligence skills to discover the leak, reclaim a dangerous piece of cyber technology, all while dealing with friends, colleagues and a wife who may all be manipulating him to cover their tracks.

I have to admit, I do enjoy a good Soderbergh story. At their best they fly along, with zippy dialogue, twisting plots and plenty of style. Black Bag is not Soderbergh at his peak, but what it is, is an efficient, neat and tidy, spy inspired thriller, that knows its job and does it well.

It’s built mainly around. Fassbender’s performance, with a character who is cool, calculated and reserved, but with much going on under the covers. He’s well supported too. Cate Blanchett is as reliable as ever. But there are particularly good performances from Naomie Harris as a calculating and cold psychologist and Tom Burke’s old school spy. But it is Marisa Abela, as a young and eager, George “fan girl”, who often steals the show.

At just 94 minutes long, it zips along, with snappy dialogue and not too many twists and turns to keep track of. Although it is those lack of twists and turns that probably keep this at mid range Soderbergh, his best work is a little more layered and smarter than what Black Bag has to offer. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing for an entertaining piece of well made cinema.

Black Bag is a well made, efficient spy type thriller. At just 94 minutes it’s tightly scripted, well performed and has enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s not prime Steven Soderbergh, but for a bit of relatively light, well made cinema entertainment it does a job.

Writer & Director: Bong Joon-ho

Needing to find a way out of a troublesome situation on Earth, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) joins an exploration space craft heading to Niflheim, with the aim of colonising it under the leadership of failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo). But with no real skills to get him aboard Mickey applies to be an expendable. A human, who is prepared to die and die again to advance humanity. This leaves Mickey at the mercy of the most dangerous jobs and scientific experiments. But his life changes when incarnation number 17 doesn’t die to plan, it presents a whole new “multiples” problem!

This is a bit of an odd mix of a film. It has good bits, but not quite enough. It has a lot to say, but often too little to say. It also feels long, but by the end it feels like it whizzed by! It’s not a bad film, but it’s a film that didn’t completely work for me.

It does try to cover a lot. A failed politician, backed by religious fundamentalists, to create an alternate world, full of the “right types”. It also covers colonialism, abuse of power, rise of the right and genocide. But it’s not a dark film, at its heart is Mickey, who just wants to be happy and to live a life, but has to literally fight with himself to do so.

Of the things that work, Robert Pattinson is at the top of that list. He brings personality to each Mickey and brings plenty of heart to 17. Alongside him Naomi Ackie’s Nasha is a strong foil to Mickey’s insecurities. Ruffalo and his screen wife Toni Collette chew plenty of scenery and are somewhere between fun and grating.

It also looks great with intriguing local inhabitants and fun print gags when recreating Mickey iterations.

But it is also a little jumbled and at just shy of 140 minutes feels it’s stretching its welcome.

Mickey 17 is a film of attempted big Ideas but not all of them land. There’s an enjoyable Robert Pattinson performance at the heart of it and it looks great. But it also feels a little confused and at times feels all of its 140 minutes long. Stuff to enjoy, but maybe not quite enough.

Director:Gia Coppola

Writer:Kate Gersten

After nearly forty years performing at the Razzle Dazzle. Vegas showgirl, Shelly (Pamela Anderson), has her life turned upside down when she finds that the show is too close.  Another slice of “old” Vegas, replaced by the shiny and new. What’s next for her, the others in the show and those around it who find the sands of time catching up on them?

This is a film that has had some mixed reviews, which rather surprised me, because I loved The Last Show Girl. Gia Coppola has delivered a warm hearted and touching look at life and the fight against age and change. It is lit up by a wonderfully nuanced performance by Pamela Anderson, who deserves all of the high praise it is has had.

But it’s not only Anderson which shines. there is also a fabulous performance from Jamie Lee Curtis, as Annette a cocktail waitress with a gambling habit. They are strongly supported by Dave Bautista, who brings plenty of heart to Eddie, the show’s stage manager.

And heart is the word at the centre of the film. This is a gentle bit of storytelling. It’s all about Shelly and the choices she made to pursue a career she loves. Even if the career is not what she believes it to be, a point brutally made to her later in the film. She tackles how it has affected her relationships, including with her daughter (Billie Lourd). She has a charming idealistic view of the world, ignoring the tatty edges and inevitable march of time and its cruelty. But what Anderson delivers, is a beautiful character full of heart and a downtrodden charm, that makes you care.

It’s also well shot, using Vegas’s, backstreets and the tired bits of the city, that are being removed and replaced along with the Showgirls it was once famed for.

The Last Showgirl is a touching look at the inevitable march of time. It revolves around a fabulous Pamela Anderson performance, who is full of understated grace and charm. The story is melancholic as its characters desperately look to hold on to a version of a past, that to the outside eye never existed. A beautifully told tale.