While it doesn’t always hit the mark, in its best moments the jet-black culinary comedy The Menu cleverly (and violently) skewers foodie pretention, the cult of celebrity chefs, the loss of artistic credibility and America’s unspoken class system. There are familiar flavours here with dashes of Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Haneke, disturbing dinner party dramas like Luis Bunuel’s The
Read moreGonzo sci fi comedy/drama Something in the Dirt sits at the low-budget, DIY end of the movie making spectrum. This is both a blessing and a curse as the film has a raw, freewheeling energy but also feels unfocused and leaves us with the gnawing sense that the opportunity for a much more interesting film has been missed. This is,
Read moreDirector Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever faced an unusual challenge in that it’s star Chadwick Boseman, who played the title character, tragically passed away in 2020. This left us with the question, without Black Panther himself, is there enough in the world of Wakanda to really engage audiences? The answer is yes (just) but at 161 minutes, this
Read moreMrs Harris goes to Paris is a charming but very twee and often implausible feel-good comedy/drama. The film at times recalls movies like Hidden Figures, The Help and Pretty Woman as it features a working-class woman who’s ignored or looked down upon by society but proves astonishingly formidable and cleverer than those who see themselves as her superiors. There’s also
Read moreArmageddon Time, which was the opening night feature at this year’s Jewish Film Festival, is a wonderfully poignant rites of passage drama based on the experiences of its writer/ director James Gray. (Michael) Banks Repeta plays a slightly fictionalised version of Gray named Paul Graff, a decent but precocious and trouble-prone 12-year-old living in Queens, New York in 1980. A
Read moreBros, which was written by Billy Eichner (yes, Craig from Parks and Recreation) who also stars and Nicholas Stoller (who also directs) has been dubbed the first LGBTQI rom-com. Pasting a label on a film like that can feel a bit dubious but it does serve to remind us of one of the film’s key themes, the attempt by our
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