Hereditary is directed by first time director Ari Aster – who proves himself a brilliant director, creating a film that doubled my heart rate and made everyone leave the cinema with their jaws on the ground. The film is without a doubt something that horrors of recent years have been missing; it pays homage to many greats such as The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby and puts its demonic twist on it. The film centres around a conspiracy: after the death of the grandma, mysterious occurrences begin to happen. Bit-by-bit, each character (excluding the father) becomes more and more twisted – little signs appear, forewarning us of the horror that is about to come. The girl, Charlie, is an abnormal girl: lonely and quite, and when things go south we begin to see the whole picture. The film has been perfectly crafted, inserting elements that foreshadow greater ideas – with the open-ended way the film cuts to credits you are left in shock; there is no one answer to what happened, rather it’s left up to your interpretation. The film tackles the idea of demons, hell and spirits, sprinkling familiar ideas throughout, but the direction, visuals and sound are remarkable. An irritating ticking is always present in the house, whenever the film cuts elsewhere, there is some sort of foley sound to create tension, which the film instils so perfectly. Toni Collette (Annie) puts on the performance of her life. She plays the mum – plagued with troubles and loss – we learn it all stems from her mother who leaves a cryptic letter; it is just prior to that that things go the wrong way. She is an artist, she has been commissioned to re-create scenes from her life – this only emphasises the dark and creepy nature of what surrounds her, as most images are rather terrifying. One element that some may not have caught, that a few others and I did, was Annie's nightmares were signals – implanted subconsciously. Throughout her entire life, she has sleepwalked, and in nightmares and reality, she has attempted to kill her son, because deep down she knew what would happen. The idea of a boy being the host body was implanted early on when it was briefly referenced, the grandmother always wanted Charlie to be a boy and now she is gone, the sacrifices were worth it in the eyes of the maddened grandmother. Hereditary is without a doubt the horror we need, and I think it could be up for Academy recognition when it comes to next year – this is a film that cannot be missed. 5 Stars rating (5/5) Written by Ben Rolph thenamesradical@gmail.com

Greta Gerwig's debut solo film "Lady Bird" shines with fabulous performances from the entire cast, most notably Saoirse Ronan who plays Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson a teenager trying to figure out where she stands who is constantly feuding with her mum (Laurie Metcalf). Christine, a rebelous and ambitious teenager who's charm throughout the film compells the spectator feel a wide range of emotions - from joy to cringe, her character's warmth is utterly charming. Most directors don't have their debut films be so beloved and as close to perfection as this. Gerwig has shown her utterly skilled talent in writing and bringing that superb screenplay to life in a coming of age story unlike any other. Essentially we focus upon the mother-daughter relationship, surrounding them are characters like Julie, who's incredibly charming and smart played by Beanie Feldstein, Kyle, the cool guy around school played by Timothée Chalamet and Danny, who's revealed to be homosexual after being in a first love relationship with Lady Bird played by Lucas Hedges. Throughout the film Ronan's performance is so real and compelling that we as the spectator are sucked into the reality of the film and at no point do you question that and that is why she scored herself a best actress nomination for the Academy Awards. The cinematography is very well done, with the colours shining through showing the dark and light sides of life in Sacramento. The film is about how hard it is for teenagers to grasp the struggles of adult life and it has been captured with charm and emotion, this film will go down in my list as to one of my favourite films of recent years. 5/5 Ben Rolph

Guillermo del Toro's visionary ideas of shine through in a beautiful love story in a Beauty and The Beast type fashion with the heroine falling in love with the beast. Del Toro's film is packed full of extraordinary colours - from the beautiful blues to the lavish greens, this is something not to be missed. The film is littered full of brilliant performances, from the dark Strickland played by Michael Shannon, The hilarious Zelda played by Octavia Spencer, the treacherous yet kind Robert Dr. Hoffstetler played by Michael Stuhlbarg who also recently put on an Oscar worthy performance in "Call Me By Your Name" and finally Sally Hawkins plays a mute cleaner named Elisa Esposito of which she gives the performance of her career portraying Elisa as a sly yet kind woman full of love. The visuals are stunning and Del Toro's mark unmissable as every single shot has his own signature written all over it, from the opening expressionistic scene as the camera takes us through an omnious water filled corridor to Elisa as she floats alone in her flooded apartment which is symbolic of a particular key scene later in the film. Del Toro has claimed a lot of his work with monsters has been influenced by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" novel and the influence from James Whale's "Frankenstein" film is evident along with such films as Steven Spielberg's "ET". The Shape of Water is an outstanding piece of cinema diving into tones of melancholy, love and the supernatural that is made from pure passion - from director Guillermo del Toro as seen in his BAFTA ceremony speech, this is Del Toro's finest film. 5/5 Ben Rolph