Genocidium film review by UK film critic Alasdair MacRae. Starring Eva Langlet, Alexandre David Lejuez directed by Alexandre David Lejuez. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Genocidium Film Review average rating is 1 out of 5 Critic: Alasdair MacRae | Posted on: Jul 14, 2022 Directed by: Alexandre David Lejuez Written by: Alexandre David Lejuez Starring: Eva Langlet, Alexandre David Lejuez CONTENT WARNING: Rape, Suicide. When Angèle (Eva Langlet) leaves the house one day without a face mask she is kidnapped by a killer known as The Dictator (Alexandre David Lejuez). Once held captive in his dingy loft The Dictator then forces a mask onto her and proceeds to torture and rape her. In the intervals between torture, Angèle fantasizes about her death, be it by her own hand or by her captor. What director Alexandre David Lejuez presents here is anti-mask, anti-vax rhetoric in a wrapping of misogynistic violence. He seems to conflate the needs of the public health system with genocide, religious persecution, and martyrdom. The film opens with a quote from political philosopher and Holocaust survivor Hannah Arendt, as if the Holocaust and wearing a face mask are comparable!? From there Lejuez, fittingly both playing The Dictator and being the film’s director, forces Angèle to be sick in her own mask, beats her repeatedly, and engages in a prolonged rape scene that lasts for five whole minutes. Then after seeing Angèle die many violent deaths we are left with the closing image of Christ on the cross. Staggering. To be clear Genocidium is not challenging or culturally significant like the films associated with New French Extremity. Nor does it have the constructs of a Lars Von Trier or Michael Haneke film. And it does not meet the grade of lo-fi pulp that is associated with Rob Zombie. It is simply a flimsy and insulting allegory shot mostly at a Dutch angle and accompanied by classical music in order to disguise itself as being capable of containing a credible idea. Watch the trailer here . Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Alasdair MacRae Indie Feature Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Attachment film review by UK film critic Hope Madden. Starring Josephine Park, Sofie Grabol, Ellie Kendrick directed by Gabriel Bier Gislason. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Attachment Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: Hope Madden | Posted on: Feb 7, 2023 Directed by: Gabriel Bier Gislason Written by: Gabriel Bier Gislason Starring: Josephine Park, Sofie Grabol, Ellie Kendrick There are not nearly enough horror films based in Jewish folklore. Have you ever seen a dybbuk movie? You should. So far, I’ve seen three – Marcin Wrona’s beautiful 2016 haunting, Demon ; Keith Thomas’s 2021 horror, The Vigil ; and writer/director Gabriel Bier Gislason’s latest, Attachment . The thing about dybbuk stories is that I’ve never seen one go well for anyone. Fun! On the surface – and even just below – Attachment is an astute observation on being new to the family, particularly in a situation where the relationship itself is probably not that welcome. All families are weird, but they are weird in such individual ways. Gislason picks that scab effectively, as does his cast. Josephine Park is Maja, a Danish actress best known – really, only known – for playing Santa’s Elf in a long-defunct TV series. She literally runs into Leah (Ellie Kendrick) at a bookstore. Leah is in from London doing some research, the two fall quickly in love, and after Leah is injured during a seizure, Maja offers to return with her to London and her mother’s care. There is something quietly astute about the way Gislason sets up the dynamic: the willfully oblivious love interest, the domineering parent (Sofie Gråbøl) unwilling to be gracious, and the insecure new love unsure how to make herself fit into the family. All of it feels authentic, even if the stakes and weirdness are clearly ratcheted up a few notches. Attachment delivers slow-burn horror that repays close attention but never falls to gimmickry. Yes, the situation is absurd, but everyone behaves in a way that is rooted in real-world expectations and experiences. When the film changes its point of view, you realize where its compassion really lies. Attachment is a nightmare about parenting, about releasing your everything – your beautiful, tender baby – into a vast and brutal world. At the center of the entire nightmare is love, of course, because there is no real horror unless love is at stake. It’s that knowledge that makes the film hurt. Hug your mom. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Hope Madden Digital / DVD Release, LGBTQ+ < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Influenced film review by UK film critic Jason Knight. Starring Olesia Nikolaiets, Ciaran Cochlan, Asad Panjwani, Sarah Collins directed by Asad Panjwani. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Influenced Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: Jason Knight | Posted on: Dec 8, 2022 Directed by: Asad Panjwani Written by: Asad Panjwani Starring: Olesia Nikolaiets, Ciaran Cochlan, Asad Panjwani, Sarah Collins An online celebrity is pursued by an obsessed fan. While walking home one night, social media influencer Amber (Nikolaiets) is approached by Dane (Cochlan), a man who claims to be one of her followers. He proceeds to speak to her and offer her chocolates and refuses to leave her alone, causing her to panic and run to her house. He runs after her and enters her property by force. What follows is a nasty confrontation that goes from bad to worse. This short is a stalker thriller that explores the world of internet personalities, particularly the bad side of it. It suggests that social media celebrities can affect certain individuals the wrong way and that can have very unfortunate consequences. It also points out that sometimes influencers can be double-faced and pretend to have a certain personality, in the interest of gaining followers. The film is tense and has plenty of nail-biting moments. Dane chases Amber through a street and the two of them get into a physical confrontation inside her home. Things get more and more out of hand and become life-threatening. However, there are also comedic moments, such as when the crazed fan removes his shoes once he has entered Amber's property. It is not clear whether the story is also meant to be a dark comedy, however the comical feeling is there. The acting is not the best, but that does not spoil the film. Nikolaiets plays an internet celebrity whose job has ended up getting her more than she bargained for. Cochlan is the one who steals the show with his vivid portrayal of a disturbed individual who is obsessed with Amber. Praise goes to the dynamic, tense and sinister score, which works rather effectively during the opening, where Dane is introduced, making it clear that he has sinister intentions. Special mention also goes to fight choreographer Holly Prentice, who makes the hand-to-hand fight scenes tense and vicious. The stylised closing credits also deserve commendations. This short is definitely interesting and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. It is a story about obsession, mental health and the dangers of being an online celebrity. The fact that it ends on a cliffhanger may be unsatisfying for some, but may be approved by others. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Jason Knight Short Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Love in the Time of Caller ID film review by UK film critic Joe Beck. Starring Luke Engel, Peter Engel, Amber Rinehart directed by Neil Sandhoefner. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Love in the Time of Caller ID Film Review average rating is 2 out of 5 Critic: Joe Beck | Posted on: Jul 15, 2024 Directed by: Neil Sandhoefner Written by: Neil Sandhoefner Starring: Luke Engel, Peter Engel, Amber Rinehart It’s always difficult for children when their parents split apart, or, for whatever reason, are no longer together. One of the hardest stages of that process is when their parents, or parent, somewhat inevitably moves on to a new partner, taking up much of their time and attention, whilst also causing a child’s emotional state to go into turmoil. ‘Love in the Time of Caller ID’, attempts to depict that effect which such circumstances has on children, though lacks the specificity and nuance to truly grapple with the subject matter at hand in any real depth. If nothing else, the creativity of ‘Love in the Time of Caller ID’ must surely be praised. It has its own distinctive style, with characters that, until its final few moments, speak only through speak bubbles, as each frame is a different drawing. It is a unique way to present a story and to try and broach such a subject, and such a fresh approach to storytelling should be praised. At no point does this artistic style feel as though it detracts from the film, and at no point is sound, or even any conventional form of animation missed. It is a wonderful expression of craftsmanship. It’s title obviously stems from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s seminal novel ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’, though where the novel is romantic, Neil Sandhoefner’s short film focuses on the parental love two brothers have for their mother, and vice versa, and how that is impacted by the changes of her new relationship. She’s bought an answering machine for them so that they won’t miss calls, and the film, plot wise at least, centres around the answer they’ve left on there, and their desire for their mother to call and hear it as she has gone to spend the night with her new partner, Chuck, and his family. The fundamental issue is that there is a paradox at the heart of ‘Love in the Time of Caller ID’, that can only be explained in a way that takes away from everything the film is trying to say. It is illogical that the mother would leave her two kids alone unsupervised if they are still young enough to get excited by answering machines and caller id’s, yet it is also illogical that they are older than that and cannot accept that their mother has gone away for a night. The two things don’t make sense together, and so the film’s believability starts to fall apart and it all begins to feel rather whimsical and out of touch with reality. There is the framing device of a science fiction classic that the two brothers are watching on tv, yet that fails to bring real nuance to the film, instead only convoluting the narrative. Its attempts to depict the emotional turmoil and understanding of parental love comes across as poorly thought out and lacking any firm idea of what parental love truly means. Therefore, whilst the creativity of ‘Love in the Time of Caller ID’ is admirable, it lacks any real depth and beyond its technical aspects is a largely frustrating film. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Joe Beck Short Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Joyride film review by UK film critic Christie Robb. Starring Olivia Colman, Charlie Reid directed by Emer Reynolds. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Joyride Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Christie Robb | Posted on: Dec 22, 2022 Directed by: Emer Reynolds Written by: Ailbhe Koegan Starring: Olivia Colman, Charlie Reid A cozy story of mutual self-discovery, director Emer Reynolds and writer Ailbhe Keogan’s Joyride delivers a series of poignant moments but unfortunately not enough of them to result in a believable conclusion. The excellent Olivia Colman plays Joy, a solicitor that has recently given birth to a late-in-life baby that she wishes to give away to a childhood friend. The delightful Charlie Reid plays Mully, a teenager who has recently lost his mom to cancer and is left with a scumbag dad who wants him to steal money from a hospice fundraiser to clear his debts. Their lives intersect when the two try to use the same stolen taxi. The transitional nature of a road trip during a transitional period in both of their lives provides the opportunity for each of the two to learn things they never knew about themselves and to grow and mature as individuals. They are doing this while rolling through the Irish countryside, which is quite a pleasurable backdrop. The two leads are very talented and their banter is written naturally enough to be believable. However, the plot at times veers into the ridiculous, ignoring so much of the way the actual world works as to leave you wondering if you accidentally got the genre wrong and you are watching a fantasy. It’s a world in which you can evade the police by simply turning into the first driveway on the side of the road and 13 year-old-boys can function as effective lactation consultants. But, if you are looking for a movie to attempt to give you heart-expanding holiday feelings without the Hallmark tinsel explosion, Joyride might be the movie for you. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Christie Robb Theatrical Release < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Farewell Symphony film review by UK film critic Chris Olson. Starring Qunxi Wang, Joy Sung Kim, Anne Ruttencutter, Jianshe Zhou directed by Xiwen Miao. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Farewell Symphony Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: Chris Olson | Posted on: Feb 14, 2022 Directed by: Xiwen Miao Written by: Xiwen Miao Starring: Qunxi Wang, Joy Sung Kim, Anne Ruttencutter, Jianshe Zhou “Brave women always pay a higher price.” Having recently interviewed filmmaker Xiwen Miao , I jumped at the chance to watch (and review) one of her short films. Farewell Symphony is a sumptuous and aching portrayal of life’s journeys and the loyalties we have to face, and break, if we are to ever find happiness. Qunxi Wang plays the younger version of the lead role Yang Yang, a talented cellist whose family expects her to toe a life of preordained expectations. When she defies them and moves to New York to pursue her dream of playing music, we can see the sacrifice still troubling her decades later through the life of older Yang Yang (played by Joy Sung Kim). Farewell Symphony is full of beautifully short music sequences, such as younger Yang Yang furiously playing her cello after a disastrous dinner with her family, or the older version playing solo on a stage without an audience. These scenes are the true highlight of the short film, Miao seems completely capable of mesmerising her audience with a few simple ingredients. The scenes between the older Yang Yang and her partner Maria (played brilliantly by Anne Ruttencutter) are perhaps the most emotionally affecting. With Maria’s ailing health clearly provoking a multitude of buried hurts for our protagonist, it is their loving affection for each other that becomes a much-needed antidote to the cruel abandonment shown to younger Yang Yang by her parents (Yuebo Wang and Xiaolan Wang). But the crossroads that our lead finds herself in seems just as crushing as her one decades ago, whether to continue to pursue her musical career at the cost of leaving those closest to her. It’s a film that deftly touches upon expected gender roles and social conventions without ever needing to spell it out for the viewer. Yang Yang’s numerous dilemmas create instant empathy from an audience who will understand to varying degrees the expectations thrown on to them by their own family members. The migration that the central character takes is also key. The idea of uprooting one’s self to another country in order to pursue a dream is hard enough, let alone when her loved ones condemn her for it. This severed connection plays out particularly brilliantly with the Grandpa character, expertly played by Jianshe Zhou. Farewell Symphony is a subtle family drama with a rich musical tapestry that makes it engrossing for the audience throughout. There are a few bum notes along the way, such as some wooden dialogue being performed in the dinner scene but these are far and few between. Largely, Miao composes a generously engaging story and then delivers it spectacularly on the parallel stages of young life and older life. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Chris Olson Short Film, World Cinema < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Corsage film review by UK film critic Hope Madden. Starring Vicky Krieps directed by Marie Kreutzer. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Corsage Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: Hope Madden | Posted on: Jan 3, 2023 Directed by: Marie Kreutzer Written by: Marie Kreutzer Starring: Vicky Krieps Neither hero worship nor maudlin tale of objectification, Corsage delivers a daring reimagining of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Hungary, played with mischievous relish by Vicky Krieps. This is hardly the first fanciful reworking of a historical biopic. Director Pablo Larraín has reconsidered two such lives as tragic cinematic poems – 2021’s Spencer and 2016’s Jackie . Just last year, Andrew Dominik turned America’s most recognizable icon into the object of punishment porn (Blonde ). While two of those films are lovely and one is unwatchable, it took filmmaker Marie Kreutzer to reimagine one iconic life without simplifying the tale’s heroine to a tragic beauty to pity. Kreutzer’s year-in-the-life is fictional, though Empress Elisabeth was certainly real. Her presence clearly influences this picture, but Kreutzer’s fantasy – replete with the most gloriously misplaced modern songs – looks askew at the renowned and misunderstood beauty. As Sofia Coppola did with her empathetic and under-appreciated portrait, Marie Antoinette , Kreutzer and Krieps establish the startling aloneness facing a royal woman, particularly a foreign sovereign married into royalty abroad. Krieps excels in particular during scenes where Elisabeth struggles to leverage what power is available to her. The audacity of Elisabeth’s behavior unveils a fiery joy and brittle vulnerability in Krieps’s performance. Wonderfully refreshing are the vanity and selfishness that are allowed to creep into the portrait. Corsage ’s hero is no saint. She’s a free spirit to be admired, as well as a self-centered brat willing to require the sacrifice from others she’s disinterested in making herself. Here again, Krieps is a superstar. Elisabeth’s flaws are outrageous, her strengths enviable, her oppression great. In Krieps’s hands, the composite is an endlessly compelling conundrum, as frustrating as she is fascinating. The film sees power as freedom and acknowledges how little of it there is for women, even women who seem to have it all. In the end, it’s the film’s and Krieps’s humanity that make the final moment of freedom feel earned and victorious rather than fraught with compromise. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Hope Madden Theatrical Release, World Cinema < All Reviews Next Film Review >

No Bears film review by UK film critic George Wolf. Starring Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobasheri directed by Jafar Panahi. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS No Bears Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: George Wolf | Posted on: Feb 8, 2023 Directed by: Jafar Panahi Written by: Jafar Panahi Starring: Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobasheri Even of you know nothing of acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, No Bears (Khers nist) should be an absorbing and compelling experience. But when you consider that Panahi (This Is Not a Film , Taxi, Closed Curtain ) not only shot the film in secret, but currently sits in a Tehran prison, and is barred from writing, directing, giving interviews or traveling outside Iran until 2030, his continued commitment to agitation through artistic expression grows immeasurably inspirational. With No Bears , Panahi uses the parallel lives of two Iranian couples to comment on the struggles of that expression, and on the powerful forces that conspire to restrict free will. Panahi plays himself, arriving at a small village near the Turkish border to set up a base where he can direct his latest film remotely, joining the set through internet connection. While two actors in his cast (Mina Kavani and Bakhtiyar Panjeei) are trying desperately to land fake passports and flee Iran, Panahi quickly becomes a person of interest in the village. Word has spread that Panahi may have unwittingly snapped a photo of a young Iranian woman (Darya Alei) with a man (Amir Davari) other than the one who has “claimed” her. Villagers are demanding the photo as proof of a grave misdeed, while the woman in question fears the bloodshed that will come from the photo’s existence. Despite numerous reassurances to Panahi about “honorable” intent, the pressure from the villagers only increases, much like the desperation of his actors looking to start a new life. Panahi films in a style that is understandably guerilla, but stands in sharp contrast to the dense, and thrillingly complex storytelling at work. He is deftly calling out both the oppressors and the enablers, while he weighs the rippling effect of his own choices amid a deeply ingrained bureaucracy of fundamentalism and fear, superstition and gossip. No Bears is a brave and bold blurring of fact and fiction, with Panahi embracing the gritty authenticity of the most urgent first-person documentary and the layered storylines of a political page-turner. It may be his most daring project to date, accentuated by a defiant final shot that teeters on the line between ending and beginning. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic George Wolf Theatrical Release, World Cinema < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Chum film review by UK film critic William Hemingway. Starring Alice Eve, Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond directed by Jonathan Zuck. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Chum Film Review average rating is 1 out of 5 Critic: William Hemingway | Posted on: Aug 9, 2026 Directed by: Jonathan Zuck Written by: Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone Starring: Alice Eve, Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond A couple of unhappily married newlyweds go on a boat trip on the morning after their wedding, only for disaster to strike in the form of an overly aggressive shark and a psychotic trawler captain with an existential axe to grind. It seems odd that anyone would want to try to remake, or attempt to make their own, Jaws (1975). Perfection should be left alone. Not even Steven Spielberg wanted to have another crack at it, and this was after the unprecedented runaway success of the first one, where he had single-handedly created the phenomenon of the summer blockbuster. But of course, this is 2026, and in the intervening fifty years everything has been deemed to be up for grabs, and nobody has any shame any more, so rather than reverence and a healthy amount of distance, we instead have an entire subgenre of shark-porn which includes the endless chomping up of body parts and oceans of blood bubbling to the surface. Most of the modern shark movies tend to come in as self-referential, trying to be ironically funny, torture-porn moved to the sea, types of affairs, that know they’re bad (if not just quite how bad), but every so often one comes along that thinks it’s pure drama and takes itself seriously enough to bypass all the things that allow people to keep watching this nonsense. Chum , is one of those. With an intro scene straight-up ripped from Jaws , just with some supremely inferior editing going on, and a hammy, pseudo-philosophical voiceover instead of the iconic John Williams music, Chum sets out its stall as a cheap, less than B-movie, knock-off, that is going to make us sit through every shark trope under the sun. Lo-and-behold, what we get is eighty-six minutes of inane drivel, where a boatload of fuckwits get thrown overboard and ground into mincemeat by the sharp, pointy teeth of a fearsome, somehow sentient and overly-emotional, sea predator. In true Gen-Z style, there is only a minimal amount of setup and absolutely no characterisation involved in getting everybody onto the boat, with an ensemble of trust-fund responsibility shirkers filling out our roster of shark food. There’s this guy, and that guy, and a couple of bikini women with big, inflatable, life-buoys strapped to their chests (even sharks have to contend with their food being contaminated by micro-plastics these days), and Alice Eve, who also stumped up enough cash to be credited as a producer on this displeasure cruise. Alice and her beau hate each other, but they got married anyway, because, hey it’s 2026 and we do what we like. They’re in Malta, where the dangerous sharks don’t usually go, but by golly that’s a good time to shoehorn in some trite virtue-signalling about climate change and the changing feeding patterns of sea predators, even though the entire production overuses AI in its feeding frenzy sequences and must have swallowed up an entire island nation’s worth of potable water in generating this slop. But, you know, we’ll make the point anyway, because we can’t do our own research and even when we’re holding one opinion whilst simultaneously acting in an antithetical manner, we’ll argue about it until we die, or at least get our face onto some fascist’s debate-porn blog. So, obviously, the sailing trip goes bad, and is literally sunk to the bottom of the ocean, when a gnarly sea-captain comes along to save the day and fishes the vacuous ones from the water. He’s not the hero he makes out to be, however, and soon he’s over-expositioning everything in a dire monologue that lays everything out on the deck. He’s the one in the voiceover who lost his wife in the intro sequence, and after tracking the shark that did it, for years all over the seven seas, he’s come to the point where he’s trying live human bait to catch the anthropomorphised killer. Such is the extent of ‘story’ that we get from Chum , and then we must watch as one by one everybody gets munched on by AI sharks, and reams of AI blood are spilled into the crystal waters of the Mediterranean. Almost everything in Chum is rushed and shoddily done, from the laughable wooden acting, to the non-existent script, to the disgustingly bad continuity, to the aforementioned lack of skilled, paid work in the visual effects. Only the cinematography above the water line, of the coast and the horizon, and the rather gruesome ripping apart of bodies under the water, offers any sort of affecting moments for the audience, while everything else flounders and eventually drowns in its own incompetence. Chum is a prime example of where modern filmmaking for the TikTok generation is going. It scrapes its ideas from old classics and strips everything of value or merit from them, eschewing involved themes and storylines, or complex characterisation, for those who can no longer hold these things in their heads for any length of time, and packages it in dumbed-down bitesize chunks that have no meaning or weight behind them, just so that some torture-porn gooners can get their adrenaline fix for the hour before they go and find some other trash to consume. It would be best if films like this were never made at all, but in the modern age it seems the best we can do is stay well away from them, and resolutely refuse to pay any money to see them, so that they hopefully sink without a trace into the deep blue depths where nobody but the fishes are troubled by them. Chum will be available on Digital Download from 17th August Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic William Hemingway Digital / DVD Release, Indie Feature Film < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Speak No Evil film review by UK film critic William Hemingway. Starring Teni Osho directed by Shayaan. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Speak No Evil Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: William Hemingway | Posted on: Jul 28, 2024 Directed by: Shayaan Written by: Shayaan Starring: Teni Osho In the interests of avoiding confusion, it may be worthwhile mentioning that at this point in time, production studio Blumhouse are releasing their newest film, starring James McAvoy, called Speak No Evil . It is a remake of the Danish horror film of the same name which was released two years ago, and as you might expect, has nothing to do with the film we are reviewing today. So, today’s offering from WM Productions, writer/director Shayaan, and co-writer Kieran Rees, is a four-minute short containing only one character and a short TV cameo from Boris Johnson. We follow our unnamed protagonist (Osho) as he gets himself jazzed up, ready for a night of low-level terrorism; dancing around his kitchen, pointing finger guns at himself in the mirror, and putting on his faintly creepy Phantom of the Opera mask as he heads out onto the streets of the city. Boris has been on the telly lying to the public and the Home Affairs Select Committee, and we see him bumbling over his words as our guy flits past in a pirouette as he’s warming himself up for the night ahead. The first scene plays a lot like a music video, with some wild and winsome tones getting us all in the mood while our guy throws some shapes on the kitchen dancefloor. With no dialogue forthcoming it looks as though this might be all we get – and that in itself would have been no bad thing – but soon the mood shifts, the music takes a much more sinister tone, and the visuals show us that our man may not be the happy-go-lucky optimist that he first seemed. There is a great attention to lighting throughout the whole of Speak No Evil , which Shayaan uses to fill their frames and highlight their character. Similarly, the sound design creates a real sense of atmosphere and plays a large part in expressing the intentions of the main character to the audience. It’s just unfortunate that there are no credits from which to reference the skilled workers behind these technical aspects, and if it so happens that Shayaan did all the work behind the scenes theirself – in what was a one day shoot and five hours of post-production – then they should be commended greatly for the level of outcome achieved. It’s not so easy to determine a message or a moral from Speak No Evil ’s denouement, ending as it does on a bit of an arthouse note. The title obviously alludes to the theme of the film, but still it’s hard to figure just who or what is being aimed at, even if the only spoken words in the film are “Fuck Boris”. It is unclear whether Shayaan is suggesting we take the law into our own hands, or that we should speak truth to power through demonstrable acts, or if those in power should speak truth to the people lest they suffer the consequences, or what. There is a slight niggling sensation that Speak No Evil could be glamourising or endorsing terrorist acts, but to be honest everything is so low-key and vague that anything expressed is unlikely to have any impact at all. Still, the film looks good and the music’s great, so even if you don’t agree with the sentiment, or the message gets lost along the way, there’s still lots to like in this four-minute short. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic William Hemingway Short Film, Digital / DVD Release < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Emily film review by UK film critic Hope Madden. Starring Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead directed by Frances O'Connor. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Emily Film Review average rating is 4 out of 5 Critic: Hope Madden | Posted on: Feb 22, 2023 Directed by: Frances O'Connor Written by: Frances O'Connor Starring: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead Wuthering Heights was always a conundrum of Gothic literature. It is mean, its tragedies ugly, its heroes selfish and boorish. It’s a dark and misanthropic piece of fiction often mistaken as romance. Lucky for all of us, Frances O’Connor appreciates the twisted nastiness of the novel and suggests a vividly unusual inner life for its author in her feature debut, Emily. Emma Mackey stars with an understated but authentic weirdness as the misfit Brontë sister. Emily doesn’t seem suited for teaching, or for much of anything. The stories she tells are childish and they embarrass her sisters, and she won’t let anyone read what she’s writing. She seems to disappoint everyone around her except her brother, Branwell (Fionn Whitehead). In O’Connor’s loose biopic, Emily finds the space to explore once her sisters are gone off to teach and she is alone with Branwell. The filmmaker slyly inserts memorable scenes from Brontë’s novel as moments, here more innocent, between brother and sister. These moments work on many levels, but mainly because writers draw from their own lives. The dynamic complicates and Emily’s transformation deepens as an unexpected, almost involuntary suiter comes into the picture. Untethered by the judgments of her sisters, Emily is free to determine her own course and the journey is intoxicating to witness. Mackey glows as her character slowly, finally comes into her own, giving us a dimensional, tender and delicately genius young woman you yearn to know better. Whitehead charms in a slightly underwritten but nonetheless poignant role. Oliver Jackson-Cohen – so different than the unrelenting narcissist of The Invisible Man – delivers the greatest arc of any character as assistant parson William. His performance is never showy, but moments of vulnerability give the film its heartbeat and heartbreak. O’Connor breathes life with all its chaos, misery and joy into the Brontës’ 19th century. Emily feels less like the vision of a newcomer than the product of a passionate kindred spirit. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Hope Madden Theatrical Release < All Reviews Next Film Review >

Street Trash film review by UK film critic Chris Buick. Starring Sean Cameron Michael, Donna Cormack-Thomson, Joe Vaz, Gary Green, Warrick Grier, Shuraigh Meyer, Lloyd Martinez Newkirk directed by Ryan Kruger. HOME | FILMS | REVIEWS Street Trash Film Review average rating is 3 out of 5 Critic: Chris Buick | Posted on: Jan 5, 2025 Directed by: Ryan Kruger Written by: Ryan Kruger, James C. Williamson Starring: Sean Cameron Michael, Donna Cormack-Thomson, Joe Vaz, Gary Green, Warrick Grier, Shuraigh Meyer, Lloyd Martinez Newkirk After taking fellow vagabond Alex (Cormack-Thomson) under their wing, a group of individuals living rough on the streets of Cape Town uncover a government plot to do away with the homeless community permanently through the use of a gruesome chemical weapon known as “V". With their very existence on the line, Ronald (Michael) and his gang must form unstable alliances and risk everything to make sure they don’t become nothing. Street Trash , a sequel of sorts to the 1987 cult film of the same name, is writer & director Ryan Kruger’s follow-up from his deservedly multi-award nominated and winning comedic sci-fi horror Fried Barry . There are a few returning faces here, both Gary Green, who played the titular Barry, and Sean Cameron Michael returning as Ronald, swap roles here with Michael taking the lead of this band of displaced misfits and Green’s 2-Bit helping fill out a cast of vibrant, eccentric and shall we say, rather colorful characters. Ronald is the affable leader, who recruits Alex to show her the ropes and the glue that holds them all together. There’s Chef (Vaz, also returning as part of the Fried Barry alum), the sage elder of the group with unmatched street-life know-how and a unique perspective on fairy-tale morality and message. Rounding off, we have the aforementioned Green as 2-Bit, mostly silent but always accompanied by his foul-mouthed imaginary friend Sockle as well as twins Pap (Meyer) and Wors (Newkirk) and the mostly off-screen (bar a hand or two) Offley (Kruger). Each one much like the film, is as crazy and out there as the next, but with all clearly having an immensely good time and giving no less than one hundred percent. It’s this band of brothers and sisters that must come together to take down the over-tanned and downright despicable Mayor Mostert (Grier, themselves fully committed to the cause), a bubbling cesspit of vitriol and hate who will stop at nothing to wipe them all out once and for all. And, as fans of Fried Barry might expect, Street Trash is a crazy film and, as its opening moments will very much prove, not one for the faint-hearted. You would very quickly lose track trying to keep count of how many body parts pop or squelch or are indeed pulled/chopped/snapped off in-between all the crude knob gags, and although it does end up eventually repeating its tricks somewhat, its impressive array of practical effects is just exactly the sort of thing fans of the gross-out, body-horror genre will lap up, especially so in the finale. Also surprisingly, it's a film that actually says a lot, class divides, civil unrest and over-policing are all tackled here to create a film that ultimately culminates in a messy affair that keeps you rooting for the underdogs. Definitely not to everyone's taste, but for those with the appetite for cranked-up body horror, in Street Trash a buffet of delights awaits. Buy UKFR Banner Space About the Film Critic Chris Buick Indie Feature Film, Theatrical Release < All Reviews Next Film Review >