Children of The Cult review: Cult documentary charts abuse October 7, 2024 Children of The Cult | Dir Maroesja Perizonius & Alice McShane | ★★★★☆ Documentaries about cults have become sensationalist streaming fodder in recent years, but Children of The Cult strips away the headlines and brings you face to face with victims and their stories. It’s an investigation into the Rajneesh Movement, a cult that had [...]
Joker: Folie à Deux review – a strange, dark musical October 7, 2024 Joker was a fascinating outlier in modern cinema. The violent, Scorsese-inspired psychodrama was a huge risk, whisking the Clown Prince of Crime away from the world of comic books and placing him in a grimy 1980s Gotham City that resembled nothing more than Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. The gamble paid off, with an Oscar for [...]
The Making of Harry Potter studio tour magics up £100m profit October 4, 2024 Profit at Warner Bros’ Harry Potter studio tour near London passed £100m as it created more than 100 jobs to cope with the rising demand for the attraction. The business behind Warner Bros Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, achieved a pre-tax profit of £100.8m for 2023, according to newly-filed accounts with [...]
Pearl & Dean: Cinema advertising giant banking on Wicked and Gladiator 2 success after loss-making year October 2, 2024 Cinema advertising giant Pearl & Dean is hoping that the expected commercial success of Wicked and Gladiator 2 will help it return to the black. The London-headquartered business fell to a pre-tax loss of £1.7m in 2023 despite the boost provided by the popularity of films such as Barbie, Oppenheimer and Wonka. The loss came [...]
My Old Ass review: The big questions of early adulthood September 27, 2024 The premise for breezy coming-of-age comedy My Old Ass is familiar but under the direction of filmmaker Megan Park (The Fallout) there’s a lot that feels fresh. Maisy Stella plays Elliott, an 18-year-old girl on a camping trip with friends who decides to try mushrooms. While high, she is greeted by her 39-year-old self (Aubrey [...]
The Penguin review: HBO batman spin-off series is criminally good September 27, 2024 The streaming feeding frenzy that consumed Covid-era Hollywood may have died down, but studios still make big bets on familiar names. The latest is HBO’s The Penguin, a TV spin-off of 2022’s The Batman which continues the story of Oswald Cobb, played by Colin Farrell. In the aftermath of the film’s events, Gotham City’s criminal [...]
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is hellishly good September 26, 2024 Mike Mignola’s Hellboy stories have an odd legacy in the comic book movie boom. Guillermo Del Toro’s brace of 2000s adaptations, starring Ron Perlman as a monster-busting demon, were cult favourites but never quite blockbuster material. A 2019 reboot starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour was a notorious flop; now the creator of the comics wants [...]
Strange Darling film review: Like a modern Quentin Tarantino September 19, 2024 Independent hit Strange Darling’s grindhouse titles, 35mm film presentation, and use of the Miramax logo gives it the feel of something that might have been made in the mid-90s by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez. It is, however, a modern story with an inventive twist on the serial killer thriller. Told in out-of-order chapters, the [...]
The Substance review: Demi Moore in best film of her career September 19, 2024 The Substance | ★★★★★ There were plenty of standing ovations at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but one film in particular had everyone buzzing. Coralie Fargeat, who came to prominence with her 2017 thriller Revenge, blew audiences away with her latest piece, The Substance. Set in a garish, 80s-style Hollywood, Demi Moore stars as Elizabeth [...]
The Goldman Case film review: a crime drama unlike any other September 19, 2024 The Goldman Case review and star rating:★★★ A real life French crime saga is played out in this biographical drama which puts the audience in the juror’s chair. The Goldman Case recreates the 1975 appeal hearing of Jewish far-left activist Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter). He is serving a life sentence for the crime of four [...]