Cleverer than it looks, and not altogether as cynical, Healing Andy may not always succeed in its tricky balancing act but it deserves praise for doing something so different.
When Andy gets left at the altar, his best friends turn his Italian honeymoon into a ‘bros trip’ for the world to see. But as their influencer-fueled getaway spirals into a nightmare, they soon realise some things aren’t meant to be filmed.
Despite, or perhaps because of this general air of ephemerality, you want to hold on to the moment and particularly to that sweet spot of youth, so deftly portrayed by Clemons, when everything is blossoming with possibility.
In Red Hook, Brooklyn, a father and daughter become an unlikely songwriting duo in the last summer before she leaves for college.
Imagine all the Terrible/Awesome Clichés That Could Happen In The American Wilderness and construct a mental bingo card to tick them off. Spoiler warning: There's a good chance you're going to get a full house.
After a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements.
Zünd’s film comes at extreme climate change from a human perspective, showing its impact on those who live in the region.
After envisioning a near future in which climate change disrupts lives and relationships in Don’t Let the Sun, Zünd seeks out that same dystopia in the real world.
The two time periods are balanced with care although the earlier one with its opulence and lush cinematography from Walter Lassally remains the most beguiling.
A woman heads to India, intrigued by the scandal caused by her grandaunt.
This a film that is peppered with perfect moments, yet the embarrassment of riches in terms of its targets means it also feels quite scattergun at times.
Trouble brews when an idealistic reverend is sent to a posh parish by mistake.
It’s cobbled together so haphazardly that one finds oneself wanting to hand out a badge for effort, because it’s not easy to make a feature film from nothing, yet whilst the team behind it ought to feel proud of themselves, it’s not very watchable.
The mysterious poisoning of a detective friend leads Kent, a retired English teacher, on the search for a transforming perfume that could shape the political and religious stability of Northern Ireland.
There’s a lot here that’s familiar, but the endearing characters and great comic timing turn it into something distinctive, with a natural charm that few films in this subgenre can match.
Finnish black metal band Impaled Rektum is in jail but must escape and make it to a music festival in order to save the day after the guitarist's father falls ill and their family home/business faces demolition.
Occasional lapses into sentiment are balanced by the absurdity of the situations in which the band find themselves, the script's dry wit and the energy of the music.
Struggling black metal band Impaled Rektum have the chance to perform at a big rock festival, but getting there is half the battle.
Though not exactly polished, it has an innate exuberance that will encourage viewers to tick with it.
Stand-up Joe Johnson decides to share a Halloween weekend away with a group of friends. They jokingly suggest that if they get drunk, high, and behave badly enough, hopefully they'll attract their own psycho killer. The joke is suddenly very much on them.
The 3D animation embodies the characters well, and the landscapes are richly atmospheric, from sunny meadows to dark caves and wild, unfamiliar forest.
Free spirited Heidi faces forces beyond her years to protect her grandfather and the Alpine wilderness she loves from a ruthless businessman and the hungry jaws of his new sawmill.
When Chiquita is sent to prison for debt, her introverted girlfriend Chela is left to her own devices. Chela offers rich women a taxi service in her old car. As she explores the outside world she also starts to focus on her own desires.
Cinema is full of monsters, but few in recent memory have been so capable of eliciting our sympathy and understanding.
Hellboy confronts an Elven prince determined to raise an ancient army and destroy the world of men; and has domestic troubles to deal with at the same time.
A woman wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer with a badly infected wound. A voice from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a doctor within the hour or she'll suffer a horrific fate.
Told in an incidental, roundabout sort of way, a knitting together of assorted observations such as one might make whilst browsing, not yet certain what one wishes to buy.
In the shadow of the pandemic, a small town rallies to protect a beloved local bookstore.
Though it's no longer likely to shock horror audiences, Hellraiser remains highly watchable, and there is no doubting its importance in the history of cinema.
An unfaithful wife faces demonic horrors after her dead lover escapes from Hell.
Too silly to be upsetting, too well crafted to be dismissed, Hell Hole strikes just the right balance and does a great job of sustaining it throughout.
In the Adams Family's celebration of the classic creature-feature, an American-led fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness find themselves at odds with government assigned environmental advisors. When they get approval to drill, the workers uncover the unimaginable: a dormant parasitic monster entombed deep in the frozen rock. Now awakened, it tears through the mining facility in search of the perfect host.
The ‘bad guy’ really is the bank itself – or maybe the American Dream, a frothy notion that never had much currency here and is now bankrupt in the face of a recession.
A man and his ex-con brother hatch a plot to try to save their family farm.
If you are willing to accept that this is an exploratory snapshot that seeks to confine itself to the times it is portraying and leave any consideration of modern-day echoes to the conscience of the viewer, this is a good story, well told.
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American Maid's point of view on the White families they work for.
Posey is irresistable. She has perfected the dysfunctional bitch to such a degree, it is pure sweet delight, masochisticly speaking, to keep your eyes on her.
Dark fable about a novelist hobo who introduces a man to literature, with extraordinary consequences.
It has been 38 years since anything has shaken up the genre quite like Herd.
A couple try to save their failing marriage by taking an isolated canoe trip in rural Missouri. When one of them breaks her leg, they become trapped in a small town affected by a viral outbreak.
He manages not only to reveal a thesis statement on his entire career, but also dive into the experimental territory like never before.
A typical middle-class family struggles with financial troubles in an ever-changing world, caught in a historical web of circumstances they’re unaware of.
While Hereafter is at times thought-provoking in its own way, it lacks the sense of friction and urgency that have made his previous works such must-watch masterpieces.
Interweaving stories about three characters touched by death in different ways.
I personally found Aster’s film incredibly unsettling, one of the closest approximations to the kind of nightmares that really shake me that I have seen on film recently.
After their reclusive grandmother passes away, the Graham family tries to escape the dark fate they've inherited.
Overall the film is finished to a very high standard.
A disaffected teenage girl must team up with a renegade witch to protect her little sister from a murderous coven determined to use her as a human sacrifice in an apocalyptic ritual on Halloween night.
Perhaps the most entertaining cinematic romp of the year so far.
A sophisticated Thirties soiree at an isolated country mansion descends into carnage, gore and demonic possession as rivalries and old friendships are put to the test when a gateway to Hell opens up.
News and features
News & Features
Going ape
Antonin Niclass on character creation, empathy and animated short Into The Forest
Freeform
Will Niava on grief, new immigrant experiences and Jazz Infernal
In silence
Emir Kumova on child marriage in Türkiye, moral challenges and making The Witness
