Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Broke (2025)

  Review preview for Broke

  Both Russell and Quaid are very much at ease around the trappings of the ranch where their characters live, their background behaviours adding to the overall sense of authenticity.

  A rodeo rider struggles to cope after he's told that the damage done by repeated injuries means he should never get back on a horse.
• 
  A Journey In Spring (2023)

  Review preview for A Journey In Spring

  A Journey In Spring is one of the most impressive contributions to date in the new Taiwanese cinema.

  An old man has depended on his wife over the years, when she suddenly passes away, he puts her into an old freezer and goes on living a seemingly peaceful life. But the arrival of his son and daughter-in-law brings change.
• 
  Vulcanizadora (2024)

  Review preview for Vulcanizadora

  Although its characters are middle aged, their childish games in the first half signal a kind of coming of age; and yet unlike most films on that theme, which end when childhood is left behind, it keeps us there to explore what it means to be an adult.

  Two friends embark on a disturbing mission in the Michigan woods. When their plan unravels, one must face the surreal and unsettling consequences back home.
• 
  A Desert (2024)

  Review preview for A Desert

  There’s a fantastically unhinged performance in here which it would be a spoiler to say too much about. Everyone is good at what they do.

  A photographer on a road trip meets a carefree young couple and finds himself in danger.
• 
  Rosario (2025)

  Review preview for Rosario

  A lot can happen in one night in a place like this, and most of it does.

  When the grief-stricken young Rosario is forced to wait overnight with the body of her deceased grandmother until an ambulance can get to her through a severe snowfall, she falls prey to ghoulish attacks from supernatural possessors determined to wreak havoc on her.
• 
  Swimming Home (2024)

  Review preview for Swimming Home

  A highly mannered approach, a staccato script and deliberate emotional distance mean that the drama never really comes alive, but the whole thing looks and sounds divine.

  The presence of a mysterious houseguest exposes subtle fractures in the marriage between a poet and a war correspondent.
• 
  White With Fear (2024)

  Review preview for White With Fear

  Goldberg doesn’t speculate, but provides enough glimpses into the country’s troubled history to worry even those who know little of it from elsewhere.

  A deep dive into the decades-long quest by America's conservative political machine to amass power by exploiting racial fault lines and stoking narratives of white victimisation.
• 
  1 Girl Infinite (2025)

  Review preview for 1 Girl Infinite

  A beautifully played, character-driven story, 1 Girl Infinite explores feelings that have grown up in the absence of analysis, without any social framework through which to make sense of them.

  In Changsha, Yin Jia and Tong Tong have carved out a life together, but when Tong Tong begins a relationship with a drug dealer, the devoted Yin Jia is prepared to sacrifice all that she has.
• 
  Hello Beautiful (2025)

  Review preview for Hello Beautiful

  A very safe means whereby viewers might start exploring their own emotions around the subject.

  A successful model finds her life turned upside down when she develops breast cancer.
• 
  She Loved Blossoms More (2024)

  Review preview for She Loved Blossoms More

  The spectacular visual effects are less a product of slick new technology than of pure imagination, and they really are unforgettable.

  Hoping to bring their dead mother back to life, three brothers build a time machine.
• 
  The Other People (2025)

  Review preview for The Other People

  Ultimately. McClarnon’s biggest advantage lies in his cast.

  When a new stepmother's troubled eight-year-old girl befriends a boy that lives in the shadows, the family learns why things that live in the dark don't want be seen.
• 
  The Killer Goldfish (2024)

  Review preview for The Killer Goldfish

  This is probably [Tsutsumi's] strangest film to date, its full-on, rapid fire style combining with a wild and not always coherent plot to exhaust most viewers in the first 15 minutes.

  When angry goldfish begin to commit murders, detectives begin to unravel a surprising case of premeditation.
• 
  In Vitro (2024)

  Review preview for In Vitro

  The plot is not the film’s strongest point, but it functions well enough as a device through which to explore a troubled relationship.

  A woman living with her husband on a remote farm in the near future discovers that he has been keeping a big secret.
• 
  I Know Catherine, The Log Lady (2025)

  Review preview for I Know Catherine, The Log Lady

  Though parts of the film are repetitive and others don’t quite knit together, there are some real gems hidden in there.

  Explores Catherine E Coulson's life and her role as Twin Peaks' Log Lady, featuring interviews and archival footage that reveal her artistic journey and the character's cultural significance.
• 
  It Feeds (2025)

  Review preview for It Feeds

  There’s no room here for the simple morality of the average horror film.

  After a girl bursts into their home psychiatry practice claiming an entity is feeding on her, Jordan and her clairvoyant mother must find a way to stop the force before the girl is taken completely.
• 
  Universe 25 (2025)

  Review preview for Universe 25

  The cinematography is deliberately downbeat. The narrative meanders as its hero does.

  Mott the angel is sent on a holy mission in London and Bucharest. In his search for a mysterious saint, he encounters a world that sends him off course and forces him to face his true identity.
• 
  The Ugly Stepsister (2025)

  Review preview for The Ugly Stepsister

  There’s a good deal of depth and nuance to these relationships as Blichfeldt uses them to illustrate how a society which makes women dependent on men magnifies every petty disagreement and sets them at odds with one another.

  In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira battles to compete with her incredibly beautiful stepsister, and she will go to any length to catch the prince’s eye.
• 
  42nd Street (2025)

  Review preview for 42nd Street

  Like its subject, the film is a fusion of styles.

  On a vibrant Dominican street, dancers and artists chase stardom while battling police oppression. Their raw expression and rebellious spirit create an electrifying clash of culture, authority, and artistic freedom.
• 
  Ash (2025)

  Review preview for Ash

  Lotus may love pretty things, but he doesn’t hold back on the gore.

  A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.
• 
  The Italians (2025)

  Review preview for The Italians

  Breslin, as so often, is the standout.

  An Italian American family meet their son's new girlfriend.
• 
  The Teacher (2023)

  Review preview for The Teacher

  A Teacher is not the most finely crafted film, but it is a cri de cœur.

  A Palestinian schoolteacher struggles to reconcile his risky commitment to political resistance with the chance of a new relationship with volunteer-worker and his emotional support for one of his students.
• 
  Peaches Goes Bananas (2024)

  Review preview for Peaches Goes Bananas

  Shot over 17 years, it mingles intimate personal moments with visceral concert footage, its musical sequences knitted together with some of the best editing you’re likely to see this year.

  From sold-out concerts to family moments with her parents and sister, the passage of time brings loss but also provides liberation for an artist whose body is a canvas for artistic expression.
• 
  Stationed At Home (2025)

  Review preview for Stationed At Home

  The beautiful cinematography, the bluesy jazz score and the gentle pace of the film are beguiling, but Masciari makes sure that we don’t lose sight of the ridiculous.

  On Christmas Eve a cab driver is counting down to seeing the International Space Station... but his night will hold a series of encounters with strangers first.
• 
  Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale Of A Writer Who Decided To Write About A Serial Killer (2024)

  Review preview for Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale Of A Writer Who Decided To Write About A Serial Killer

  The characters work well...but there’s never quite enough energy to events.

  A struggling writer in the midst of a divorce befriends a retired serial killer who incidentally becomes his marriage counselor by day, and killing counselor for his next book by night.
• 
  Lakeview (2024)

  Review preview for Lakeview

  Thorne still comes across as being at the stage where many aspects of her work are experimental. She’s yet to settle into her style.

  Darcy, a bisexual woman, is divorcing her husband. Her close friends all arrive at her parents’ lakeside house, ready to see her through this major life development. However, everyone is distracted by their own dramas, relationships and personal milestones.
• 
  Fatherhood (2025)

  Review preview for Fatherhood

  Despite the anger at the unfairness of what has gone before, this is ultimately a warm-hearted, life-affirming film.

  Between 1979 and 2016, trans people in Norway were forced to undergo sterilisation, depriving them of their right to bear children. Kris has dreamed of becoming a father since kindergarten. Together with his partners Sindre and David, he becomes a part of the resistance forging change.
• 
  I'm Your Venus (2024)

  Review preview for I'm Your Venus

  From the start, there is something different about this film.

  Documentary considering the unsolved murder of Paris Is Burning star Venus Xtravaganza.
• 
  Mermaid (2025)

  Review preview for Mermaid

  The film hangs on Pemberton’s performance, and he imbues Doug with a sweetness that makes us feel for him despite his deeply misguided actions.

  A drug addicted Florida man finds a wounded mermaid and takes her home. When word spreads about his secret, he'll stop at nothing to protect her.
• 
  Summer's Camera (2024)

  Review preview for Summer's Camera

  Sung’s own camera plays tricks, placing objects too close in the foreground so that parts of an image are out of focus, like an incomplete memory.

  Summer refuses to shoot the unfinished roll of film in her father’s camera. That is, until she finds herself captivated by Yeon-woo, her school’s football star. But when the roll is developed, Summer discovers her father’s own high-school relationship with Maru, a local hairdresser.
• 
  The Penguin Lessons (2024)

  Review preview for The Penguin Lessons

  Coogan is well cast in this tricky role, moving easily from humour to heartbreak..

  An Englishman in Uruguay adopts a penguin, smuggles it back to his home in Argentina, and gradually wakes up to the political violence going on around him.
• 
  Time Travel Is Dangerous (2024)

  Review preview for Time Travel Is Dangerous

  A very effective piece of low budget storytelling.

  Best friends Ruth and Megan run a vintage shop in Muswell Hill. Stumbling across a time machine, they embark on trips to the past to stock their shop, with no idea of the irreparable damage they're causing to the fabric of the universe.
• 
  Honey Bunch (2025)

  Review preview for Honey Bunch

  There’s a genuine unpredictability to Honey Bunch, both structurally and thematically.

  Diana’s husband is taking her to an experimental trauma facility deep in the wilderness, but she cannot remember why ... As her memories begin to creep back in, so do some unwelcome sinister truths about her marriage.
• 
  Really Happy Someday (2024)

  Review preview for Really Happy Someday

  The film hinges on amazing vocal work by Lalama.

  Once a rising star of musical theatre, a young man has to find his voice, career and identity all over again after his transition.
• 
  Onda Nova (1983)

  Review preview for Onda Nova

  Throughout the film there is a sense of play, and even as the story evolves to take on darker material, something of that lightness, that happy-go-lucky quality remains.

  The sheer existence of newly formed football team Gayvotas means defiance in a repressed society that despises them. For these women, modesty is a stranger, liberation reigns supreme and sexuality is fluid – their lives presenting a gloriously free alternative to the oppressive regime.
• 
  We Are Faheem & Karun (2024)

  Review preview for We Are Faheem & Karun

  Through the lens of the men’s romance, Onir takes in a good deal more, exploring the complex realities behind assumptions of prejudice and the myriad factors that go into making each of us who we are.

  Karun, a security man from southern India, is posted to Gurez, a remote village in Kashmir. There, he begins a relationship with Faheem, a young Kashmiri man. But it’s a romance that seems doomed from the start
• 
  Sweetness (2025)

  Review preview for Sweetness

  So carefully balanced is this that the film could almost have emerged as a romcom, and it’s that possibility, that clash between the absurdity that cinema has taught us to expect and the bitterness of real life, that makes it so effective.

  When a chance encounter with her rock star crush leads 16 year old Rylee to discover that he's a dysfunctional drug addict, she takes it upon herself to help him, ultimately forcing her teenage fantasies into reality.
• 
  Remaining Native (2025)

  Review preview for Remaining Native

  Bethmann understands the situation well, but her closeness to the teenager and the personal character that the film takes on as a result is something else.

  Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggles to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.
• 
  My Uncle Jens (2025)

  Review preview for My Uncle Jens

  Subtle observations about the racism that underpins this superficially idyllic society pepper a film which repeatedly forces its hero to question his assumptions.

  A young literature teacher lives a peaceful life in Oslo until his estranged uncle from the Iranian part of Kurdistan unexpectedly arrives for a visit.
• 
  Hood Witch (2023)

  Review preview for Hood Witch

  It’s the acting that carries it, and naturally Farahani, one of the finest talents of her generation, does not disappoint.

  A woman earns a living by smuggling exotic animals and illegal goods, developing a mobile app that links users with mystical marabout healers, but one of the user's consultations takes a tragic turn, preciptitaing a violent backlash.
• 
  The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru (2023)

  Review preview for The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru

  An extraordinarily thorough film.

  The story of a torpedoed ship, the prisoners of war on board who struggled to survive, and the local fishermen who went to their aid despite the threat of attack from the Japanese army.
• 
  Dawn Of Impressionism: Paris 1874 (2025)

  Review preview for Dawn Of Impressionism: Paris 1874

  The difference here from more familiar selections allows us to appreciate different qualities in the art.

  A documentary about a pivotal year in the history of French art.
• 
  American Dreamer (2022)

  Review preview for American Dreamer

  It doesn’t quite hit the mark, but that’s not to say that it isn’t a pleasant way to while away an hour and a half.

  An entitled Economics professor pursues a tactic to buy an ailing widow’s mansion for nothing – but he quickly realises his seemingly foolproof strategy won’t be as easy as he thought.
• 
  Glorious Summer (2025)

  Review preview for Glorious Summer

  The film is at its most effective when we feel the urgency of their boredom – the athletic one pacing in circles like a trapped animal – juxtaposed with the languid charm of their environment.

  Three women live in a palace where all needs are met but they can't leave. They develop secret touch-signals and practice death rituals, believing it's their escape. Tensions rise as they struggle between comfort and freedom.
• 
  Snow Leopard Sisters (2025)

  Review preview for Snow Leopard Sisters

  The circumstances of women are central to the film.

  A determined conservationist travels alone to her home in a remote corner of the Himalayas, vowing to end retaliatory killings of local snow leopards. To succeed, she must first convince her young apprentice to love the animals that have taken everything from her and her family.
• 
  Redux Redux (2025)

  Review preview for Redux Redux

  It’s refreshing to encounter a multiverse film that doesn’t mess about.

  Irene Kelly travels through parallel universes, repeatedly killing her daughter's murderer. As she becomes consumed by vengeance, her humanity hangs in the balance.
• 
  Hallow Road (2025)

  Review preview for Hallow Road

  Hallow Road is an Irish co-production, and it shows both in theme and in quality.

  Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.
• 
  Sister Midnight (2024)

  Review preview for Sister Midnight

  Every frame feels like the product of conscious decision-making, with nothing merely carrying us from one point to another.

  Black comedy about a woman trying to navigate a newly arranged marriage.
• 
  Clown In A Cornfield (2025)

  Review preview for Clown In A Cornfield

  Clown in A Cornfield has a lot of heart, and not just of the bloody variety.

  A teenager and her father move to a fading midwestern town in which Frendo the clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge.
• 
  She's The He (2025)

  Review preview for She's The He

  Director Siobhan McCarthy is adept at using the long-established visual language of the high school movie both to entertain and to show us the world from a perspective that’s relatively new to cinema.

  Just before graduation, Alex and Ethan pretend to be trans to get into the girl's lockers. It's all a joke until Ethan realises that for her, it's true. The two must reckon with their changing friendship and the process of coming out.
• 
  The Doom Busters (2025)

  Review preview for The Doom Busters

  If the humour works for you at all, you’ll find it a hoot.

  During the Second World War, a band of misfits must come together to save the galaxy.