Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Whisper Of The Heart (1995)

  Review preview for Whisper Of The Heart

  Pure, concentrated Studio Ghibli.

  A girl is determined to find the person who checked out all her library books before her.
• 
  Exhibition On Screen: James McNeill Whistler (2026)

  Review preview for Exhibition On Screen: James McNeill Whistler

  Open as he was to manifold artistic influences, Whistler makes a fine subject through whom to explore the late 1800s and the changing society of the US and Europe.

  The famous artist's story is told in connection to a wide-ranging exhibition of his works at the Tate Britain.
• 
  Life Goes On (2026)

  Review preview for Life Goes On

  It is saved by the ever-dependable Bradley.

  An elderly hospice patient frustrated by his environment finds himself stuck in a time loop.
• 
  Màquina (2026)

  Review preview for Màquina

  It’s a gently paced film, slow to get to where it’s going but full of interesting observations along the way, and not afraid to face up to hard truths.

  A father and son travel across the American West in an aging Winnebago as they pursue psychedelic-assisted addiction treatment in Colorado.
• 
  The Drive (2025)

  Review preview for The Drive

  A beautiful example of craft.

  It's a warm November day in the early 1960s and Liz is picking up the kids for her weekly carpool. Little does she know that this will be a drive she'll never forget.
• 
  Foxing: Kitsuné-Tsuki (2026)

  Review preview for Foxing: Kitsuné-Tsuki

  There are some stunning framing choices.

  An animator struggles to complete her work while distracted by the characters in her imagination.
• 
  When You Open The Door (2026)

  Review preview for When You Open The Door

  Katagiri’s work utilises a dramatic form which breaks down over time, becoming increasingly surreal as Miki disconnects from the world as we know it.

  A 27-year-old working in an architectural firm wakes up in her small apartment, pulled out of her sleepy memory. Her world is quiet and strange, but will soon be interrupted by a transformative experience spurred by a half-remembered wolf bite.
• 
  Premature (2026)

  Review preview for Premature

  Independently produced on a budget of just £16,000, it’s really an astonishing achievement.

  After an impulsive one-night stand leads to an unexpected pregnancy, two flatmates must confront who they are, and who they want to be, before the baby arrives.
• 
  Hyena (2026)

  Review preview for Hyena

  Ninaber makes cautious, conscious choices throughout.

  After a brutal breakup, Nicole finds herself drawn into the world of online sex work, where a series of murders turns everything upside down.
• 
  Faces Of Death (2026)

  Review preview for Faces Of Death

  It’s rare to find a character this well developed in a slasher film, but Goldhaber pays equal attention to the smaller roles.

  A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film.
• 
  Full Moon Rising (2026)

  Review preview for Full Moon Rising

  The thesis behind it doesn’t really emerge until the end, when we get the suggestion that if Band’s work is less visible these days, that’s at least in part because of what has happened to everything else.

  A documentary about the director and producer Charles Band.
• 
  Valley View Motel (2026)

  Review preview for Valley View Motel

  Ignatius and Psinakis know what they want and most of the time, they get it.

  It’s 1977, and after a diamond heist goes seriously awry with multiple slaughters, two small-time crooks attempt to flee the wrath of the hitman put on their tail. Seeking refuge at a motel in the remote foothills of Pennsylvania run by a very peculiar owner and his sister, they make the mistake of thinking that they're safe.
• 
  Bunny Rabbit (2026)

  Review preview for Bunny Rabbit

  Branson dispenses with those tired old survivor narratives and casts humanity’s future in a different light.

  In a climate-collapsed 2030 Australia, young Bunny roams the ruins of the post-apocalyptic world she never got to grow up in. Raised by her deceased father on old books and B-movies, she now lives alone in the shack they once shared. Supplies are scarce. There is nothing left to hunt… except other people.
• 
  Dracula: The Night Around Us (2026)

  Review preview for Dracula: The Night Around Us

  Schwab invests heavily in atmosphere.

  A disillusioned Dr John Seward regains his faith in humanity through a bond with Mina and her daughter Lucy, only to be hunted by the legendary evil force that thrives on their destruction.
• 
  Spider Island (2026)

  Review preview for Spider Island

  Although it follows the standard script in terms of its basic outline, Spider Island is more than usually likeable and more than usually fun.

  On a secluded private tropical island, The Oceania Pearl Hotel invites a group of famous social media influencers to its opening party to help solidify its place as the world’s most luxurious new resort destination. But the hotel hides a nightmarish secret… the subterranean caves disturbed during construction have awakened a horde of deadly spiders
• 
  Gator Face (2026)

  Review preview for Gator Face

  It’s edge of your seat stuff. It’s also unabashedly exploitation cinema.

  A group of friends’ sun-drenched Florida vacation curdles into a nightmare after they stumble upon a remote cult devoted to an ancient alligator deity.
• 
  Welcome To G-Town (2025)

  Review preview for Welcome To G-Town

  Underscoring everything here is the can-do spirit to be found in the film’s heroes and in its creators.

  Shape-shifting aliens land in Glasgow.
• 
  Binding Eva (2026)

  Review preview for Binding Eva

  It’s Gerrard who really carries the film, presenting us with a young man whose conflicted thinking is never well concealed despite his efforts to seem in control, but who has real emotional depths beneath it.

  Deep in the Forest of Dean, a small-time criminal on the run, returns again and again to the same moment of judgement, and the same impossible choice.
• 
  Grind (2026)

  Review preview for Grind

  We move from one subject and set of characters to another, but the pacing, energy, horror and humour are perfectly in key, and the whole is a perfect delight.

  A horror anthology tackling the modern work landscape through four timely perspectives – the hustle culture of an MLM, the endless repetitiveness of a food delivery driver, the online horrors of a content moderator, and the unionisation of a coffee shop.
• 
  Hoarder (2026)

  Review preview for Hoarder

  A great deal of care and attention has gone into the design of the house.

  A medical student and her reluctant colleague are making routine house calls to administer flu vaccines. When they step into one decaying, junk-crammed home, something immediately feels wrong. Then they find the tunnels.
• 
  Ithaqua (2026)

  Review preview for Ithaqua

  Made in close consultation with the people whose ancient lore it borrows, this is a film rich in detail, so solidly grounded and astute in its observation of real world horrors that viewers will find it easy to accept its more fantastical aspects.

  American mercenary Cole Franklin is recruited as a hired gun at the remote outpost of Fort William, struggling to survive the decline of the fur trade. With dwindling supplies, the keepers of the Fort blackmail Cole into leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village, where they discover a massacre.
• 
  Wrath Of The Gods (2026)

  Review preview for Wrath Of The Gods

  There are moments when things come together and the fierce weather generates a powerful mood.

  The North Sea island of Hel is cloaked in mystery, myth and misogyny. Isolated because the local community despise her, Anna is torn between the ghosts of the past and the gods of the present as an ill wind blows through, and young girls vanish.
• 
  Our Effed Up World (2026)

  Review preview for Our Effed Up World

  It...contains one of the most ruthless break-ups in recent cinematic history.

  Sheri thought her biggest problem in life was dealing with the recent loss of her beloved grandma. But when a mysterious entity crash lands in the woods, only she and her group of friends are what stands in the way of an insatiable, intergalactic hunger.
• 
  If I Tell You (2024)

  Review preview for If I Tell You

  Miller is impressive in letting viewers see and understand what she’s going through despite her character’s attempts to keep everything on an even keel.

  12-year-old Michael enjoys a carefree boyhood until the day his mother comes home with a black eye and a busted lip.
• 
  Another (2026)

  Review preview for Another

  It’s an unusual piece of cinema which slips between genres with impressive agility.

  Joey is a grief-stricken author haunted by the death of her husband Ben, a brilliant physicist. When he inexplicably appears one morning, alive and well, making breakfast in their kitchen, Joey is thrust into a waking nightmare where grief, memory, and her reality begin to unravel.
• 
  The Abominable Snowman (1957)

  Review preview for The Abominable Snowman

  Its anti-colonial, culturally sensitive perspective feels distinctly modern, and Val Guest’s direction has ensured that it remains tense viewing.

  Two men with opposing views going on a Yeti expedition in the Himalayas. A gunrunner plans to capture and exploit the legendary creature, while a botanist thinks research is more important.
• 
  & Sons (2025)

  Review preview for & Sons

  There are no weak links in the top-notch cast.

  A writer tries to reconnect with his sons.
• 
  Tokyo Burst: Crime City (2026)

  Review preview for Tokyo Burst: Crime City

  The action in the film is impressive throughout but is never allowed to overwhelm it.

  A rookie detective from Tokyo’s red-light district must team up with a counterpart from Seoul with equally questionable practices, to track down a dangerous criminal spreading terror across Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.
• 
  Holy Days (2026)

  Review preview for Holy Days

  Whilst some parts of the story feel a bit too contrived, the film’s mixture of good-heartedness and fierce humour carries it easily over most of the bumps in the road

  A Maori boy who misses his deceased mum goes on a road trip with three nuns who are trying to save their convent from developers.
• 
  The Occupant Of The Room (2025)

  Review preview for The Occupant Of The Room

  With fantastic sound design and fierce strings, Janisse does a fine job of establishing the atmosphere.

  A schoolteacher's late-night arrival at a hotel in the Alps without a reservation leaves him with no option but to accept the room of a missing hotel guest - leading to a sleepless night full of strange and uncanny occurrences
• 
  The Fated Hour (2026)

  Review preview for The Fated Hour

  The more you know about this story and its context, the more you will find to appreciate about the choices made by director Peter Hengl.

  Three days before her wedding, a deeply troubled woman tells her fiancé the story of her dead sister and the terrible prophecy that haunts her.
• 
  The Summer Book (2024)

  Review preview for The Summer Book

  If you’re a Close fan, it’s a must.

  After the death of her mother, a young girl goes to live with her grieving father and her grandmother on a remote Finnish island.
• 
  La Place (2026)

  Review preview for La Place

  Violence is always lurking at the edge of the narrative.

  A quarrel over a parking space pulls a couple into an unexpected confrontation with a stranger.
• 
  Chaar Diwaari (2026)

  Review preview for Chaar Diwaari

  A high concept piece of work delivered with skill.

  A tenant moves into a too good to be true Mumbai apartment only to realise that the house is shrinking in size.
• 
  The Peril At Pincer Point (2025)

  Review preview for The Peril At Pincer Point

  Joseph Field Eccles and Nick Smyth’s sound design...is magnificent from start to finish, and full of playful touches.

  A lazy sound designer is sent to the remote island where a film was shot to capture a sound powerful enough to elevate its finale. Once there, eerie local fables surface: for years, ambitious and headstrong youth have lost their souls to a ghostly sea captain for his spectral crew.
• 
  The Last Footage (2026)

  Review preview for The Last Footage

  Hinges on that doubt still lingering in the minds of many modern people when they move out of reach of reassuring infrastructure and services.

  Events unfold in almost-realtime, as the sun sets on the haunted Wingabar Forest and eerie howls pierce its night.
• 
  A Safe Distance (2026)

  Review preview for A Safe Distance

  An accomplished first feature for director Gloria Mercer.

  A woman abandoned in the woods by her boyfriend after she turns down his marriage proposal is taken in by a mysterious couple.
• 
  The Galactic Ghoul (2026)

  Review preview for The Galactic Ghoul

  The weaknesses in its narrative and dialogue are in large part compensated for by the elegance of its design.

  A space opera about a great escape from a horrific prison planet under the rule of Queen Xaltalusia XXIII.
• 
  The Leader (2026)

  Review preview for The Leader

  Here, ideas do not flow hierarchically: they are conceived in the space between two individuals; they emerge from conversation and are endlessly recycled, coming to seem more like the obvious truth every time.

  In 1997, 39 members of the American cult known as Heaven's Gate committed the largest mass suicide to ever take place on American soil. This is their story.
• 
  I Love Paris (2026)

  Review preview for I Love Paris

  This incorporates a great deal more petulance and whining than the average mockumentary, but is sufficiently astute in its observations to remain entertaining.

  After being transformed into a vampire, a Parisian singer pursues stardom at the cost of her soul.
• 
  Zsazsa Zaturnnah! (2026)

  Review preview for Zsazsa Zaturnnah!

  With its realistic Filipino backgrounds and its honest depictions of rounded Filipino bodies, this film...represents a milestone in the development of a national style of animation.

  A pink meteor transforms shy, gay hairdresser Ada into a stunning superheroine, who must defend her village from giant mutant animals, wretched zombies, and anything else thrown at her by the militant, misandrist Amazonistas from Planet X.
• 
  Sour Minnows (2026)

  Review preview for Sour Minnows

  Sometimes there is nothing to be said. The camera lingers on the actor’s faces, communication become voiceless.

  After unknowingly peeking through the veil, two flatmates witness six men sensually licking the pavement on an empty LA street.
• 
  Corpus (2026)

  Review preview for Corpus

  Much more tightly structured than its style might suggest, and much, much darker.

  Three young men travel to a remote house on the promise of a party, to find just three women who have a secret and sinister agenda.
• 
  The Seoul Guardians (2026)

  Review preview for The Seoul Guardians

  Full of potent observations, this film is a triumph of editing and a valuable record of events on that pivotal night.

  A documentary recounting the events surrounding the imposition of martial law in Korea in December 2024, and the peaceful uprising of civilians against dictatorship.
• 
  Nightborn (2026)

  Review preview for Nightborn

  Writer/director Hanna Bergholm walks the line with skill.

  In Finnish forest, Saga and her husband Jon embark on a new chapter as parents. But Saga's joy is overshadowed by a chilling suspicion about their newborn, unbeknownst to Jon, causing a rift as she alone grapples with the disturbing truth.
• 
  Matapanki (2026)

  Review preview for Matapanki

  The energy of it, combined with Gálvez’s endearing performance, means it’s likely to work well in any environment.

  A punk kid gets superpowers from alcohol and tries to reshape society, but a violent error sparks global tensions with him at the centre.
• 
  Insecstasy (2026)

  Review preview for Insecstasy

  Whenever the narrative threatens to stagger, one of those wonderful little leaps of porn logic gets it back on track.

  Sadie struggles to find balance as she juggles work, her social life and her erotic fascination with insects.
• 
  Godhead (2026)

  Review preview for Godhead

  With little movement between locations, it’s easy to imagine this working as a stage play, and yet the framing choices matter a good deal.

  Eccentric twins proclaim themselves prophets to a priest, blurring reality and delusion as they involve him in their supposed divine mission.
• 
  Unholy Night (2026)

  Review preview for Unholy Night

  For a zombie film, it is remarkably sanguine.

  A family's Christmas Eve dinner becomes a nightmare as Gino must protect his loved ones from his reanimated grandmother who crashes the celebration with murderous intent.
• 
  Nameless (2026)

  Review preview for Nameless

  Although the film is quite tightly plotted, with the police racing to catch Toro before he strikes again, Jōjō is really more interested in the men’s internal journeys.

  Watching bizarre footage of a massacre in a café, a police detective is horrified to recognise something he has seen before.