Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Yeti (2026)

  Review preview for The Yeti

  There are gory deaths. There’s genuinely funny pastiche. There’s also an attempt at affecting character drama.

  When a rescue party sets out in search of a vanished exhibition in remote Alaska forest, its members soon realise that something big is on their trail.
• 
  What Is Dyslexia? (2026)

  Review preview for What Is Dyslexia?

  With a carefully measured pace and a lot of focus on light and movement, the imagery here will be particularly effective at engaging young dyslexic people’s minds.

  A young girl is distraught when she looks up dyslexia and sees it described as a lifelong disability, but a magical adventure teaches her to look at it differently.
• 
  Castration Movie Anthology I: Traps (2024)

  Review preview for Castration Movie Anthology I: Traps

  Weard has a remarkable ability to make viewers feel as if they’re present on the fringes of the action, hanging out in a corner of the room.

  A production assistant slides toward inceldom as his relationship falls apart, and a trans sex worker mentors her newly-out friend while pursuing motherhood in Vancouver.
• 
  Köln 75 (2025)

  Review preview for Köln 75

  Emde is a force to be reckoned with. The film could not have been made any other way.

  The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organise the greatest solo jazz concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
• 
  I've Seen All I Need To See (2025)

  Review preview for I've Seen All I Need To See

  If the film does not test your patience, you should probably check your pulse.

  After the sudden death of her estranged sister, an actor leaves Los Angeles and returns to her hometown in search of answers.
• 
  Tony Odyssey (2025)

  Review preview for Tony Odyssey

  A hugely ambitious first feature from director Thales Banzai, Tony Odyssey repeatedly bites off more than it can chew, but it has lots of great ideas, both conceptual and visual.

  Tony and his best friend, Ivy, decide to rob the bar where he works to steal a new drug that will take them on a journey to meet God.
• 
  The North (2025)

  Review preview for The North

  This is stunning country under any circumstances, and if you can’t be there in person, watching this on a big screen is the next best thing.

  Two old friends set out to walk 600 kilometers through the Scottish highlands, hoping to reconnect with each other, nature and parts of themselves that they've lost.
• 
  Rose Of Nevada (2025)

  Review preview for Rose Of Nevada

  Jenkin’s style, impressionistic when it comes to places, is particular in regard to objects, the real anchors of our lives.

  A mysterious boat returns to a village 30 years after vanishing. Two men join its crew hoping for better fortune. After one voyage, they find themselves transported back in time, mistaken for the original crew.
• 
  Itch! (2024)

  Review preview for Itch!

  The scenes of violent confrontation are relatively few, but mroe powerful for it... Kang wants us to see not just the physical effects of this, but the psychological effect on those doing harm.

  Amid a mysterious deadly outbreak called the Itch. A widower and his estranged young daughter take sanctuary in a department store, only to realise the real terror is inside with them.
• 
  Camp (2025)

  Review preview for Camp

  A thoughtful, subtly dangerous film which denies viewers the reassurance of a conventional ending.

  Emily takes a job as a counselor at a summer camp and finds a coven of witches ready to show her a path to healing.
• 
  Departures (2025)

  Review preview for Departures

  There is plenty here for viewers to relate to, whether or not they’ve ever gone to those extremes. There’s also an ample supply of humour, with laugh-out-loud moments occurring in the bleakest situations.

  Benji meets Jake at an airport check-out gate and is immediately intrigued. Jake is fit, elusive, dominant and, as Benji happily suspects, ‘a bit gay’. Cue monthly getaways to Amsterdam, a lot of sex and the creeping emergence of a doomed power dynamic.
• 
  Marama (2025)

  Review preview for Marama

  One of the most impressive films of the year to date.

  A young Māori woman travels to Victorian England after receiving a letter promising information about her birth parents. As she peels back the layers of colonial deceit, she is driven to avenge her shattered ancestry.
• 
  PH-1 (2026)

  Review preview for PH-1

  Though not particularly original or inspired, this is a serviceable thriller. It’s unfortunate that it has come out at a time when its central tenets are difficult to take seriously.

  A politician faces blackmail on the verge of an important vote.
• 
  The Cramps: A Period Piece (2025)

  Review preview for The Cramps: A Period Piece

  The film’s general campiness does not diminish the points it’s making.

  A vibrant collision of horror, comedy, and aching personal truth as seen through the eyes of a young woman dealing with the pain of her menstrual cramps.
• 
  Trauma Or, Monsters All (2026)

  Review preview for Trauma Or, Monsters All

  Characters who belong to a fairy tale or folkloric world struggle to contain themselves in flesh, edged out by the existence of mere mortals who, despite their vulnerability, forever push them to the edges of the narrative.

  An aspiring author gets more than she bargained for when she writes an article for the local paper about her small town’s dark history, prompting unwanted speculation on what monsters may lie within.
• 
  Grace (2025)

  Review preview for Grace

  Crucially, this isn’t a journey built upon a series of triumphs, but has much more to do with making mistakes and learning and growing as a result – a human process rather than a Hollywood one.

  A young woman with Down syndrome realises that she will need to stand up for her rights when support workers try to set limits on her romantic relationship.
• 
  Frankie, Maniac Woman (2025)

  Review preview for Frankie, Maniac Woman

  Tsigaridis and Silva weave comedy and tragedy together, letting each remain distinct, and in the process create a kind of discomfort that the genre rarely admits to.

  Battling against the legacy of childhood trauma, internalised misogyny, and the image-obsessed fat shaming of the LA music business, aspiring singer-songwriter Frankie Ramirez finally snaps, with bloody results
• 
  Violence (2025)

  Review preview for Violence

  There’s a “Warriors, come out to play!” vibe about it, but alas, like that film, it is better to remember than it is to watch.

  Henry Violence, an anti-hero in an alternate 1980s world, becomes entangled in a brutal drug war as rival cartels battle for supremacy, forcing him to make difficult choices to navigate the treacherous landscape.
• 
  Body Of Our Own (2026)

  Review preview for Body Of Our Own

  Filmed over seven years and edited down to just 25 minutes, Body Of Our own is observational in style but full of condensed meaning.

  A documentary following three hijra women though a series of transitional life experiences.
• 
  Mr. Burton (2025)

  Review preview for Mr. Burton

  A film full of finely crafted detail.

  Wild schoolboy and son of an alcoholic miner, Rich Jenkins is mentored by teacher Philip Burton to transform into Richard Burton - Wales's greatest star.
• 
  Two Women (2025)

  Review preview for Two Women

  It is silly and playful, but there are times when it becomes uncomfortable.

  Violette is having a difficult maternity leave. Florence is dealing with depression. Despite their careers and families, they feel like failures. Florence’s first infidelity is a revelation. When having fun is far down the list of priorities, sleeping with a delivery guy could be revolutionary.
• 
  Being Ola (2023)

  Review preview for Being Ola

  This is a vision of a much more inclusive, healthier world – one which prioritises happiness.

  A portrait of a man with an intellectual disability, and the community he lives in.
• 
  Night Stage (2025)

  Review preview for Night Stage

  The film is shot in gorgeous shades of noir by Luciana Baseggio, and has a deliciously dark, sultry score.

  An actor and a politician start an affair and discover a fetish for having sex in public places. The closer they get to their dreams, the more risk taking they become.
• 
  Boorman And The Devil (2025)

  Review preview for Boorman And The Devil

  Boorman has an extraordinary openness about him which would make him a compelling subject even if he’d never made a film in his life.

  After directing Point Blank and Deliverance, John Boorman was offered to direct The Exorcist II. The film became a massive failure, nearly ending his career. Years later, cast and filmmakers discuss its ambition and artistic value.
• 
  Out Laws (2025)

  Review preview for Out Laws

  Does an important job in putting these pieces together and in documenting their meaning at this point in history.

  A documentary following one gay Namibian man's battle to stand up for the rights of same-sex couples.
• 
  Empire Of Lies (2026)

  Review preview for Empire Of Lies

  Matthew Hope’s low budget thriller is a exercise in what can be achieved with just two actors, a caravan and a field.

  When a mysterious young woman comes to interview a paranoid man living in rural isolation, he is forced to confront the truth about his daughter's murder.
• 
  The Snake (2025)

  Review preview for The Snake

  Although it’s dealing with potentially grim situations – homelessness, codependency, petty crime – the film is consistently entertaining.

  When an ungovernable fortysomething wild child collides with her venomous mother, her life blows up spectacularly, leaving her evicted and single.
• 
  Don't Be Prey (2026)

  Review preview for Don't Be Prey

  Though at times the film feels like a puff piece, it does provide a thorough account of many of the challenges associated with the sport, and at the same time succeeds in getting across some of why people want to do it.

  A man trying to recover his reputation and his confidence after a financial scandal decides to take on the Oceans Seven marathon swimming challenge.
• 
  Abode (2025)

  Review preview for Abode

  The whole anthology feels lived-in, creating an immediate intimacy with the viewer.

  Five stories on the theme of home.
• 
  The Land Of Sometimes (2026)

  Review preview for The Land Of Sometimes

  In places the film feels skeletal, the bones of the story barely covered, let alone properly fleshed out.

  Twins Alfie and Elise find a magical watch on Christmas Eve and are swept by the Wish Collector into the musical Land of Sometimes, where they learn that wishes have consequences.
• 
  Crash Land (2026)

  Review preview for Crash Land

  There’s a considerable sensitivity and intelligence to this film, underlying its glorious stupidity.

  Three friends have spent their childhoods drinking, wreaking havoc, and filming crude stunts in their small town. Everyone hates them. Wanting to finally prove their lives have meaning, they decide to make a 'real movie'.
• 
  Fifteen (2026)

  Review preview for Fifteen

  Ricardo Álvarez Canales and Andrzej Rattinger’s dialogue is wonderfully observed and the two leads give lively, fresh performances which make them feel like real 14-year-old girls, looking at the world in a way most adults forget.

  A reimagining of the quinceañera as a chaotic mix of comedy and creature horror.
• 
  Pizza Movie (2025)

  Review preview for Pizza Movie

  It’s an uneven film, emerging as a series of comedy skits before gradually melding them into a coherent story.

  It’s a Friday night and two college students plan to do drugs and order pizza. But when the home-made drug they ingest turns out to be wilder than expected, the simple journey down two flights of stairs becomes a mind-bogglingly transformative quest.
• 
  Their Town (2025)

  Review preview for Their Town

  Astutely observed and sensitively performed.

  When Abby’s boyfriend drops out of the high school play, she finds herself helping a school outlier step into the role opposite her. They spend a long night wandering around their town, examining their futures and unearthing surprises from their past.
• 
  Butcher's Stain (2025)

  Review preview for Butcher's Stain

  One of the most nuanced and heartfelt films in this year’s competition, this is, astoundingly, a début effort.

  An Arab Israeli man working in a supermarket in Tel Aviv is accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room. He sets out to prove his innocence to keep this job that he desperately needs.
• 
  Forevergreen (2025)

  Review preview for Forevergreen

  The bear is cute and its antics can be endearing, but at 13 minutes, the film already feels too long.

  An orphaned bear cub finds a home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him to danger.
• 
  Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud (2025)

  Review preview for Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud

  The film is a little haphazard in structure, but is anything, this is an asset, reflecting he chaotic nature of Brent and Craig’s lives.

  An intimate chronicle about documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
• 
  Jane Austen's Period Drama (2024)

  Review preview for Jane Austen's Period Drama

  The film is superbly crafted.

  In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley, mistakes the blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his expensive education has missed a spot.
• 
  All The Empty Rooms (2025)

  Review preview for All The Empty Rooms

  For the most part...the rooms speak for themselves.

  A short documentary following correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.
• 
  Two People Exchanging Saliva (2024)

  Review preview for Two People Exchanging Saliva

  It’s rare to see this level of world building in a short.

  In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, an unhappy woman shops compulsively in an exclusive boutique. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl.
• 
  The Singers (2025)

  Review preview for The Singers

  Illuminating their faces, Davis intentionally brings out wrinkles and rough skin – the features that speak to who they are, to their unique life experiences.

  An impromptu singing contest takes place in a lonely bar.
• 
  Never After Dark (2025)

  Review preview for Never After Dark

  Like all the best supernatural tales, it keeps the rules simple but still manages to wrongfoot viewers.

  A wandering medium, Airi spends her life guiding restless spirits out of the world of the living. Summoned to an isolated country house, she comes face to face with a grotesque apparition with powers that defy her experience - but the biggest danger she faces comes from the living.
• 
  Edie Arnold Is A Loser (2026)

  Review preview for Edie Arnold Is A Loser

  Making a band work isn’t easy when your mother gives you a strict curfew, your headmistress thinks punk is Satanic, and you don’t have any instruments.

  A timid dork accidentally takes the spotlight when she starts a punk band with her fellow 'turds', becoming an icon to the rest of the losers at her all-girls Catholic school while managing to piss off the hot girls, the nuns, and a horny altar boy.
• 
  A Friend Of Dorothy (2025)

  Review preview for A Friend Of Dorothy

  Nwachukwu...is a stand-out talent, and brings a real delicacy to this role.

  A lonely widow's quiet life is upended when a teenage boy accidentally kicks his football into her garden.
• 
  Perfectly A Strangeness (2024)

  Review preview for Perfectly A Strangeness

  Perfectly A Strangeness is an experiment in the documentary form, its innovative storytelling inviting viewers to engage with the world from a fresh perspective.

  In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe.
• 
  Kill Me (2026)

  Review preview for Kill Me

  The story goes to some difficult places and is by no means all about laughs, but its comedic elements will likely appeal most strongly to those with lived experience.

  Jimmy wakes up in a bathtub filled with his own blood, his wrists slit and his life rapidly nearing completion. This would be a textbook failed suicide attempt, but he's pretty sure he didn't do it.
• 
  A Pale View Of Hills (2025)

  Review preview for A Pale View Of Hills

  All of this fine work has potential, but too often the deeper ideas in the book are teased only to be abandoned.

  UK 1982. An young aspiring Japanese-British writer plans to write a book based on her mother Etsuko’s post-war experiences in Nagasaki. Haunted by the suicide of her older daughter, Etsuko begins to recount her memories from 1952 as a young mother-to-be. The writer begins to find troubling inconsistencies in the recollections.
• 
  First Light (2025)

  Review preview for First Light

  A thoughtful and lyrical film unafraid to do things differently.

  An elderly nun witnesses the aftermath of a young construction worker's fatal accident, compelling her to question the ethical principles of the institution she has devoted her life to.
• 
  Jailbroken (2025)

  Review preview for Jailbroken

  Jailbroken is a pared down thriller that really grips.

  The day before a violent criminal is due to be released from prison, he receives a threatening call. Armed only with a mobile phone, he must somehow save his family - and himself.
• 
  Psalms Of The People

  Review preview for Psalms Of The People

  It’s in the moment, in the process, in the commingling of voices that something divine is found.

  A documentary about Scotland’s cultural heritage of traditional Gaelic psalm singing.