Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Santacon (2025)

  Review preview for Santacon

  The documentary celebrates the early days when members of the public really didn’t know what was going on.

  The story behind the mass gathering of Santas which began in San Francisco in 1994 and went on to expand across the world.
• 
  The Girl Who Cried Pearls (2025)

  Review preview for The Girl Who Cried Pearls

  Like a nacreous pearl, it’s built up in semi-transparent layers, allowing attentive viewers to catch glimpses of what’s underneath, whilst others will simply enjoy the richness of its lustre.

  A haunting fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.
• 
  Julian Assange And The War On Journalism (2025)

  Review preview for Julian Assange And The War On Journalism

  This is a consistently interesting film and a good exercise in navigating historical narratives, even if it’s not exactly what its UK title might have viewers expecting.

  This film traces the saga of Julian Assange, a contemporary icon of the right to information, whose recent release from prison has reignited the global debate on press freedom.
• 
  Éiru (2025)

  Review preview for Éiru

  A handsomely presented Irish fable whose visual structure is bound together by traditional Celtic designs.

  When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan's village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it.
• 
  Little Amélie (2025)

  Review preview for Little Amélie

  Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

  Amélie is a little Belgian girl born in Japan. Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, the world is full of adventure and discovery. But on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life. For Amélie, everything is at stake at that age, happiness as well as tragedy.
• 
  The Voice Of Hind Rajab (2025)

  Review preview for The Voice Of Hind Rajab

  There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

  January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
• 
  Endless Cookie (2025)

  Review preview for Endless Cookie

  Endless Cookie is not like anything else and yet it is very much like life.

  Exploring the complex bond between two half brothers - one Indigenous, one white - traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.
• 
  KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

  Review preview for KPop Demon Hunters

  The film was conceived by Korean American Maggie Kang and it benefits from a knowing humour, playing affectionately with its stereotypes.

  A world-renowned K-Pop girl group balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as demon hunters.
• 
  The Hemingway (2024)

  Review preview for The Hemingway

  O’Brien’s words are voiced here in a way that conveys the energy he still has internally.

  A paralysed man discourses on his experiences of life in physical and imaginary spaces.
• 
  Elio (2025)

  Review preview for Elio

  Complementing the visual variety is an emotional openness and generosity of spirit naturally appealing to those who dream of finding better worlds.

  Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.
• 
  Reedland (2025)

  Review preview for Reedland

  Writer/director Sven Bresser lets events unfold slowly and makes great use of silence.

  When reed cutter Johan discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land, he is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt. While taking care of his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil. But darkness can thrive in unexpected places.
• 
  Baby (2024)

  Review preview for Baby

  It is the things taken for granted, as much as the things that stand out, which shape the tale.

  After being released from a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo. During a visit to a porn theater, he encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving.
• 
  Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)

  Review preview for Silent Night, Deadly Night

  Fans shouldn’t be alarmed – there are still some wild sequences full of gore-soaked action.

  A child witnesses his parents' murder by a man in a Santa suit. Years later, as an adult, he dons a Santa costume himself and embarks on a violent quest for retribution.
• 
  Song Sung Blue (2025)

  Review preview for Song Sung Blue

  Always feels grounded and honest and a little bit awkward in all the right ways.

  A Milwaukee husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act experience success and heartbreak in their musical journey together.
• 
  Zootopia 2 (2025)

  Review preview for Zootopia 2

  A serviceable family film.

  Rabbit and fox detectives are the first to identify something suspicious when a snake is blamed for a highly public crime.
• 
  Folktales (2025)

  Review preview for Folktales

  Mythic scenes aside, Ewing and Grady approach their storytelling in a quiet, unobtrusive way which almost gives viewers the impression that they are the ones choosing to follow this particular path through it all.

  Teenagers attend a folk high school in Arctic Norway, relying on themselves, peers, and sled dogs as they navigate the path to adulthood and uncharted personal growth.
• 
  Son Of The Soil (2025)

  Review preview for Son Of The Soil

  Another dead woman, another motivated but otherwise thinly drawn man less interesting than she might have been, given the chance.

  A Nigerian soldier, haunted by his past, returns home after his sister's tragic death. Determined to uncover those responsible, he embarks on a vengeful path, while seeking redemption for his own actions.
• 
  Rhino (2025)

  Review preview for Rhino

  The film plays out like a thriller, albeit one which is slow to build.

  Rangers must relocate 21 black rhinos to a new sanctuary after their successful protection efforts led to overcrowding in their current space, which is surrounded by poachers.
• 
  Still Pushing Pineapples (2025)

  Review preview for Still Pushing Pineapples

  Full of engaging material yet sometimes stretched a little too thin, the film is less pop biopic, more a meditation on ageing, and over time it takes on an increasingly melancholic tone.

  The story of the former singer of pop band Black Lace and his journey on the road with his ageing mother and his partner, as he aims for a comeback.
• 
  Doppelgängers (2024)

  Review preview for Doppelgängers

  Doppelgängers demands a lot of its audience, but it has a lot to give in return.

  Three Doppelgängers meet in outer space to imagine diasporic and queer eco-feminist futures in this innovative documentary.
• 
  Straight Outta Space (2025)

  Review preview for Straight Outta Space

  It has its moments, and for the most part it’s warm-hearted and likeable enough to make up for the odd mis-step.

  Two street coaches in a bustling neighborhood face an unexpected crisis when locals transform into bizarre, slimy beings.
• 
  Occupy Cannes (2025)

  Review preview for Occupy Cannes

  Cannes glitters, but the celebrated parts of it are always just out of reach – a red carpet stretched out on the other side of a busy road, celebrities ascending famous steps behind a horde of undead.

  Lloyd Kaufman and The Troma Team go on what could be their final trip to the Cannes Film Festival.
• 
  The Pearl Comb (2025)

  Review preview for The Pearl Comb

  It draws on old Cornish stories about merfolk but is an original work, with well developed characters and actors who bring them to life superbly in the brief time they have.

  When a Cornish fisherman's wife performs a medical miracle, a doctor goes to investigate, but discovers a lot more than he bargained for.
• 
  The Shepherd And The Bear (2025)

  Review preview for The Shepherd And The Bear

  Max Keegan’s documentary sings a beguiling pastoral song, but has keen powers of observation.

  Documentary exploring a conflict after the re-introduction of brown bears into the traditional shepherding community of the Pyrenees.
• 
  Testimony (2025)

  Review preview for Testimony

  Where state-recorded testimony was dry, often cut down by cautious lawyers or diminished by patronising questions, here it is led by the survivors themselves.

  Women from Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes are suing for justice, accountability, and legal action against church and state institutions, supported by Justice for Magdalenes.
• 
  The Session Man (2023)

  Review preview for The Session Man

  This is very much a film for musicians, and the more familiar you are with the art of composition, the more you’ll get out of it.

  The story of pianist and unsung hero Nicky Hopkins, who played with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and many more.
• 
  The Carpenter's Son (2025)

  Review preview for The Carpenter's Son

  There’s no compelling moral or psychological dimension, and no direct reason to invest in the characters.

  Joseph struggles with his faith as teenage Jesus begins to rebel and experience temptation.
• 
  Deadly Vows (2024)

  Review preview for Deadly Vows

  The film becomes a mere series of incidents, superficial, where a little more development could have made a big difference.

  An Iranian immigrant in the US marries a man who abuses her and, after they have separated, hires a man to kill her.
• 
  Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

  Review preview for Bride Of Frankenstein

  Although there are grand themes at work here, the real power of the piece – as often in the Gothic, comes from the ways in which they clash, rather than from something built out of their unity.

  Doctor Frankenstein's creation persuades him to make him a mate.
• 
  Reflection In A Dead Diamond (2025)

  Review preview for Reflection In A Dead Diamond

  For something so lovely, it is hard-edged, and it sparkles with visual wit.

  When the mysterious woman in the room next door disappears, a debonair 70-year-old ex-spy living in a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur is confronted by the demons and darlings of a lurid past in which moviemaking, memories and madness collide.
• 
  Adulthood (2025)

  Review preview for Adulthood

  A character-driven approach to the crime caper, which doesn’t let viewers forget that it’s focused on amateurs, Adulthood occasionally flounders but is, overall, a fun watch.

  Siblings Megan and Noah discover a dead body, long buried in their parents' basement, sending them down a rabbit hole of crime and murder.
• 
  Valley Of The Shadow Of Death (2024)

  Review preview for Valley Of The Shadow Of Death

  The role of Chan is a brave choice for Au, a pop star with a fairly clean cut image, but it enables him to demonstrate that he’s serious about acting, giving him plenty to wrestle with.

  Pastor Leung, who preaches God's forgiveness, finds himself in a dire situation when his church gives shelter to a young man who caused the death of his beloved daughter.
• 
  M: Beyond The Wasteland (2023)

  Review preview for M: Beyond The Wasteland

  The stakes feel higher and the possibilities more open because we see much of it from a child’s point of view.

  The world has been ravaged by a pandemic. Outside the safety of the forest, two boys face a shattered world shrouded in silence and danger.
• 
  Caravaggio (2025)

  Review preview for Caravaggio

  This documentary begins with a murderer on the run; it ends with a disappearance still unresolved after 415 years.

  An Exhibition on Screen documentary exploring Caravaggio's life, artistry and mysteries through first-hand testimonies, expert insights, and his captivating masterpieces, revealing the man behind the brush.
• 
  Growing Pains (2025)

  Review preview for Growing Pains

  The story is sweetly delivered without the heavy moralising that often plagues teen films, and there will be plenty for viewers that age to relate to.

  Growing Pains follows childhood best friends Zoe and Nat, who face the tumultuous transition from middle to high school as their friendship drifts apart.
• 
  Beloved (2022)

  Review preview for Beloved

  Handsomely crafted and delicately delivered, Beloved approaches a familiar subject with particularity and grace.

  A young couple struggles to come to terms with the reality of marriage once the romance dissipates.
• 
  Bad Haircut (2025)

  Review preview for Bad Haircut

  This isn’t quite as wild and startling an experience as its creators seem to think, but for the most part it’s entertaining.

  When a college kid goes to a new place to get a haircut, he discovers that his barber is a psychopath.
• 
  Super Happy Fun Clown (2025)

  Review preview for Super Happy Fun Clown

  Seward invests heavily in her character. Despite everything Jen does, one keeps hoping for the world to give her a break.

  An unhappy woman who is tired of being pushed around decides to combine her love of clowning, serial killers and classic movie monsters into a night of bloody horror the world will never forget.
• 
  The Red Mask (2025)

  Review preview for The Red Mask

  There’s smart staging, structural and visual misdirection, and a number of sharp twists.

  When an outspoken queer screenwriter is chosen to pen the final instalment of the legendary slasher franchise The Red Mask, she and her girlfriend are harassed by die-hard fans. They escape to a secluded Airbnb, where she concocts a dangerous game to play to unlock her writer’s block. Then two uninvited guests crash the scene.
• 
  Christy (2025)

  Review preview for Christy

  The performance [Sweeney] gives here, slipping easily into Christy’s skin, is going to knock some people for six.

  The story of Christy Martin, the most successful female boxer of the Nineties.
• 
  Affection (2025)

  Review preview for Affection

  There’s a lot of interesting stuff to explore here and it’s a shame that we don’t get into it in more depth.

  Ellie is stuck in a cyclical nightmare grappling with a medical condition that erratically resets her memory. Left unable to remember her loving husband or young daughter, each reset leaves her disoriented and haunted with vivid memories and scattered recollections of an unfamiliar life she’s never lived. What is the cause of her rare illness, and can her husband really help cope with her affliction?
• 
  Posthouse (2025)

  Review preview for Posthouse

  With an eye of the colonial history of the Philippines, Red pieces together the story of several generations of a family whose lives have been inextricably wound up with the country’s developing film industry

  A troubled film editor and his distant daughter release an ancient monster while working to restore an incomplete silent horror movie from the forgotten Filipino horror past.
• 
  American Baby (2025)

  Review preview for American Baby

  Pniowsky...has raw star quality of the sort most actors can only dream of.

  Oli becomes an outcast in her small Texas town when she gets pregnant at 15. As she seeks out the suddenly absent teenage father-to-be, Oli confronts the growing isolation from her community.
• 
  Sketch (2024)

  Review preview for Sketch

  Tells a dark story in vivid colour, with lots of action and laughs, largely thanks to a great cast and truly dedicated technical team.

  When a young girl's sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life-chaotic, real and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.
• 
  Five (2025)

  Review preview for Five

  What does deserve attention here is Harvey Davis’ score, which skillfully balances Lifestyle motifs with horror ones to great comic effect.

  A struggling actor is hoping her star will rise again with the romcom Renovated Romance, but while on location shooting her hopeful comeback, she finds a cabin in the woods and becomes possessed by a demonic force, causing havoc amongst the crew.
• 
  Mr. K (2024)

  Review preview for Mr. K

  Production designers Manolito Glas and Maarten Piersma do a stunning job with the sets, creating an atmosphere of sleaze and decay which one can almost smell, whilst layering in detail.

  A magician checks into a hotel full of strange occupants... and discovers there is no way to leave.
• 
  Niñxs (2025)

  Review preview for Niñxs

  Mexican director Kani Lapuerta invites both viewers and star to change their frames of reference in a documentary as bold as it is charming.

  A documentary following a teenager's transition.
• 
  Queens Of The Dead (2025)

  Review preview for Queens Of The Dead

  Tina Romero is in her element.

  On what should be a fun night at a Brooklyn warehouse party, an outbreak of flesh-eating zombies forces a ragtag group of drag queens, partygoers and party-throwers to band together and somehow survive the night.
• 
  The Serpent's Skin (2025)

  Review preview for The Serpent's Skin

  Alice Maio Mackay’s...most accessible film to date.

  A young woman leaves her transphobic small-town, and develops a romance with tattoo artist Gen with whom she shares a paranormal connection. But their deep-rooted insecurities unknowingly release a demon, which possesses one of their ex-lovers and begins feeding on their friends by sucking out their lifeforce.
• 
  Body Blow (2025)

  Review preview for Body Blow

  Immersive and intense, the more so because of its roots in a brutal history of gaybashing by Sydney cops.

  An undercover cop finds his commitment to the force tested when he falls for a young twink deep in debt to a vicious drug lord in this kinky neon-noir.