Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Toxic Avenger (2025)

  Review preview for The Toxic Avenger

  Even in the cheapest of zombie films, human bodies have never come apart so easily, nor contained such an abundance of blood. It explodes across the screen at frequent intervals, each one more spectacular than the last.

  A reimagining of the Eighties franchise in which a janitor is transformed by radioactive slime and becomes an unlikely hero.
• 
  Meanwhile On Earth (2024)

  Review preview for Meanwhile On Earth

  There’s a sweet, melancholy flavour to Clapin’s work.

  Siblings Elsa and Franck were very close. Since Franck disappeared during a space mission three years ago, Elsa has struggled to move on with her life. Until one day she is contacted by an unidentified life form.
• 
  Bone Lake (2024)

  Review preview for Bone Lake

  Director Mercedes Bryce Morgan plies her trade with a style and verve which elevate this far above the 1980s straight-to-VHS erotic thrillers that it superficially resembles.

  When two young couples are mistakenly double-booked into the same vacation rental their romantic weekend becomes a twisted maze of sex, lies, and survival.
• 
  Blood Shine (2025)

  Review preview for Blood Shine

  There is visceral violence in Bennett and Brooks’ film, an explicit study of some of the dynamics of self harm, at times eroticised, and a lot of blood. Still, it is essentially a character-driven piece.

  In her remote country home, a religious zealot takes a young filmmaker captive, claiming her sadistic rituals will change him into a god.
• 
  Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon Of Rocky Horror (2025)

  Review preview for Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon Of Rocky Horror

  Zerr’s documentary has its own rough edges and suits the spirit of Rocky Horror.

  It's the story of a lifetime: a script, a play, a movie, unprecedented success, and everlasting fame.
• 
  The Haunted Forest (2025)

  Review preview for The Haunted Forest

  Consistently above the quality of the average genre film, and always visually interesting..

  A high-school senior obsessed with all things horror and Halloween lands his first job - as a scare actor at the famous Markoff’s Haunted Forest attraction in Maryland. Then a mysterious series of killings begins.
• 
  Pig Hill (2025)

  Review preview for Pig Hill

  If you’re in it for the gore and grotesquerie...you’ll find a good deal to satisfy you, but it does give the impression of wanting to deliver in more sophisticated ways as well.

  A writer is fascinated by the local legend of the pig people of Pig Hill, revolting creatures who breed and cause havoc in the area of Radio Tower Hill, where women keep going missing.
• 
  Noseeums (2025)

  Review preview for Noseeums

  Some of this is a bit heavy-handed, as the film attempts to communicate to a mixed audience, but the capable Burt keeps it feeling real.

  When student Ember is invited to a fun weekend at the country home of school Queen Bee Abigail, she finds the place oddly familiar. Drawn to an unkempt grave in the backwoods, Ember begins to be plagued by the black bugs known throughout Florida as Noseeums.
• 
  Dog Of God (2025)

  Review preview for Dog Of God

  Sin, heresy and sexual ecstasy intertwine in a story which lacks theological depth but probably approximates fairly well the understanding of most peasants and low status clergy at the time.

  Rotoscope animation sets the stage for this 17th century look at a woman accused of witchcraft whose trial reveals the presence of a werewolf.
• 
  Trust (2025)

  Review preview for Trust

  Turner is typically assured in a physically demanding role which also requires some monologuing and a lot of holding audience interest by herself.

  A Hollywood actress hides in a remote house after a scandal, only to find herself betrayed and fighting for survival.
• 
  The Balconettes (2024)

  Review preview for The Balconettes

  The film is a brash, vulgar, joyously realistic portrait of a three-way friendship with roots that run deep.

  Three women get stuck in a Marseille apartment during a heatwave.
• 
  James Can Eat (2025)

  Review preview for James Can Eat

  James is heavily invested in his own legend, stating at one point that he feels this is the destiny that God intended for him.

  A documentary about James Webb, Australia's top-ranked competitive eater and the world number four.
• 
  Flush (2025)

  Review preview for Flush

  Set almost entirely within a single toilet stall, this is low budget filmmaking par excellence.

  Finding his ex in the nightclub where she works and convincing her to come back and live with him should be doable, correct? Losing the dealer and the bar owner who left him for dead in the restroom for trying to steal their stash is still within his capabilities. However, removing his head stuck in the toilet bowl is not a given.
• Super Charlie (2024)

  Review preview for Super Charlie

  All in all, this is a disappointing exercise.

  Willie's dream of fighting crime with his cop dad is shattered when his baby brother Charlie arrives. Besides stealing all the attention, Charlie turns out to have actual superpowers.
• 
  Unmoored (2023)

  Review preview for Unmoored

  Turestedt is excellent and very watchable.

  The ordered life of a TV presenter threatens to unravel when she finally confronts her domineering husband about yet another scandalous accusation.
• 
  Red Sonja (2025)

  Review preview for Red Sonja

  Lutz may be slender but she’s fast, and there’s a wiriness about her that translates well into action.

  An origin story for the legendary sword and sorcery heroine, who must survive the gladiatorial arena as she searches for her people.
• 
  Videoheaven (2025)

  Review preview for Videoheaven

  When it comes to plain facts, it delivers well.

  Documentary exploring the video store as a vitally important site of film culture.
• 
  Old Guys In Bed (2025)

  Review preview for Old Guys In Bed

  The sense of the temporary nature of things is everywhere.

  A gay film historian, new to online dating, enlists his teenage niece to help him navigate the uncharted waters of the digital world, in pursuit of the 70-year-old man of his dreams.
• 
  The Occupant (2025)

  Review preview for The Occupant

  Having developed an interesting idea and set the pieces in motion, the creative team doesn’t seem to know what to do with the middle portion of the film.

  When a guilt-ridden engineering geologist in transit from her remote assignment survives a helicopter crash, she must try to escape the harsh environment. But she is not alone.
• 
  The Devil's Bride (1974)

  Review preview for The Devil's Bride

  Like Milton's, Zebrunias’ devil is cast in semi-heroic mode, a comic character against whom events continually seem to conspire.

  When a miller captures a fallen devil, the two make a pact, but nothing goes to plan for either of them in this groundbreaking Soviet rock opera based on a Lithuanian folktale.
• 
  Burning (2025)

  Review preview for Burning

  Burning is not just a film about getting to the truth – it’s a film about the construction of truth.

  In a suburban village, a house belonging to a young family who recently lost their firstborn is burning. Neighbours say that the house bears the mark of a curse, as no one understands how the fire started, and eyewitnesses to the incident each have entirely different versions of what happened.
• 
  Beans (2020)

  Review preview for Beans

  The coming of age aspect of the film is fairly formulaic but Kiawentiio’s performance is fresh and awkward in all the right ways, giving it a sense of urgency.

  Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.
• 
  Sugar Rot (2025)

  Review preview for Sugar Rot

  There is a scene involving a jelly bean which has provoked visceral reactions in audience members.

  A girl at an ice cream shop is assaulted and becomes horrifically pregnant with some... thing that begins to turn her into ice cream.
• 
  Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting (2025)

  Review preview for Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting

  With no recourse made to generative AI, this is the real deal, full of detail and personality.

  A mother and daughter head out into the woods where the girl must steel herself to perform an ancient rite of passage.
• 
  The School Duel (2024)

  Review preview for The School Duel

  Wiseman Jr plays most of it very straight, without sentiment, easing viewers into a place where they can take all this for granted.

  When an opportunity for twisted notoriety arises, a tormented 13-year old enlists in a deadly competition.
• 
  Foreigner (2025)

  Review preview for Foreigner

  An astute portrait of an experience still underexplored onscreen.

  An Iranian-born teenager is desperate to fit in at her new high school in Canada, but the more she tries to absorb and understand the unfamiliar mindset, the more she becomes consumed by a dark entity.
• 
  Barbie Boomer (2025)

  Review preview for Barbie Boomer

  The film provides an opportunity for frank conversations about mortality which are rare elsewhere in Western society.

  67-year-old Sylvie is a passionate Barbie collector. To make sure that her collection lasts over time, she decides to donate some of her childhood dolls to the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City, which agrees to evaluate the proposal. But will she be able to cope with the grief of separation, especially as the physical condition of her best friend Linda, also a Barbie collector, is affected by severe illness?
• 
  Buffet Infinity (2025)

  Review preview for Buffet Infinity

  Just like those familiar experiences of watching late night ads, Buffet Infinity casts a spell over the viewer.

  Late night local television adverts reveal the sinister tale of two restaurants battling it out in the town of Westridge County.
• 
  Osiris (2025)

  Review preview for Osiris

  This is a film made out of pieces of other films.

  Special Forces commandos are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft and, upon awakening, find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight for survival.
• 
  Fucktoys (2025)

  Review preview for Fucktoys

  Any number of films try to sell themselves on inviting us to ogle outsiders like these. The difference with Fucktoys is that it’s made by people who actually get it.

  A bubblegum grindhouse adventure through sunny and romantic Trashtown, USA.
• 
  Heidi: Rescue Of The Lynx (2025)

  Review preview for Heidi: Rescue Of The Lynx

  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.
• 
  The Undertone (2025)

  Review preview for The Undertone

  Viewers will find themselves questioning whether there is supernatural element or we’re just watching Evy come apart under pressure.

  A woman tending to her dying mother finds her only escape in podcasting, but when her co-host presents ten disturbing audio files of a man and his wife, their experiences begin to seem disturbingly similar to her own.
• 
  Waverly (2025)

  Review preview for Waverly

  There might be room for an interesting story here but sadly the film is very one-sided.

  A nightclub doorman and a bartender try to make their troubled relationship work.
• 
  Shrimp Fried Rice (2025)

  Review preview for Shrimp Fried Rice

  The amount of effort put into some images that we glimpse for mere seconds puts Hollywood blockbusters to shame.

  An innocent enquiry at a Chinese restaurant leads to a series of discoveries.
• 
  Bloody Legend: The Complete Cliff Twemlow Collection (2025)

  Review preview for Bloody Legend: The Complete Cliff Twemlow Collection

  Once you get know the work of this plucky Mancunian producer, it's hard not to fall in love with it.

  A collection of films produced by Cliff Twemlow, plus a documentary about his life and work.
• 
  Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo (2025)

  Review preview for Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo

  Once the film starts to get brutal, it’s easy to become so focused on the horror that one loses sight of the mystery, and this seems to be a conscious trick on Tsai’s part.

  A legend in Taiwan's mountains says that when lost, hikers encounter a figure in a yellow raincoat who points to a blurry path, leading them to disappear.
• 
  Hellcat (2025)

  Review preview for Hellcat

  Hellcat is an unforgettable ride.

  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.
• 
  Honeko Akabane's Bodyguards (2024)

  Review preview for Honeko Akabane's Bodyguards

  The freshness of Deguchi’s performance makes the notion of her ignorance believable, at least for a time.

  Honeko has a 10 billion yen bounty on her head. Ibuki, her childhood friend turned bodyguard, must protect her incognito. Unexpectedly, all his classmates are assigned as her covert bodyguards.
• 
  Anything That Moves (2025)

  Review preview for Anything That Moves

  Setting two sets of narrative expectations against each other is an interesting way of presenting disordered thinking, and puts the viewer in a pleasingly uncomfortable position.

  An innocent Chicago food delivery boy, after having sex for money, finds himself involved in a series of murders that can be traced back to someone who was in his bed.
• 
  Dog On Trial (2024)

  Review preview for Dog On Trial

  Kodi has a gift for comic timing and a wonderful deadpan delivery.

  A young lawyer tries to save a dog from capital punishment.
• 
  The Battle Wizard (1977)

  Review preview for The Battle Wizard

  The fights are well staged even when there are a dozen or so people involved, striking the right balance between dazzling the eye and making it possible to follow the action.

  A peace-loving young man meets a beautiful woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man to see her unmasked.
• 
  Le Tour De Canada (2025)

  Review preview for Le Tour De Canada

  Elliot Farinaro’s brilliant editing knits together animated and live action scenes with archive footage, sometimes all in the same shot.

  An intense rivalry develops between Francophone and Anglophone competitors in a bicycle race across Canada.
• 
  Terrestrial (2025)

  Review preview for Terrestrial

  Concerned with exploring what ordinary people might do in extremis, Terrestrial is one of those films that turns on a single line.

  During a weekend reunion, a rising science fiction author welcomes three college friends to his home, but strange events begin to blur the lines between reality and imagination.
• 
  The Well (2025)

  Review preview for The Well

  Fairly pedestrian stuff, with nothing that will come as a surprise to fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.

  In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight over the precious remaining resources, a young woman's loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man who discovers her family has a secret supply of fresh water.
• 
  AJ Goes To The Dog Park (2024)

  Review preview for AJ Goes To The Dog Park

  It’s a decidedly quirky tale of the sort that will infuriate some viewers, who will feel they’ve been egregiously ripped off – but if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be in your element.

  A man who finds contentment in the simple pleasures - buttered toast, bicycle rides and walking his dog - discovers that his beloved dog park has been transformed into a 'blog park', a digital sanctuary where youths gather to open their laptops. He feels compelled to take action, to set things right.
• 
  Stinker (2025)

  Review preview for Stinker

  What if a lost alien were found not by a sweet little boy but by an ageing alcoholic drifter?

  In a remote corner of Kazakhstan, three unlikely characters cross paths: a despairing old man, a grouchy shopkeeper, and an alien just trying to get home. With the gentle help of a curious granddaughter, walls begin to break down, but with a government motorcade soon to arrive - and a bumbling cop hot on their tails - can this misfit group somehow hold together?
• 
  I Am Frankelda (2025)

  Review preview for I Am Frankelda

  The puppets are wonderfully expressive, and alongside the drama you can enjoy battle sequences and even musical numbers with wild choreography.

  Frankelda, a determined 19th-century Mexican writer, journeys into her subconscious to face the monsters she's written about. Guided by a tormented prince, she must restore the balance between fiction and reality before it's too late.
• 
  Fragment (2024)

  Review preview for Fragment

  Kim directs with confidence and skill, managing the tension well and able to shift easily between downbeat drama and fast-paced action.

  Jun-gang takes care of his little sister while being threatened with eviction, while Gi-su lives alone since his father was killed… by Jun-gang’s father. Will they be able to resist the vicious cycle brought on by such a sordid crime?
• 
  Cielo (2025)

  Review preview for Cielo

  A stunningly realised piece of magical realism quite different from anything that writer/director Alberto Sciamma has created before.

  How far would you go to reach heaven? Santa, a young indigenous girl, embarks on a rollercoaster journey to take her mother out of a life of hardship and into eternal paradise.
• 
  Noise (2025)

  Review preview for Noise

  The way the sound designer creates a landscape of silence is particularly impressive.

  After the disappearance of her younger sister, a woman with a hearing impediment experiences bizarre happenings and frightening encounters when mysterious noises echo throughout the building.