Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  All Of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars (2022)

  Review preview for All Of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

  Through her collages of stories and images, Rainsford explores the cultural shift precipitated by the disaster, and the different ways of looking at the world which enable people to keep on living in uncertain times.

  In Japan, people still struggle to cope with the legacy of the 2011 tsunami, whilst on the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe, volunteers collect Japanese debris from the beaches.
• 
  All Of Us Strangers (2023)

  Review preview for All Of Us Strangers

  Protagonist Adam (Andrew Scott) lives in a neatly furnished home, no longer feels the need to hide his sexuality, and tells himself he’s fine, but the music says otherwise.

  A screenwriter embarks on a relationship with a neighbour at the same time as making a journey into his troubled past.
• 
  All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

  Review preview for All Quiet On The Western Front

  It is often amongst the international Oscar contenders that one finds the year’s best films. Even after accounting for that, this is something special.

  A young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
• 
  All Roads To Pearla (2019)

  Review preview for All Roads To Pearla

  Ditthavong comes from a photography background and the film is beautifully framed and lit throughout.

  A high school wrestler becomes a driver for a call girl with a violent pimp.
• 
  All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (2022)

  Review preview for All The Beauty And The Bloodshed

  The film is most interesting as a character study.

  The story of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty often blamed for the US opioid epidemic.
• 
  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.
• 
  All The Fires (2023)

  Review preview for All The Fires

  All The Fires is a film built out of contradictions from which meaning gradually emerges.

  Conflicted by his mother's new relationship and his best friend's crush on him, Bruno, a pyromaniac teenager, escapes from the city. He sets off on a journey in search of a girl he met online who will push him to confront his father's death and the doubts about his sexuality, but not before leaving all his fires behind.
• 
  All Things Bakelite: The Age Of Plastic (2018)

  Review preview for All Things Bakelite: The Age Of Plastic

  At a point when he can hardly be annoyed by it, this tribute seems a fitting one..

  A documentary about the 'father of modern plastics', Leo Hendrik Baekeland.
• 
  All We've Got (2019)

  Review preview for All We've Got

  Clements discovers a story that is diverse, inclusive and profoundly optimistic.

  A personal exploration of LGBTQ women's communities, cultures, and social justice work through the lens of the physical spaces they create, from bars to bookstores to arts and political hubs.
• 
  All You Need Is Death (2023)

  Review preview for All You Need Is Death

  It’s solidly rooted in the ordinary and yet its habit of drawing out small absurdities means that ordinary things and places won’t seem so safe after you’ve seen it.

  A young couple records and collects folk songs in rural Ireland, selling them to a mysterious, rich buyer. When rumours of a song never-before-heard reach the couple, they find themselves in an uneasy alliance with a music professor to discover an ancient song.
• 
  Alma (2009)

  Review preview for Alma

  Splendidly put together.

  A girl is enchanted by a mysterious toyshop.
• 
  Almamula (2023)

  Review preview for Almamula

  A semi-autobiographical film with a potent sense of place, Almamula alternates between realism and fantasy, its camerawork reflecting the conflicting ways of thinking at its core.

  12-year-old Nino is assaulted for being homosexual. In an effort to protect the boy, his parents move the family to a small rural village.
• 
  The Almond And The Seahorse (2022)

  Review preview for The Almond And The Seahorse

  The Almond And The Seahorse gradually coalesces like the pieces of an old memory coming back together.

  An archaeologist and an architect fight to re-imagine a future after traumatic brain injury leaves them adrift from the people they love.
• 
  Almost (2020)

  Review preview for Almost

  There’s a blatant challenge here to common expectations about the lives of Deaf and hearing-impaired people.

  A woman meets the girl of her dreams in a library. Everything seems perfect - almost.
• 
  Alok (2024)

  Review preview for Alok

  Hedison’s lens cannot show us everything. The film requires viewers to be as open as possible, to really listen and reflect.

  A documentary portrait of Alok Vaid-Menon, the internationally acclaimed non-binary author, poet, comedian and public speaker.
• 
  Alone (2020)

  Review preview for Alone

  Although this is familiar territory, with a long pedigree going back through cinematic history, it's no less watchable as a result.

  A recently widowed traveller is kidnapped by a cold blooded killer, only to escape into the wilderness where she is forced to battle against the elements as her pursuer closes in on her.
• 
  Aloners (2021)

  Review preview for Aloners

  In one of the most complex and intriguing performances of 2021, Gong keeps us guessing about what Jin-na is really thinking and feeling.

  Reflection on loneliness through the life of a solitary woman.
• 
  Alpha Male (2022)

  Review preview for Alpha Male

  There have been a number of grim films on subjects closely related to this in recent years, so it’s nice to see it approached with humour and some measure of sympathy for all the characters.

  A young man enters into a mysterious masculinity therapy, whose objective is to re-balance their relationship. He soon discovers that the leader of this therapy has radical, terrifying views on women and his dangerous methods are highly controversial.
• 
  Always Amber (2020)

  Review preview for Always Amber

  Conversations about internal and external experiences of gender provide structure, but there's much more to Amber as a person.

  Documentary about youngsters with fluid identities.
• 
  Amanda (2022)

  Review preview for Amanda

  The story may be presented in a quirky way, with a highly distinctive visual style, but it’s well observed and relatable.

  As far as 24-year-old Amanda can remember, she has never had friends. It’s the thing she desires most. When she finds out that as infants she and Rebecca had spent a lot of time together, Amanda settles on her new mission: convincing her that they are still best friends.
• 
  Amazing Grace (2018)

  Review preview for Amazing Grace

  One doesn't need to be religious to find something ineffable not just in the music itself but in the way it is expressed.

  Concert film about the recording of Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace album.
• 
  Americanized (2021)

  Review preview for Americanized

  What makes the film interesting is that it goes beyond simply depicting Eng’s struggles to explore how far she’s willing to go to fit in.

  A teenager struggles to fit in, finding herself caught between the Chinese and American aspects of her identity.
• 
  American 965 (2021)

  Review preview for American 965

  A compelling puzzle.

  An investigation that raises new questions about the tragic accident of American Airlines flight 965 on the evening of December 20th, 1995.
• 
  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.
• 
  American Badger (2021)

  Review preview for American Badger

  The film delivers fairly well in terms of fights, the brutal realism of which will have strong appeal for some genre fans.

  A seemingly cold-blooded hitman is assigned to befriend a call girl, but all hell breaks loose when he is forced to kill her.
• 
  American Circumcision (2017)

  Review preview for American Circumcision

  The film doesn't pretend to be objective but it substantiates its medical arguments well.

  A documentary exploring medical and cultural issues around circumcision in America, and the rise of the Intactivist movement.
• 
  American Doctor (2026)

  Review preview for American Doctor

  A fourth doctor, unsuccessful in his efforts to get to Gaza, helps in whatever ways he can. This enables the film to move between intense scenes within Gaza itself, and the US, where it’s easier to breathe.

  When three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.
• 
  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.
• 
  American Dresser (2018)

  Review preview for American Dresser

  On and on it goes, none of it actually bad, none of it actually adding anything.

  After his wife dies, an elderly man decides to ride across America on his American Dresser motorbike.
• 
  American Fiction (2023)

  Review preview for American Fiction

  A film which is as playful with its own structure as with its subject.

  English professor and author Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, with the intention of exposing the hypocrisies of the publishing industry.
• 
  American Murderer (2022)

  Review preview for American Murderer

  Pelphrey is very effective in conveying the loneliness and misery which Brown brings upon himself.

  Charismatic con man Jason Derek Brown earns a place on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list after hatching his most elaborate scheme yet.
• 
  American Satan (2017)

  Review preview for American Satan

  Ash Avildsen's sophomore feature doesn't have much to say that's new but it knows how to entertain.

  Members of a young rock band are persuaded to make a sinister deal by an enigmatic stranger.
• 
  American Symphony (2023)

  Review preview for American Symphony

  Batiste and Jaouad are intensely grounded – they have to be – and as such, their humour and their joy have greater weight.

  In 2022, musician Jon Batiste finds himself the most celebrated artist of the year and embarks on composing an original symphony. The year grows more complicated when his life partner, best-selling author Suleika Jaouad, learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned.
• 
  America The Beautiful (2019)

  Review preview for America The Beautiful

  Though it's clear early on that this journey will lead to something brutal, directors James Kaelan and Blessing Yen exercise restraint, letting changes take place slowly.

  After the 2016 election, a politically ambivalent marketing manager gets drawn into the orbit of a racist militia in San Bernardino.
• 
  Amigo (2019)

  Review preview for Amigo

  Pareja and Botet often perform comedy together and have a seasoned chemistry which makes it easy to buy into the depth and intensity of their characters’ relationship.

  After injuring him in a car crash, a man tries to care for his best friend in his remote house but the tension between them grows.
• 
  Ammonite (2020)

  Review preview for Ammonite

  The good work in Ammonite is so good that one longs for it to pick up the pace, to function more successfully overall.

  In 1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.
• 
  Amoeba (2025)

  Review preview for Amoeba

  Physical and metaphorical layers pile on top of one another.

  In a repressive city-state, a tomboy schoolgirl persuades three classmates at an all-girls school to rebel by forming a triad gang.
• 
  Among Wolves (2016)

  Review preview for Among Wolves

  Shawn Convey's film is composed with a grace and deliberation rarely seen in documentary.

  A motorcycle club led by Bosnian War veterans finds redemption helping their struggling small town heal and defending the threatened herd of wild horses they first met on the front line.
• 
  The Amusement Park (2019)

  Review preview for The Amusement Park

  For many fans, this will be the last ever chance to see a Romero film for the first time. It won't disappoint.

  An elderly gentleman goes for what he assumes will be an ordinary day at the amusement park, only to find himself in the middle of a hellish nightmare instead.
• 
  Ana De Día (2018)

  Review preview for Ana De Día

  The stage begins to feel like the only space where anyone is honest, even when miming to somebody else's voice.

  The appearance of a double who starts living her life and fulfilling all of her obligations allows a frustrated woman to adopt total anonymity for the very first time and escape the tight regulations that have constrained her life.
• 
  Ancestral Beasts (2026)

  Review preview for Ancestral Beasts

  The realist approach that [Riedel] takes to the film as a whole means that when it slips out of that space, the result is truly unsettling.

  A troubled Métis woman commits to finally facing the figurative demons in her past only to uncover a literal demon living within the bowels of her rural home that she must battle before it kills her and everyone she loves.
• 
  Anchor And Hope (2017)

  Review preview for Anchor And Hope

  A beautifully drawn portrait of a complex situation that doesn't resort to the usual empty assumptions that nothing like this can ever work.

  A lesbian couple's relationship comes under strain when they contemplate having a baby.
• 
  Andrea Gets A Divorce (2024)

  Review preview for Andrea Gets A Divorce

  Although it could easily have been played as a farce, it’s friendship and human feeling that is the key to this film.

  Rural policewoman Andrea wants to end her marriage and become a detective inspector in the city. After a birthday party, her drunken soon-to-be ex-husband runs out in front of her car. In a state of shock, Andrea commits a hit-and-run.
• 
  Angelou On Burns (1966)

  Review preview for Angelou On Burns

  This is Angelou at her most magnetic.

  A documentary which follows Maya Angelou on a visit to Ayrshire where she explores similarities between Robert Burns’ life and her own.
• 
  Angels Are Made Of Light (2018)

  Review preview for Angels Are Made Of Light

  There's a constant sense that war might return, a sense of urgency about cramming as much knowledge and wisdom as possible into the children before it's too late.

  Documentary tracking schoolchildren growing up in Kabul over a period of years.
• 
  Angels & Demons (2009)

  Review preview for Angels & Demons

  This film explains why the public are so reluctant to fund universities.

  The Catholic Church calls on its old adversary Robert Langdon to save it from an Illuminati threat.
• 
  Angel's Egg (1985)

  Review preview for Angel's Egg

  Unutterably beautiful.

  A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg.
• 
  The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster (2023)

  Review preview for The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster

  In the end it’s the boldness of its choices which really makes the difference.

  Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life.
• 
  Angry Young Men (2022)

  Review preview for Angry Young Men

  More than half the runtime is spent with groups of men sitting around having boring conversations which provide little exposition and tell us nothing about their characters.

  A surreal coming of age tale set in the barren gangland town of Mauchton, Scotland.
• 
  Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)

  Review preview for Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

  If you're 14, you may feel that you have finally found a film you can identify with.

  When she meets the perfect boy, 14-year-old Georgia becomes determined to transform her life.