Reviews by Jennie Kermode

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Anhell69 (2022)

  Review preview for Anhell69

  The film immerses us in the life of the city.

  A funeral car cruises the streets of Medellin, while a young director tells the story of his past in this violent and conservative city.
• 
  Aniara (2018)

  Review preview for Aniara

  Although little of this is new, it's delivered with poise and grace, aided by finely tuned performances.

  Science-fiction drama about a passenger spaceship lost in the void.
• 
  Animale (2024)

  Review preview for Animale

  Emma Benestan’s poetic take on gender, power and corporeality is a deeply animal experience.

  Surrounded by men, 22-year-old Nejma trains hard to fulfill her dream of winning the upcoming annual bull race, but news of a rogue and violent bull on the loose terrifies the community. Young men are being murdered everywhere, and the beast is nowhere to be seen.
• 
  Animalia (2023)

  Review preview for Animalia

  Pregnancy is often depicted as a state of enhanced vulnerability, and one which points the way to increased dependency. Here, Alaoui turns that around.

  A young, pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.
• 
  Animalia Paradoxa (2024)

  Review preview for Animalia Paradoxa

  There’s incredible world-building here.

  A strange creature, Animalia, roams an abandoned building. Dressed in rags and gas mask she moves like an alien dancer, crawling and stretching across concrete, plastic waste. She collects and fills empty bottles for a modest bath.
• 
  Animosity (2013)

  Review preview for Animosity

  Willet is impressive all round and one hopes that this release will raise her profile.

  A newlywed couple moves into a house in the middle of woods only to discover that the surrounding forest is host to sinister supernatural powers which turn them against each other.
• 
  Anna (2019)

  Review preview for Anna

  Barandich's down-to-Earth charm and brusque humour anchors a film which finds absurdity in the commonplace details of life.

  A single mother living in war-torn Ukraine is tempted by the chance to attend a party where she could meet American men looking for wives.
• 
  Anne At 13,000 ft (2019)

  Review preview for Anne At 13,000 ft

  It takes real craft to hold something like this together for 75 minutes - not to mention tremendous effort on Campbell's part.

  Even in her job at a children’s day care centre, Anne prefers fun to actual work and often alienates those around her with her erratic behaviour.
• 
  Annie Hall (1977)

  Review preview for Annie Hall

  Allen's genius is in bringing out the humour in little incidents and in using them to provide sharp insights into character.

  A neurotic Jewish New York comedian attempts to have a relationship with a free spirited young woman who visits the same shrink.
• 
  Annihilation (2018)

  Review preview for Annihilation

  Garland takes us into a world as beautiful as it is alien, a dazzling cinematic landscape that deserves to be seen on the big screen.

  A biologist joins a team exploring a quarantine zone after her husband goes missing there, and finds something very different from what she expected.
• 
  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.
• 
  Another Body (2023)

  Review preview for Another Body

  Most of the film has been assembled out of Zoom chats, but it’s so well done, and the story is so compelling, that it might take you a while to notice.

  A documentary following a college student’s search for justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online.
• 
  Another News Story (2017)

  Review preview for Another News Story

  There's strong stuff here, but for the very reasons the film describes, it's often difficult to connect with.

  A documentary about journalists sent by their employers to the Mediterranean to cover the unfolding humanitarian tragedy.
• 
  Antebellum (2020)

  Review preview for Antebellum

  Far from being a merely polemical film, this emerges as a trickier, less easily defined piece of art.

  An author of books abut race and justice finds herself drawn back to a brutal past through dreams and perhaps something worse.
• 
  Anthem Of A Teenage Prophet (2018)

  Review preview for Anthem Of A Teenage Prophet

  Regrettably, the film's best qualities make it a harder sell, but there's a lot here that's worth watching.

  A teenager's life changes forever after his prediction about the death of his best friend comes true.
• 
  Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018)

  Review preview for Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

  Having delivered shock and awe in the first half on the film, Baichwal turns in the second half to projects that are small but growing fast, new approaches to old ways of doing things.

  The filmmakers have traversed the globe to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination.
• 
  Antiquities (2018)

  Review preview for Antiquities

  What feels initially like forced comedy reveals itself as an expression of the awkwardness of these troubled individuals and segues into affectionate character-driven humour as the story develops.

  After his father's death, Walt moves to his dad's hometown to learn more about who his father was, and accepts a job at a local antique mall.
• 
  Antrum (2018)

  Review preview for Antrum

  Whether one approaches Antrum with trepidation or amusement, it's a very good film, and directors David Amito and Michael Laicini really know their stuff.

  A young boy and girl enter the forest to dig a hole to hell. Said to be a cursed film from the late 1970s, Antrum examines the horrifying power of storytelling.
• 
  The Ants And The Grasshopper (2021)

  Review preview for The Ants And The Grasshopper

  It’s enjoyable to watch this edifying connection between people discovering how much they have in common.

  Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real.
• 
  Anuja (2024)

  Review preview for Anuja

  Although we see the girls struggle, we also see their agency, their humour and their wit.

  When a gifted 9-year-old girl, who works in a garment factory, is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend school, she is forced to make a heart-wrenching decision that will determine her own and her sister's fate.
• 
  Anya (2019)

  Review preview for Anya

  Writer/director team Jacob Akira Okada and Carylanna Taylor maintain an intimate and relatable story whilst taking on big biological and sociological issues.

  A couple trying to find out why they can't conceive inadvertently contribute to an astonishing discovery.
• 
  Anything For Her (2008)

  Review preview for Anything For Her

  Anything For Her restores feeling and humanity to scenes we see played out far too often in an utterly meaningless way.

  When Julien's wife is imprisoned and all legal means fail her, he becomes determined to save her at any cost.
• 
  Anything For Jackson (2020)

  Review preview for Anything For Jackson

  Richings and McCarthy deliver two of the finest performances in genre works this year.

  A bereaved Satanist couple kidnap a pregnant woman so they can use an ancient spellbook to put their dead grandson's spirit into her unborn child, but end up summoning more than they bargained for.
• 
  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.
• 
  Any One Of Us (2018)

  Review preview for Any One Of Us

  Basagoitia is presented as such an archetypal hero that it's hard to get past that and see the man, the human being whose story could give the film real value.

  Through the story of a recovering athlete, this documentary explores the world of spinal cord injuries.
• 
  Any Wednesday (2018)

  Review preview for Any Wednesday

  Delicately judged and interspersed with moments of gentle comedy, what may sound like a saccharine story of friendship against the odds manifests onscreen as something much more intelligent and nuanced.

  An octogenarian with dementia meets a PTSD afflicted homeless war veteran after choir practice and gives him a ride instead of going home.
• 
  An American Werewolf In London (1981)

  Review preview for An American Werewolf In London

  Landis keeps the humour dry, the speech naturalistic, yet his keen sense of the absurd provides for some laugh-out-loud moments.

  Fully restored version of the werewolf classic.
• 
  An Avocado Pit (2022)

  Review preview for An Avocado Pit

  Sara Marques’ editing … is simply brilliant. It’s this which elevates the film beyond conventional storytelling and makes it about living and breathing in the moment.

  A trans woman and a cis man meet one night in the streets of Lisbon. Two people, two realities, who dance their differences away till morning light. In challenge, in surprise, in awe and in recognition.
• 
  An Irish Atlantic Rainforest (2025)

  Review preview for An Irish Atlantic Rainforest

  A vital piece of cinema.

  Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest tells the story of Eoghan Daltun, a leading climate activist at the forefront of saving native Irish oak forests in the face of climate change and political indifference on the edges of the West Coast of Ireland.
• 
  An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It (2022)

  Review preview for An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It

  Addresses existential terror with a pleasing whimsy.

  A young office worker uncovers the flaws in his stop-motion universe with the help of a mysterious talking ostrich.
• 
  The Apartment (1960)

  Review preview for The Apartment

  Wittily scripted and inventively directed.

  An ambitious clerk engineers his rise through the ranks by lending his apartment to his seniors for their extra-marital affairs, only to question everything when he falls for someone himself.
• 
  Apocalypse Clown (2023)

  Review preview for Apocalypse Clown

  Ireland is consistently knocking it out of the park with this sort of work, and other countries must be looking on in clownish envy.

  The tale of a troupe of failed clowns and an ambitious reporter who embark on a chaotic adventure of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy.
• 
  Apolonia, Apolonia (2022)

  Review preview for Apolonia, Apolonia

  Glob confesses that she initially thought of Apolonia’s life as a fairy tale, something more like fiction than reality, but over the course of 13 long years she comes to recognise not only the humanity of her subject, but her own.

  Portrait of larger-than-life visual artist Apolonia Sokol.
• 
  Aporia (2023)

  Review preview for Aporia

  The performances are impressive all round.

  Since losing her husband, Sophie has struggled to manage grief, a full-time job, and parenting her devastated daughter, but when a former physicist reveals a secret time-bending machine, Sophie will be faced with an impossible choice.
• 
  Appiness (2018)

  Review preview for Appiness

  Satire that resembles its target this closely risks losing its humorous value - after all, one could equally well laugh at the real thing.

  Two former best friends get together to try and develop the next great app, with the aim of becoming billionaires.
• 
  Appofeniacs (2025)

  Review preview for Appofeniacs

  The characters are larger than life, each with a distinctive look, to make it easier to keep track. The effect is rather like being at a drunken fancy dress party.

  An ensemble tale with intersecting storylines that escalate into chaos as each portrays how easily deepfake technology can be weaponised to exploit society.
• 
  Arachnoquake (2012)

  Review preview for Arachnoquake

  Things perk up briefly during a doomed attempt to defend a supermarket with bug spray, and there's an entertaining water-based chase, but little else to get excited about.

  An earthquake releases fire-breathing, rapidly growing spiders onto the streets of New Orleans.
• 
  Arcadia (2017)

  Review preview for Arcadia

  You don’t need to be English – or even British – to appreciate this brilliantly constructed film.

  Archive study of Britain's relationship to the land.
• 
  Archenemy (2020)

  Review preview for Archenemy

  Michelle Laine's brilliant costume design provides a neat aesthetic link between animation and live action.

  Max Fist claims to be a hero from another dimension who fell through time and space to earth, where he has no powers. No one believes his stories except for a local teen named Hamster.
• 
  The Archivettes (2019)

  Review preview for The Archivettes

  Itself an important contribution to lesbian history, the film uses photographs and snippets of archive material to bring viewers closer to the human stories that came close to being lost.

  A documentary about the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians.
• 
  Arco (2025)

  Review preview for Arco

  It’s the sort of sweet-natured fable that makes adults nostalgic for childhood, but both the near and far futures it presents are, to children themselves, already likely to seem out of date.

  In 2075, a 10-year-old girl, Iris, witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. It’s Arco. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. Iris shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.
• 
  Arctic (2018)

  Review preview for Arctic

  Joe Penna's thriller is as lean and spare as life up in the Arctic wilderness.

  A tragic accident leaves a man stranded in the Arctic with no hope of rescue.
• 
  The Arc Of Oblivion (2022)

  Review preview for The Arc Of Oblivion

  “I don’t really know why I'm building it,” he says – which is, one imagines, what it might feel like to respond to a divine command.

  Set against the backdrop of the filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in a field in Maine, the film heads far afield - to salt mines in the Alps, fjords in the Arctic, and ancient libraries in the Sahara - to illuminate the strange world of archives, record keeping, and memory.
• 
  Are You Proud? (2019)

  Review preview for Are You Proud?

  Although it's not comprehensive it packs a lot into its 95 minute running time.

  A documentary bringing together rare archive footage and interviews from across a spectrum of campaigners to celebrate the progress that has been achieved through campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights.
• 
  Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (2023)

  Review preview for Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret

  What the film does well is to establish that, in the absence of larger problems, anxiety is refocused on smaller ones.

  When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.
• 
  Argentina, 1985 (2022)

  Review preview for Argentina, 1985

  Darín excels in this complicated role, revealing his character layer by layer, almost in passing, as the story of the atrocities unfolds.

  A team of lawyers take on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.
• 
  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.
• 
  Arthur & Merlin: Knights Of Camelot (2020)

  Review preview for Arthur & Merlin: Knights Of Camelot

  Alderson's film acquits itself better than some entries in the genre by dint of the fact that it has an idea of its own.

  A much older King Arthur returns home after fighting the Roman Empire. His illegitimate son has corrupted the throne of Camelot. Now King Arthur must reunite with the wizard Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table and fight to get back his crown.
• 
  The Artifice Girl (2022)

  Review preview for The Artifice Girl

  Smarter than most films of its ilk and refreshingly free of misplaced sentiment.

  When an internet vigilante develops a revolutionary new computer program to combat online predators, its rapid advancement leads to serious questions about autonomy, oppression, and what it really means to be human.
• 
  Artik (2019)

  Review preview for Artik

  A film that feels very immediate and real despite its extreme premise.

  A comic book obsessed serial killer teaches his son how to get away with a series of brutal murders until the boy befriends a mysterious man who threatens to expose everything.