Author: The Reviews Hub - Film

Writer and Director: Carla Simón Set in the Spanish resort of Vigo, Carla Simón’s Romería takes a while to come alive. Marina’s quest to have her name added as offspring to her father’s death certificate promises a bureaucratic film the likes of which we’ve seen too often before. But as the narrative switches to her father’s family and all its secrets, this well-made movie begins to grip with its examination of privilege and shame. It’s 2004, and Marina needs her name on the death certificate if she is to go to university to study cinema. She must convince her paternal…

Writers: Anna Ciennik, Malika Cécile Louati and Erige Sehiri Director: Erige Sehiri So much is unsaid and unexplained in Erige Sehiri’s examination of immigrant life in Tunisia. Promised Sky’s opening scene is of a toddler being bathed by a group of women. They are gentle and loving to the young Kenza, who is unsure of her own age. Slowly and heartbreakingly, we discover she is a survivor from a boat carrying refugees that sank on the coast. Kenza tells the story as if her experience was a great adventure: a man carrying knives is mentioned as well as the boat’s…

Writer: Jess O’Kane Director: Jonatan Etzler Wouldn’t life be so much easier of all the bad apples could be rounded up, allowing the rest of society to flourish? The premise of Jess O’Kane’s new dark comedy psychodrama directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring Saoirse Ronan show that concept is far too simplistic in its interpretation of the shades of grey in human nature. Screening at the London Film Festival 2025, the idea is amusingly applied to a primary school where a young teacher cannot be the classroom leader she hopes because of one disruptive pupil. Hardly sentimental about the sanctity…

Writer and Director: Julia Ducournau A strange virus has appeared in France, turning the infected into walking statues; their marmoreal skin glistens before it dries out and cracks. Of course, with part of this movie being set in 1990, this is an AIDS film, even though the symptoms of the French virus are different. The hospital wards are mainly full of men lying in their beds, either still as effigies or spluttering chalk dust into the air. Alpha is a brittle and beautiful study of unresolved grief. Whereas Robin Campillo’s 2017 120 Beats per Minute was a realistic and visceral…

Writer and Director: Rian Johnson Following his classic country house mystery and a group of people trapped on an island, Rian Johnson unpacks his latest box of tricks at the London Film Festival 2025 with this year’s opening Night Gala, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The third movie in this popular crime series brings together some more well-known elements of the genre, combining a locked room mystery with a village setting, all built around the local church. Once again, Johnson proves adept not just paying homage to the great crime plots but bringing them right up to…

Writer: Avner Shiloah Director: Linus O’Brien There are a number of 50th anniversaries on the horizon- The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and the National Theatre on the South Bank – perhaps the most unexpected celebration is for The Rocky Horror Show. Director Linus O’Brien’s documentary demonstrates that the evolution of the stage musical, written by his father Richard O’Brien, from fringe to mainstream theatre to film and fan phenomenon has indeed been a strange journey. The documentary roughly divides into thirds for each part of the process- stage, film and fan reaction. Director O’Brien’s relationship with the show’s author…

Writers: Christel Henon and Gilles Legardinier Director: Gilles Legardinier If there’s an actor who likes to keep us on our toes, it’s John Malkovich. We’re used to seeing him immersed in aspects of the surreal and the avant-garde. You might have a bit of Henry James as a palette-cleanser, but in general, you know what you’re going to get. In an abrupt about-turn, Malkovich’s latest film is a romantic comedy. He plays Andrew Blake, an English businessman, recently widowed, who makes a break for it and travels to France. He locates a chateau online where, years previously, he had met…

Writers: Michael Diliberti and JJ Nelson  Director: Michael Diliberti Despite lurching from Tarantino swagger to Police Academy slapstick, Bad Man isn’t that bad at all. With a winning performance by Johnny Simmons as the lazy and beleaguered policeman Sam Evans, and a script that occasionally sizzles, Michael Diliberti’s comedy-action film is worth seeking out on streaming services. Sam Evans isn’t the best policeman, but there’s nothing for him to do in the quiet neighbourhood of Colt Lake, Tennessee, where the only criminal appears to man obsessed with “jerking off in his Buick”. However, the news of the recent murder of…