New Movies

Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP As someone who spent the last three years of their life studying geography at university I am well versed in the stories of colonial adventurers, like David Livingstone, and their expeditions to the unexplored realms of the then British Empire. As a result there was something rather familiar about James Gray’s latest film that reimagines one of these tales. Based on real life events, The Lost City of Z tells the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett...

By Linda Marric Shot over a three year period, All This Panic is perhaps one of the most comprehensive looks at female youth ever achieved by a documentary film-maker. Director Jenny Page and her cinematographer husband Tom Betterton took on the mammoth task of following a group of girls from New York through some of the most difficult years of their lives. Hormones, mood swings and   tantrums are captured by the director as the girls learn how to navigate around...

You wish to hear a tale that’s as old as time itself? How about the saga of a film studio desperate to recapture the magic? We’ve seen Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the antagonist; had Mowgli’s adventures in the jungle painstakingly retold to us with photo-real clarity; and found ourselves faced with Tim Burton’s warped vision of Wonderland… Never mind finding out if an angelic heroine will be strong enough to break the evil spell placed on a conceited...

Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP Set during the Japanese occupation of South Korea in the 1920s, Lee Jung-Chool (Song Kang-Ho) is a former member of the Korean independence movement, who has betrayed his former loyalties and become a member of the Japanese police force. An order for him to take down the resistance group he was once affiliated with brings him into contact with Kim Woo-Jin (Gong Yoo), an art dealer who he attempts to befriend in the hope that it...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel Some narratives are so obviously constructed to hit a series of emotional highs; the power begins to ebb away. The Olive Tree is like that, marching along a transparently pre-ordained path. And yet it remains a mostly charming experience through the sheer weight of emotion brought to bear by director Iciar Bollain and writer Paul Laverty. The tree of the title plays a vital role in bringing a number of moving parts together, though the crux...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain The Salesman beings with what at first appears to be an earthquake. A high-rise building is at risk of collapse and those within it are escaping, fearing for their lives. The opening sequence may be an obvious visual metaphor for events to come, but brilliantly sets the tone for a film that is meticulously constructed. The plot twists with precision and brilliant calculation, so that events feel believable but never predictable. The film moves between an...

By Linda Marric @linda_marric Tempers run high and relationships start to instantly disintegrate in Ben Parker’s claustrophobic thriller The Chamber. Set in a single location, the film offers a promising premise, but sadly falls short of bringing anything new to the horror/thriller genre. Trapped in a small submarine off the coast of North Korea, four people must find a way of getting back to the surface before it’s too late. With a small budget and even smaller cast, The Chamber...

By Linda Marric @linda_marric There’s one thing Catfight director Onur Tukel cannot be accused of, and that thing is lacking in originality. However you chose to read his film, one thing is for sure, this curious little production manages to pack more punches and raise more laughs than the majority of comedies being made in Hollywood right now. Divided into three main chapters, the film plays with ideas of femininity in a way that has seldom been depicted on screen...

By Linda Marric The opening scene to Elle is perhaps one of the most shocking scenes you will encounter in recent cinema. The film opens with a brutal rape sequence which will have you ask yourself, what have I let myself in for? Directed by Paul Verhoeven and staring the always brilliant and majestic Isabelle Huppert, Elle is a story like no other. It isn’t so much a social commentary piece, but more of a perverse cautionary tale of intrigue...