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The Phoenician Scheme: Immaculate Chaos

Every line would be the funniest thing you’ve ever heard if not for every other line.

Bring Her Back: Hollow Horror From Messy Misery

Pure misery, mean-spirited and endless cruelty that doesn't have the slightest inkling of how to leverage that cruel energy into something impactful.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Series X): Always Parrying its Own Potential

The highs are high but the lows are low. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is persistent mix of satisfaction and disappointment, of potential and eventual failure. A great premise is thrown to the wayside, replaced with a confused and unsatisfying narrative focus where plot ploughs through all else. Combat and music

SIFF 2025: Souleymane's Story // Bitter Gold

Souleymane's Story dir. Boris Lojkine The humming neon betrays a sense of extant hopelessness, the rain slicked Parisian streets bustling with life but only on the surface – the city of romance and dreams built on the back of migrant hustle, people desperately working and clinging onto distant possibility.

SIFF 2025: Happyend // Cloud

Happyend dir. Neo Sora Carves a neo-fascist dystopian cyberpunk landscape out of negative space, a lo-fi exploration of disaffected youth in the spirit of Blue Spring or Rebels of the Neon God. Adolescence in search of catharsis and connection pushed into authoritarian structures and regressive ideals, the throes of angst

SIFF 2025: Good Boy // Chain Reactions

Good Boy dir. Ben Leonberg Wields a sharp understanding of the semiotics of horror to generate a potent atmospheric dread, effectively communicating its ideas through the soulful eyes of its canine protagonist. The novelty lies entirely in its shifted perspective offering, but it never wavers on delivering the expected thrills

SIFF 2025: New Jack Fury // 40 Acres

New Jack Fury dir. Lanfia Wal Somewhere between throwback blaxploitation and modern day 80s exploitation spoof, the pure dedication to wanton absurdity and low budget cheese makes this a mostly delightful romp, if not one that overplays its hand even at 84 minutes. It's a visual effects showcase

I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things: Sinners // Warfare // The Shrouds

May 18, 2025. The US and the UK. Two film critics take podcasting positions in support of a tactical spoiling operation. This podcast uses only their memories. Every effort has been made to recreate these critics' thoughts as they experienced them while watching these films, a revolutionary approach to

SIFF 2025: Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass // By Design

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass dir. Timothy & Stephen Quay Somewhere between the mesmerizing, hallucinatory dreams of Jan Švankmajer and the creaking, wooden fantasies of Jiří Barta, the Brothers Quay return to the influence of Polish writer Bruno Schulz, 38 years after their adaptation of Street of Crocodiles.

The Grand Deceit of Alex Garland’s Warfare

For all its claims of authenticity, Warfare is deeply deceptive. It starts by misleading you, a claim is put forward that ‘this film only uses their memories’ (their being the soldiers depicted therein). On a number of levels, this is profoundly untrue but the way it is untrue is deeply

SIFF 2025: Four Mothers

Seattle International Film Festival 2025's opening film is safe. By all accounts, that's what a festival opener should be. A light crowd pleaser that can play to all audiences and flood the balconies of the Paramount Theatre with uproars of laughter, to join in the community

Blue Prince (PC): The Art of Intuition

It's a classic setup: You can inherit a stately home but under a strict condition. In Blue Prince, that condition is make it to room 46, that's room 46 in a mansion where – as you can see from the blueprints – there is only space for 45

South of Midnight (Series X): An Aesthetic Triumph Hampered by Repetition

In positive and negative ways, South of Midnight feels like a very pretty PS2 game. Admittedly, the art design is stunning, and is underpinned by technical chops; it’s the act of playing it that will take you back. A linear, action adventure game that’s heavy on simple platforming

Eephus: Eephemeral Warmth

Why do they care so much? Don't have they more important things going on? The brisk October air whistles through the falling leaves. Lush grass rolls gently like soft waves, the autumn sun hanging above the worn dugouts and a dusty diamond. Everything emanates a warm glow, softly