Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 3 minutes, Director – Silvio Soldini

Rosa (Elisa Schlott) is one of seven women forced to become a food taster for Hitler to ensure that it isn’t poisoned.

There’s very little tasting in The Tasters. Not just from the obvious hesitancy to try potentially poisoned food, but as the film focuses on the lives and other fears of the seven women forced to ensure that Hitler’s food is safe to eat. We see the bond that forms between them in-between meals, having been taken from their homes and forced to take on their new roles or face the consequences of not doing so.

We primarily see things through the eyes of Rosa Sauer (Elisa Schlott), a young woman taken from her in-laws home soon after arriving whilst her husband is out fighting. She leads many of the conversations and interactions that we see, and this is very much her story, playing into those of the other tasters. There are some likable moments between the group, faintly tinged with familiar emotional beats, against the backdrop of the Nazi threat they face.

A threat which itself can feel, in terms of the film’s tone, somewhat tame as a narrative with a number of familiar elements plays out in rather middle-of-the-road form. What’s present is fine, and generally sees through the 2-hour run-time, but never quite has the tension, threat or emotional effect perhaps wanted, and definitely needed. The tasting scenes themselves have the helpful layer of being what sparks everything and the film revolves around, to some extent. The uncertain fear of whether the food is or isn’t safe, and having no choice as to whether they eat it or not, plays out well, especially with the factor that the poison will likely take time to have an effect, and there’s no real knowledge as to if there’s anything that can be done if it does. Even in subsequent scenes set in the tasting room there’s still an effect to be found that stops a fully cycling feel to things.

The issues largely come when it comes to the more personal side of things to each character. It never quite feels as if The Tasters is able to fully connect to each of the handful of characters it chooses due to how much it still wants to predominantly focus on Rosa, who even still there isn’t a full connection with. Things move along generally fine, but don’t quite have the dramatic impact wanted amongst all it wants to do in moving things along while still trying to have the characters lead. It’s not quite a conflicted film, but one that feels at risk of being pulled in multiple directions whilst still being a familiarly direct, rather middling, drama.

Not quite forming the connection needed with the characters to have a dramatic effect, The Tasters is fine but has a tendency to feel familiar and almost cyclical.

Release Date – 3rd April 2026, Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 12 minutes, Director – Ragnhild Nøst Bergem

30-year-old Ola lives in an inclusive Norwegian village, exploring the community around him and looking at what life is, and could be, like for him in the wider world.

30-year-old Ola Henningsen doesn’t let the world stop him. He doesn’t need to when he’s allowed to be as determined as he is, both by himself and those around him. He lives in Vidaråsen, a small Norwegian village which houses an inclusive community, particularly for those with learning disabilities such as Ola. It’s a quiet place, seemingly tucked away, where people are people. Everyone’s supported and encouraged by each other and life appears to be calm and welcoming.

Of course, there’s a world outside and one of independence which Ola talks about exploring, especially when his friend moves away. Independence, community and respectful acceptance are key themes throughout director Ragnhild Nøst Bergem’s documentary which follows the titular figure through his life as he discusses his passions through taking part in speaking events and activities put on in the community he lives in.

However, after a while the tone and attitude of such scenes can start to feel similar. At just 72-minutes Being Ola is a short film, yet it feels as if its points could be condensed into an actual short film with less bordering on repetition. Ola still makes for a likable focus, especially when talking about his views for independence, moments showing him going out into the world have a particular effect as things finally appear to have developed in some way beyond the affable focus that takes up much of the run-time.

Again, one that’s good-natured and likable, especially when it comes to the figures we see as part of the peaceful and picturesque community at the heart of the film, but feels as if it has more that it could explore and say, yet steers focus into the basics and activities in the village where Ola lives and takes a while to stretch beyond. We see Ola step out, and want to see him succeed and continue the confident stride after his mentions of exploring independence. When this happens, there’s a regrown interest and engagement as ideas of acceptance are widened out to look at the wider world, and possibly make bigger points away from the base of the village where things feel most firmly comfortable.

Feeling better suited to a short film, there’s a likable nature to Being Ola, especially when it manages to widen its focus to look at independence and wider acceptance beyond that of the titular figure’s peaceful community.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 48 minutes, Directors – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Having survived the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving), alongside her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), now finds herself in another deadly hide and seek game against a high council of wealthy families, who all want to take the influential throne that her death (or survival) controls.

There’s a gothic tone to the look of the mansion in which the bloody events of Ready Or Not played out in, and to the Le Domas family who Samara Weaving’s Grace had to fend off. That tone isn’t in place in this follow-up which instead leans more into the satanic rituals and beliefs the family held with an increasing sense of unsettling darkness.

Grace, still recovering from the events of the first film and being visited by estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), finds herself thrown into a new game of hide and seek against a High Council of families (led by David Cronenberg), each wanting control of the council, and in turn the world. The only thing standing in their way is Grace. Whoever kills her gets control, unless she survives then it’s all hers. All of this explained, eventually, with all the needed loopholes, too, by Elijah Wood as the Council’s overseer and enforcer of the bylaws, simply called The Lawyer.

Once the game’s on the main attraction is well and truly underway and the film makes that known. The pace picks up and there’s a well-tracked set of kills and attacks which flow from one to the other without feeling like individual, segmented encounters. From initial near misses to upfront throws, punches and, of course, eventual coatings of crimson. It’s clear who the more disposable figures are, and who the film is building up to introducing into the game, but with the knowledge of comic relief and actual threats we simply look forward to eventual interactions, which still have airs of thrills and tension.

Where the real threat lies is in Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy’s Danforth twins Ursula and Titus. The pair want the council crown the most, to continue their family legacy at the top, and have tampered with the game, unfolding at their family’s expansive country golf resort, to put it in their favour. Halfway through, however, in an up-close encounter between them and the lead sisters a darker side starts to be shown to Titus. Quickly he becomes a dark, angered and threatening figure. Much different to those also hunting Faith and Grace. Violence is his answer, instead of part of blood-written tradition.

It’s the second half of this film where the darkness and threat comes through thick. Titus is a fearful character who wouldn’t be out of place in a drama about toxic masculinity and abuse, he presents the most upfront horror in the form of genuine scares in a film where much of the horror tones are found in the splatter. As his rage and the fury of his attempts to kill Grace and her sister grow the satanic rituals of the High Council also take more of a central role, and themselves are coated in ominous and threatening darkness.

It’s an enjoyably sinister streak in the film that takes some time to emerge, as does this second round of hide and seek, but when things kick in they’ve got a real spark. A sense of fun is when things truly emerge, especially during a pepper-spray-infused fight set to Total Eclipse Of The Heart. From consequences involving people blowing up in a burst of blood to characters struggling to use their weapons there’s plenty to enjoy in terms of the fun that the film has with its ideas, especially when letting loose and not focusing so much on the exposition and workings of the game and various loopholes and bylaws. Even if they do allow for the dark chaos of the closing stages.

Much darker than expected, there’s a real sense of violent threat to Ready Or Not 2 that grows more as the game and its entertainingly splattery offerings take swing.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 36 minutes, Directors – Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Waking up in the middle of space on a Hail Mary mission, science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) teams up with a rock-like alien (James Ortiz) to save both their worlds from star-eating cells.

It’s been 12 years since Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s last feature directorial credit (with TV work and what could have been their version of Solo in-between that, alongside writing and producing work, including on the Spider-Verse films). Their return to being behind the camera comes with plenty of visual style in front. Even a chamber of endless buttons and switches brings a sea of light and colour to wash over the concerned face of Ryan Gosling’s science-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace. Stranded in space, unsure of where he’s going, the ship he’s in shows the confining yet endless nature of space.

He’s on a mission to save Earth when it appears the sun is at threat of being eaten by a sea of star-eating cells which have been working through the galaxy. The effect could kill more than half the world’s population within 30 years, and Grace is the one sent to find a solution. However, waking up from his induced coma he floats through the ship having to piece together why he’s alone in space, until stumbling across a small, rock-like alien which he names Rocky (voiced and puppeteered by James Ortiz) who’s on a similar, isolated mission from his own world.

Gosling can balance existential fear and weighty responsibility (calling to his more dramatic works of years gone by) with the buddy comedy aspects with his character’s alien friend. It’s something that Lord and Miller themselves get a kick out of in Drew Goddard’s screenplay, adapting Martian author Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, leaning in to the humour when they get the opportunity whilst understanding the isolation of their central figure. Throughout we see flashbacks of him helping the Project Hail Mary team (led by Sandra Hüller’s Eva Stratt, riding both sides of dead-pan) prepare for launch, gradually getting closer to going on the mission himself.

Boardrooms and rooms on aircraft carriers contrast with the vastness of the galaxy, especially in scope and colour. Charles Wood and his production design team have gone all out and spent every penny of their budget effectively, pushed by the visual effects team and cinematographer Greig Fraser. The space sequences in particular are utterly immersive and made to be seen on the big screen, with Daniel Pemberton’s wonderful score tackling the wonder tinged with isolation. Instances of ships rotating, almost swirling, as they float in the sea of nothingness, or the rainbow of light cast by nearby planets – the third act is full of this, and tension – are spectacles of wonderment. Reminders of traditional sci-fi joy and immersion, mixed with the human story. As a technical piece there’s hope that this will be remembered come next year’s awards season.

As a whole piece there’s no denying the enthralling nature of Project Hail Mary. It captures a stronger emotional aspect, and better sense of isolation, than previous Weir adaptation The Martian (which had more viewpoint from Earth and the effort to ‘Bring him home’) while still bringing in an easy wit in naturally-placed gags and comments. An entertaining spectacle of uncertainty, isolation and companionship. There’s a warmth to Project Hail Mary which slips into many scenes, particularly those which see Grace and Rocky start to succeed in their attempt to save the stars. It adds to the drive of the mission, and the tension we eventually feel for it, and them. All in the traditional-feeling endless confinement of space.

A survival narrative of one man and humanity with isolation, companionship and an amusing rock alien. There’s a warmth to Project Hail Mary’s narrative and wonder to its spectacle. It’s an enthralling, traditional-inspired sci-fi joy.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 51 minutes, Director – Mamoru Hosoda

Danish princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida) is killed and finds herself in an afterlife known as the Otherworld. With a modern-day Japanese paramedic (Masaki Okada) she attempts to get her life back to get revenge for her death and her father’s (Masachika Ichimura).

Scarlet is a film that demands to be seen in the cinema. Both for its blend of 2D and 3D animation, which creates an interesting visual style – somewhat seen in director Mamoru Hosoda’s previous film, Belle – and the fact that if you’re in any way distracted you’ll have no clue what’s going on. If you’re watching at home and look at your phone for just 30 seconds the subject and landscape will very likely have dramatically changed.

Hosoda’s take on Hamlet sees the titular Scarlet (Mana Ashida) go from 16th century Danish princess to venturer of desert afterlife the Otherworld after she’s killed trying to get revenge for the murder of her father (Masachika Ichimura) by her Uncle, Claudius (Kôji Yakusho). With the help of modern day Japanese paramedic Hijiri (Masaki Okada) she travels through the Otherworld, facing assassins sent by Claudius and other faces in the Otherworld in the hope of returning to her life to finish getting revenge.

Yet, in trying to match the made-for-IMAX scale with the narrative there’s a very scattershot feeling to the events that unfold. There’s almost always something happening with a feeling that it’s meant to be grand in stakes and drama. The film wears a dramatic hard stare into the distance from start to finish, yet with how often things switch up, the intensity doesn’t get time to properly build or linger. There are flashbacks, shifts back to the world of the living, jumps to side characters and recurring figures throughout Scarlet and Hijiri and generally a lot going on. Even with some of the more consistent characters they’re appearances can still add to the chaotic feeling of the film’s structure.

There are solid visuals which bring an engaging look to the world and its fantastical elements, especially in the detail of the 2D elements and action-based confrontations. There’s something striking about these particularly in the third act and they help to move things along with an amusing style. As a whole the film sits in likable fashion, but feels like each brief scene is a new moment; a new idea, rather than something flowing from one to the next. Things can feel slightly jumpy, adding to the scattered feeling that dominates the narrative. It holds things back and stops Scarlet from being as enjoyable, and dramatically affecting, as it wants to be. A solid but shaky telling of Hamlet that’s feels pulled in multiple directions by its own imaginative interpretation.

Visually striking, particularly during action sequences, there’s a likeable nature to Scarlet which never quite soars due to a scattered scene-by-scene narrative structure.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 3 minutes, Director – Kei Ishikawa

When her journalist daughter (Camilla Aiko) asks about her life in Nagasaki, Etsuko (Yoh Yoshida) revisits the tragedies of her past (Suzu Hirose) and the life she tried to leave behind.

There’s not so much two different films playing out in this adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel, but more two different views of the world. They come from two distant ages and dealings with tragedy. 1980s England, Etsuko (Yoh Yoshida) is soon to move house and is getting some help from visiting daughter Niki (Camilla Aiko). Niki has dropped out of university, but is working as a journalist and begins to ask about her mother’s past in Nagasaki. It’s something Etsuko is reluctant to talk about, as much as her other daughter Keiko who we gather took her life years before – scenes showing even Nikki still dealing with this play out quietly as she herself seems to only reluctantly half-acknowledge this.

In flashback form, although making up most of the run-time, we see a young Etsuko (Suzu Hirose) in 1950s Nagasaki. A peaceful place populated by plenty of green scenery that’s veiling a community still recovering from atomic attack. Etsuko often finds herself looking out the window silently comparing her life, increasingly distant in her relationship with husband Jiro (Kôhei Matsushita) to that of those around her, particularly single-mum neighbour Sachiko (Fumi Nikaidô).

With the tragedies and lives that are being reflected on in both periods there’s a lightness to the overall impact of the film. It doesn’t quite feel to be as emotionally striking as it perhaps once to be, largely due to not entirely investigating the feelings of Etsuko. Things don’t feel as if they’re intentionally holding back, like the character who appears to have spent years living in the shadow of her past without actually mentioning anything about it in the hope that will help with moving away from it, but more that they never quite investigate the emotions at hand. There’s something of a surface feeling to the film as it moves from one moment to the next.

It all seems rather untroubling, and admittedly left me wanting something deeper. There’s a likable nature to the quiet moments, especially those dwelling on the characters restraining in emotion – Nikki standing in a dark corridor as an estate agent take pictures of Keiko’s room is a rare affecting moment from the film, and one of its best. However, sometimes quietness is exchanged for something sedate. Moving along easily and making for something lightly engaging, but not entirely affecting. Even as a film about holding on to emotion and the tragedies of the past.

While featuring some striking moments of silently withheld emotion, A Pale View Of Hills fails to properly get into the feelings of its characters beyond a lightly engaging surface.

Cert – Recommended age 14+, Run-time – 1 hour 34 minutes, Director – Andrew Stanton

Separated by thousands of years, the lives of a Neanderthal family, modern-day couple and future astronaut face love, struggle and interconnected events.

Andrew Stanton’s past sci-fi efforts, WALL-E for animation home Pixar and live-action debut John Carter, have been made to be seen on the big screen. Returning to live-action and the genre with In The Blink Of An Eye, written by Colby Day as opposed to Stanton with co-writers as has been the case with past ventures in the genre, this is a much more scaled down affair that seems to almost be made for streaming. It’s definitely been treated as such, being quietly dropped on Disney+ and Hulu with no real advertising, or mention on the front page.

Yet, while much quieter it continues to show the director’s love for the genre and the forms that it can take. Instead of a grand action spectacle In The Blink Of An Eye wants to get across the idea that, as Ferris Bueller would remind us, life moves pretty fast. Whether for a Neanderthal family, a modern-day couple (likably performed by Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs, even if they don’t quite get the space for us to fully admire their likability) and a future astronaut (Kate McKinnon in a welcome turn away from her often exaggerated comedic persona). Separated by thousands of years their stories intertwine as they explore love, hope, the future and the general nature of being human and living life.

2001 is a clear touchstone for Day and Stanton, and there appears to be a bit of Silent Running here, too. Smart sci-fi is what it appears things boil down to, although the film doesn’t quite reach the heart it wants in the relationships depicted. Particularly when following the prehistoric characters, communicating in their early-age grunts and babble, you can see what the film is going for but not quite feel it; especially in this strand which doesn’t have its full commitment and appears to be seen more as a ‘nice idea.’

Throughout the narrative stages take a familiar form of ‘life and love are nice, aren’t they?’ It’s present in each section, even if McKinnon gets a sort of survival element as her character tries to fulfil a mission to get humanity to its next stage which she sells in tune with the PG-13 mainstream lightness of things. Perhaps none more so than that of Jones and Diggs’ whistle-stop romance.

The three stories don’t quite grate with each other or clash, and generally play out well enough for just over 90-minutes, but while largely watchable there’s not exactly anything overly investing, especially with one stand being weaker than the other two which largely stand as fine enough. It all makes for something that’s likely to prove (if it hasn’t already) quickly forgettable. A shame for a film that wants to strike the emotional chord it does, but can’t even find itself becoming sappy in its depictions. A shame as Stanton so clearly loves sci-fi and what it can do, but has made a very upfront piece of streaming fluff.

Andrew Stanton clearly loves sci-fi, but can’t make In The Blink Of An Eye feel anything more than overtly mainstream streaming fluff. While watchable it’s never properly investing with a light and forgettable wander through its familiar ideas, not all of which have full commitment.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 31 minutes, Director – Adrian Choa

Louis Theroux meets and follows controversial online influencers behind the rise of toxic masculinity.

Louis Theroux wastes no time in jumping into the world of ‘the Manosphere’ – the labelled home for controversial ultra-masculine influencers, often pointed to as part of the rise of toxic masculinity, particularly in the young audience they reach, and bring in thousands, if not millions, of dollars from, through their online content. Yet, while he quickly tries to cut into what it is that these men see themselves, and the rest of the world as, through their twisted takes on ‘traditional values’ – although largely just for women, it seems – the ensuing 90-minutes doesn’t quite feel as if it deepens.

There are unsettling moments as Theroux views livestreams of the people he’s following, in one case 23-year-old fugitive Harrison Sullivan, username HSTikkyTokky, has a crony arrange to meet someone just so Sullivan and his group of followers can violently beat and attack them. Sullivan is one of the more threatening figures we see, and one we spend the most time with despite his increasing wariness of Theroux, and there’s a growing darkness to much of what he, and the people he inspires, says.

An echo chamber forms from these people trying to follow in both his footsteps and those of other participants in the documentary. A number of which you can feel growing wary of the documentarian as he asks more questions about their lifestyles, especially the women in them. Very few women appear in the film, even fewer who get time to speak to Theroux, perhaps because of the circumstances and control the men being interviewed exhibit over them. Podcaster Myron Gaines, also known as Amrou Fudl, quick to shout his points over everything else when the mics are on is just as quick to stop, in the rare event he isn’t present for, any conversations Louis tries to get with either his girlfriend, Angie; particularly about Gaines’ insistence of a one-sided monogamous relationship, or female staff.

Yet, the questions asked about this do occasionally strike as slightly similar, just a little later with a different influencer. I sat the more the film went on wanting Theroux to dig a little deeper, although it could have easily removed access to a number of these figures – as even just comments about him in stream chats seem to rub Sullivan up the wrong way.

Instead, hypocrisies are highlighted, and origins for some of these views and behaviours briefly looked into, but often it felt as if the film could be doing more to properly confront this world of toxic masculinity. Particularly in the early stages it slightly feels like something that, even if we haven’t heard of the figures (outside of Andrew Tate I hadn’t heard of any of the people mentioned in this film), is going over much of what we’re already aware of. While Theroux brings his usual style, with his now trademark pause and glance aside during interviews, and some expectedly amusing moments every now and then amongst the shock brought about by the attitudes of those he speaks to (and how matter-of-fact some of them are when not playing up to the camera and their online audience) I just wish he, and the film as a whole, went more in depth with his questions.

Into The Manosphere certainly isn’t all surface, it manages to get under the skin, of both subjects and audience in different ways, a couple of times, but at others it seems to want to observe the behaviour we know by a certain point exists without investigating further. Things are solidly watchable, and seem to be captured with the intent of this being a quick 90-minute look at the Manosphere, and for what there is to like there’s more to be successfully unsettled by. Just, sometimes on a slightly surface level that feels as if it more simply asks about rather than confronts the matter at hand.

Far from Theroux’s most in-depth work, Into The Manosphere feels almost wary of avoiding confrontation and therefore often feels, despite its unsettling subjects, rather surface level with the documentarian’s style helping things through.