Release Date – 31st January 2025, Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 37 minutes, Director – Mike Leigh

Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is bitter about the world around her, constantly pushing away her family and bringing them down, despite this her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) continues to extend a friendly hand.

Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a starkly bitter woman, taking issue with everything around her even a friendly smile from someone behind her in the shop queue is a problem. The world hates her, and in turn she’s started to hate it back. Constantly bringing down her family meal times are a pit of silence aside from her lengthy rants about her day of observing the world’s decline. She moves with topic to topic with increasing ease and fury, much to the amusement of the audience.

As if flicking a light-switch Jean-Baptiste and director Mike Leigh are able to turn these rants from hilarious outbursts to intensely dramatic tirades where you see just how cold the character is. Sympathy grows for her near-silent husband (David Webber) and 20-something son (Tuwaine Barrett), spending his days isolated away, occasionally going out for walks where he’s antagonised by possible former classmates. Even hairdresser sister Chantelle (Michele Austin), who has a much more comfortable home-life with her two confident, striving-for-success daughters (Sophia Brown, Ani Nelson); the complete opposite of the former’s non-existent familial ties, who extends a loving hand to her sister receives just as much torment, despite still being called to sort her hair.

As the relationship between the pair is grown, observed in pure naturalistic style by Leigh, a character who could so easily turn an entire audience away, and does, manages to find a spark of connection. Past hardship brings context to her lingering anger and despair, excellently conveyed by Jean-Baptiste in a powerhouse performance packed with held-in and disguised emotion; a far call from her brilliant turn in Leigh’s Secrets And Lies back in 1997. Between Pansy and Chantelle there are not only two different lives, but two different ways of coping with life and expressing emotions. It leads to a fantastically tender scene between the pair where the real confrontation with the past, and its effects in the present, come to the fore for the audience, and in words for the pair.

Emotion hangs thicker in later scenes as more and more builds up, we know just how much characters are dealing with and the multiple thoughts, and personal hard truths, that their hiding alongside what they’re presenting to everyone else. Fear, sadness, anxiety, hesitation and isolation are all confined to one room. Every character’s mind and face are a portrait of feelings, all combining into the dark tangle which starts to cloud up the room. It’s all excellently built up by Leigh and his performers who create a story of real human emotion mixed with personal conflict and uncertainty. “They all hate me” cries Pansy, she includes herself in that group.

While she starts off bringing plenty of laughs, it’s not the continuing humour which connects us to Pansy, it’s the opposite. The reason she turns a shoulder to the rest of the world and feels constantly restless. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is sensational, while Michele Austin delivers a lighter, understanding performance of compassion. It stirs the details of revelations and reactions between the two sisters, and indeed the rest of their family. There’s plenty to already have an effect in the film’s first half, but the second half reveals new layers and details to truly deliver a knockout which acts as one of Leigh’s best films. One which for the characters lives up to the honesty of its name and for the audience live sup to the fascination it creates.

Fuelled by a set of brilliant performances, especially a superb Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths offers a human portrait of unspoken emotions and the ways in which people behave in the wake of them, creating punches of humour, emotion and pain through its honesty.

Release Date – 15th November 2024, Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 57 minutes, Director – Ben Taylor

Through the 60s and 70s a scientist (James Norton), surgeon (Bill Nighy) and nurse (Thomasin McKenzie) battle infertility, the church and media in their attempts to create the first ‘test tube baby’.

For a straightforward, silver-cinema-leaning British drama Joy certainly makes a lot of noise. It’s largely the sound of lines of dialogue clanging and hammering the point in as they yet again explain everything down to the most basic of details. Very little is left for the audience to interpret or work out for themselves just in case anyone is left behind by the rather simple telling of this story.

The story at hand is that of the attempts throughout the 60s and 70s to help those who are infertile to have children via the creation of the first ‘test tube baby’. Young nurse Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) is recruited by medical scientist Robert Edwards (James Norton) to help him with his research and eventual tests, when surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) enters the picture. However, as their research grows they’re met with more backlash from the media and church who believe that what they are doing is morally wrong and against the word of God. Amongst the clashes, and frequent sound of clunky dialogue, subtlety is lost – particularly early on when a church service which Jean attends with her mother (Joanna Scanlan) conveniently has everyone stand and sing All Things Bright And Beautiful.

Things may even out eventually to get to a familiar standard, light British drama feeling, but a bad screenplay occasionally gets in the way, feeling the need to explain everything and certain interactions feel unnatural – particularly between Jean and lab colleague Arun (Rush Shah), who respectively begin to view their relationship differently. The film instead begins to focus more on the actual matter at hand as the central trio get closer to success, and in turn meet even more outrage from those who are only hearing or reading about their work without being in the room. While it might eventually seem that this is the case to lead up to some clear bell-ringing, creating a parallel between the opening and closing scenes, there’s still a more even, generally calmer, nature to the film once the task at hand truly takes form.

When this is the case there’s a likable enough nature to the film as it takes the form of another celebratory, not-too-challenging drama. We may have seen the outline, and some of the content, before, but it manages to just about do the job and while sailing in with some issues it sails out with a handful fewer, making something watchable and likely to go down well with its intended audience. Helped by its central trio who capture just the right tone for the film with their performances and try their best to guide it through some of the more uneven moments, particularly Nighy who gives a good turn with his supporting role. There may be a good few bumps along the way in the build-up, but once the elements are in place, particularly in the second half, there’s a familiar yet watchable Sunday-afternoon-drama here which could get its fingers a bit more into its central debate but wants to avoid too much heaviness and so instead focuses on the responses of the solidly performed characters to their work and the reactions to it instead.

The dialogue in the first half relentlessly clangs and hammers with a lack of subtlety, but once Joy finally gets its elements together there’s a watchable yet familiar British drama at hand, maybe not entirely warranting its own bell ringing but still making for serviceable silver cinema fare which is helped along by its central performances.

Release Date – 1st January 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 47 minutes, Director – John Crowley

Rising star chef Almut (Florence Pugh) and divorcee Tobias’ (Andrew Garfield) find themselves going back over their years-long relationship, the good and the bad, in the wake of Almut’s cancer diagnosis.

Jumping back and forth between tragedy and the relationship build-up before this point We Live In Time has the feeling of a relationship montage for rising chef and restaurateur Almut (Florence Pugh) and Weetabix IT team member – an idea the film runs with for a few jokes before solely focusing on Almut’s work – Tobias (Andrew Garfield), looking back on the highs and lows of their life together as they confront the former’s cancer diagnosis. Having met after Almut hits Tobias with her car while he returns from the shop to buy a pen to sign divorce papers in a hotel room he has for the night the pair quickly strike up a bond when she invites him to the opening of her restaurant to make up for the accident. Quickly a relationship forms between the pair which plays out in naturalistic, and exceptionally middle class, fashion.

While bringing the aforementioned montage-adjacent feeling the non-linear construction of events works well, settling in and finding its pace fairly early on to avoid feeling like a complete near-2-hour montage. This decision also helps to lighten the film overall. The drama is certainly present, and has its moments of weight, when dealing with the pair’s reactions to Almut’s health, and how she wants to be remembered by their daughter – “I don’t want my relationship with Ella to be solely defined by my decline” she protests to her husband in a wonderfully delivered monologue by Pugh – but by jumping back to the early years of dating, and even after, there’s plenty of largely naturalistic humour to be found, occasionally making certain more dramatic moments have a slightly orchestrated feel.

Pugh and Garfield give great performances, both together and individually. Bringing in the laughs and emotion – bouncing off each other wonderfully, in particular during a very funny extended sequence which sees Almut giving birth in a petrol station. Even during beats where the central idea feels somewhat drawn out, as if uncertain of where to cut things off in its search to get the characters from one stage of their relationship to the next, the strength of the central pairs performances manages to carry things through and keep things moving. There’s a clear bond created between the two characters which acts as as much of a hook into the film as the build-up and development of the love they have for each other, and where that takes them in their conversations and arguments, and indeed the largely naturalistic tone of the film as a whole.

As a whole, We Live In Time presents a likable portrait of the couple as they ride through their ups and downs. Drama is both lifted and lightened by the humour scattered throughout bringing you into their lives which are wonderfully performed by the two leads. While some moments might seem a bit uncertain as they try to get from A to B, overall this is an enjoyable and successfully emotional, particularly when relating to arguments and monologues between the pair during key moments of struggle in their lives – where both actors really give it their all. It might not all be perfect, but neither is the relationship depicted, but there’s plenty to like and be brought into for the film to have success with an emotionally engaged audience.

While some moments might feel stagnant as they try to bridge ideas, there’s plenty to be emotionally engaged by within We Live In Time’s natural humour and slightly orchestrated struggle thanks largely to two great lead performances from Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh who create a convincing and effective relationship.

Release Date – 15th December 2024, Cert – 18, Run-time – 2 hours 15 minutes, Director – Luca Guadagnino

William Lee (Daniel Craig) spends his days wandering around Mexico City, slitting between searches for love, hook-ups and the answers to the universe – the key to all of these may be held by younger man Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey).

Much like the relationship between Daniel Craig’s William Lee and younger man Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) there are two distinct sides to Queer. The first constructs the opening half; a woozy stroll where the air runs thick with sensuality. As William’s knowingly awkward flirtations turn into a set of flings, and potentially more, with Eugene – who for all he knows could be straight, or bi – the technical elements walk harmoniously hand-in-hand. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s hazy cinematography highlights the meticulous production design of the 1950s Mexico City streets which Craig’s character wanders through looking for hook-ups and insight into the universe. Luca Guadagnino’s direction is at his most beautiful as his camera glides, assisted by Reznor and Ross’ fantastic score – and a cracking soundtrack to boot – through a character study of a man trying to find more meaning in his life, and the universe it sits in, through a tentative relationship.

The search for the universe’s answers comes in the form of a fascination with telepathy. Leading William and Eugene on a trip further into South America. Their relationship takes a new form as the younger man, whose sexuality is never fully certain to the man chasing after him, pushes away advances towards him, sending mixed messages about how he views William. As this strand, and the trip, grows, eventually constructing the film’s entire third and final chapter, Queer becomes something very different. Lacking the thick air of passion from beforehand as much of the events begin to unfold in the jungle a much more narrative style comes through. One which has a strong ‘based on a book’ feeling – Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay is adapted from William S Burroughs’ novella of the same name.

Craig continues to be on top form of an excellent performance. Early on he delivers a monologue about how he realised he was gay, as the conversation continues he pitches himself as a smart, flirtatious character looking for the missing pieces to a still jumbled puzzle. Starkey effectively compliments this with just as much physical flirtation as there is verbal from Craig, yet confliction as to how he really feels about the relationship. As ideas of telepathy are delved into more and a much more mystical set of themes come through the relationship itself deviates alongside the narrative becoming more of a peculiar set of events.

Dialogue which once dealt tenderly with conversations about emotions and trying to find a place in the world become more infrequent in exchange for a trippy, and likely divisive, set of sequences which push the run-time with more experimental style which feels less personal and connected than the prior character study. For some the turn may work and bring further meaning to the ideas presented by the film, for others, myself included, it may come across as a downward slope once entered. I felt myself wishing that pretty much the extensive third act, and some parts before it, was shorter or could simply take things back to the intoxicating heats of Mexico City.

Starting off as a beautifully intoxicating tale of looking for connection, Daniel Craig’s excellent performance remains consistent during the downward slope of the bulk of the second half which becomes a much more different, fantastical film.

Release Date – 8th November 2024, Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 7 minutes, Director – Malcolm Washington

Pittsburgh 1936, brother and sister Boy Willie (John David Washington) and Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) argue about what to do with the family piano, featuring etchings of their ancestral roots and story, sell it or keep it.

Despite initial directorial flourishes, The Piano Lesson quickly settles in to feeling very stage-like. Based on August Wilson’s play of the same name much of the action is confined to the living room of Doaker Charles (Samuel L Jackson), where sits the family piano – decades-old images carved into it telling the story of the family’s legacy after slavery. Living with Doaker, niece Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) has a strong connection with the piano and what it represents, despite not having played it in years her daughter (Skylar Aleece Smith) occasionally has a brief session on the instrument. In the corner of the room it sits holding the ghosts, both literal and metaphorical, of the past.

These ghosts arrive alongside the appearance of Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington). Arriving with news of the death of Sutter, a member of the family who had enslaved the Charles’, and intentions to sell the family piano to buy the now unowned land. The siblings fiercely disagree as to what to do with the piano, Boy Willie casually tries to work out how to move the instrument, with his friend Lymon (Ray Fisher) – who does his best with a character who largely feels like he’s given somewhat stagnant and second-thought scenes and interactions – in front of the rest of the family, while Berniece fiercely protests. With each monologue and close-up that she gets Deadwyler gives the standout performance of the film. After giving the best performance of 2023 in Till, she excels once again with a turn that builds up the pain and emotion in her character with pitch perfect releases.

Deadwyler’s turn helps to sell the more sudden supernatural elements introduced part way through. These stand out from the rest of the film and never quite feel fully settled in. They’re in part what cause the film to take a while to fully bring all of its elements together – in addition to having to pass the, again stage-like, opening scenes which take their time to build-up and introduce us to the ensemble of characters.

John David Washington’s Boy Willie is very much the central focus with his louder, more brash character. His performance stands out not quite because of its loudness but the fact that you can see the performance and tell that Washington is acting – perhaps still playing a bit for the stage where he and other members of the cast (excluding Deadwyler) performed this play in a Broadway production just a year or two ago. Jackson, however, doesn’t have the same feeling to his turn and if anything gives one of the best performances of his career, one which if given the right push could lead him to an Oscar. It’s noticeable part way through when his character seems to suddenly disappear.

Yet, amongst the adapted-from-a-play nature of back-and-forth scenes, particularly in the early stages, there is something interesting built up throughout The Piano Lesson. The idea of the family legacy and history is gradually given more detail, particularly through the performances, and while the idea of ghosts of the past might seem a bit on the nose at times it also manages to hold engaging details the more prominent it becomes. Not everything holds up, and the film in general seems like a mixed bag, but the more it goes on and comes together the more there is to like and engage with, especially thanks to the likes of Jackson and Deadwyler who truly nail the dramatic heart of the film and themes at play.

It takes some time for the themes to come together, especially amongst the heavily stage-like nature, but the performances, especially standouts from Deadwyler and Jackson, help to grow a swelling drama with enough interest in the echoes of the central family history to keep things moving, even as they occasionally divert.

Release Date – 6th December 2024, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 30 minutes, Directors – Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane

Out of work due to the COVID lockdown, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen decide to stage a production of Hamlet in GTA V Online, with an ensemble of other players.

Grand Theft Hamlet tries its best to escape claims that it’s a feature length YouTube video, however more often than not its its dramatic pushes that cause it to fall back into this feeling. As out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen encounter the difficulties of trying to put on a production of Hamlet in GTA V Online during the COVID pandemic occasional shots and montages leak in as if reflecting scenes of struggle – player characters walking along the beaches of Los Santos when everything seems to be falling apart around them, having just claimed to their friend that this production is all they’ve got at the moment. The dramatic edges of these moments feel forced due to the clear construction and still having to happen in the game, the tone feeling a bit too serious compared to the amusement of the rest of the surroundings.

The opening text promises us that the world of the game is “a violence and beautiful world where almost anything is possible”. As performances happen on the top of skyscrapers with giant jets hovering above shooting down police helicopters and other players threatening to interrupt and cause an early character death there are certainly laughs to be found. As there are in early player interactions, whether it be the general audition process with people asking if they can play Harry Potter, claims of “I have a face for radio and a voice for mine”, or someone using their nephew’s account for the day. Yes, it’s the kind of humour that you can occasionally find on YouTube, but it’s enough to amuse and help ease you into the film, removing layers of scepticism that there might be; and it manages to successfully work with an audience, disarming themselves and relaxing into things relatively quickly.

For the most part the film isn’t taking itself seriously and recognises that it is a film about people trying to stage a production of Hamlet in GTA V. It takes that idea and has some fun with it, with the aforementioned occasionally more serious moments not quite settling in amongst everything else. For the most part the film wants to have fun and depict the build-up and process of putting together the production, occasionally with the feeling of a highlights reel rather than anything wanting to be more in depth.

By the time we get to the production itself it’s brief and doesn’t entirely hold the attention as much as what has come beforehand, particularly when considering the in-game crashes and chaos that has happened during the build-up rehearsal process. Perhaps it’s simply a case of featuring towards the end of a film that knows that it can only just about stretch to 90 minutes (pretty much hitting that run-time bang on). We see the success and reception towards the production and just wish that more of that could have been felt in the moment, and indeed the documentary as a whole.

Showing that it had become a bigger thing rather than a small, fun idea in game, after discovering an outdoor theatre space in the expansive world, which became bigger and more personal for the central actors, would have perhaps brought another layer to the film giving the final performance in particular more effect. As it is, there’s a good deal of amusement in Grand Theft Hamlet’s thankfully short run-time to keep it going and just about stop it from feeling as if it could entirely be watched on YouTube.

While certain dramatic moments may feel a bit too constructed, and the hit of the final production could be greater, the amusement that Grand Theft Hamlet’s base provides is enough to see it through to the end. Pretty much what you would expect it to be, it manages to work with and relax an audience quickly enough to bring out the laughs.

Release Date – 6th December 2024, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 44 minutes, Directors – Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin

The G7 leaders find themselves lost in the woods, where they are left alone to draft a statement, facing strange creatures as they try to get back to safety.

Rumours feels like a clash between Ben Wheatley and Armando Iannucci. While that might sound like an initially inviting idea, clash works better than blend as the two tones create an unevenness throughout as the film jumps back and forth between its satirical edges and its stranger horror-inspired elements.

The G7 have gathered together to create “a draft outline of a provisional statement” to let the world know that they are addressing “the somewhat difficult matters of the present crisis”. Left alone in a lakeside gazebo to work on their statement, a brief walk through the woods to get back to the building being used as the base for the event is extended when strange creatures, including the possible undead, delay the group of world leaders. As the purple fog settles in the woodland setting feels like its been plucked straight from an 80s slasher flick. The horror influences sit strangely amongst the comedic beats, which work best when dealing with snappy and more direct jokes rather than references to the various relationships between the ensemble.

It’s clear that the starrier cast members are given more to do than others. The likes of Cate Blanchett and Charles Dance as the chancellor of Germany and US president respectively (Dance keeping his British accent, with an amusing non-explanation as to why part way through) have a bigger push than Rolando Ravello and Takehiro Hira as the prime ministers of Italy and Japan. It’s clear from the opening stages as discussions begin that such characters are going to be, or already have been, pushed to one side.

Much appears to be pushed aside as the film goes on and its stranger elements grow. Tonal shifts fly around, trying to maintain the attempted humour of the draft discussions with the undercooked attempt to escape the forest – a location which manages to continue the idea that much of this could unfold much the same on a stage, and perhaps at times better, or simply as a short film.

Ideas are drawn out while others in need of detail feel randomly introduced just to bring something new to the film – including one late-stage character decision which really doesn’t work. All approaching a rushed third act where everything appears to be thrown at the screen in a sudden loud, messy burst.

As a whole the film feels like an undercooked jumble of ideas which create a tonally uneven set of events which have their amusing moments, but largely when focusing on short, snappy interactions between the characters where it feels like upfront humour is put as the focus rather than more veiled satire or undercooked character relationships. As a whole the film is fine, but its mixture holds it back from truly having an effect, and eventually causing it to stumble in the woods as it gets closer to the end.

While it has some humorous moments with upfront satire, and some likable horror aesthetic, Rumours is an undeniable jumble of tones and ideas which hold it back and cause it to lose its way.

Release Date – 29th November 2024, Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours, Director – Edward Berger

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with arranging the election of a new pope, whilst trying to find someone without a hidden dark past secrets of multiple likely candidates are revealed.

Having faced the upfront horrors of war in his Oscar-winning take on All Quiet On The Western Front, Edward Berger changes course for his follow-up, observing the strong, underlying tension in trying to elect a new pope. Adapted by Peter Straughan from Robert Harris’ book of the same name the film focuses on Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) attempting to arrange the election of a new pope, what he views as perhaps his final task as a cardinal-dean after a crisis of faith.

However, finding a new pope without any black marks proves a difficult task, especially when the cardinals can’t agree on who the new leader of the Catholic church should be. Traditional conservative views clash with a continuing liberal stance in and out of the voting sessions, however tensions truly rise in the hushed conversations in the sequestered corridors. Dark pasts and controversies come to light, making Lawrence’s job all the more difficult as he himself tries to avoid election, instead pushing Stanley Tucci’s reluctant, yet fighting, Cardinal Bellini. The twists, turns and revelations are wonderfully timed and built around as the tension of the sacred process grows more and more with each conclave.

Invisible daggers fly across each room through air thick with insistence that this election has become a war. Fiennes gives a brilliant performance packed with subtle detail. Lawrence has plenty of doubts and yet still has a serious job to do, and one that the film takes completely seriously from the sombre departure of the previous pope to the very end of the run-time. A set of great supporting performances surround Fiennes, including from the likes of Lucian Msamati, John Lithgow and Sergio Castellitto; all of whom add to the clash of ideals as to the future direction of the church, and the hidden forces at play. All of which stick to the formalities at hand, making confrontations and discoveries all the louder when they occur.

Secrets, and their subsequent reveals, are allowed to naturally develop and grow, including in aforementioned hushed conversations, all wonderfully captured in the detail of the screenplay. There’s a lot at stake, both personally and within the wider scheme of the church, and there are feuding interpretations as to what this means both in the moment and for the future. All dealt with individually and yet still being allowed to come together in the suspenseful sound of names being scribbled on ballots as looks and glances shift uneasily around the room. Atmosphere as a whole is quietly built up throughout the film, working hand in hand with the escalating tension which is made so clear in the most natural way possible, communicated within the performances and the nature of the conversations rather than being forcefully shouted throughout.

Conclave works because of the establishment and understanding of just what is unfolding. The power that whoever is elected will have, and what that means for the tradition of the church and the election process as a whole. Shut off from the outside world tensions can only grow within the confines of the walls that are shared by all the cardinals. Secrets are bound to spill over, but where and who from? Everything works together to create a drama of escalating suspense as you too find yourself caught within the sequestered walls and rooms until the seemingly distant time a new pope is elected. All contributing to the subtle and highly effective workings of the film, engaging you further within a process made of unpredictable twists and turns which make the process, and the film itself, all the more grippingly fascinating.

Ralph Fiennes gives a towering yet subtle performance as a man caught in the middle of multiple tense conflicts, his quiet detail matches that of the film as Conclave makes for a suspenseful drama escalated by the sequestered confines of each bubbling interaction.