Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 55 minutes, Director – James L. Brooks

Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) is promoted to state Governor, however familial tensions and pushes from party members cause immediate trouble.

Set in 2008, described as a far less divided time; and seemingly one much easier to base a film in the world of politics, Ella McCay feels somewhat like a film from that era. It also feels like it could be among writer-director James L. Brooks’ 80s work, and the 50s with the slightly unnatural tone to some of its dialogue. The scenes of conversation, and there are a great many in what is an undoubtedly dialogue-led film, are largely what create the jumbled and over-busy feel that weighs down both the film and titular characters life.

Ella (Emma Mackey) is promoted to state Governor when current position holder Bill Moore (Albert Brooks) is offered a place in the incoming cabinet. However, with a report seemingly imminent about her use of government spaces for “marital relations” with her husband (Jack Lowden) and many party officials prepared to push back against her at every turn, Ella’s time in the role is launched with a rocky start. Her personal life, too, sees struggles with family as her distant father (Woody Harrelson) – who had multiple affairs against her mother (a very briefly seen Rebecca Hall) when Ella was young – seeks forgiveness, and her younger brother, Casey (Spike Fearn) isolates himself after a bad not-quite-break-up; leading to a set of very awkward late-in-the-day scenes with Ayo Edebiri.

Brooks jumps back and forth from one idea to the other never really giving anything time to breathe as Mackey’s character races back and forth across town seemingly pausing conversations only to return later after resuming those with other characters. When starting to come together in some way, largely sparked by the tension growing in her marriage, the film truly shows just how busy it is in its struggle to do so in a way that feels brief. The most pace to be found here is that which characters do back and forth around a room or through the corridors of the state Capitol.

Points are often so drawn out and tangential that the handful of gags dotted throughout feel drawn out to the point that they blend in with everything else and often don’t seem to be gags until a few beats later. There are one or two amusing moments and light chuckles to be found throughout, but they’re very spread out in the near two-hour run-time, which itself is certainly felt. From looking at trailers after having seen the film it seems that the intended push is Ella trying to not go under the sea of familial problems she’s facing, where much of her stresses stem. However, they never feel united enough to be summed up in this way.

Everything plays out separately for so long, with the addition of pressures from her political colleagues who don’t all share the views she expresses in amusingly lengthy speeches, that the events playing out all feel so distanced. Even still needing individual moments when being brought together. A key sequence bringing Ella’s future into question has to feature multiple conversations inside, then a step outside, the back in for an announcement which instead of cutting to the next moment leads to more of this particular scene. Meanwhile, a scene involving her security detail (led by Kumail Nanjiani) bickering about overtime pay feels completely unnecessary for the eventually rushed, almost nothing, conclusion. Much like the central character of the same name, concise isn’t quite in Ella McCay’s dictionary. A shame for a film that could otherwise be a light, enjoyable dramedy.

Despite some amusing moments, Ella McCay feel weighed down by a great many characters and narrative strands, with a run-time drawn out by jumbled dialogue and scenes which jump back and forth between largely disconnected dramas.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 38 minutes, Director – Scarlett Johansson

94-year-old Eleanor (June Squibb) moves in with her family in New York after her Holocaust survivor best friend (Rita Zohar) passes away, however she finds attention, and friendship, when telling Bessie’s story as her own.

I don’t entirely know what it is that the trio of screenwriter Tory Kamen, director Scarlett Johansson (in her directorial debut) and star June Squibb bring to Eleanor The Great that doesn’t bring an air thick with dislike to the titular character, but somehow in her Dear Evan Hansen-esque journey there’s some form of interest and emotional engagement, if not entirely forgiveness, for her. 94-year-old Eleanor (Squibb) has just moved from Florida to New York after the passing of her best friend, Holocaust survivor Bessie (Rita Zohar). While trying to put her in an assisted living space, her daughter, Lisa (Jessica Hecht), signs her up to a Broadway song group at the nearby Jewish Community Centre. However, a friendly interaction outside the wrong room leads her to a Holocaust survivors group.

From here Eleanor tells not her own story, having grown up in Iowa and The Bronx, but that of Bessie’s – told to her in private after a dream taking her back to the trauma of her youth one night. Soon, Eleanor becomes a notable figure for journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman) – grieving the loss of her mother six months prior which creates a lack of conversation with her newsreader father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor) – who wants to write about what she believes to be the nonagenarian’s life.

While scenes between Squibb and Zohar have an emotionally striking nature, as Bessie describes the trauma she faced and relives regularly in her mind, Kellyman often appears as the real heart of the film. Delivering a strong, affecting performance that’s in tune with the until-now held-in grief Nina is holding on to. Often having to excuse herself to find a space to cry at the mention of her mother, Kellyman’s performance is one that grows in person emotional handling as the film goes on and the friendship with Eleanor grows.

When focusing on Eleanor, especially as Roger learns about her and wants to put a story about her on TV, the film certainly has its familiar beats. Despite the surroundings there are occasional scenes which feel somewhat sedate and conventional in their approach to lightness, a tone which itself is no bad thing and in some way helps the film along, especially between heavier moments. Eleanor decides, when attending services at the nearby synagogue, to finally have her Bat Mitzvah, although without telling her family, with the film following the various stands of her recently-started New York life/ lives coming together around this point.

I may not have found myself quite reaching forgiveness for Eleanor and her continuations of telling her best friend’s trauma as her own, uncertainty was the more dominant feeling for good portions of certain scenes. What keeps interest and engagement is perhaps down to Squibb’s central performance which is filled with good-natured compassion and hints of fear of loneliness as a part of aging, even if she is irritatingly patronising to service staff. The relationship that forms with Nina is kind and displays the aforementioned compassion and you genuinely believe the bond between the pair.

Also down to Kellyman’s great performance which might steal the show, especially when given her own moments in the spotlight, but never distracts from who the main character is. One who may conflict every now and then, but is treated in a way that doesn’t make her wholly unlikable, perhaps because of knowing when to show other characters and details of stories so as to still capture the pain and trauma of some of the subject matter at hand without as much sense of deception.

While not unlikable there’s not complete forgiveness towards Eleanor The Great’s lead character. Certain scenes might feel a bit too familiar, but there’s an overall interesting and emotionally engaging course to the film, especially when involving Erin Kellyman’s wonderful supporting turn.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 48 minutes, Director – Michael Showalter

Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) works every year to give her family the best Christmas possible, when they forget her on the way to a Christmas Eve event she ditches them for the big day to appear on her favourite show.

Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) wonders why so many Christmas movies are about men, particularly dads, trying to give their families the best Christmas possible. Especially when it’s always the mums putting in the effort to make Christmas Day as smooth and wonderful as possible. Where are the films about them? Thus begins Chandler Baker and Michael Showalter’s (who also takes on directing duties) agitated greeting card of a film.

Claire’s family (including children Felicity Jones, Dominic Sessa and Chloë Grace Moretz), and their partners (Jason Schwartzman, Devery Jacobs), all gather together to celebrate another Christmas. Bickering ensues followed by jabs increasing tense and strained relationships and the stress Claire is facing as her family largely seem to ignore her, and her bid to have a better, more unifying Christmas than the family across the road, who we see harmonising carols together. However, when her family forgets her on the way to a Christmas Eve dance show, Claire gives up, abandons Christmas and drives to appear on a special Christmas Day edition of her favourite show.

Every year Eva Longoria’s Zazzy Tims invites families to put their hard-working mums forward for a special competition to celebrate them on the show. Despite Claire’s pushes none of her family applied. It’s another layer of hurtful ignorance from them. Pfeiffer’s narration and performance hammers home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer the idea of how unrecognised she and many other mums are at this time of year. That not even a simple ‘thank you’ is heard. It appears that Oh. What. Fun. is a film made for people who feel like Pfeiffer’s character, as if to be put on in front of their families, watched with arms crossed and occasional glances at said family with the feeling of making a disgruntled point.

There are one or two chuckles throughout, mostly courtesy of Jason Schwartzman wandering through the corridors of his mother-in-law’s home, but as the film goes on attempts at laughs start to be surrounded by the forced messaging and lost amongst it. Despite attempts from some of the supporting cast, and occasionally amusing moments, there’s just no escaping the fact that the film devolves into a thematically repetitive thank you card. One seemingly led by the person it’s presented to, and perhaps from, and so brings about a cycle of self-congratulation from Claire in her bid for appreciation from her family. Leaving no room for festive sentiment which could have eased the edges of the film and it’s somewhat hostile lead character.

A sledgehammer of a self-addressed greeting card, Oh. What. Fun. struggles to create laughs the more lost it becomes in its own messaging. Some festivity and sentiment are sorely missing.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 34 minutes, Director – Chris Foggin

Egotistical actor Bradley Mack (Kiefer Sutherland) is stuck doing tired action sequels until the call to do theatre in the UK comes in, only for him to discover it’s a small town panto.

For those unaware of the UK tradition of panto, each December (and into January) theatres across the country will dial the camp up to 11 for tongue-in-cheek productions of often fairy tales with slightly raunchy gags and plenty of audience participation (mention panto and you’ll likely be met with a ‘oh yes it is, oh no it isn’t’). The cast of productions in your local town theatre will often be led by musical stars now doing reunion circuits, daytime TV personalities and the occasional comic. It’s often jokingly referred to as the circuit you go to when your career is on the decline. It’s also where action star Bradley Mack (Kiefer Sutherland) finds himself after accepting a theatre gig in the UK, having finished production on the nth sequel in a tiring franchise.

Having slept the whole taxi ride to the village of Stoneford, Mack finds that he can’t get out of the show that he thought would be Macbeth at the Globe; having to pay the substantial losses the show would face if he weren’t to appear as Buttons in Cinderella. His egotism and unwillingness to properly participate, alongside acting for film rather than stage, causes frustrations for the cast, director (Meera Syal) and dance director Jill (Rebel Wilson, with truly dodgy northern English accent to match a performance of someone who seems to have only been told the rough details of what panto is).

Jason Manford and Asim Chaudhry appear as seeming comic relief within the comic relief, portraying the actors playing the ugly sisters in the production. Often making the same jokes off stage that they would on, and truly being in the panto spirit. They raise an occasional chuckle thanks to their display of characters, and the film, slightly relaxing and embracing the panto spirit and its lightness rather than trying to sentimentalise it as the rest of the film does. A scene that sees Sutherland perform It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year in the performance space, gradually bringing other cast members into his growing song and dance routine, is a generally calm but enjoyable sequence that acts as one of the film’s unforced festive highlights.

Where things falter are in the treading of cliché throughout the surrounding narrative. From difficult family relationships, Brad wants to see his daughter (Matilda Firth) who lives in London with his ex-wife (Alice Eve) and her partner (James Lance), both of whom see panto as low-form humour, while Jill, whose daughter is in the production, battles her ex (the second festive outing this year after Christmas Karma, and third film of 2025, for Danny Dyer) who also wants his child to spend Christmas with him in London. Such strands seeing the adults bickering and facing their personal familial issues raise a lot of familiarity and such moments simply feel crowbarred in to the surrounding elements, to force home the saccharine beats when things start to wrap up.

While there are some aforementioned chuckles there are plenty that are also laboured and falter simply because of how familiar and overdone they feel. Contrasting with the aims and surroundings of panto by the film seemingly not noticing its own obviousness. It causes Tinsel Town to stumble as a film that could be perfectly fine and amusing if it wasn’t for it appearing to miss its own pushed point and appearing more overdone than sentimental and little proper embracing of the panto spirit it wants to capture.

When it lets loose and embraces the panto spirit Tinsel Town is a perfectly enjoyable festive flick, however as its various plot strands push an overdone sentimentality they counter that feeling and cause the laughs and overall film to falter.

Cert – 18, Run-time – 4 hours 35 minutes, Director – Quentin Tarantino

After a massacre on her wedding day, including her unborn baby, The Bride (Uma Thurman) wakes up from a coma and immediately seeks revenge against the man (David Carradine) who tried to kill her, and his gang.

The delight of Kill Bill isn’t in the complexity or bloody intensity of its action sequences, but the few details we get of the world in which its set. Gangs are gangs, antagonists are antagonists and The Bride (Uma Thurman) is out for maximum revenge. Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii leads a Japanese criminal gang, meeting with multiple major bosses, and the biggest draw of this insight into the criminal underworld is the simple style and flare of the club location in which the events take place. Tarantino’s camera tracks multiple bodies walking and dancing around to The 5,6,7,8s as The Bride preps her attack.

What ensues is perhaps the bloodiest sequence of the entire film – now released as one piece, as close to Tarantino’s original vision as possible, after having been cut into two on original release at the demand of producers claiming otherwise the film was too long. Bringing in entertainment value from its over-the-top blood-flow from cut limbs and homage to samurai and martial arts films. Boosted by the soundtrack, which helps a number of the action sequences throughout the run-time – itself assisted by an intermission – the action throughout often works best the less bogged down in replication it seems, a feeling which somewhat bookends the film, and the more interested it is in homage.

As The Bride whittles down the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, who attacked the church she was holding her wedding rehearsal at, killing all there including her unborn child. After waking up from a four-year coma after being shot in the head she sets out for revenge, working her way towards leader, and former lover, Bill (David Carradine). I’ve never exactly considered Kill Bill to be Tarantino’s best work, and always found Vol 2 to be weaker than the first half. On seeing the film as a whole while I still stand by both points I certainly see I’d underrated the film and also the second half works a good deal better, and without as much of a sense of build-up, as part of The Whole Bloody Affair. Yet, what I’ve truly failed to notice before is just how great David Carradine is as Bill.

Carrardine brings a consistently sinister threat to any scene he’s in. Even during casual conversation – itself hinted with formal worry – or when appearing cheerful Bill’s opening insistence that he’s not a sadist, but a masochist, echoes into every word he utters. The different perspectives of the wedding massacre itself, never explicitly showing the events themselves, are easily associated with him and immediately show the threatening, merciless force he presents.

There are different sense of threat to a handful of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad we see cropping up throughout. Whether separately or dealing with each other for the most part they successfully wind in to the revenge story at hand. Ishii’s backstory is seen in a new anime flashback which while perhaps unnecessary is nonetheless entertaining and could have stood alone as its own short, or even film, but holds its head up whilst sitting within this work. Meanwhile, an exchange between Darryl Hannah’s Elle and Michael Madsen’s Budd has plenty of bite and provides more entertaining detail into the workings of these characters in this world while never feeling the need to be weighed down or extended by context, everything we see is what we get, and all we need – and Tarantino understands this.

Thus, in his 4-and-a-half-hour-plus revenge story he largely only presents us with the story and all we need to help move it along. Detail comes from the exchanges throughout. And, often, the best scenes are those more focused on dialogue and interactions that show off character behaviour – The Bride arriving in Okinawa in search of the best sword she can find leads to plenty of seamlessly moved into ideas. Each with a familiar tone that fits right into the story that Tarantino is telling. Allowing for scenes and chapters to lead from one to the other with relative ease and little drop of engagement throughout – apart from, still, some of the opening stages of the second half as we focus on Budd’s life after the harsh glimpses of the wedding massacre. While still holding its moments and effect it seems to be generally slower than the rest of the piece as you wait for Thurman to creep up, sword in hand(s); ready to spill blood.

We’re constantly reminded in Thurman’s performance of her anger, determination and pain, all also helping to propel the film and her character’s mission forward. Forward through the long but well-maintained run-time that holds your engagement thanks to the pieced together details provided by the narrative and the world in which everything is set, naturally unfurling in a flow that occasionally matches that of the blood spraying from severed limbs.

Who would have thought that Tarantino’s fourth film would have worked best as intended? Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair shines on the big screen both in and out of action as the world naturally grows and provides the needed details to keep The Bride and her revenge moving in entertaining, occasionally brutal, fashion.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 44 minutes, Director – Emma Tammi

A year after the events at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza the animatronics are back, upgraded and out for revenge on the adults of the nearby town, under the control of a force trapped in the original restaurant.

After almost immediate box office success a sequel to 2023’s Five Nights At Freddy’s was announced. Along with it mention that the follow-up would lean into the horror more, after responses to the first film said that it needed to be scarier. Indeed, whilst still maintaining a PG-13 rating in the US and a fitting 15 in the UK, it seems that these calls have been listened to as the quickly-turned-around sequel puts more emphasis into the creeps and doesn’t get distracted with attempts at tonally conflicting laughs as with before – although there are a couple of good chuckles here and there.

A year on from the first five nights spent at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza now-11-year-old Abby (Piper Rubio) is missing her animatronic friends, eventually travelling back to the abandoned restaurant. However, when discovering the original location where the Freddy’s chain started she discovers upgraded animatronics which need her help to leave the building. However, once free there may be something more in the restaurant controlling them, seeking revenge on parents in the nearby town.

The force in question is the new arrival of the Marionette. A figure which the more we see of it manages to become creepier with how it attacks those who come near it. Uncovered by a group of young paranormal investigators, led by McKenna Grace, with Abby’s brother, and former night guard, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), alongside Elisabeth Lail’s Vanessa, uncovering the truth and trying to fight back, and protect the town. Inside the restaurant, where it seems that certain instances involving Hutcherson’s character behind a desk may be leaning more into the style of the games (of which I still know very little about), there’s a sense of sustained threat and tension that manages to leak slightly into the events outside Freddy Fazbear’s.

Things may be narratively tangled with one too many plot strands piled on top of each other, alongside the ending feeling a bit too brief as an effect of focusing more on building up an inevitable sequel, but there’s still light amusement to be found in the events at hand. Events which while busy I’d be lying if I said they didn’t go by quickly, and in large part that’s likely down to the consistency in tone throughout. Upping the creepiness and making sure to draw it out in a couple of key scenes that play into the mechanics (not quite literally) of the animatronics the most. We see old iterations of the figures of Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy and Chica – worn out, torn apart and with multiple rows of teeth – they’re only lightly seen, but there’s something quite effective about them when they’re used to jump up in the darkness of office confines.

The end result of this sequel may not be perfect, especially as it almost seems to turn into a bridge film to an as-yet-unannounced third instalment, but it certainly shows the creatives (namely director Emma Tammi and writer Scott Cawthon – taking sole credit for the screenplay this time) have listened to the responses from last time and actually taken them on board. And it makes for a pacier, creepier time that leans into the antagonistic side of the animatronics, and the forces behind them, by maintaining the threat at hand, and slightly stretching that PG-13 limit.

While still narratively busy, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 is a step up from the previous entry, focusing on the stretches of tension and creepiness thanks to a more consistent tone throughout, even as it starts to focus more on the next instalment rather than its own plot.