Film reviews, curated lists and film club favourites
Exploring cinema beyond the obvious
Rhiann’s Reels brings together my written film reviews and the films discussed through Sandhurst Film Club and a virtual film club, both founded by me, reflecting an ongoing conversation about cinema.
LATEST REVIEWS
“Cinema is a reflection of society and, in most cases, has the ability to be a mirror and not just show the problems but also give solutions and help them reach a large number of people through faces and voices that matter.”
– Kirti Kulhari
IN CINEMAS NOW
La Bola Negra (2026) Review – The Weight of Silence
In one sentence: Three homosexuals living in different periods of Spanish history confront prejudice, love and loss in an extraordinary exploration of the silences that shape lives across generations. Every once in a while, a film comes along that feels like pure art. The kind of film that reminds you why cinema exists and why…
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Klara and the Sun (2026) Review – More Than the Sum of Our Parts
In one sentence: A solar-powered Artificial Friend joins a family in a technologically altered future, learning about love, loneliness and what it means to be irreplaceable. Following A Pale View of Hills, Klara and the Sun marks the second adaptation of a Kazuo Ishiguro novel to reach cinemas this year. The two stories could hardly…
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Wicker (2026) Review – Love, Woven to Order
In one sentence: A lonely Fisherwoman commissions a husband woven from wicker, only to discover that finding love may be easier than protecting it from the jealousy of others. Fables have existed for centuries, using seemingly simple stories to explore human behaviour and offer lessons about the way we live. Although they may take different…
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Whalefall (2026) Review – Swallowed by Grief
In one sentence: A young diver searching for his father’s remains is swallowed by a sperm whale, leaving him with just an hour of air to escape while confronting the memories of their troubled relationship. Stories of men being swallowed by whales have fascinated audiences for centuries, from the biblical tale of Jonah to Pinocchio.…
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Digger (2026) Review – The Cost of Consumption
In one sentence: An eccentric oil tycoon scrambles to contain a potentially catastrophic climate disaster after his company’s drilling causes a huge section of Greenland’s ice shelf to break away. Sometimes a film comes along that subverts expectations so completely that it becomes difficult to decide exactly how you feel about it. It might not…
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Verity (2026) Review – Whose Truth Is It Anyway?
In one sentence: A struggling writer enters the home of a bestselling author to finish her work, only to uncover a shocking manuscript that changes everything. Colleen Hoover adaptations are arriving thick and fast thanks to the author’s enormous popularity, but Verity marks something a little different. As the first adaptation of one of her…
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Sense and Sensibility (2026) Review – Of Head and Heart
In one sentence: Two very different sisters navigate love, loss and social expectation while learning that happiness may require finding a balance between sense and sensibility. Jane Austen has been adapted for the screen so many times that each new version inevitably faces the question of what it can possibly add. Yet the continued appetite…
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Heart of the Beast (2026) Review – Survival, Side by Side
In one sentence: Stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash, a former Special Forces Officer and his military dog must rely on each other to make the long journey home. There is something extraordinary about the bond between humans and dogs. Perhaps that is why films centred on this relationship can feel…
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COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN
Hungry (2026) Review – Out of Africa, Into the Bayou
In one sentence: A group of tourists on a trip through the Louisiana Bayou find themselves fighting for survival against a territorial hippopotamus. Shark movies seem to be coming out of our ears. There is seemingly another one released every few weeks, and clearly there is still an appetite for watching people become prey from…
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Kraken (2026) Review – What Lurks Beneath the Fjord
In one sentence: When a marine biologist investigates strange events at a Norwegian salmon farm, she discovers an ancient creature has been awakened beneath the fjord. Monster movies continue to be all the rage and Norway’s latest foray into the genre draws upon its own rich folklore. The Kraken, a giant sea creature resembling an…
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Backrooms (2026) Review – More Questions Than Answers
In one sentence: When a struggling furniture store owner discovers a mysterious liminal space hidden behind the walls of his shop, his attempts to understand it draw others into a surreal and increasingly dangerous world. A24’s popularity is growing with each of its movies and its latest film, Backrooms, directed by its youngest director, Kane…
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Obsession (2026) Review – Be Careful What You Wish For
In one sentence: A shy young man uses a mysterious wishing toy to make the woman he loves fall for him, only to unleash an obsession far more terrifying than he ever imagined. Have you ever wished the person you liked felt the same way about you? In an age of love bombing and blurred…
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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Review – Friendship, Fear and Fatal Misunderstandings
In one sentence: In Bodies Bodies Bodies, a group of wealthy twenty-somethings gather for a hurricane party, but when one of them dies during a party game, suspicion and paranoia quickly turn friends against each other. Some films appear superficial at first glance, the kind you might dismiss as little more than brain rot. At…
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Send Help (2026) Review – When Workplace Power Dynamics Wash Ashore
In one sentence: In Send Help, an underappreciated office worker and her privileged boss wash up on a deserted island after a plane crash where their workplace power struggle takes on a far more dangerous form. We often imagine survival situations strip people back to their most basic instincts, removing the structures and hierarchies of…
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The Bride! (2026) Review – A Feminist Monster Tale That Struggles to Come Alive
In one sentence: The Bride! follows a lonely Frankenstein who resurrects the body of a murdered woman to create a companion, only for the newly revived bride, influenced by the spirit of Mary Shelley, to challenge the world around her and the role she was created to play. Sometimes Hollywood releases very similar films at…
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Sinners (2025) Review – Monsters, Men and Moral Reckoning
In one sentence: Sinners follows twin brothers who return to 1930s Mississippi to open a blues bar, only to find themselves trapped overnight when a group of vampires seek entry, turning a place of refuge into a desperate fight for survival. It is not often that a horror film performs strongly at the Oscars, let…
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Master Cheng (2019) Review – A Slow Burn Served with Heart
In one sentence: When a widowed Chinese chef and his young son arrive in a quiet Finnish town searching for a mysterious contact, an unexpected kitchen partnership sparks healing, friendship and a gently unfolding love story. Not every film needs high stakes or dramatic twists to leave an impact. Master Cheng proves that a story…
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Rental Family (2026) Review – Performing Connection in a Lonely World
In one sentence: Rental Family follows a struggling American actor in Tokyo who finds unexpected purpose when he begins performing emotional roles in real people’s lives, blurring the line between acting and genuine connection. In a world that feels more connected than ever, many people are quietly lonelier and cinema has become a space to…
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Balloon (2018) Review – A Remarkable True Escape
In one sentence: Balloon tells the astonishing true story of two families who attempt to escape across the Iron Curtain in a homemade hot air balloon. Mark Twain once said “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t”and no quote could ring truer for German…
FILM CLUB PLAYLISTS
One song from each of the movies we have watched in my two film clubs
