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
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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Bad Apples (2026) Review – A Bad Decision Bears Fruit
In one sentence: An overwhelmed primary school teacher makes one disastrous decision while dealing with a disruptive pupil, setting off a chain of events that becomes increasingly impossible to undo. Sometimes one bad decision is all it takes. A choice made in panic creates another problem, the solution to that problem demands another questionable decision…
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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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Pressure (2026) Review – Forecasting History
In one sentence: In the days before D-Day, Meteorologist, James Stagg, faces the challenging task of predicting the weather that could determine the success or failure of the Allied invasion. There have been countless films about the Second World War, telling stories of extraordinary bravery, sacrifice, intellect and collaboration. With so many already, it would…
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The Dog Stars (2026) Review – When Survival Isn’t Enough
In one sentence: In a world devastated by a deadly flu, a grieving man risks the safety of the life he has built in search of something more than survival. Sometimes a film turns out to be very different from the one its trailer promised and sometimes it can be a pleasant surprise. Ridley Scott’s…
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The Odyssey (2026) Review – An Epic Reimagined
In one sentence: Following the Trojan War, Odysseus embarks on a perilous journey home, battling monsters, Gods and his own humanity along the way. Few stories have shaped literature quite like Homer’s The Odyssey. More than 2,500 years after it was first told, Christopher Nolan brings one of history’s greatest adventures to the big screen,…
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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
