Author: Rhiann’s Reels

  • The Housemaid (2025) Review – Lust, Lies and Locked Rooms

    The Housemaid (2025) Review – Lust, Lies and Locked Rooms

    In one sentence: The Housemaid follows young woman, Millie, who takes a live-in job with a wealthy couple, only to find herself trapped in a seductive, gaslit power game where desire, deception and control are tightly locked behind closed doors. Bestselling psychological thrillers have become fertile ground for screen adaptations and The Housemaid sinks its…

  • Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025) Review – Less Myth, More Man

    Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025) Review – Less Myth, More Man

    In one sentence: Set during the recording of Nebraska, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere follows a young Bruce Springsteen as personal trauma and rising fame collide, forcing him to confront his growing depression. Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst men under 50, with figures continuing to rise, which is why conversations around depression…

  • One Battle After Another (2025) Review – Revolution Without Rest

    One Battle After Another (2025) Review – Revolution Without Rest

    In one sentence: One Battle After Another follows a former revolutionary forced back into conflict when the past he tried to escape comes violently for his daughter. Cinema often treats conflict as something external, a battle to be fought and resolved, but One Battle After Another is more interested in conflict as a way of…

  • Hamnet (2026) Review – A Raw Meditation on Grief

    Hamnet (2026) Review – A Raw Meditation on Grief

    In one sentence: Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s best selling novel, Hamnet explores the impact of the death of Shakespeare’s young son and how this loss was transformed into art through grief, memory and loss. Often we watch films hoping to be surprised, but Hamnet is not interested in twists. Its power lies instead in emotional…

  • Rental Family (2026) Review – Performing Connection in a Lonely World

    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…

  • Permission (2017) Review – Testing the Boundaries of Commitment

    Permission (2017) Review – Testing the Boundaries of Commitment

    In one sentence: Permission follows a long term couple who, on the brink of engagement, agree to explore other relationships, only to discover that freedom comes with unexpected consequences. How can you be sure your partner is the one? Permission confronts this question head on. Anna (Rebecca Hall) and Will (Dan Stevens) are a couple…

  • Balloon (2018) Review – A Remarkable True Escape

    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…

  • Nuremberg (2025) Review – Power, Psychology and Accountability

    Nuremberg (2025) Review – Power, Psychology and Accountability

    In one sentence: Set in the aftermath of the WWII, Nuremberg follows American psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley, tasked with assessing captured Nazi leaders, as psychological power games and moral dilemmas shape the world’s first attempt to prosecute evil through law. When I first learned of Nuremberg, I was not convinced it would be a movie for…

  • Summer in February (2013) Review – When Art and Love Collide

    Summer in February (2013) Review – When Art and Love Collide

    In one sentence: Summer in February follows two close friends in pre WWI Cornwall whose bond is tested when a young woman enters their creative circle, igniting desire, rivalry and tragedy. Period British dramas were as popular as ever at the time Summer in February was released. Downton Abbey dominated television and Dan Stevens had…

  • Maggie’s Plan (2015) Review – A Rom-Com That Knows Life Is Complicated

    Maggie’s Plan (2015) Review – A Rom-Com That Knows Life Is Complicated

    In one sentence: Maggie’s Plan follows a single woman determined to become a mother on her own, whose carefully laid plans unravel when she falls for a married academic. Romantic comedies often follow a familiar formula and can feel overly predictable. Too frequently, women are portrayed as waiting for a man to arrive before their…