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Pillion (2025) Review – When Intimacy Defies Expectation
In one sentence: Pillion shows a shy, sheltered man who enters into a consensual dom/sub relationship with an aloof biker, forcing both characters and audience to confront uncomfortable questions about power, intimacy and choice. Queer romance has increasingly found space in mainstream cinema, which is both welcome and necessary. Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’ novel…
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Die My Love (2025) Review – A Portrait of Postpartum Descent
In one sentence: Die My Love presents a new mother’s descent into postnatal depression and psychosis that is intensified by isolation, dislocation and the emotional fallout of motherhood. We are often told that becoming a mother is transformative in the best possible way, but cinema rarely explores what happens when that transformation is destructive rather…
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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…
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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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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Mastermind (2025) Review – A Crime Film That Moves at a Crawl
Rhiann’s Reels 