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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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Bugonia (2025) Review – Paranoia Has a Sting
In one sentence: Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed cousins who kidnap a powerful tech CEO, convinced she is an alien intent on wiping out humanity. In an effort to watch all of this year’s Oscar-nominated films, I found myself reluctantly sitting down to a Yorgos Lanthimos movie. I have struggled with his work in the past,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Savages (2025) Review – When Animation Takes on Deforestation
In one sentence: Savages is a stop-motion animated film that turns deforestation and overconsumption into an expressive and striking narrative. We hear a great deal about how overconsumption drives deforestation and climate change, but the makers of My Life as a Courgette bring this urgent issue to the screen in an unexpected and striking way;…
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Troll (2022) Review – A Nordic Legend Goes Large
In one sentence: Troll is a Norwegian creature feature that brings ancient folklore and large-scale action together in a dramatic, monster-driven narrative. Cinema has always had a fondness for creature features and the ongoing success of the Kong and Godzilla franchises proves that audiences still enjoy watching things get bigger, louder and more destructive. Norway…
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I’m Your Man (2021) Review – Can Love Be Engineered?
In one sentence: I’m Your Man is a German romantic sci-fi that explores love, companionship and what it means to choose the right partner. There are films that announce their genre clearly and then there are films like I’m Your Man; gentle, curious and impossible to pin down. Starring Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert, this…
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The Ugly Stepsister (2025) Review – A ‘Grimm’ Retelling of Cinderella
In one sentence: The Ugly Stepsister is a reimagined Cinderella story that delves into beauty standards and unrealistic expectations we have on ourselves and others. We all know Cinderella, or at least we think we do. The story has been told, retold, animated, modernised and Disneyfied so many times that it feels impossible to find…
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