The Puerto Rican-born star of the first West Side Story movie reflects on her life, career and traumas in this warm documentary saluteThis televisual but still touching documentary tribute to actor Rita Moreno, who turns 90 this month, is released in t…
Fever Dream review – a beautiful and bonkers future cult classic
Director Claudia Llosa returns to form with a woozy work about a cosy domesticity in rural Argentina shattered by uncanny intrudersAfter making high-arthouse awards-magnet The Milk of Sorrow in her native Peru in 2009, director Claudia Llosa stumbled i…
Redemption of a Rogue review – endless rain of deadpan Irish banter
Philip Doherty’s black comedy about a prodigal son returning to his hometown for a funeral goes big on self-satirising absurdismThis chucklesome black comedy is a little meandering and prone to repeat the same comedy beats ad infinitum, like having cha…
The Ballad of Billy McCrae review – erotic noir is on rocky ground
This Wales-set tale of sex and intrigue among quarry workers is strangely murky, although the scenery looks lovelyThis Wales-set thriller is called The Ballad of Billy McCrae for unaccountable reasons – it’s quite obvious throughout that the story isn’…
Bloodthirsty review – a beast-within horror film puts gore front and centre
Released soon after Amelia Moses’ intriguing feature debut Bleed With Me, this is a far more camp and cliched workFollowing quickly on the heels of the intriguing Bleed With Me, released in the UK just a couple of weeks ago, this beast-within horror fi…
The Last Job review – Richard Dreyfuss is a retiree on a rampage in muddled melodrama
Dreyfuss is a former mobster resorting to violence in a film whose delightful score can’t save it from being a hot messThe best thing about this crime melodrama is the score, credited to composers Shane Endsley, Ben Wendel and Nate Wood (all part of a …
Jakob’s Wife review – fun and gore in splatterfest with female-rage subtext
Barbara Crampton is reliably bloody and funny as a preacher’s wife whose dreary life is upended by a vampire’s kissScream queen Barbara Crampton, the always-welcome star of many a smart if schlocky horror movie (see Chopping Mall, You’re Next, assorted…
Lina from Lima review – funny, sultry film about a plucky economic migrant
Upending arthouse tropes with musical numbers and lashings of sex, this witty debut about a Peruvian domestic worker refuses to see its heroine as a victimWriter-director María Paz González’s first feature takes a well-worn miserabilist trope out of th…
Beasts Clawing at Straws review – jet-black comedy in arch Korean thriller
A long-suffering sauna worker finds a bag stuffed full of cash in a crime caper with perfectly pitched performancesWhen Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the best picture Oscar in 2020 for his near-universally acclaimed Parasite, he suggested that maybe…
Midnight in the Switchgrass review – Bruce Willis and Megan Fox firmly in 90s mode
The flashy editing and schlock-by-numbers plot leave not much to like here, including an uncomfortably exploitative element Everything about this tawdry thriller feels dated, from the serial-killer premise that was all the rage back in the 1990s, to th…