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…
Coda review – the trials of a musical teenager in a non-hearing household
This year’s Sundance hit, about the daughter of deaf parents who dreams of becoming a singer, is undeniably feelgood, if a little formulaicWhen Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) sings, she gets a good feeling. Sorting through the daily catch aboard her family’…
I’m Your Man review – domestic bliss with a humanoid
Dan Stevens plays a precision-tooled robot who could be the answer to a single woman’s prayers in this smart, Berlin-set comedyThe last thing that academic Alma (Maren Eggert) wants, following a messy breakup with a colleague, is a man. But in order to…
Zola review – pulp-factual viral tweet becomes an icily slick urban thriller
Aziah ‘Zola’ Wells’s viral story of her crazily dangerous 2015 trip to Florida in search of pole-dancing money is brought to the screen with seductive comedyIn 2015, a part-time dancer from Detroit called Aziah “Zola” Wells went viral with a cheeky Tw…
All Hands on Deck review – fresh and funny French holiday romance
A romantic surprise has unexpected consequences in a gentle comedy channelling Éric Rohmer crossed with Carry on CampingHere is a terrifically fresh, funny and gentle film from director and co-writer Guillaume Brac, which takes quite seriously somethin…
The Suicide Squad review – eyeball-blitzing supervillain reboot
Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn is a good directorial fit for the humour and freaky violence of DC’s bad-guy jamboree DC’s new Suicide Squad movie announces itself as different from the coolly received first film from 2016 simply by adding “The” t…