Verdict: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5) — An emotional, uneven farewell that works best as a goodbye to the Warrens, even when the scares run thin. After twelve years, nine films and nearly $2.3 billion at the worldwide box office, the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren comes to an end — or so The Conjuring: Last Rites … Read more
Verdict: ★★★★☆ (4/5) — A gruelling, deeply human dystopian thriller, and one of the best Stephen King adaptations in years. Some films you watch. The Long Walk is one you endure — and that is entirely the point. Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first-written novel turns a brutally simple premise into nearly two hours … Read more
Verdict: 4/5. Wicked: For Good brings the story of Elphaba and Glinda home in rousing, tear-stained fashion — a dazzling, darker and sometimes overlong finale that lands its emotional punches even when its pacing wobbles. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are magnificent, the songs soar, and the final stretch is among the most affecting blockbuster … Read more
Verdict: 4.5/5. Wake Up Dead Man is the best Knives Out film since the original — a locked-room murder mystery set inside a small-town church that turns out to be Rian Johnson’s most soulful, thematically ambitious whodunit yet. Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc returns, but the film belongs just as much to Josh O’Connor’s troubled young … Read more
What if the conspiracy theorists were right? That is the deliciously uncomfortable question at the heart of Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’ darkly comic thriller about a pharmaceutical CEO kidnapped by two young men convinced she is an alien plotting to destroy the Earth. Anchored by two ferocious performances from Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, Bugonia is … Read more
For nearly four decades, the Predator has been the hunter. In Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg flips the franchise on its head and asks a question no earlier film dared to: what if the Predator is the hero? The answer, delivered with swagger, heart and a surprising amount of humour, is the most entertaining Predator … Read more
Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. The Lost Bus is one of the most gripping disaster films of recent years — a white-knuckle true story that never forgets the human beings at its centre. Paul Greengrass turns the 2018 Camp Fire, California’s deadliest wildfire, into two hours of sustained, almost unbearable tension, anchored by Matthew … Read more
Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. Hamnet is the most emotionally devastating film of its year — a luminous, shattering portrait of grief that also happens to be the origin story of the greatest play ever written. Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is carried by a performance from Jessie Buckley so raw and … Read more
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5. The Last Temptation of Becky is the rare threequel that understands its assignment completely: take the angriest teenager in modern genre cinema, give her a CIA badge, send her undercover into a Nazi stronghold, and let her do what she does best. It is bloody, silly, furious, and enormous fun … Read more
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5. Clayface is the strangest swing DC Studios has taken yet — a Batman villain’s origin told as full-blooded R-rated body horror — and for most of its tight 108 minutes, the gamble pays off. It starts slowly and never quite smooths out its script problems, but Tom Rhys Harries gives … Read more