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The Arts Desk

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3/5
State of Statelessness (2024) Sarah Kent In films this short, there’s no opportunity to explore solutions to the problems they reveal and, inevitably, this leaves the viewer feeling as stuck as the protagonists.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
3/5
H Is for Hawk (2025) Saskia Baron While the sequences with the goshawk in flight are beautifully composed, there aren’t quite enough of them to make this a worthy successor to Kes or to compensate lovers of the original book.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3/5
The History of Sound (2025) Markie Robson-Scott A lifeless feel pervades in spite of strong performances.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Nick Hasted The new film is among Garland’s finest, integrating his societal speculations as writer-director of Ex Machina (2014) and Men (2022) with lean action, and reconciliation with self-preserving slaughter.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
The Rip (2026) Adam Sweeting It’s nail-biting stuff, and well worth 112 minutes of your time.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
5/5
Rental Family (2025) Adam Sweeting A delicate and shrewdly-observed web of comedy, irony, tragedy and cultural confusion, Rental Family is a little treasure.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
5/5
The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) James Saynor [Kaouther Ben Hania] shoots the claustrophobic events with Paul Greengrass-ish jittery intensity and busy differential focus.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
Hamnet (2025) James Saynor As with most Shakespeare biopics, Hamnet is less a window onto the Bard and more a mirror for us.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
Peter Hujar's Day (2025) Markie Robson-Scott It’s an elegant, unusual film...
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
4/5
Song Sung Blue (2025) Sebastian Scotney Song Sung Blue delivers a message about ordinary people struggling to transcend their lot in life by using their voices. It’s a timely one for the new year.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
2/5
David Bowie: The Final Act (2025) Howard Male Maybe Jonathan Stiasny's film should have been called "The Less Raked-Over Years", rather than the more grandiose The Final Act – given that only the last 20 minutes of its 90-minute running time actually covers the last two albums...
Posted Dec 30, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Marty Supreme (2025) Helen Hawkins The script is full of zingers, delivered with huge skill by Chalamet, a charismatic ball of energy from start to finish who convinces you he really could become a table tennis world champion off-screen...
Posted Dec 30, 2025  Edit critic review
The Six Billion Dollar Man (2025) Nick Hasted This is an otherwise sober story of state crime upon crime, leaving Assange just another pawn in their game.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Adam Sweeting It’s a staggering technical feat – or stream of technical feats – but this is not where you’d come looking for subtly nuanced dramatic performances or cunningly multi-layered narratives.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Minding the Gap (2018) Markie Robson-Scott ...Liu and screenplay writer Martyna Majok (with Barry Jenkins as a producer) have given us a strangely watered down version of Lish’s harrowing, vivid story. Perhaps it’s better to see the film before reading the book.
Posted Dec 15, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
Fackham Hall (2025) Justine Elias ...the movie isn't as jam-packed with humour as go-for-broke parodies like Top Secret!, Airplane or The Naked Gun, so when a gag falls flat, and they often do, the dead spots are painful.
Posted Dec 15, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
The Tale of Silyan (2025) Sarah Kent The overall message is stark – a community destroyed and wildlife decimated – yet the film is infused with enormous warmth, humour and courage thanks mainly to Nikola who, totally at ease with the camera, is a joy to watch.
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Lurker (2025) James Saynor Writer-director Alex Russell (a producer on TV’s The Bear) shoots and edits this debut feature a little like an episode of MTV Cribs, jangly and lo-fi, appealing to the college demographic while undermining their lolling values.
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Folktales (2025) Justine Elias ...Folktales reveals some deeper truths about how the young, and maybe all of us, are simply overwhelmed and overstimulated by the modern world.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
Cover-Up (2025) Helen Hawkins Anybody interested in the history of modern America needs to check out this documentary, though a strong stomach may be needed.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
It Was Just an Accident (2025) Graham Fuller Twists, shocks, and stabs of gallows humour abound.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Dreamers (2025) James Saynor Performances, particularly from Adekoluejo, are punchy, and even actors thanklessly playing the guards hit precise chords of indifference.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Blue Moon (2025) Matt Wolf Those who associate Hawke with the action-film landscape of Training Day...will be astonished at the sustained introspection of this performance, itself a reminder of Hawke's own background as a theatre animal - albeit in plays, not musicals.
Posted Dec 01, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins (2023) Adam Sweeting ... you can tell [The Session Man is] a labour of love, not least from the credit-list of contributors who lobbed in their own money to help get the film made, and from the genuine affection and respect a roll-call of stars afford to Hopkins’ memory.
Posted Dec 01, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
The Ice Tower (2025) Graham Fuller Like all of Hadžihalilović’s mature films, The Ice Tower prioritises meticulously composed, mystically charged images over exposition, conjuring the painterliness of great silent cinema.
Posted Dec 01, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Nuremberg (2025) Justine Elias This is seriously unflashy filmmaking with a few awkward transitions, including a coda that seems awfully sudden. Still, it hits hard.
Posted Nov 17, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Christy (2025) Justine Elias The moviemaking is disappointingly straightforward; Christy is no Raging Bull.
Posted Nov 14, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Relay (2024) Nick Hasted Really, it’s a modern take on the pulp fables of writers such as Charles Willeford, with crime and passion spurring characters to their fates, while Mackenzie taps Hitchcock for voyeuristic tension. Director and cast keep the conceit’s heart beating.
Posted Nov 14, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Palestine 36 (2025) Nick Hasted There are longueurs where the strained production and desire to include every aspect of an important story dilute Palestine 36’s emotional currency... This is still urgent, unapologetically partial but carefully considered history.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Anemone (2025) James Saynor The narrative has little forward movement...but as with many static and ostensibly “boring” films, there’s often something interesting about being boring, as we’ve seen going back to at least the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.
Posted Nov 07, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Train Dreams (2025) Helen Hawkins It’s a short and simple story, based on a fine 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, but it contains multitudes, all projected with an unforced authenticity and naturalness.
Posted Nov 07, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Die My Love (2025) Adam Sweeting Directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love is an unsettling dive into the disturbed psyche of Grace, played with mercurial brilliance by Jennifer Lawrence.
Posted Nov 05, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Bugonia (2025) Markie Robson-Scott Yurgos Lanthimos’s gripping black comedy Bugonia...is marvellously deranged, taking a conspiracy theory to its logical, or illogical, conclusion.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
The Mastermind (2025) Helen Hawkins Reichardt’s narrative stance is often gently comic, but also underpinned with a moral vision that understands the way of the world.
Posted Oct 23, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
The Perfect Neighbor (2025) Justine Elias The Perfect Neighbor is a hard watch, and not just because the shaky, fish-eye lensed footage, ably assembled by editor Viridiana Lieberman, can induce vertigo and nausea in viewers.
Posted Oct 21, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Frankenstein (2025) Nick Hasted It’s a frequently impressive adaptation with new thoughts and encyclopaedic 19th century themes... It is, though, weighed down by excess baggage the director couldn’t bear to throw overboard.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
Rental Family (2025) Helen Hawkins Hikari keeps the pacing steady, throwing in some nifty twists in the final reel. He gets a genial performance from Fraser, a big lumbering presence here, but one with a gentleness and sweetness to it.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
Silent Friend (2025) Helen Hawkins ...it’s a beautifully realised, gently teasing film, full of striking images and a mesmerising turn from Leung, that you ultimately understand is about the power of friendship and collaboration.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
The Stranger (2025) Helen Hawkins This is fairly cerebral material, but Ozon rises to its challenges exceptionally well, creating a period piece with striking images and real heft.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
Below the Clouds (2025) Helen Hawkins There is little that’s predictable or touristic in this portrait (no pizza!): it’s a haunting journey into the psyche of this resonant place.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
5/5
No Other Choice (2025) Helen Hawkins It's not a rerun of the 1998 financial crisis, with its mass layoffs, but Park’s film seems a timely reminder that no country's traditional industries are ever safe.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
2/5
After the Hunt (2025) Demetrios Matheou It’s a perplexing, slowly infuriating affair.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Wasteman (2025) Adam Sweeting Driven by its two strong leads and McMau’s tightly-focused direction, this flick should go far.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Alpha (2025) Adam Sweeting The resulting aura of fear and impending doom gives Ducournau a fraught crucible within which to examine issues of prejudice, paranoia and racism in a society being torn from its moorings.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) Adam Sweeting ...the film suffers not only from the absence of an ending – it just drifts to a halt – but also from an irritating sense of self-regard, as if even an emotionally disturbed Boss must only be treated with semi-mystical awe.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
The Chronology of Water (2025) Adam Sweeting It’s not always pretty, but Imogen Poots delivers a brave and committed performance as Lidia, and if Stewart occasionally gets a little too gratuitously experimental, this is a feature debut to be proud of.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Is This Thing On? (2025) Adam Sweeting The device of having [Will Arnett's character] improvise self-analysis in front of an audience is an ingenious way of sketching in details of story and character, while his improving comic skills,...deliver a dose of genuine laughs.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Ballad of a Small Player (2025) Demetrios Matheou It’s certainly original, and surprisingly tender, but does feel slight.
Posted Oct 17, 2025  Edit critic review
It Was Just an Accident (2025) Helen Hawkins Panahi is an acute, angry observer of life in modern Iran for those who aren’t loyal to the regime, but he uses a soft pedal judiciously to project his subjects.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Peter Hujar's Day (2025) Helen Hawkins It’s an apparently casual limning of a man's daily routine, but one whose cast list features the people who will create the cultural fabric of the time.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
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