Official Secrets (2019) — Film Review Director: Gavin Hood Screenwriters: Gregory Bernstein, Sara Bernstein, Gavin Hood Starring: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Ralph Fiennes, Katherine Kelly, Indira Varma, MyAnna Buring, Tamsin Greig, Shaun Dooley Official Secrets, directed by Gavin Hood, dramatizes the real-life story of Katharine Gun, a British intelligence specialist who … Read more

Zombie-Horror, often called zombie cinema, remains one of the most enduring and beloved subgenres of horror. The idea of the dead returning to life continues to fascinate audiences, whether depicted as slow, inevitable hordes or as swift, ferocious predators. Across decades of filmmaking, zombies have been reinvented again and again—each reinterpretation adding new twists to … Read more

Halloween season and horror movies go together, but not every scare is worth your time. There are plenty of titles that aim for terror and land somewhere between silly and painfully inept. To save you hours of bad jump scares and worse dialogue, here’s a curated guide to some of the worst Halloween-ready horror films … Read more

Honey Boy (2019) Director: Alma Har’el Screenwriter: Shia LaBeouf Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs To Honey Boy, with love. On paper, Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy could have easily misfired. The film is semi-autobiographical, written by and starring Shia LaBeouf, and it traces a difficult childhood alongside a ten-week, court-ordered rehabilitation period. … Read more

The Irishman (2019) Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Stephen Graham, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Jack Huston Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman arrives as a sweeping, reflective entry in his long-running engagement with the American gangster film. Adapted from Charles Brandt’s book … Read more

The Joker remains one of the most iconic villains in the Batman mythos: a warped, sadistic serial killer and chaotic criminal mastermind who blends cruelty, dark humour and anarchic unpredictability. Over decades the character has evolved through comics, television and film, becoming a cultural touchstone and a benchmark for actors seeking to explore madness and … Read more

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Director: Céline Sciamma Screenwriter: Céline Sciamma Starring: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami “I’m saying that there’ll be good things too.” “You’re saying that every now and then I’ll be consoled.” Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire has quietly become one of the defining films of … Read more

Film criticism thrives on subjectivity. Movies are composed of many elements—performance, direction, cinematography, sound, narrative—that can be assembled to suggest meanings audiences may accept, reject or reinterpret. Absences and silences can be just as revealing as what’s on screen. Because of this, any film can be read in multiple ways and occasionally a single interpretation … Read more

In 1984, director Wes Craven—already known for unsettling films like The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes—gave the horror world a new icon. Freddy Krueger, the razor-gloved nightmare stalker memorably embodied by Robert Englund, transformed sleep into a terror-filled battleground. Over a series of sequels, a crossover and a remake, Freddy’s … Read more

The Film Magazine roundup of the week’s main film news, covering Monday 30th September to Sunday 6th October 2019. Jordan Peele, the Oscar-winning writer-director behind Us(2019) and Get Out (2017), has signed a five-year first-look deal with Universal. Under the agreement, Universal will distribute films developed by Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, including two new projects that … Read more