The Last Tree (2019) Director: Shola Amoo Screenwriter: Shola Amoo Starring: Sam Adewunmi, Denise Black, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Nicholas Pinnock Shola Amoo, who drew praise for his debut feature A Moving Image (2016), returns with The Last Tree, a thoughtful British drama that follows a young Black man growing up amid poverty, class tension and racial … Read more

The Farewell (2019) Director: Lulu Wang Screenwriter: Lulu Wang Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Diana Lin, Tzi Ma, Lu Hong Overview At first glance, The Farewell might seem to follow familiar indie-family dramedy territory: a creatively inclined protagonist, fraught family relationships and a mix of awkward comedy with an unconventional examination of grief. It would be … Read more

Ad Astra (2019) Director: James Gray Screenwriters: James Gray, Ethan Gross Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland The film opens in the hushed, delicate void of space, where the black of the cosmos frames the vivid blue and white of Earth. Brad Pitt’s Roy McBride, a seasoned astronaut and systems engineer, … Read more

A recent Reddit post on /r/StarWars ignited a heated discussion about Snoke’s lack of on-screen backstory and whether that omission weakens the current Star Wars saga. Frustration among fans centers on how this mysterious antagonist, who clearly influences the Sequel Trilogy, has been given so little exposition in the films. One user, /u/agoddamnjoke, summed up … Read more

Rambo: Last Blood (2019) Director: Adrian Grunberg Screenwriters: Matt Cirulnick, Sylvester Stallone Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal The earlier Rambo films often put the spotlight on people caught in geopolitical violence—veterans neglected at home, soldiers left behind, and civilians trapped in foreign conflicts. First Blood examined the treatment of … Read more

This article was updated to include Yesterday (2019) on 24th September 2019. English director Danny Boyle has been a defining presence in British and international cinema for nearly three decades. Since his breakthrough with Shallow Grave in 1994, Boyle has moved confidently between independent films and mainstream projects, maintaining a distinctive visual style and delivering … Read more

Downton Abbey (2019) Director: Michael Engler Screenwriter: Julian Fellowes Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton. As a long-time admirer of the television series, I approached the Downton Abbey film with equal parts enthusiasm and apprehension. The series concluded with many characters’ journeys neatly resolved, so the … Read more

One of cinema’s greatest pleasures is watching countless creative elements—wardrobe, makeup, lighting, set design, camera angle and lens, music, and performance—converge in a single moment to reveal a character. A well-crafted introduction can instantly establish tone, motivation, and theme, sometimes defining a character or even an entire film in a single scene. From high-speed action … Read more

Border (2018) Director: Ali Abbasi Screenwriters: Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklof, John Ajvide Lindqvist Starring: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jorgen Thorsson, Ann Petren, Sten Ljunggren Border (2018), directed by Ali Abbasi and adapted from a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is a haunting, unforgettable film that fuses folklore with contemporary life. At its heart is … Read more

This article was written exclusively for The Film Magazine by thecineblog’s Sophie Butcher. The Souvenir (2019) Director: Joanna Hogg Screenwriter: Joanna Hogg Starring: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is a film student in early 1980s London. She wears oversized shirts, carries an Olympus camera to parties, and spends her … Read more