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How do you handle it when the odds are stacked against you, the elements are playing havoc and you have a gun to your head?   That is the contention explored in the remote northern Minnesota wilderness in the peak of winter.   In this case, there are four main players – five, if you count flashbacks. Barb (Emma Thompson) is a recent widow.   She was happily married for many years and during the ordeal that plays out, she reflects fondly on her courtship and union.   Barb sets

Rose Byrne gives the performance of her life as the psychologically tormented mother of a daughter with a mysterious illness. Byrne plays Linda, a therapist whose offspring (Delaney Quinn) fears many things and refuses to eat, so the girl has a feeding tube attached to her stomach.   With her husband, navy man Charles (Christian Slater), away on business, Linda is struggling. The roof of their apartment has just caved in, flooding the place, so she and her daughter have moved

The dystopian action thriller The Running Man pits one man against the system.   Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is noted for his rage.   He stands up for what he believes in and feels is right, but as a result he has been fired from a succession of jobs for what is termed insubordination. Now out of work, he and his wife, Sheila (a waitress, played by Jayme Lawson), have a two-year-old who is very sick with the flu.   They no longer have the money to provide for the infant's well

The original master illusionists with a conscience are back with three additional members joining the fray.   The franchise began in 2013 with Now You See Me, before Now You See Me 2 was released in 2016.   So, this is the third instalment, with Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) in the director’s chair.   This time, the magicians target is the ruthless, money hungry head of a diamond mining business. She is a nasty piece of work, the extent of which we learn as the movie progresse

The word “mastermind” suggests a person of outstanding intellect, who can think through the most complex of problems.   That is hardly how I would describe the antihero at the heart of the film The Mastermind.   His name is James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor), a failed architect, who in 1970 organises stealing four Arthur Dove paintings from a Massachusetts art gallery.   Married with two boys, his father – a judge – “rides him” for not having a job.   He waves in Mooney’s fa

The reframing of the Predator series with Badlands is a move that works well.   It is action-packed science fiction with bite.   At its core is a ruthless mentality that pits father against son.   The central focus is Dek, a young, undersized warrior from a mercenary clan known as Yautja. As the runt of the litter, his all-powerful father Njohrr – an Apex predator – tasks Dek’s brother Kwei (Mike Homik) with eliminating him.   Dek vows to prove his worth by travelling to the

A musical within a political drama, Kiss of the Spider Woman is based on the musical (which opened in the West End in 1992) and book (1976) of the same name.   During what was termed the Dirty War in Argentina, between 1974 and 1983, the military junta engaged in state terrorism.   During this period 30,000 people were killed or imprisoned.   The storyline in Kiss of the Spider Woman is drawn from that period. Gay window dresser Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), who is close to his ail

Conspiracy theories abound in this ever-evolving internet age. Time and again people have been shown to be as mad as a cut snake.   And so it is in Bugonia. The title is derived from a mythical ancient Mediterranean belief that bees are spontaneously generated from the carcasses of dead oxen. Teddy (Jesse Plemons) has a bee in his bonnet in more way than one.   An apiarist, who greatly admires the work ethic of the industrious insects, he lives with his seemingly brain damage

Following in the footsteps of Demi Moore’s The Substance (2024), Shell is similarly built on the contention that beauty is skin deep.   Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss) is a 40-something actress who disappeared from public view years ago.   In short, the industry moved on and continues to court the younger and more glamorous. At an audition, she is overlooked because of this for a 22-year-old beauty named Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber) who she used to babysit.   While Samantha has

The angel business is far from straight forward, at least not for Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), who is low down in the angel hierarchy.   He is responsible for trying to save those distracted by their mobile phones while driving.   But he would rather be doing something that he considers more meaningful.   He aspires to save lost souls. So, he approaches the angel manager, Martha (Sandra Oh).   She tells him to stick to his duties because to save a soul he must first find one that

The opening night film of the 2025 Jewish International Film Festival, which is being screened throughout the festival, is a riotous, good-natured comedy.   There are laughs aplenty as an important Friday night dinner turns into a calamitous version of Weekend at Bernie’s (1989).   From a traditional New York Jewish family, David (Jon Bass) is engaged to good Catholic girl Meg (Meaghan Leathers), who is converting.  It is Shabbos and the first time the two families have gotte

Yale University becomes a hotbed of discontent after an accusation made by a star, gay philosophy student against a flirtatious professor.   Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri) is the young, ambitious student concerned. She is the adopted daughter of uber wealthy parents, who are among the university’s largest donors.   Maggie is in a relationship with law student Alex (Lio Mehiel). Maggie is the protégé of respected professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), whom she admires and to who

Inter Alia is Latin, meaning “among other things”.   That perfectly describes the busy, multi-faceted life of highly intelligent, not to...

Unless you follow mixed martial arts, you have probably never heard of fighters Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman.   They were two of the...

A sports horror film, HIM starts out with promise and quickly descends into the catastrophic.   As a youngster, Cameron Cade and his...

The 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, featuring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, marked Rob Reiner’s directorial...

Writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson’s rigorous commitment to excellence in filmmaking (Magnolia) pays off again big time in One...

A walk to the death. Think The Hunger Games on the road. That is the conceit behind the dystopian psychological thriller The Long Walk.  ...

An unconvincing fantasy, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey pairs two box office drawcards – Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell – who play a...

Cross and double cross are the hallmarks of this sequel to Dreamworks’ 2022 original animated feature The Bad Guys.   Fun filled, it...