Red Rocket (2021): Sean Baker has firmly established himself as one of the most interesting American directors of the last decade. His previous three movies had been exceptional (with Tangerine one of my all time favourites) and Red Rocket is an equally impressive addition. Baker opted for Simon Rex to play the lead character Mikey,… Read more

Luzzu (2021): In another directorial/writing debut, Alex Camilleri proposes a profoundly European movie – a tale of tradition, family and social policies. As the EU aims to repurpose Maltese fishermen out of the jobs they’ve grown into, we meet Jesmark – a young father, struggling to make ends meet and distinctly under-impressing his wife’s family.… Read more

West Side Story (2021): I had never seen the original before going to watch Stephen Spielberg’s (?!) reinterpretation of the renowned musical. A riff on Romeo & Juliet, it tells the love story between Maria and Tony, whose romance is hindered by their allegiance to rival New York gangs. Spielberg is faithful to the original… Read more

Sideways (2004): This is one of those movies that aged as finely as its subject matter (wine) – or maybe it helps that I’m more of a mid-life crisis age now, as opposed to my teens, when I first saw it. Paul Giamatti plays grumpy, frustrated wine-aficionado Miles, who is tagging along with Thomas Haden… Read more

Titane (2021): So how about something completely different? Julia Ducournau’s follow up to Raw (2016) is, if not more polarizing, then at least more abstract. The plot is somewhat simple: a showgirl goes on a murderous streak and in her attempt to hide, ends up pretending to be a fireman’s long lost son. She does… Read more

The French Dispatch (2021): Wes Anderson is one of the most stylistically distinctive directors out there – and you either love the style or love it much less than you usually love things. In his latest, he becomes idiosyncratic to a fault – a series of three stories, the first of which entices, but the… Read more

The Novice (2021): Lauren Hadaway’s debut feature is what you’d expect to see if you zoomed into those rowing scenes during The Social Network and applied the Black Swan treatment to them. Inspired by Hadaway’s own experiences as a rower, the movie tells the story of Alex Dall, a college student who is driven by… Read more

Boiling Point (2021): Movies set in kitchens are…tight! But also exciting, dynamic and quite depressing, given the intensity so dutifully portrayed in each and every restaurant-based-story. Boiling Point conjures a world inhabited by characters that feel mostly real and genuinely interesting, set against all sorts of time-sensitive challenges. What I enjoyed most is that the… Read more

Celle que vous croyez (2019): A more extreme version of the “voices in our head” theme, Safy Nebbou’s movie tells Claire’s story of unrequited love. Clair, a 50something woman, is brought to life in beautiful nuance by Juliette Binoche, who elevates the meandering parts of this psychological romantic drama to something worth watching. The tricks… Read more

Bergman Island (2021): I am almost willing to say that I’m ashamed of never having seen a Bergman movie (well, does half of The Seventh Seal count?). But I openly admit being ignorant in the ways of most cinema-defining-auteurs that came before the 80s. That being said, I don’t know if I can truly relate… Read more