RICHARD’S BLOG

Category: Film Review

  • REVIEW: Cactus Pears ★★★★☆

    Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda in Marathi) is a 2025 romantic drama film written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, in his feature directorial debut. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, and was given a limited UK release on 19 June. Following the death…

  • REVIEW: The Invite ★★★★☆

    The Invite is a 2026 American comedy film directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. It is an English-language remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs (Sp. Sentimental) by Cesc Gay, which in turn was an adaptation of his own stage play Los Vecinos de Arriba. It…

  • REVIEW: The Last Viking ★★★★☆

    The Last Viking is a 2025 Danish black comedy, written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. It had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival last August and was released in the UK on 26 June. Cornered bank robber, Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) entrusts his brother, Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen), to take the money…

  • REVIEW: Blue Heron ★★★☆☆

    Blue Heron is a 2025 Canadian ‘memory drama’, written and directed by Sophy Romvari in her first full-length feature. It is semi-autobiographical, loosely based on her own childhood and her previous short film Still Processing. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland last August and was released in the UK…

  • REVIEW: Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day ★★☆☆☆

    Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is a 2026 romantic drama film, directed by Tina Gharavi from a screenplay by Justine Waddell, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel. The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest London Festival on 1 June and was released generally in the UK on 19 June. (SXSW London is apparently a music,…

  • REVIEW: 500 Miles ★★☆☆☆

    500 Miles is a 2026 drama film, directed by Morgan Matthews from a screenplay by Malcolm Campbell, adapted from the novel Charlie and Me by Mark Lowery. The film had its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival in February and was released in the UK last Friday, 26 June. There has been a family bust-up. Grandad…

  • REVIEW: A Private Life ★★☆☆☆

    A Private Life is a 2025 French comic mystery thriller, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 but was not released in the UK until last Friday, 26 June, 2026. Dr. Lilian Steiner (Jodie…

  • REVIEW: Köln 75★★★☆☆

    Köln 75 is a 2025 German music-drama film written and directed by Ido Fluk, a director who is entirely new to me and does not have much of a track-record (or indeed a Wikipedia page). The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2025 and was released in Germany…

  • REVIEW: My Mother’s Wedding ★★☆☆☆

    My Mother’s Wedding is a 2023 English comedy-drama directed by Kristin Scott Thomas (in her feature directorial debut) and co-written by Scott Thomas with her journalist husband John Micklethwait. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023 but was not released in the UK until last Friday, 29…

  • REVIEW:  Fairyland★★★☆☆

    Fairyland is a 2023 American coming-of-age drama written and directed by Andrew Durham (in his feature directorial debut) and based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father. Sofia Coppola was initially to have co-written the screenplay with Durham, but in the end, Durham wrote it alone as he had a deep personal…