Just over a week ago, I broke my arm in a cycling accident. It wasn't a bad break; it's expected to heal well and the recovery hasn't warranted more than some light physio and heavy painkillers to keep it all moving. In truth, aside from some mobility frustrations and the indignity of having to take the Northern Line to work, the only thing it's really affected is my sleeping pattern.

During the first three or four days, I was successfully…

As before, so again, the greatest tragedy that could befall Hayao Miyazaki’s career capstone is, despite the illustriousness of his career, that he continues to make movies. While the last decade had canonised The Wind Rises as his final opus, a reflection of his own styles and philosophies, The Boy and the Heron works double duty, imbuing some of Studio Ghibli’s most arresting visuals with a tribute to his past, and a letter to its future. There are homages to countless…

Look, maybe it’s because I watched thee episodes of the Netflix series before I got around to this, but the first half especially really felt like it dragged. 

Otherwise, this is a largely shallow, relentlessly manipulative piece of film that absolutely had the intended effect on me, because I also absolutely wished I was dead by the end. Generally placid but intermittently the most romantic film ever made, it trades in the shadows of the Before trilogy without ever broaching the…

Truly a testament to the final hour that this movie can have the messiest, most ill advised first act of a Mission Impossible movie ever and still be in clear contention for best action movie of the year. 

Like Bond before it, M:I had always understood that its strengths don’t lie in a deep mythology or concrete continuity, but in the immediate moment of what’s happening onscreen; Benji didn’t become the franchise’s third recurring character until fifteen years in. It thrives on…

Spectacular. 

Given the frequent comparisons, there was something of an expectation that Part Two would follow in the footsteps of The Two Towers, namely that it would be a direct continuation of the previous movie that, for all intents and purposes, feels like the same thing but more. From the first minute, Villeneuve buries that idea and never looks back. This is a version of Dune that feels two years more advanced than Part One, both narratively and artistically. The first shot…

It’s baffling how the term “coming of age” seems to have been exclusively co-opted by that awkward time between sixteen and nineteen where everything is possible, nothing is doable and every mistake feels life altering in every possible interpretation. It’s certainly a time of learning and reflection, but to imply that it’s the only point of meaningful change in one’s life, or even the most important, couldn’t be further from the truth.

I watched this film a few months ago…