Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Pictured : 'What do you mean you can't manage three fillet, one hanger?' Ava ( Chase Sui Wonders ) does battle with the Fisherman in a Hellish Kitchen in a scene from the 2025 re-quel, ' I Know What You Did Last Summer ', a horror film with a hook, co-written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson , working with characters from the 1997 original. Photograph: Brooke Rushton . Still courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Contains spoilers By most objective measures, the 2025 reboot of the 1997 horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer , fails to deliver on expectations. There are ‘comfortable’ horror films, where the film works to a template – a serial killer of some type despatches cast members at regular intervals as a form of punishment. Tension is periodic. Social issues are rarely discussed. There are also ‘uncomfortable’ horror films, where trauma is felt in the mise-en-scene . The characters may be responsible for the horror we witness. The film is heavy with ex...

  Pictured : Ingrid ( Vicky Krieps ) attempts to explore the enigma of her new best friend Sofia ( Emma Mackey ) in a scene from ' Hot Milk ', a Spanish set drama adapted from Deborah Levy 's novel by writer-director Rebecca Lenkiewicz . Still courtesy of Mubi (UK) / IFC Films (US) What sort of mother creates an obligation for her adult daughter? This is a question suggested by Hot Milk , adapted from Deborah Levy’s novel by screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, making her feature directorial debut. Casting Fiona Shaw as Rose as a sixty-one year old woman afflicted by an inability to walk after her Greek husband walked out on her and Emma Mackey as Sofia, the sullen ‘perpetual student’ daughter who ‘failed her driving test four times’ (perhaps as a form of protest), Lenkiewicz locates the film amongst stubborn Irish archetypes, although Catholicism is never mentioned, unsurprisingly really since it is a male-oriented religion. (Aren’t they all?) Accompanying her mother to the ...

  Pictured : Bawling in love again? Kika ( Manon Cleval , left) and Rasha ( Anaël Snoek , right) administer to the infantile fantasies of a wealthy man in a scene from Belgian director Alexe Poukine 's drama, ' Kika '. Still courtesy of Imagine Film Distribution (Belgium), Totem Films Contains spoilers Kika , director Alexe Poukine’s debut feature, is a drama about a woman in her thirties who becomes a sex worker. A sex worker, I should add, who does not want to be touched. Kika is a Belgian film. If cinema is to be believed, Belgium is a country filled with complicated, twisted families, with parents who don’t show enough love to their children or else go too far. This is evident in Fien Troch’s 2016 film, Home . Poukine’s film, which she co-wrote with Thomas Van Zuylen, deals with unexpected love. Kika (Manon Clavel), a social worker with a husband, Paul (Thomas Coumans) and young (school age) daughter, Louison (Suzanne Elbaz) falls for David (Makita Samba) after they...

  Pictured : Exiled by the state, a group of school age girls incarcerated on a former leper colony in the 1950s as featured in director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu 's film, ' We Were Dangerous ', written by Maddie Dai . Right: Matron ( Rima Te Wiata ). Still courtesy of Madman Entertainment (New Zealand) Cinema is filled with female authority figures of a certain age who are casually cruel but act with righteous purpose and a degree of enjoyment. Whether they are Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest , Miss Trunchbull in Matilda , Sister Bridget in The Magdalene Sisters or Mrs Danvers in Rebecca , these women live for their job, enforcing structure and discipline whilst suppressing empathy. Added to the list is the Matron (Rima Te Wiata), the dominant head of a reform school for girls featured in director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut feature, the ironically titled, We Were Dangerous , set in 1954 on a tiny island that is part of Aotearoa (that’s New Zealand ...

  Pictured : Agathe ( Camille Rutherford ) pictured in front of the famous Parisian bookshop, 'Shakespeare and Co'. Both are featured in the film, ' Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ', a French romantic comedy written and directed by Laura Piani . Still courtesy of Icon Film Distribution (UK), Sony Pictures Classics (US ) The title Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ( Jane Austen à gâché ma vie) holds so much promise that I was heartbroken to discover how conventional writer-director Laura Piani’s debut feature is. Where is my takedown of Austen romantic tropes, that the brooding, social awkward yet handsome man is the answer to many a young – or perhaps not so young – woman’s prayers? Piani casts in the Mark Darcy role Charlie Anson, a bi-lingual (at least) English actor whose only Austen connection is an appearance in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , a thoroughly immemorable horror comedy. Anson is the sort of guy who’d more likely give you a quote on your insurance than exude...

  Pictured : Just wanting to be together: Leo ( Luke Howitt ), Molly ( Posy Sterling ) and Ava ( Tegan-Mia Stanley Rhoads ) in a scene from the London-set drama, 'Lollipop', written and directed by Daisy-May Hudson . Still courtesy of Met Film Distribution (UK) Daisy-May Hudson’s feature debut, Lollipop , is an example of the female gaze turned solely on women. Adult men exist only in the background, for example as security or coach drivers. The only characters who speak are women, either representing the system or running away from responsibility. In her predominantly-London-set drama, Hudson stages scenes naturalistically, often pointing her camera at her protagonist, Molly (Posy Sterling), a young mother fresh out of prison trying to get custody of her two children Ava (Tegan-Mia Stanley Rhoads) and Leo (Luke Howitt), while opposition voices are heard out of shot; Hudson uses shot-reverse-shot sparingly. The stylised-naturalistic combo results in abrasive story telling. Set ...