Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Vladimir, Vlado to his friends ( Slavko Sobin ) and daughter Maria ( Olive Gray ) in a scene from the Bristol-set British drama, ' Surviving Earth ', written and directed by  Thea Gajić . Still courtesy of Metis Films  (UK)   The Bristol-set drama, Surviving Earth , written and directed by South London-born Thea Gajić, is dedicated to her late father, Serbian émigré Vladmir Gajić, who died of a drug overdose after settling in England. The film is a fictionalised account of the months leading to his death, vividly speaking to the pressures placed on immigrants and the limitations of a positive outlook. It is elevated by a charismatic central performance of Croatia-born Slavko Sobin, who gives Vlado (the name he is frequently called, as opposed to Vlad) depth, humour and credibility. Sobin, who has been cast in tough guy roles in films like the thriller 97 Minutes , relishes the opportunity to play a three-dimensional character. You forget you are wat...

  Pictured : 'I never promised you a vegetable garden.' Anna ( Halle Bailey ) and Michael ( Regé-Jean Page ) in a scene from the Italian-set romantic comedy, ' You, Me & Tuscany ', written by Ryan Engle and Kristen Engle and directed by Kat Coiro . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures .  The romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany gets one thing absolutely right. If you are a woman of colour and want romantic happiness, you won’t find it in Donald Trump’s America. Director Kat Coiro’s protagonist, New York-based apartment sitter Anna (Halle Bailey) meets handsome Italian realty guy Matteo (Lorenzo De Moor) in a bar and is inspired to make good an unused airline ticket to fly to Tuscany, where she hoped she’d take her now deceased mother. Arriving at a village where every available hotel room is taken, she decides to travel to Matteo’s vacant villa and go full Goldilocks. She doesn’t expect to be woken by the sound of Giuseppe (Emanuele Pacca), the singing gardener ...

  Pictured :  Christine ( Garance Marillier , left) adjusts the dress modelled by South Sudanese model,  Ada ( Anyier Anei , right) in a scene from the Paris Fashion Week-set drama, 'Couture', directed by Alice Winocour from a screenplay co-written by  Jean-Stéphane Bron . Still courtesy of Signature Entertainment (UK) Couture , French writer-director Alice Winocour’s fifth feature, is inessential viewing. Set during Paris Fashion Week, it focuses on four women who participate in the event as model, seamstress, make-up artist and video director respectively. The film is notable for the presence of Angelina Jolie as Maxine Walker, a Los Angeles-based film director fascinated by vampires, whose video opens one particular show, and who, while in Paris, receives some devastating news. Missing from the ensemble is a fashion designer, the individual whom the four women – and many others - are beholden; the film was made in collaboration with the fashion house, Chanel, but...

  Pictured : Violette ( Laurence Leboeuf , left ) and Florence ( Karine Gonthier-Hyndman , right ) in a scene from the Montreal-set comedy, ' Two Women ' (' Deux Femmes en or '), a remake of a 1970 film written by Catherine  Léger   and directed by Chloé Robichaud . Still courtesy of Icon Film Distribution (UK)   The Canadian film industry supports many first-time feature-film directors. However, it does not primarily work to commercial imperatives. Telefilm Canada’s 2024/25 annual report contrasts $81.7 million spent on Canadian film production in a financial year with $23.5 million earned by Canadian films in ticket sales. Success is measured in terms of prestige. One of the films singled out is the 2025 remake of the 1970 French language Canadian film, Deux Femmes En Or (English title Two Women ), which won the Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This film has received a welcome release in the UK, albeit not in the major cinema chains (Cin...

  Pictured : Come for the art, stay for the Guinness. Stella ( Lesley Manville,  left) and Gerry ( Ciarán Hinds , right) visit Amsterdam in the marital drama, ' Midwinter Break ', scripted by Bernard Maclaverty and Nick Payne , adapting Maclaverty's 2017 novel, and directed by Polly Findlay . Still courtesy of Focus Features   Midwinter Break , the debut feature film of theatre director Polly Findlay, is a triumph of astute writing and sensitive acting over two erroneous needle drops. I can’t think of many late-in-life marital dramas that should be heralded by the song, ‘The Great Pretender’, which was more appropriately used to accompany the opening credits of Christopher Morahan’s medical drama, Paper Mask (1990). Nor would I wish for any performer such as Lesley Manville to have the impact of her character’s confession dramatically curtailed by a cut to classical music played through earphones worn by co-star Ciarán Hinds. Test screenings are supposed to highlig...

  Pictured : Ellie ( Anne Curtis ) and Eric ( Jericho Rosales ) in a scene from the bittersweet Filipino romantic drama, ' The Loved One ', directed by Irene Emma Villamor . Still courtesy of Viva Films / Cornerstone Studios In some ways, the Filipino film industry appears to be more gender-balanced than other film industries around the world. Not only are there many women working as directors, but films directed by women are popular with Filipino audiences. The most successful Filipino release of 2025 was Meet, Greet and Bye directed by Cathy Garcia-Sampana, about a matriarch who will only undergo chemotherapy if her four adult children arrange for her to meet the star of a Korean drama. The Philippines has a large population, 117.7 million, served by approximately 560 cinemas, predominantly multiplexes (with multiple screens) in shopping malls. While the majority of films are US imports, local films also compete. Recently, there has been a trend towards remaking Korean and ...