Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  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 ...

  Pictured : Having made his fortune, Heathcliff ( Jacob Elordi ) visits Catherine Linton ( Margot Robbie ) in a scene from writer-director Emerald Fennell 's streamlined adaptation of  Emily Brontë ’s  ' Wuthering Heights' . Still courtesy of Warner Bros .   The most successful film directed by a woman so far released in 2026 ($84,001,073 domestic, $241,301,072 worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo , figures correct as of 20 April 2026), British writer-director Emerald Fennell’s reboot of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is, as they say up North, ‘proper gravy’. Fennell is fascinated by the casual cruelty meted out by men and how those on the receiving end respond, as evidenced in her films Promising Young Woman and Saltburn . Her adaptation of Brontë’s 1847 novel is tailored to this interest. It’s a love story that ends badly – you might call it a tragedy, though environmental determinism plays a part. Fennell’s film is visceral, more sexually frank than pr...

  Pictured : Julian ( Laurence Roothooft ) and Fleur ( Nina Meurisse ) exchange marriage vows in New York as part of Project 22, an attempt to marry in each of the twenty-two countries that permit same sex marriage, in a scene from the Belgian film ' Julian ', co-written (with  Angelo Tijssens )   and directed by Cato Kusters . Still courtesy of  Lumière Benelux Julian begins as a film in which a same-sex couple, Fleur (Nina Meurisse) and Julian (Laurence Roothooft) decide to turn their relationship into a political act and ends as a tragic love story that underlines the need to separate public and private personae. Adapting the memoir of journalist and activist Fleur Pierets, Belgian director Cato Kusters tips the audience off early that there will be no happy ending and intercuts between 2019 New York and scenes that took place earlier. In the 2019 scenes, Fleur is preparing a lecture on ‘Project 22’, her and Julian’s attempt to marry in the twenty-two named countr...

  Pictured : Frankenstein at the Movies. Or rather his creature ( Christian Bale ), as seen in writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal 's Marmite 'monster' 1930s road movie, ' The Bride! '. Still courtesy of Warner Bros  Few sophomore films from acclaimed directors are as bat sh-t crazy as writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride . Her follow-up to The Lost Daughter portrays Frankenstein’s creation (Christian Bale), broadly as imagined in the 1931 Boris Karloff picture and its 1935 sequel, as a lonely film addict seeking a female companion. This reanimated figure, the subject of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, appears to have been brought to life in the 1930s rather than a century earlier. Gyllenhaal presents the creature (let’s not use the word ‘monster’) as a child of cinema doomed to impersonate past – and future – portrayals of itself, imagining itself as a song and dance man rather than forever pursued by an angry mob - though the latter is inevitable. The creature i...

  Pictured : Kenna ( Maika Monroe ) and Ledger ( Tyriq Withers ) in a scene from the second chance at happiness romance, ' Reminders of Him ', adapted from Colleen Hoover 's novel by the author in collaboration with Lauren Levine , and directed by Vanessa Caswill . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures Dear Scotty, I just watched the movie, Reminders of Him , based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, and it features letters written to you by the protagonist, Kenna (Maika Monroe) in two or more exercise books, which you won’t get a chance to read because you died in an automobile accident. I figured I do the same. Not die in a car accident, the writing. The letters help Kenna explain herself to other people far better than looking them in the eye and inviting tricky questions. Those who publish their thoughts online know this all too well. Kenna literally carries her history with her. She might leave it at a bar by accident, but only because she wants to, subconsciously, especi...