Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : 'I'm afraid of the dark. Come get me.' Omar ( Motaz Malhees , centre) responds to the urgent pleas of a five year old child, while the call is recorded by social media officer,  Leila ( Nesbat Serhan , left) and Red Crescent supervisor,  Rana ( Saja Kilani , centre) and welfare officer Nisreen ( Clara Khoury , right) listen on in the dramatic reconstruction, ' The Voice of Hind Rajab ', written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania . Still courtesy of WILLA (US) / Altitude Film Distribution (UK) Many films demand that the audience suspend disbelief. The Voice of Hind Rajab invites the audience to succumb to hope. A mixture of drama and documentary, writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film reconstructs the response of Palestine Red Crescent call centre staff to a real-life plea from a young child. Many viewers will watch the movie knowing the outcome in advance. Yet, as you watch it, you reject despair. You don’t want to believe in the worst in humanit...

  Pictured : 'You're not bright enough. How's that?' Comedian Chevy Chase questions director Marina Zenovich 's ability to explain his contrariness in the documentary, ' I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not '. Still courtesy of CNN Films (US). American comedian Chevy Chase has some explaining to do. Fired in 2021 from the television comedy show, Community , for uttering a racial slur, he was pointedly omitted in 2025 from appearing the 50 th Anniversary Special of Saturday Night Live , the television show on which he made his name, and for which he picked up an Emmy, naturally falling over on his way to the podium. Chase is a snarky Marmite comedian – you hate him, you hate him a lot – who draws crowds every holiday season at screenings of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation , the third in a series in which he appears as Clark Griswold, a hapless family man. It is regarded by some viewers as a classic, in a similar way that The Greasy Strangler is held...

Pictured : Young Mia ( Shannon Mahina Gorman ) spends time with her 'dad for hire', Philip ( Brendan Fraser ) in a scene from the Japan-set heart-warming drama, ' Rental Family ', directed by Hikari from a screenplay she co-wrote with Stephen Blahut . Photo: James Lisle . Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures . Rental Family , the second feature from Japanese writer-director Hikari, is a film about the effort made in Japanese society to respect convention when it is ordinarily not possible to do so. It is about professional stand-ins, people who are contracted to masquerade as individuals - grooms, the deceased, a missing parent - for the purpose of an event – a wedding, funeral or school interview. Their performance in the role is time-limited and does not involve physical intimacy – these stand-ins are not prostitutes. Yet there is an emotional cost to the performance. Attachments may be formed especially if children are involved. There is also the question of shame, the ...

  Pictured : Waiting to receive unholy orders, Lord Sir Jimmy Crystal ( Jack O'Connell , how's that) in a scene from the horror sequel, ' 28 Years Later - The Bone Temple ', written by Alex Garland and directed by Nia DaCosta . Still courtesy of Sony Pictures International. The Marvels and Hedda director Nia DaCosta might have seemed a left-field choice to helm the fourth film in the British ‘28’ horror franchise, 28 Years Later – The Bone Temple but the American delivers the series’ most impactful sequel to date. Filled with specifically British references - the Teletubbies, British Rail, Duran Duran and Jimmy Savile – the film blends an unrelenting sense of dread with leavening humour. At its heart, the film sidelines the threat from the infected – zombies, if you will – to chart the inevitable clash between tracksuit-wearing cult leader Lord Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and iodine skinned doctor Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), introduced in the 2025 film, 28 Year...

Pictured : 'Trees to meet you.' Agnes ( Jessie Buckley , left) encounters reluctant Latin tutor Will ( Paul Mescal , right) in a scene from the period drama, ' Hamnet ', adapted from Maggie O'Farrell 's 2020 novel by O'Farrell and the film's director,  Chloé Zhao . Still courtesy of Focus Features /  Universal Pictures .  Only one of three women who have won an Academy Award as Best Director - the others are Kathryn Bigalow and Jane Campion – Chloé Zhao makes films about marginalised individuals. Hamnet , her second film shot in England after 2021’s Eternals , which showed a bunch of jacked superheroes in action in London’s Camden Town, is another such movie. Zhao won her Oscar in 2021 for Nomadland , a film about America’s houseless. Here, her subject is Agnes Hathaway, betrothed through woodland ceremony to reluctant tutor, William Shakespeare, and left at home to raise his children. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, Zhao’s film focuses on ...

Pictured : 'It doesn't matter that you dated the owner. It's the hottest bar of the summer. We're reclaiming the space.' Mandy ( Merlot , right) instructs Stella ( Alexi Wasser , centre) and Ruby ( Ruby McCollister ) agrees in a scene from the New York City dating comedy, ' Messy ', written, directed by and starring Alexi Wasser . Still courtesy of Simone Films / Vertical Releasing . Messy , the debut feature of actress turned sartorial assistant turned writer-director, Alexi Wasser, is a ‘seize the day’ kind of movie. Offered $100,000 to make a feature – that’s the budget, not her fee – Wasser coerced celebrity friends and ‘young talent’ to appear for nothing in a film in which for she wears next to nothing in many key scenes. The film switches between her boudoir, a drinking establishment and the back seat of an Uber – ‘bed, bar and beyond’, so to speak – as it tells the story of how the freshly uncoupled Stella Fox (Wasser) negotiates the allure of avail...

Pictured (left to right): Eleven-year-old Abby ( Piper Rubio ) is protected by her brother Mike ( Josh Hutcherson ) and family friend Vanessa ( Elizabeth Lail ) in the horror sequel, 'F ive Nights at Freddy's 2 ', written by Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi . Still courtesy of Universal . The most financially successful film directed by a woman released in 2025 is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 , grossing $222,430,104 worldwide as of 30 December 2025, $121,162,630 domestic (source: Box Office Mojo). Outside of the franchise’s fan base, the film is unlikely to figure on ‘Best of the Year’ lists or even to be remembered. You can tell an audience’s investment by the number of times they pop out for a bathroom break or a drink – perhaps both – which was plenty at the screening I attended. Written by Scott Cawthon and produced by Jason Blum, it can’t truly be said to be a film authored by a woman, but director Emma Tammi, who helmed the first film, released in 2023, has b...