Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  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...

Still courtesy of A24 Films (US) / Mubi (UK) For her eighth film as writer-director, Priscilla , Sofia Coppola re-tells the true story of young Priscilla Beaulieu’s relationship with the controlled and controlling pill popper, Elvis Aaron Presley, singing star and icon, characterised in the movie by a twitchy leg that, when he sits down, never stops moving. Constrained to some extent by being unable to use Elvis’ tunes – he is only shown performing a Jerry Lee Lewis number, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ – Coppola concentrates on the limited viewpoint of her titular protagonist, who first is introduced to Elvis in 1958 and, after spending some time with him at parties hosted in his house while he is on military service in Wiesbaden, Germany finds herself left behind then summoned by him, then left behind and so forth. Referring to her as Cilla or ‘Satnin’ – weirdly the nickname Elvis also gave to his late mother – the star attracts and repels Priscilla in equal measure until she final...