30 Jul 2023
Baato review – Nepal’s past and future collide in an immersive, fraught documentary
A mountain trek intertwines with a road-building project, granting incisive, if underpowered, insight into a much underseen world
Articles by Jack Blackwell
Favourite films: Apocalypse Now, The Social Network, No Country For Old Men
Favourite actors: Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Willem Dafoe
Favourite filmmakers: Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan
28 Jul 2023
The Beanie Bubble review – a grim new low for the “corporate biopic” genre
With none of the saving graces of Tetris, Air, or Barbie, this ambition-free look at the Beanie Baby craze is pure mediocrity
28 Jul 2023
Everybody Loves Jeanne review – thoroughly modern fable of grief, romantic confusion, and climate anxiety
Celine Deveaux's French-Portuguese debut can be too quirky for its own good, but a fantastically written lead character keeps it afloat
27 Jul 2023
So Foul a Sky review – lyrical but meandering look at Venezuela’s competing national crises
This dreamlike doc might lack punch, but it's an effective study of the self-inflicted hopelessness of the 21st century world
23 Jul 2023
Iraq’s Invisible Beauty review – moving but scrappy look at a photographer and his flailing home country
As a tribute to pre-'80s Iraq, Sahim Omar Kalifa's doc is a touching affair, but it's hampered by dry exposition and terrible narration
21 Jul 2023
Barbie review – Ryan Gosling steals the show in Greta Gerwig’s hilarious and profoundly pink spin on the iconic toy
Packed with enough jokes and visual inventiveness to get around the corporate feel, this follow-up to Little Women is a vibrant treat
19 Jul 2023
A Rifle and a Bag review – a surprisingly gentle look at the lives of former Maoist insurgents in India
Though slow, this doc about the Naxalite movement and India's bureaucratic state offers great insight into an unexplored world
16 Jul 2023
The Deepest Breath review – fascinating but muddled look at one of the world’s most extreme sports
Netflix's freediving doc features some astonishing footage of terrifying ocean descents, but its storytelling feels oddly cynical
16 Jul 2023
Medusa review – surreal Brazilian protest film is a strange but unwieldy political object
Though it conjures up some compellingly freaky ways to visualise internalised misogyny, there's more to irritate than intrigue
14 Jul 2023
Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) review – incredibly fun tour through rock and art history
Playfully reckoning with the legacy of the iconic design group, this is a compelling look at the ambitions of a long-gone era
08 Jul 2023
Insidious: The Red Door review – horror sequel is more frustrating than frightening
Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut with this fifth entry, but it's impossible to recommend to anyone other than completists
04 Jul 2023
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars review – Bowie concert re-release is an extraordinary time at the movies
Half a century hasn't dulled the impact of the gig that "killed" Ziggy Stardust – it's still a perfect goodbye from a perfect performer