Category Archives: Cinema

Cinema, Reviews

Cinema Review: The Running Man (2025) – Edgar Wright – a decent cardio cinema workout that breaks into intermittent sprints!

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Cinema Review: The Running Man (2025)

Directed by Edgar Wright

Screenplay by Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright – Based on The Running Man by Stephen King

Produced by Simon Kinberg, Nira Park & Edgar Wright

Main Cast: Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin, etc.

Cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

As a fan of Edgar Wright’s stylish, kinetic direction, the camp cult charm of the original Arnold Schwarzenegger 1980’s action romp, and of course Stephen King’s sharp literary concepts, I went into The Running Man (2025) with high hopes. The film certainly starts brilliantly where Wright unloads a barrage of inventive visual gags, flashy transitions, and razor-clean action choreography. The set-pieces are spectacular from the outset, and when the film is firing on all cylinders, it’s exactly the sort of propulsive, high-concept entertainment you’d expect from this creative cocktail.

It remains a fantastic concept with a near-future game-show rewarding contestants with great wealth as long as they survive a month on the run and are not killed by all manner of uber-mercenaries chasing them. But as a whole the script and tone never quite settle. As such, the film wavers between being a comedy-actioner and a revolutionary dystopic thriller. It can be both, but here the shifts feel abrupt and under-cooked. The last forty-five minutes and final act especially drag, weighed down by a new character who is introduced mainly to witness Richards (Glen Powell) strike back at his foes, without adding much thematic or emotional heft. Emilia Jones does okay but her character should’ve entered the story much earlier—ideally as one of the contestants—so her eventual role feels earned rather than tacked on.

Powell is solid, charming, and physically believable in the role, but he’s not (at least yet) a true blockbuster star—more a handsome, reliable leading actor as demonstrated in the excellent, Hit Man (2024). I couldn’t help but imagine someone like Lee Pace in the part. Instead he is playing the lead henchmen. Pace is an actor with the gravitas and presence to anchor the story’s darker undercurrents and sell the rebellion with more weight. Indeed, Pace, Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin bring depth and texture to The Running Man (2025), each grounding the film’s wild energy with sharply defined performances. Pace delivers charismatic menace, while the underused Cera adds an unexpected nervy humour that sharpens the satire. Domingo, as always, lends personality as the show host, and Brolin rounds it out with rugged corporate authority that makes the world feel dangerous.

Ultimately, even Wright’s trademark ADHD-fueled visual dynamism can’t fully rescue a script that overreaches in ambition. Thus, The Running Man (2025) could have been truly great if it had taken just a little more time to breathe—letting its world, its fears, and its people settle in before the chaos kicked off. Beneath the neon splatter and bombastic satire is a sharp idea about media, violence, voyeurism, and manipulation, but the film races past its own potential. With a touch more patience to build tension, deepen the stakes, and let us actually care about the characters caught in the spectacle, its dystopia might have hit harder, felt richer, and lingered longer after the credits rolled. Still, the craft and energy make it an intermittently thrilling ride—just one that needed sharper focus to become the definitive The Running Man (2025) adaptation fans were hoping for.

Mark: 7 out of 11

Cinema, New Releases, Oscar Bingo

Cinema Review: Bugonia (2025) – Lanthimos has a blast with this dark conspiracy-class-war-kidnap-comedy!

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Cinema Review: Bugonia (2025)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay by Will Tracy – Based on Save the Green Planet! (2003) by Jang Joon-hwan

Produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko

Main Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone, etc.

Cinematography by Robbie Ryan

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Yorgos Lanthimos has once again sneaked out of his uncanny terrarium and unleashed another piece of beautifully deranged cinema. Bugonia (2025)—a remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s cult classic Save the Green Planet!—is part sci-fi fever dream, part hostage farce, and part spiritual meltdown. It’s like Ruthless People (1986) got trapped in a socio-political, beekeeping suit and force-fed ayahuasca.

Will Tracy’s script hums with the manic energy of someone who’s read too many conspiracy subreddits and decided to turn it into Oscar bait. The film pairs Jesse Plemons (whose face seems genetically engineered for moral unease) with Alden Delbis (playing his twitchy, Kool-Aid-eyed partner in cosmic delusion) as two eco-anarchist truthers who kidnap a pharma/tech CEO, played with imperial chill by Emma Stone. Their reasoning? Well, just wait and see. It is incredibly crazy with some severe plot turns. Yet, somehow Lanthimos and his terrific cast maintain verisimilitude within the setting and just about hang onto emotional connection for the characters.

What follows is a deranged pas de trois of torture, empathy, and total philosophical collapse. Plemons and Delbis interrogate Stone with the intensity of people who’ve seen too many YouTube conspiracy documentaries, while Lanthimos and cinematographer, Robbie Ryan shoot it with the intensity of a nature documentary directed by Lucifer. There are bees. There is honey. There are monologues about pollution, pharmaceutical company threat and environmental collapse. Further, Stone, who has now fully ascended into Lanthimos’ personal pantheon of holy weirdness, plays her role like a woman being both worshipped and flayed at the same time. She’s terrifyingly serene—like she’s founded a doomsday cult and smiled through the apocalypse.

It’s all utterly ridiculous, but Bugonia (2025) thrives in that space between laughter and dread. Lanthimos once again proves that absurdism isn’t about nonsense—it’s that nonsense is the only sane response to the modern world. I enjoyed this film way more than the obtuse Kinds of Kindness (2024). It has more akin, although not as devastatingly memorable, as his earlier Greek-language classics or The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Moreover, if The Favourite (2018) was about power, and Poor Things (2024) was about rebirth, Bugonia (2025) is bleak, fatalistic morality tale about environmental apocalypse.

By the time the film’s final shots roll I was equal parts horrified, moved, and deeply amused. It’s an eco-horror-comedy that gorily plays like Saw (2004) meets famous beekeeping philosopher, Aristotle. Overall, Bugonia (2025) proves once again that Yorgos Lanthimos is cinema’s reigning apiarist of absurdity—and his audience are all his buzzing little drones.

Mark 8.5 out of 11

Cinema, Cult Cinema, Nickel Cinema

Cult Film Review: Entertainment (2015) at The Nickel Cinema, London

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Cult Film Review: Entertainment (2015) at The Nickel Cinema

The Nickel Cinema in Clerkenwell feels like a hidden temple for London’s true film obsessives — a grindhouse gem tucked into the city’s polished heart. It’s the kind of place where the air hums with cigarette ghosts and celluloid dreams, where the screen flickers with everything from outlaw art films to midnight slashers and sleazy euro-thrillers. The décor has that lived-in, clandestine vibe — red velvet worn thin, neon bleeding through the dark, and an underground bar serving the kind of cocktails that taste like trouble.

It’s not just a cinema — it’s a refuge for the subversive, the cultish, the weird and the wonderful. You’ll find Anger next to Fassbinder, Fulci, Lynch, Jodorowsky, Korine, Ferrara, Argento, Waters, Kern, Miike, Ferrara, Korine Noe, Cohen, Breillat, Refn and many more bleeding into audiences who actually cheer when the projector rattles. The Nickel doesn’t chase trends; it worships the offbeat, the forgotten, and the dangerous. While feeling still quite new, the place somehow still feels gloriously dirty — and absolutely right up your alley. If not there is a strip club next door if that kind of business takes your fancy.

Check out their website for the latest screenings here: https://thenickel.co.uk/

Last month I watched Rick Alverson’s Entertainment (2015) at The Nickel Cinema.

Entertainment is like watching the American dream rot in real time — a hypnotic, desolate odyssey through the dust and despair of the open road. Gregg Turkington is excellent as he plays “The Comedian,” a hollowed-out version of his Neil Hamburger persona, trudging through a series of soul-scorching stand-up gigs in half-empty bars, bowling alleys, and desert motels. Each performance is a small act of self-immolation — jokes that fall flat, laughter that curdles, a man dissolving behind the microphone as his identity blurs into the toxic sludge of showbiz delusion.

Director Rick Alverson shoots it all with a slow, clinical beauty — wide, frozen frames that turn America’s forgotten corners into alien landscapes. “The Comedian” drifts from neon-soaked diners to sulfurous desert plains, to prisons, to dead Western towns. Further, it contains some incredible locations including an unforgettable sequence at an aircraft graveyard — rows of dead machines basking in the sun, like monuments to ambition and decay. While low in budget the film makes use of such stunning locales, plus impactful acting interludes from John C. Reilly, Michael Cera and Tye Sheridan.

The film is not a comedy, not really — more anti-comedy or like an autopsy of one. Entertainment (2015) is a brutal, mesmeric study of loneliness, alienation, and the sick joke at the heart of performance itself. It’s the road movie as existential purgatory — unbearably awkward, strangely poetic, and utterly unforgettable. It doesn’t so much as have a beginning, middle and end, but a series of events which we are dropped into and experience until the credits suddenly roll. I like to ponder “The Comedian” is still out there, living and dying, on and off stage.

Mark: 8 out of 11

Cinema, Oscar Bingo, Reviews

Cinema Review: After the Hunt (2025) – a compelling exploration of #MeToo and #Cancel Culture polemics!

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Cinema Review: After the Hunt (2025)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Written by: Nora Garrett

Produced by: Brian Grazer, Allan Mandelbaum, Luca Guadagnino

Main Cast: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny, Thaddea Graham, etc.

Cinematography Malik Hassan Sayeed

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

After the Hunt (2025), the latest work from Luca Guadagnino, further cements the director’s reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most assured chroniclers of morally fraught, emotionally layered human drama. Having already proven his commanding directorial touch with Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Challengers (2024), plus a superior-than-the-original Suspiria (2018), Guadagnino again, from an insightful screenplay by Nora Garrett, demonstrates an uncanny ability to draw out great performances and create a sense of first world suspense that feels both sensual and cerebral.

Set within the hallowed halls of Yale University, After the Hunt (2025) delves into the ramifications of power, privilege, and academic integrity when allegations of sexual assault surface against a lauded professor, played by Andrew Garfield. The film positions itself within a lineage of stories interrogating abuses of power within established and esteemed hierarchies — in much the same way that Doubt (2008) examined such tensions within the church, and Tár (2022) explored them in the rarefied world of classical music. Guadagnino’s film strives for a similar level of psychological and thematic complexity, exploring how institutional prestige and human frailties often shield misconduct and complicity.

The main drama arrives after a dinner party hosted by philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) and her psychiatrist husband, Frederik Imhoff (Michael Stuhlbarg). Also present at the party are Alma’s colleague and longtime friend Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield), who is also up for tenure, and Alma’s star PhD student Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri). After the party, Maggie accuses a drunken Hank of sexual assault after he walks her home. Alma finds herself caught between loyalty to her friend and colleague, her own desire for academic tenure and her obligation as mentor to Maggie. Meanwhile, Alma’s own secrets—her illness and a youthful relationship situation that occurred as a teenager—begin to surface.

What follows is an intriguing and quite gripping drama about a series of flawed characters who may or may not make, depending on your viewpoint, good, bad, or terrible decisions. The acting is absorbing from the ensemble led by Roberts, with Stuhlbarg and Chloe Sevigny being the resident scene stealers. I frequently found myself drawn into the story as it navigates socially and culturally challenging situations, notably the “she said-he said” assault accusation and aftermath. However, the screenplay occasionally falters, particularly in its middle act. Thus despite the thematic suspense the plot omission such as a lack of criminal enquiry, plus the moment in which Garfield’s character is abruptly dismissed without any formal inquiry undercuts the film’s credibility and emotional momentum. For a story concerned with systems of accountability and institutional procedure, this narrative oversight was difficult for me to overlook.

Even so, After the Hunt (2025) remains an engrossing and well-crafted drama that showcases Guadagnino’s continuing fascination with human pride, weakness and moral ambiguity. Adroitly, there are a number of cheeky nods to cancel culture with the Woody Allen font-style credits and Morrissey / The Smiths songs featuring on the soundtrack. Yet, overall, and perhaps due to a lack of a cathartic ending, the story may have worked better as a stage play. Ultimately, it may not wield the same searing power as Doubt (2008) or Tár (2022), but it stands as another testament to Guadagnino’s skill as a go-to director for mature, provocative, and emotionally intelligent cinema.

Mark: 7 out of 11

Cinema, Reviews

Cinema Review: Him (2025) – find blood, sweat, and meltdowns galore in this visceral NFL thriller!

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Cinema Review: Him (2025)

Directed by Justin Tipping

Written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers & Justin Tipping

Produced by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, Ian Cooper & Jamal Watson

Main cast: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jeffries, Maurice Greene etc.

Cinematography by Kira Kelly

** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS **

“In modern slang, “Him” is used to signify a person who is considered a standout or a “star” in their field, often in sports or entertainment.” — Google search result.

Him (2025) is a visually arresting and thematically potent descent into the underbelly of American athletic obsession — a pitch-black thriller that trades stadium lights for the strobe of psychological torment. Centered on Cameron “Cam” Cade, a young quarterback hungry to dethrone San Antonio Saviors’ reigning legend Isaiah White (a commanding Marlon Wayans), the film begins as a standard sports drama and swiftly morphs into something far darker. Director Justin Tipping captures the suffocating intensity of modern competition with a painter’s eye — sweat, blood, and neon collide in every frame, turning locker rooms and training fields into cathedrals of self-destruction.

As Cam endures Isaiah’s brutal “boot camp,” the film exposes the rot beneath the rhetoric of greatness. Fear, humiliation, and violence dominate the regimen, transforming mentorship into a form of ritualized hazing. Themes of steroid abuse, distorted masculinity, and father-son guilt weave through the story like poison veins. The omnipresence of social media — the constant surveillance, the demand for curated perfection — amplifies the claustrophobia. In its best moments, Him (2025) feels like a nightmarish hallucination of ambition, where performance and identity blur until nothing human remains.

Yet for all its kinetic power and aesthetic daring, Him (2025) stumbles when it comes to coherence. The screenplay rushes through emotional beats, failing to give its characters space to breathe or evolve. Key relationships and motivations are truncated by editing that favours rapid cuts over logic — the film’s pulse races, but its heart falters. The result is an experience that dazzles visually but feels narratively hollow, more like a hypnotic music video than a fully realized character study. Indeed, the ending drops the ball most of all. The nightmarish satire culminates in a bloodbath which, while visually powerful, feels like something more twisted and subtle would have served Cam’s character arc better.

Overall, there’s no denying Him (2025) and its impact as a cinematic spectacle, with Wayans and Withers delivering standout performances. Its imagery lingers — bodies breaking under fluorescent light, cheers warping into screams — as does its commentary on the performative nature of modern masculinity, crazy fan worship, monetization of athletes and sporting sacrifice. If only the script matched its visuals, Him (2025), might have stood shoulder to shoulder with the psychological thrillers it so clearly reveres.

Mark: 6.5 out of 11

Cinema, Reviews

Apple TV+ Film Review: Highest 2 Lowest (2025) – a vibrant, musical and pacy, if unnecessary, remake.

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Apple TV+ Film Review: Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

Directed by Spike Lee

Screenplay by Alan Fox

Based on High and Low (1963 film) by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni,
Ryūzō Kikushima, Eijirō Hisaita, and King’s Ransom (1959 novel) by Ed McBain.

Produced by Todd Black and Jason Michael Berman

Main cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, John Douglas Thompson , Dean Winters, LaChanze, Aubrey Joseph, etc.

Cinematography by Matthew Libatique

Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest (2025) is a kinetic, vividly modern reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963), transplanting the Japanese master’s class-conscious thriller into the bustling, chaotic pulse of contemporary New York City. As expected from Lee, the film bursts with visual flair and political verve — the camera rarely rests, and the city itself becomes a character, glowing with heat, colour, and tension. The streets hum with energy, from glassy penthouses to subway platforms, creating a dynamic canvas on which the moral dilemmas unfold.

Denzel Washington, as usual, delivers a commanding performance as David King, a renowned independent producer and record label owner, torn between his conscience and his ambition when the kidnapping of his son occurs. Washington captures both the quiet torment and moral exhaustion of a man staring down the gulf between his privilege and his humanity. Jeffrey Wright, offers great support as his friend and chauffeur. The narrative navigates class and corporate tensions, bringing a soulful intelligence to every scene, grounding the film’s intensity with empathy and authority.

The film moves at a thrilling pace, carried by a propulsive soundtrack that fuses hip-hop, jazz, and gospel with Lee’s trademark flair for musical storytelling. Nowhere is this energy more palpable than in the ransom handover sequence — a masterclass in direction and editing — cutting feverishly across New York’s boroughs and metro trains, while the Puerto Rican Day Parade swells in a euphoric, near-operatic crescendo. It’s a breathtaking montage that exemplifies Lee’s command of rhythm, geography, and social texture. It proves to be Highest 2 Lowest (2025)’s biggest high.

Where Highest 2 Lowest (2025) falters is in the handling of its central moral crisis, which in turns undermines the all-to-rapid ending too. Indeed, it seemed to be missing a betrayal twist for me. The decision David King must make — the film’s spiritual core — arrives and resolves too swiftly around the midpoint, leaving the second half conflict, after the exhilarating Puerto Rican Day Parade, more focused on wrapping up loose ends quickly than psychological reckoning. It’s a missed opportunity for the deeper character study that Kurosawa’s original sustained so brilliantly.

Still, as an adaptation, Lee’s film is an entertaining piece of work — bold, stylish, and alive with the contradictions of the modern city. While Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) remains the more compelling exploration of social class and moral responsibility, Highest 2 Lowest (2025) finds its own voice: vibrant, urgent, and unmistakably Spike Lee.

Mark: 7 out of 11

Cinema, Oscar Bingo, Reviews

Cinema Review: One Battle After Another (2025) – an exhilarating revolutionary romp that lacks the depth of those films it attempts to emulate!

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Cinema Review: One Battle After Another (2025)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Inspired by Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

Produced by Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson

Main Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Wood Harris, Tony Goldwyn, Kevin Tighe, Shayna McHayle, etc.

Cinematography by Michael Bauman

Music by Jonny Greenwood

*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***

It’s a brave filmmaker that quotes one of the greatest revolutionary films of all time during it’s runtime, namely Battle of Algiers (1966). But Paul Thomas Anderson’s formidable cinematic career more than earns him the right to quote a film as towering as The Battle of Algiers (1966) in his latest release One Battle After Another (2025).

Across works like Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999), he has demonstrated a mastery of ensemble storytelling and emotional crescendo; with Punch-Drunk Love (2002) he revealed a gift for intimate, offbeat romance; and in There Will Be Blood (2007) and Phantom Thread (2017) he proved himself one of the most rigorous visual stylists and psychological dramatists of his generation. Such a body of work grants him the authority to converse with cinema’s political masterpieces, even if his more recent Licorice Pizza (2021) felt comparatively diffuse and lacking in urgency. His filmography, at its strongest, stands as evidence of a filmmaker deeply attuned to the legacies and possibilities of the medium.

Having said that, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966) wields revolutionary power through its raw immediacy, embedding viewers in the lived experience of anti-colonial struggle with a documentary-like realism that blurs the line between record and re-creation. By contrast, Anderson’s One Battle After Another (2025) approaches revolution less as lived history than as a cinematic genre to be emulated, drawing on the tropes and textures of upheaval without grounding itself in the direct urgency of political struggle. Where Pontecorvo conjures revolution as something happening before our eyes, Anderson refracts it through the prism of style, making revolution as much a matter of aesthetic construction as lived reality. It is during its lengthy running time extremely entertaining though.

The opening hour is fast-paced and crams in a lot of action and personality. It establishes a fine ensemble cast, strong characters, striking palette and compelling themes which bring to life Anderson’s sharply written and fantastically filmed screenplay. The narrative focuses on “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), lovers and leaders of the far-left French 75, who storm detention centres, bomb banks, and sabotage power grids, while their soon-to-become nemesis—Officer Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn)—becomes erotically obsessed with Perfidia, sparing her life when he catches her planting a bomb in exchange for a sexually masochistic tryst. Thus, begins a warped love/hate triangle and rivalry which provides the backbone for the action.

The second hour pivots sharply after establishing Perfidia as a commanding revolutionary presence. The focus pulls to her daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), some sixteen years later, now living off the grid and avoiding all but the most basic technology out of fear of surveillance. ‘Pothead’ Pat, has withered into a paranoid and barely functioning stoner-alcoholic, leaving Willa to emerge as the steadier, more mentally resilient figure in their fractured household. The film undeniably suffers from the absence of Perfidia’s charisma and drive, yet it regains momentum when the now Colonel Lockjaw revives his obsessive pursuit, setting the stage for a tense reconfiguration of the story’s revolutionary stakes.

The acting in One Battle After Another (2025) crackles with intensity, led by standout turns from Taylor, Penn, and crafty scene-stealer, Benicio Del Toro. Further, Anderson’s casting team find some amazing supporting military personnel who deliver with uncanny authenticity. Sean Penn’s performance as a swaggering officer radiates brute masculinity—his very walk and gait dripping with testosterone and worthy of awards consideration on their own. Leonardo DiCaprio, meanwhile, folds another eccentric, messy, and deeply contradictory figure into his already remarkable CV, a creation that resonates with the layered complexity of his recent work in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He is actually far more hilarious here, as demonstrated in his desperate attempts to overcome the revolutionary helpline he calls for instructions.

Overall, One Battle After Another (2025) works best as a searing, darkly funny revolutionary black comedy, blending sexual, military, conspiracy, and social politics into a heady mix of action, crime, road movie, and romance tropes. The result is a wildly entertaining visual and musical feast, even if it stops short of delivering true socio-political depth. While the film’s closing stretch leans into deliberate plot ambiguities that complicate its resolution, Anderson ultimately serves up a combative cinematic blast—stylish, sharp, and exhilarating—if just shy of a bona fide classic.

Mark: 8.5 out of 11

Cinema, Reviews, Sky TV

Sky Cinema Review: The Apprentice (2024) – a mesmerizing portrayal of the rise of Donald Trump!

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Sky Cinema Review: The Apprentice (2024)

Directed by Ali Abbasi

Written by Gabriel Sherman

Produced by Ali Abbasi, Louis Tisné, Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, Jacob Jarek, Daniel Bekerman

Main cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan and Maria Bakalova, etc.

Cinematography Kasper Tuxen

*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***

Ali Abbasi’s previous directed films such as Holy Spider (2022) and Border (2018) are brilliant and powerful films centered around stories relating to serial killers and trolls, respectively. So, I had to pause for a moment and ask: what attracted him to a film about businessman, reality TV personality and now, President of the USA, Donald Trump?

Abbasi’s The Apprentice (2024) is less a deep psychological excavation than a chillingly slick chronicle of power corrupted at its root. Framed like a “greatest hits” package of Donald Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) formative years, the film charts his transformation from brash outer-borough real estate hustler into the ruthless media manipulator and future political juggernaut — all under the tutelage of the infamous Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and his three essential rules of business and life.

Sebastian Stan delivers a startling performance as a young Trump, capturing the man’s bravado, insecurity, and relentless hunger for dominance without slipping into caricature. Opposite him, Jeremy Strong is mesmerizing and serpentine as Cohn — a master manipulator who recognizes, nurtures, and ultimately weaponizes Trump’s worst instincts. Together, they form a grotesquely compelling duo: two charismatic monsters locked in a dance of mutual ambition and moral decay.

While the film occasionally skims across the surface of its characters — opting for scenes that feel like historical checkpoints rather than dramatic revelations — it compensates with a queasy momentum and sharp stylistic flair. It also looks great with the film and video stock reflecting the era of which it is set. Overall, this isn’t a biopic searching for sympathy or redemption; it’s a portrait of the making of one of the most divisive figures in modern history, seen through the lens of a mentor whose own legacy drips with cynicism and menace. In conclusion: The Apprentice (2024) may not dig as deep as it could, but what it shows is enough: monsters aren’t simply born — they’re coached.

Mark: 8 out of 11

Articles, Cinema, New Releases, Reviews

Cinema Review: The Long Walk (2025) – a compelling adaptation of Stephen King’s anti-war allegory!

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Cinema Review: The Long Walk (2025)

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Screenplay by JT Mollner

Based on The Long Walk by Stephen King

Produced by Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Francis Lawrence, Cameron MacConomy

Main Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Joshua Odjick, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill etc.

Cinematography by Jo Willems

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

This compelling and moving anti-war film was adapted from the Stephen King novel, The Long Walk (1979), originally published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. The story is set in a dystopian alternative version of the United States ruled by a totalitarian regime; a new military-driven world order. The plot follows the fifty young male contestants of a gruelling annual walking contest, who must follow a set of rules or face the grim consequences. Ultimately, most of their fates are doomed as only the last boy standing gains the prize.

As an aside, I often wondered why King published under a pseudonym and after a quick net search I found that the author was limited to publishing one book per year, since publishing more would be “unacceptable” to the public. King therefore wanted to write under another name in order to increase his publication without saturating the market for the King “brand”. So, there you go. But what of The Long Walk (2025)? How does it compare to the plethora of other King film adaptations?

Grim, unrelenting, and devastatingly poignant, The Long Walk (2025) transforms a brutal endurance contest into an unmistakable anti-war allegory. Fifty young men, each plucked from a different state, march forward under the banner of national pride and promised glory — but what unfolds is the slow annihilation of their bodies and spirits. The premise, simple on the surface, becomes a searing critique of how nations sacrifice youth for power, money, and hollow ideals.

The film thrives on the camaraderie and conflict between the boys: fleeting alliances form, bitter rivalries crack open, and in moments of exhaustion or terror, we glimpse the fragile humanity beneath their forced bravado. Echoes of The Hunger Games franchise, also directed by Francis Lawrence, are impossible to miss. However, this story clearly influenced The Hunger Games and other examples of survivalist literature. Yet, The Long Walk (2025) is way more rawer, more intimate, and ultimately more scathing in its indictment of systemic cruelty.

Among the excellent ensemble cast, Cooper Hoffman as Ray and David Jonsson as Peter emerge with standout performances. Their characters, drawn together in unlikely connection, add emotional depth to the carnage, grounding the relentless attrition in genuine feeling. As their bond develops, the horror of the “Walk” feels sharper, the futility more unbearable. Overall, aside from slight repetition of action and an ending I’d have preferred to have gone a different way, The Long Walk (2025) carries hypnotic and bloody power. It is both a war story without a battlefield and a coming-of-age tale without the promise of adulthood — a haunting testament to how societies can destroy their own sons in pursuit of an impossible prize.

Mark: 8.5 out of 11

Cinema, Reviews

Cinema Review: Eddington (2025) – a daring Western satire on COVID-era America, US politics and the poison of social media!

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Cinema Review: Eddington (2025)

Directed by Ari Aster

Written by Ari Aster

Produced by: Lars Knudsen, Ari Aster & Ann Ruark

Main Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler and Emma Stone.

Cinematography by Darius Khondji

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Ari Aster’s first two horror films, Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) were rightly critically acclaimed and delivered at the box office too. His third film Beau is Afraid (2023) was a flop when compared and in my view not surprising. The film was arguably, depending on your view, a hilarious, risk-taking arthouse tragi-comedy or a self-indulgent act of egregious career self-sabotage. Safe to say I did not enjoy it, so approached the latest A24-produced film of Aster’s, Eddington (2025), with emotional caution.

Thankfully Aster’s screenplay, characters and all-round production of Eddington (2025), are far more accessible and focused than his third feature. Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix anchor Eddington (2025) superbly, as Aster delivers a blistering small-town allegory that uses a public health crisis as the spark for something far larger. What begins with Mayor Ted Garcia (Pascal) dutifully following the Governor’s lockdown orders quickly escalates when Sheriff Joe Cross (Phoenix) refuses to comply and runs for Mayor himself. This casts the town and people into a conflict that mirrors America’s own political division.

Phoenix brings his trademark intensity to Sheriff Cross, whose defiance feels equal parts principled and unhinged, while Pascal’s Mayor, revealed to be a corporate puppet, balances him as a leader losing grip on his authority. Thus, Eddington (2025) is a powerful film whose strength lies in the performances and a brave, intelligent screenplay which asks many questions. The main issues I had were under-developed character arcs for Emma Stone’s and Austin Butler’s characters. Further, as in previous films Aster relies heavily on left-field plot turns, which go more for shock, rather than understandable character development. Indeed, the final act Western-style shootout, while incredibly exciting, seems out-of-sync with the thoughtful build-up and drama established in the first hour.

Ultimately, Director Ari Aster resists turning Eddington (2025) into just a COVID-era-morality tale; instead, the film confidently threads together a powerful mix of left and right-wing US politics, toxic masculinity, historical sexual abuse, conspiracy and alternative theories, cultish religious fervour, white saviour virtue-signalling, homegrown terrorism, algorithmic influence of social media, and the creeping threat of corporate greed. Each theme and subplot fold back into the central question: who really controls the narrative in modern America or is it a nation spiraling out of control toward inevitable civil war? The result is a tense, unsettling portrait of a town—and a country—at war with itself.

Mark: 8 out of 11