Film Reviews by AER

I both enjoyed and endured Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead, a forgotten comedy directed by Tom Stoppard based on a play by WS Gilbert. I wish the DVD had had subtitles as the sound on the version supplied was muddy so some of it was lost to me. However, please refresh on your knowledge of Hamlet else much of the film's enjoyment will be lost too, as that's part of what makes R&CAD such a hoot. It's how these minor characters slot into the the main play that make it watchable. It seems they had more impact on proceedings than we thought. They even get Polonius killed! Another minor character from the play is given a chunky role - the Player King (played here with gusto and aplomb by Richard Dreyfuss). His troupe of performers are hilarious with their great impromptu performances. Gary Oldman is gives great 'doofus' and Tim Roth as the slightly cleverer one / or more oblivious one of the pair (which one is which is a mystery) is on fine form. It reminded me of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot more than Shakespeare due to the exchanges and the subject matter. I loved the way GO invented / discovered lots of popular physics experiments.

At times baffling, but most hilarious. Do yourself a favour though, watch Hamlet before, or you will get very lost, very quickly.

The Woman in the Yard is the best recent Blumhouse horror by a long-chalk. I've read a few reviews since watching this and many of the reviews say it's confusing, but they've missed the point. I won't spoil this film for you by telling you who the woman in the yard is. I will tell you that it ISN'T the embodiment of grief, it's something else more terrifying, if you are looking for a metaphor. Wonderfully acted, this doesn't waste a lot of time getting to business. A slower creepier crawl to the action would've been more welcome. However, this is still a potent mid-level chiller. And all the more so given that most of it plays out in broad daylight.

An interesting backdrop for this story is grafted onto a standard tale of American beauties whittled down one by one by an unseen force. Decent actors elevate this rote tale of gory death that should have reaching for the sickbag. It's mostly very stupid and somewhat slow despite it's slender running time. What should be scary is messy and hysterical.

Wonderful, moving and completely involving, FLOW is destined to be one of the best cinema releases of 2025. I was hooked from the first secong of this gorgeous film aobut a lone balck cat at the end of the world when the oceans rise. 10 out of 10 out of 10....!

A lot of classic actors have at least one of these kind of films in their back catalogue - the tale of a teacher/coach/mentor that inspires kids from the wrong side of the tracks to make something of their lives. There's little to criticise about individuals that devote their lives to this road in real life, but rarely do these kind of stories make for a compelling or original movie. Coach Carter is a former basketball legend from Richmond, CA that now owns a successful chain of sports apparel shops. He wants to give back to the community by coaching a beat up basketball team at Richmond high school. The kids are a ragtag bunch of junior gangsters, high school dumpster fires and academic no-hopers but guess who's gonna turn that around with his own methods? You guessed it. This film has its fans and my generation had it's own films like Dead Poet's Society and Dangerous Minds. So for me this was just another melodramatic, corny, sports movie. Mediocre but well-played by the committed cast.

Joel Edgerton is a fine actor and proved to be a good director with his thriller, The Gift. Boy Erased, however, is little more than a TV-style melodrama. An issues movie with a potentially interesting subject of conversion therapy camps for gay teenagers. Some startling figures pop up at the end of the film and these bring home the scale of the madness that these camps exist in the first place. However, a flat script and a choppy edit that doesn't allow us to get a feel for the characters render Boy Erased a bit of a waste. There are a few other films that cover similar ground that are much better such as: BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER, and THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST. A waste of good actors like LUCAS HEDGES, NICOLE KIDMAN, RUSSELL CROWE, FLEA!, and JOEL EDGERTON himself.

Robert De Niro plays two reali-life mob bosses of the 1950s - 1980s: FRANK COSTELLO and VITO GENOVESE. Alto Knights sees the return of classic 80s/90s director BARRY LEVINSON (GOOD MORNING VIETNAM. BUGSY, RAIN MAN, TOYS, SLEEPERS. SPHERE) with a gangster flick that could've been made in his hey day. De Niro gives good gangster and whilst the plot runs to very little, the script sparkles with wit as the mobsters bicker and carp about Mormons, the perfect assasination, guns and broads. There's some intentional comedy to be enjoyed as Frank Costello walking boutique dogs garmed up in mink coats through Central Park, and a polic raid on a mobster BBQ in the sticks. It's good to see a gangster flick like this nowadays, but it's something of a dinosaur. I enjoyed it, but it adds nothing to the existing collection of The Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas, The Irishman, and Levinson's own BUGSY.

When I saw the trailer for Hard Truths I worried this was going to focus around one of Mike Leigh's grotesques, and for a while I was right. I hated Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky and that film was only rescued by Eddie Marsan, and I thought that the lead in Hard Truths (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) was an inversion. Luckily, this develops into a fine character study and one of Mike Leigh's most astute movies about depression and anger. It's a terrifying move and lots of care has been taken to depict realistic and relatable people. A wonderful ensemble cast remind us that Mike Leigh can still make relevant and moving films. I loved Another Year and think that HARD TRUTHS belongs among his best.

If you have already remember events from the time or have seen the documentary One Day In September or even Steven Spielberg's melodramatic Munich, you already know what happened here. The only thing different is the angle. September 5th is told from the POV of the TV sports coverage room of ABC. And even though they were near the front line discovering what happened as the tragedy unfolded, this was largely redundant. Choosing to take a distant line of sight I felt this telling and depiction of the Black Sepember hostage situation at the Munich Olympics in 1972 was largely redundant and only occasionally vital. Well-played by the committed cast.

Well-made film about Australia's bloodiest massacre in 1996 by a lone gunman, known as Nitram (Martin Bryant). Played by Caleb Landry Jones (ANTIVIRAL, BYZANTIUM, THE FLORIDA PROJECT, GET OUT) this is sobering stuff. A collection of excellent performances keep you watching as the film snakes towards its shattering conclusion. A peak into a tragic life, NITRAM, is another startling fil from Justin Kurzel - however, I can't recommend it as it's very upsetting. Great support from Judy Davis (BARTON FINK, NAKED LUNCH, MY BRILLIANT CAREER), Anthony LaPaglia (LANTANA, SUMMER OF SAM) and ESSIE DAVIS (THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, THE BABBADOOK).

Danny Dyer is back from TV land to hit UK cinema screens with this unfunny comedy about an ageing football hooligan. It's a shame as it's determinedly anti-woke stance would've been used to puncture pompous attitudes to the working-class but it misses easy targets left right and centre. What could've upset a lot of liberals by having something to say, it fails to be clever. It's sweary, embarrassing and has maybe two lines that raise a smile. This works as a sequel to director Nick Love's earlier FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN, you jils. This particular liberal-minded viewer was disappointed there was no fight, just bluster in the dog.

Competently made, this still had a woeful plot and very dumb villain. Leaving no cliche unused, this slasher flick seems to have been written by an AI app. All the ingredients seems to have been collated from better, smarter and more entertaining films. Chipper leads try to elevate the Z-grade material but nothing can save this fast-moving rom-com-with-gore.... Nice to see Jordana Brewster in something other than a crappy Fast & Furious movie, and also Devon Sawa from FInal Destination has a small role too. It's better than the similarly plotted, David Boreanaz-starring, Valentine from the early 2000s.

Will you be my Valentine? No thanks, bud.

Robert Zemeckis high-concept film told from a single camera POV is innovative and could've been potentially exciting. But it barely focuses on its human characters at all having them srpint through a non-linear scattering of births, deaths and marriages. It also contains wildly inconsistent acting styles and the quality is up and down. The usually dependable Kelly Reilly and Paul Bettany are awful. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright fare slightly better but the dialogue is thin and the events rushed through. In essence, HERE is a 1.45hr-long montage sequence. A better script or even plot idea to pin it's 'device' to would have made this worthwhile. Instead, take a look at David Lowery's Ghost Story, that does the same thing smaller, better and with more feeling. Disappointing.

Now we know why we don't see Adrien Brody as much in the movies anymore, he was taking seven years to make The Brutalist. Brady Corbet's third film as director is astonishing. Lovely cinematography, great acting and a fast moving pace. It didn't feel like 3.5 hours long. Engrossing.

A good ending and a novel hook don't save Presence from being distinctly average with a few missteps plotwise.