Film Reviews by griggs

Herzog’s The Enigma of Kasper Hauser is a fascinating, sometimes unsettling film, full of moments of raw human connection. It makes you question whether ignorance is a gentler state than the burden of knowledge. Non-actor Bruno S., institutionalised from a young age, brings an authenticity that makes his performance deeply affecting. His own life story, being institutionalised from a young age, mirrors Kasper’s isolation, making Herzog’s choice to cast him feel almost inevitable. His presence is both haunting and moving, a perfect fit for Herzog’s style. It’s no surprise the director later created Stroszek for him, further exploring his unique, otherworldly quality.

Pool of London is gripping, stylish, and ahead of its time. The cinematography is stunning, with striking contrasts of light and shadow. Earl Cameron and Bonnar Colleano are both outstanding. Cameron’s relationship with Susan Shaw is quietly groundbreaking, tackling race in a way few films dared in the 1950s. A film with real tension and social depth.

Daisies is a visual feast—pure chaos in the best way. Two girls run wild, treating the world like it treats them—badly. They don't try to fix anything and just burn it all down with mischief and mayhem. Scamming meals, aggressively chopping up sausages while some guy whines on the phone, stuffing their faces with pickles and hard-boiled eggs with so much venom—it's all so much fun. Supposedly banned for depicting food wastage, but let's be honest, it probably just scared the party officials and the patriarchy.

Visually, Daisies is a riot of colour, texture, and daring experimentation. The scenes shift between dreamlike stills, rapid jump cuts, and changing colour palettes, turning everyday chaos into a hypnotic experience. The trippy train overlays feel like avant-garde art in motion. The film's form is in constant flux, jumping between slapstick, surrealism, and collage-like editing, keeping the viewer on edge. But what truly sets Daisies apart is its use of sound. Even silence is weaponized, with sudden bursts of sound creating an unpredictable atmosphere. Made two years before the Prague Spring, Daisies feels less like a film and more like a warning shot, an act of cinematic rebellion that still feels radical today.

Elaine May’s A New Leaf is a frustrating example of studio interference diluting a filmmaker’s vision. While it has moments of charm, the final cut is a compromised version of what could have been a much sharper, darker satire. Walter Matthau’s Henry undergoes a clear arc, developing skills and a begrudging work ethic. Yet, Elaine May’s Henrietta remains stagnant—sweet, naive, and ultimately passive. It’s disappointing that the female lead is denied meaningful growth in a film directed by a woman during the New Hollywood era. The humour still lands, but May’s full version likely would have been more daring and rewarding.

Quiet, intimate, and profoundly moving, The Rider hits hard in the softest way. Brady Jandreau barely needs words—his face says it all. Chloé Zhao lets the story breathe, capturing loss, resilience, and hope in stunning, unforced moments. It’s slow at times but beautifully raw and deeply human.

A strange, dreamy film, floating between innocence and something darker. Framed by two suicides, it feels like a hazy, sun-drenched nightmare—beautiful but unsettling. The outback is both a paradise and a trap, and the characters drift through it like ghosts. Hypnotic and bizarre, but emotionally distant.

Watching One of Them Days alone in an empty cinema didn’t help its cause. A better atmosphere might have made the jokes land better, but as it was, I only laughed three or four times, and the rest felt like trudging through treacle. The film didn’t have the energy or spark to keep things moving, and much of the humour fell flat. That said, Keke Palmer and SZA were a superb double act—they had great chemistry and were easily the highlight. It’s a shame the rest of the film couldn’t match their charm. Just a bit of a slog, really.

This is a really enjoyable documentary about the one and only Twiggy, charting her rise from suburban teen to global icon. She tells her story, backed by a great mix of talking heads and well-chosen archive footage. It also dives into parts of her life I knew nothing about, though it leaves many questions unanswered. But Twiggy herself is such a joy—funny, warm, and effortlessly cool—that it’s hard not to get swept up in it all. It's not groundbreaking, but it's definitely entertaining.

A fascinating film—deeply subversive, almost horrific at times, and undeniably a feminist statement—but I couldn’t help but feel that its messaging could be overlooked. On the surface, it plays like a dreamy, sun-drenched tale of idyllic family life, complete with gorgeous bursts of colour. But beneath that, there’s something unsettling, even sinister, about the way it presents happiness as so fragile and easily replaceable. The way the story unfolds could almost be read as reinforcing that very French stereotype of affairs being an accepted part of life—just a natural thing that happens and isn’t questioned. It’s a film very much of its time, and while I appreciated its artistry, I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped. Maybe I need to sit with it longer.

Night Moves is a solid neo-noir, but it never quite hits the heights it’s reaching for. Gene Hackman, though, is absolutely on fire—his performance as a washed-up PI is so good he pretty much carries the whole thing. The mystery is nicely tangled, full of dodgy characters and dead ends, but the payoff doesn’t hit as hard as it should. That said, the 1970s cynicism is laid on thick, and there’s a great, uneasy atmosphere throughout. It’s a good watch, but it's not quite the classic it feels like it’s building up to.

The final scene lets everything go—90 minutes of tension, then a burst of feeling like an unspoken scream.

Man Push Cart starts off intense—gritty, quiet, and real, so much so that you’d be hard-pressed to tell it apart from a documentary for the first ten minutes. It’s a film that draws clear inspiration from the neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves, following Ahmad, a Pakistani immigrant hustling in Manhattan, just trying to get by. No big speeches, no over-explaining—just survival. Ahmad Razvi feels completely natural, and the lonely, early-morning city vibes hit hard. But then, it drifts into melodrama, losing the raw simplicity that made it work. It had so much potential to stay subtle but instead goes for predictable tragedy. Still, like Bicycle Thieves, its best moments capture struggle with heartbreaking honesty. Flawed but a solid slice of neo-realism.

Honestly, I think this film could be improved by adding some samurai. A fan of the original, I was hop ok Ng thus reimagining might add some depth, but it falls well short. 

This is a weirdly gripping yet clunky psychological drama with a horror-ish vibe. There’s not a single bad performance—Hepburn, Taylor, and Clift are all on top form—but the film gives you so much time to figure things out that, 25 minutes in, you’ve basically cracked it and are just waiting for the big reveal. There’s a nice bit of sexual ambiguity, and when it works, it really works, but in between, it just lumbers along, getting more ridiculous as it goes. Still, it’s entertaining in its own odd way, even if it takes its sweet time getting there.

Opus is absolutely ridiculous – and that’s probably the point. It’s one of those films that thinks it’s way smarter than it actually is, throwing in Midsommar-style cult weirdness and Blink Twice-esque discomfort but not doing either particularly well. John Malkovich is, of course, perfect for something this absurd. Still, even he can’t save it from feeling like a messy parody of better films. The only truly good thing here is Ayo Edebiri, who somehow makes every line work despite the nonsense around her. If it weren’t for her, this would be completely unbearable.