Scrapper movie review: girlhood interrupted
A singular portrait of a girl full of verve and personality. An astonishing feature debut from Charlotte Regan, with a film as cheeky and imaginative, as pleasantly messy and chaotic, as its heroine.
London
daily stream: attend a delightfully nasty little soiree with Cillian Murphy (and others)
2017’s The Party is on Kanopy in the US, Curzon Home Cinema in the UK.
daily stream: crime as just another form of capitalism
2020’s The Gentlemen is on Prime in the US, Netflix in the UK.
What’s Love Got to Do with It? movie review: the boy next door, and a world away
Lily James and Shazad Latif? Delightful, even when they’re not together and sparking. No surprise where they’re going, but this amiable rom-com gets them there with genuine smarts and real sentiment.
daily stream: a marginalized rapper goes home and goes big
2020’s Mogul Mowgli is on HBO Max in the US, BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance movie review: hustle and grind
Do you find Channing Tatum dance-grinding appealing? There’s not much of that here. There’s just the tedious grinding of dragging out yet another sequel in the face of diminishing franchise returns.
weekend watchlist: is it good to be the queen?
Plus a teenage con artist, a skewering of late-night comedy, and more… (First published September 18th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
weekend watchlist: men who gaslight for fun and profit
Plus an angry Jane Austen–esque romance, childhood witchcraft, and more. (First published August 19th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Black Mail movie review: no reason to give in to it
Limp thriller is both overly earnest and naively preposterous. A mess of retro ideas about marriage and men, with a protagonist who lacks agency. There’s no suspense but plenty of misplaced moralizing.
The Princess documentary review: look back in anger
A portrait of Diana’s depiction in the press that is incendiary, incisive, and transfixing. A litany of horror, in retrospect, and an incredibly valuable look at how public stories are shaped by media.
