Oscar Huckle

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 118 mins

Bugonia is the new Yorgos Lanthimos film, who is coming off a high with both Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness making in into my top three best films of 2024. Lanthimos’s films are always memorable, with bold themes and deadpan delivery from the cast. Here, Lanthimos remakes a 2003 South Korean film called Save The Green Planet!, where two men kidnap a CEO because they suspect she is secretly an alien who wants to destroy the earth. The director reunites for the fourth time with Emma Stone, who plays Michelle Fuller, the ill-fated CEO of a pharmaceutical company who is abducted by conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his disabled brother Don (Aidan Delbis).

Bugonia is yet another thought-provoking work from Lanthimos, packing plenty of surprises and thrills up its sleeve. This is a film that keeps you second-guessing throughout with its complex characters and striking visuals, and like lots of his work, it’ll take multiple watches to fully unpack. I’ve always found Lanthimos is at his best when he’s on scriptwriting duties with his co-writer Efthimis Filippou (they co-wrote Dogtooth, Alps, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Kinds of Kindness together) with their arch dialogue. It’s why The Favourite didn’t fully work for me. And although Will Tracy’s script isn’t quite as arch as what Lanthimos and Filippou would conjure, I didn’t notice the writing as much as I did in The Favourite.

While Emma Stone is reliably excellent as Michelle, it’s Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis that really stand out as the abductors. Plemons is scarily convincing as the unkempt Teddy, who constantly takes advantage of his cousin with his conspiracy theories and has a very short fuse – I hope he’s recognised come Awards season. Delbis is equally brilliant in his debut role, brilliantly balancing the vulnerability of his disability with a clear sense of right and wrong. Stavros Halkias is also excellent as Casey, a charismatic police officer who cares about Teddy and Don’s welfare.

Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is outstanding, shooting the film in VistaVision with a vivid colour palette. Bugonia is particularly beautiful if you watch it in 35mm, which I was fortunate enough to experience. Jerskin Fendrix, who seems to also becoming Lanthimos’ new composer of choice given this is his third collaboration, turns in a career-best score. The monumental score beautifully compliments the events on-screen, upping the intensity with memorable themes.

Bugonia is yet another excellent film from Lanthimos that kept me gripped throughout with its fascinating story, memorable performances and stunning visuals. It’s suitably nasty when it needs to be with its outbursts of violence and poetic in its themes. I’m not sure it’s quite as haunting as his best work – a rewatch will determine if that’s true – but this is still a fearsomely original work that’s a must-see on the big screen.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Chris Stuckmann
Starring: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Derek Mears, Emily Bennett, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Michael Leach
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 91 mins

Shelby Oaks is YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann’s directorial debut and he’s chosen to make a supernatural horror. The film follows Mia (Camille Sullivan), who is investigating the disappearance of her younger sister Riley (Sarah Durn). Riley was part of a team of paranormal investigators who had a YouTube channel known as the ‘Paranormal Paranoids’. They’d been investigating a prison in the town of Shelby Oaks, where all of the team were murdered, apart from Riley whose body was never recovered. The film opens with an extended sequence before the opening credits with a documentary featuring Mia, who is being interviewed 12 years after the disappearance, before shifting to a standard narrative.

Shelby Oaks is a very promising debut from Stuckmann that is particularly gripping in its first half, but loses it way in the second half with some serious plot contrivances. The opening is particularly eerie, with a mixture of found footage and mockumentary filming techniques and the events leading to Riley’s disappearance are well developed. It’s tightly paced and beautifully shot by Andrew Scott Baird – Stuckmann’s clearly been influenced by Robert Eggers’s The Witch and Ari Aster’s Hereditary. There’s also a jangly and unsettling score by James Burkholder and The Newton Brothers.

The performances are excellent across the board, with Camille Sullivan particularly impressive in the lead – I really brought her devastation of not knowing where her sister is. Other highlights include Shutter Island‘s Robin Bartlett as Norma, a woman living in Shelby Oaks and the always reliable Keith David as a prison warden.

It’s just a shame that the second half doesn’t live up to the first. I was still gripped but it transcends into more generic horror fare, and the first half really works because Stuckmann’s trying to do something different. A host of plot contrivances also somewhat undo the good work. While I didn’t find the film particularly scary, there are some unsettling moments and I like that Stuckmann doesn’t simply rely on jump scares.

Shelby Oaks is a very promising debut and I found the film entertaining throughout with a brilliant central performance by Camille Sullivan. It’s a shame the film doesn’t sustain its greatness throughout, but Stuckmann proves an adept director and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Oscar Huckle

Director: David Mackenzie
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 112 mins

Relay is the new film by David Mackenzie, best known for directing Hell or High Water, a Neo-Western crime drama that landed the film a Best Picture Oscar nomination – it’s a masterpiece. Mackenzie’s been rather quiet of late – he hasn’t directed a film since Outlaw King in 2018. But fear not because not only has Mackenzie made Relay, he’s made another film called Fuze which premiered at TIFF at September this year, so it’ll no doubt be getting a wide release soon.

Back to Relay though and Mackenzie’s latest is a thriller starring Riz Ahmed as Ash, a fixer who mediates between whistleblowers and the companies they expose via a relay service for the deaf to conceal his identity. Lily James plays Sarah Grant, who is seeking help after working at a company who are covering up the side effects of their genetically modified wheat. She’d originally planned to expose them with a damning report but now just wants to be free of the company’s intimidation. After speaking to a lawyer, Ash’s services come recommended to Ash. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game of espionage between Ash, Sarah and a professional counterintelligence team led by Dawson (Sam Worthington).

Relay is a brainy thriller and its first two acts are fantastic. Justin Piasecki’s script (which was on the Black List of unproduced screenplays in 2019) is taut and there’s some great set pieces, especially inside an airport and an opera. The communication between the parties via the relay service is a wholly original idea to breathe new life into this genre, and Mackenzie deftly ratchets up the tension. It’s crisply shot by Giles Nuttgens and there’s an interesting guitar-heavy score by Tony Doogan. While still entertaining, it’s a shame the third act heads more into action film territory with an overcooked twist that I predicted pretty early in.

Riz Ahmed is an excellent lead, an actor who’s proven time and time again that he can convey a huge amount of personality through his physical presence alone – just look at Sound of Metal, for instance. While Lily James is reliably good in everything she’s in, it’s nice to see Sam Worthington in a film that makes the most of his potential – for the occasional brilliant performance in films such as Everest or Hacksaw Ridge, you’ve got something naff like Avatar: The Way of Water.

Relay is an entertaining and lean thriller, and yet another memorable film from David Mackenzie. It’s just a shame the film has a change of direction in the third act that doesn’t quite match the top-tier work of its first two thirds. Still there’s plenty of promise here, combined with some excellent performances and Relay is definitely worth checking out.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 119 mins

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is a biographical musical drama about Bruce Springsteen’s personal and professional struggles during the conception of his 1982 album Nebraska. The film’s directed by Scott Cooper, a filmmaker whose work I greatly admire. Cooper’s first and arguably most critically acclaimed film is Crazy Heart, another musical drama, so it’s interesting to see him return back to the genre that he found the most success in. While I really liked Crazy Heart, it was his next run of films I particularly resonated with – Out of the Furnace (his best and most criminally underrated), Black Mass and Hostiles. His more recent films – Antlers and The Pale Blue Eye – were both good, but not on a par with his earlier work. Is Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Cooper back on top form?

Not quite. This is an engaging and ambitious biopic with an uncommonly moody tone, but it’s a little muddled in its execution. It’s commendable that Cooper has decided to make a film about the darkest part of Springsteen’s career, about someone who faces their inner demons rather than being a traditional, happy-go-lucky rock biopic. I also liked how the film analyses the creation of art and how an artist has to fight for their vision. It’s also impeccably shot by Cooper’s usual cinematographer, Masanobu Takayanagi – a shot of a car travelling through a desert landscape towards the film’s end is particularly stunning, as are the black-and-white flashbacks of Springsteen’s childhood, giving the film a nightmarish quality. But Springsteen’s breakdown in the third act feels a little unearned and rushed – although Cooper’s script is decent, he writes the character thinly in this respect.

Jeremy Allen White makes for a fantastic Springsteen, deftly capturing the mannerisms. When we first meet him on stage performing ‘Born to Run’, there isn’t a jukebox quality about White at all like there can be with some biopics – his performance feels very real. Jeremy Strong is also great as Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager and it’s interesting to see him in a different role, where his intensity is because he supports the singer through thick and thin rather than having an ulterior motive. Odessa Young is another highlight as Faye Romano, Springsteen’s love interest and there’s a fun performance from Paul Walter Hauser as Springsteen’s recording engineer.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is an ambitious biopic in that Cooper has made a gloomy film that’s more interested in the minutiae and how an artist brings their work to life while battling their inner demons. But it lacks the lightning in a bottle energy that other music biopics such as A Complete Unknown earlier this year, or even Cooper’s own Crazy Heart. While this is yet another film where Cooper isn’t at the top of his game, I admire the director’s ambition even if it’s rather uneven.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 139 mins

After The Hunt is the new Luca Guadagnino film, who has been rather prolific with Bones And All, Challengers and Queer all releasing over the last three years. His latest is a psychological thriller starring Julia Roberts as Alma, a Yale University professor who lives with her psychiatrist husband, Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg). The film opens as they’re hosting a dinner party and in attendance are Alma’s colleague, Hank (Andrew Garfield) and Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), her top PhD student. Soon after, Alma finds herself trickily caught in between a sexual abuse accusation involving the two.

After The Hunt is another stylish work from Luca Guadagnino, but there’s no denying its script and story are very flawed. Debut screenwriter Nora Garrett’s script is very wordy and expository, with characters speaking unnaturally – it’s a rewrite short of success. There are also some contrivances to the story, but I was able to overlook these because the film is always entertaining. Your patience may vary though because of the film’s unsubtle provocative themes and I totally see why it’s getting mixed reviews.

Julia Roberts makes for an engaging lead as the college professor, fighting to stay on top of her worsening health problems, her university tenure and the awkward question of who to side with within the accusation. Ayo Edebiri is more than a match for Roberts as the PhD student who’s come from a family of riches. I’m not sure whether I’d say they’re good, but Andrew Garfield and Michael Stuhlbarg both certainly make an impression as Hank and Frederik. A scene with Garfield chowing down on an Indian meal is particularly memorable as he gives his account to Alma, while Stuhlbarg’s performance as the husband is uncharacteristically overripe.

The film’s very handsomely shot by Malik Hassan Sayeed, his first cinematographer credit since 1998 and there’s a fittingly prickly score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Although overripe, their score does quite a lot of the heavy lifting in ensuring there’s tension – but I’d say the film loses some of its steam as it heads into its final act and an overly indulgent coda.

While After The Hunt isn’t Luca Guadagnino’s best work, there’s no denying it’s a film that only he could have made with its provocative messages and sexually-charged execution. The script is this film’s biggest issue and I think it’d be just as effective if it were 20 minutes shorter, too, but still there’s plenty to like and I was never bored.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Demián Bichir, Ethan Hawke
Certificate: 18
Run Time: 114 mins

Black Phone 2 is a sequel to the 2021 Ethan Hawke-starring original – my best film of 2022, but one that wasn’t screaming for a sequel with its coherent and well-contained story. Horror maestro Scott Derrickson returns to direct – the first time he’s done so, after he’d left Sinister 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for others to take the helm – and writer C. Robert Cargill is back too.

Despite Ethan Hawke’s serial killer villain meeting a very definitive end at the end of The Black Phone, this sequel picks up four years after the original. Finney Blake (Mason Thames) is struggling to adjust to normal life, turning to fighting and abuse to repress his trauma. His younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) begins having dreams where she sees murders that happened at Alpine Lake Camp 25 years prior and receives a call from her mother in one of them. She convinces Finney and her friend Ernesto to travel to the camp to investigate, and as you might expect, all hell breaks loose once they arrive.

Black Phone 2 is a mixed bag – Derrickson is to be commended for making a sequel that doesn’t simply retread the original’s beats, but it lacks the simplicity that made the first a horror classic. The second half fares much better than the first and it’s stylishly directed by Derrickson. The decision to shoot Gwen’s dream sequences in 16mm home-video is an excellent choice, the grainy aesthetics adding an unsettling quality, which Derrickon is no stranger to given he used a similar technique in Sinister. Cinematographer Pär M. Ekberg beautifully captures the menacing mountains and foreboding frozen lake too, and there’s a chilling synth-based score by Atticus Derrickson, the director’s son.

While the script isn’t terrible, I don’t think Derrickson and Cargill quite cracked how to tell the film’s story in as simple a way as the original. The first half is surprisingly incoherent at times and there’s some contrivances you have to get around too. While Derrickson crafts an unsettling atmosphere, I struggled to fully immerse myself in the film because the story just doesn’t flow very well. Things improve in the second half once the film reveals its hand of where it’s going, and it then rattles along at a good pace towards the finale. But I can’t say I was ever frightened and I didn’t

Mason Thames gives yet another compelling performance, but this is really Madeline McGraw’s film because her character is central to proceedings. While she was the undoubtedly highlight of the first film, her performance doesn’t quite capture lightning in a bottle in the same way because there’s less at stake this time round. Ethan Hawke is reliably excellent, but he also gets less to work with this time round. Series newcomers Demián Bichir and Arianna Rivas are both excellent though, Bichir as the supervisor of the Alpine Lake camp in a role with many similarities to his performance in The Hateful Eight, and Rivas plays his daughter, Mustang.

While Black Phone 2 deserves praise for not being a straightforward rehash and there’s no denying it’s well-directed by Scott Derrickson, it’s a shame this film doesn’t have the same calibre of storytelling. The Black Phone was such a success because of how confidently it told a simple story, and this sequel trips over itself a bit, especially in the first half. But enough’s enough now – Black Phone 2 isn’t a failure to the point it stains my opinion of the original, but it’s certainly a step down.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Lakeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 126 mins

Roofman is the new film by Derek Cianfrance, best known for directing Blue Valentine and the excellent The Place Beyond The Pines. His first film since the decidedly average The Light Between Oceans all the way back in 2016, Roofman is a crime comedy about real-life robber Jeffrey Manchester, who hid in a Toys “R” Us after escaping prison. He survived on kids’ snacks and baby food, exercising during the night when the store was closed by riding a bike through the aisles – yes, really! Channing Tatum plays the divorced US Army Veteran turned outrageous robber and the film marks a change of pace for Cianfrance, given his previous films have been very serious.

Roofman is a real romp of a time that deftly balances the sheer absurdity of Manchester’s antics with a minor-key sadness and excellent character development. Channing Tatum brings plenty of charisma as the intelligent robber who has a knack for noticing the smallest details and I found myself really rooting for him with his warm personality. His burgeoning relationship with Kirsten Dunst’s (also excellent) Toys “R” Us employee, Leigh, is particularly well-developed, with well-earned cringeworthy moments as he starts to integrate himself into her dysfunctional household and get himself deeper and deeper into a doomed situation. Peter Dinklage is another highlight as Mitch, the Toys “R” Us shop manager and a stickler for the rules.

The film’s missing some of the grit that Cianfrance is best known fork, the director opting for a fuzzily warm tone instead but I wouldn’t say it’s schmaltzy. While that’s fitting for the film, if I hadn’t have known who was in the director’s chair, I wouldn’t have guessed it was Cianfrance if I was watching this blind. Still, Roofman is an easy film to like with its stranger than fiction story and a selection of compelling performances.

Oscar Huckle

Director: Kirk Jones
Starring: Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan, Scott Ellis Watson
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 120 mins

I Swear is a biographical drama that’s based on the true story of John Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome when the disorder wasn’t widely recognised. Davidson lives in Galashiels in Scotland in a working class family and the film follows his unconventional childhood at school through to how he navigates adult life. It’s directed by Kirk Jones, best known for making Waking Ned and Nanny McPhee.

Like Jones’s previous films, I Swear has the same feel-good and infectiously upbeat spirit about it – it may tread familiar biopic territory but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t riveted from start to finish. Jones’s script is full of energy and there’s plenty of laughs to be had – but they are crucially always with the characters rather than at them. The director also doesn’t neglect to include some wince-inducing moments of some of the difficult situations Davidson faces to keep his story grounded – this film really gets you in the feels with its three-dimensional characters.

Robert Aramayo is sensational as the Tourette’s sufferer, who is otherwise a down-to-earth young man who just wants to fit in – this is a far cry from his Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power days. Maxine Peake is also brilliant as Dottie, the mother of one of John’s friends and a former mental health nurse, who takes him under her wing. Shirley Henderson’s reliably excellent as Davidson’s mother, who is clearly stressed out by John’s situation and Peter Mullan shines as Tommy, a caretaker who gives John a job at a local community centre.

Although some may say the film sticks to a somewhat conventional biopic formula, I loved I Swear. It gets the tone just right – compassionate, but never pandering – and the performances are across the board. This is a film that reminds you that people can be good and I guarantee you’ll be leaving the cinema with a smile plastered on your face.