Letterboxd — Your life in film

When John Wick's dog was killed some nine years ago, it set in motion a chain of events that saw the legendary hitman get drawn back into a life he thought he’d left behind. If he wasn’t always the better for it, we certainly are.

Movies can sometimes feel so timely, you can be left wondering if the filmmakers had some sort of crystal ball when they were filming. Allelujah is a thoroughly British comedy about care for the elderly and our beloved NHS – which marks its 75th anniversary this year – and comes from the pens of national treasure Alan Bennett (The Madness Of King George, The History Boys, The Lady In The Van) and Heidi Thomas (creator of Call The Midwife and…

Billy Batson is Back! After taking on the mantle of the champion Shazam and defeating the nefarious Dr Thaddeus Sivana in 2019’s Shazam!, the teenage hero returns in David F. Sandberg’s new sequel, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, to ward off a new threat to Planet Earth.

We are soooo over the romcom. It's finished. It's done. It’s a stale, pale, 20th century hangover of a genre that’s slumped into irrelevance and we’re moving on. Oops – spoke too soon. Because just as we’re metaphorically deleting the romcom from our phones, along comes Rye Lane to make us fall for its charms all over again – as if for the very first time. 

With a career spanning over fifty years and thirty films, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is regarded as one of the most important and influential directors in cinema history. His films spanned a range of genres, from action to drama and the release of Seven Samurai in 1950 brought about unprecedented international acclaim for the cinema of Japan.

The relationships you make, break, and nurture as a teenager can come to define the course of your life. Friendships, romances, family ties come at a time when your own body and mind is changing so much that everything feels impossibly precarious. Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont captures this uncertainty truthfully, sensitively and with great poetry in Close. 

When Creed swung onto the scene in 2015 with the propulsive thrill and grit of the finest of cinematic sports stories, we were first introduced to Michael B. Jordan’s plucky hero Adonis Creed, son of the late Apollo. Now, Jordan steps into the role of director for the first time with Creed III.

Meet the idiosyncratic genius behind the one-of-a-kind Junk Head. Overflowing with bizarre ideas (it’s set in a world where humans have longevity but have lost their fertility) and grotesque creatures, the film was a surprise word-of-mouth hit in Japan and has now arrived here.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film Broker, continues his penchant for exploring family dynamics with an unflinching but always hopeful and tender eye.

The lights go down, your popcorn is at your side. You and a room full of fellow movie fans get ready to be taken on an unforgettable adventure. There is nothing quite like the experience of seeing the biggest movies at the cinema, and after the threat posed by Covid-19, 2022 proved that the blockbuster big-screen experience is here to stay. And don those sunglasses because 2023 is looking even brighter.

Following the success of Ticket to Paradise, the big-screen romcom revival continues apace with legendary Working Title producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner (Four Weddings And A Funeral, Billy Elliot, Pride & Prejudice and much, much more) bringing us What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Picturehouse programmer Rose Butler explores precisely what made Weimar-era cinema so revolutionary.

Fearless and captivating, much like its subject, Oscar- winning documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras’ latest film All The Beauty And The Bloodshed follows renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin and her fight against the Sackler family to hold them to account for their role in America’s opioid crisis with their drug OxyContin.

Todd Field, director of In the Bedroom and Little Children, makes a triumphant return to cinema with his first film in 16 years. TÁR is a story of genius and hubris set in the high-stakes world of classical music.

Oscar winning director Damien Chazelle is a creator of unforgettable worlds, but whereas La La Land painted a universe full of magic and wonder, Babylon is a no-holds-barred assault on the senses, a depiction of ’20s Hollywood like no other, visceral, decadent and extreme. 

She’s won plaudits for her performances in Phantom Thread and Bergman Island. Now with the award-winning Corsage, Vicky Krieps is going from strength to strength... 

The 1955 killing of 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till remains one of the most sickening, heart-wrenching episodes in the history of American Civil Rights. Following up her acclaimed 2019 film Clemency, co-writer-director Chinonye Chukwu puts the tragic story on screen for the first time with a blistering but clear-eyed vision that makes the story feel more resonant and relevant than ever. It also features a career-making turn from Danielle Deadwyler that is sure to be at the centre of any Best…

The return to the cinema after the pandemic is still something that feels like a miraculous event to many people. So it’s no surprise that Empire Of Light, Sam Mendes’ emotionally resonant drama, is a tribute to the way movies – and music and poetry – can provide a balm during turbulent times.

Corsage is a visually stunning film, beautiful to behold, whether in the grand palaces of Austria or the dramatic countryside of England and Bavaria.

For us, there is no debate. Die Hard IS a Christmas movie. Here's why:

Over the last 25 years, Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have carved out a distinctive niche for themselves in the annals of world cinema, with their moving, gripping and powerful studies of western Europe’s underclass. 

Avatar: The Way Of Water is set some 14 years after the events of the first film. If the original was an inter- species romance, the sequel is a family saga set against the backdrop of the raging guerrilla war.

Filmmaker Mark Mylod serves up a slice of intrigue set in the world of fine dining with The Menu.

Few young actors these days are launched into stardom quite as rapidly as Irish newcomer Paul Mescal has been.

Whether it’s Laurence Olivier smouldering to Oscar-worthy effect at Merle Oberon in 1939 or Tom Hardy wrestling with his Byronic wig as Heathcliff in the popular 2009 TV version, there’s certainly no shortage of screen adaptations when it comes to literary classic Wuthering Heights.

One of South Korea’s most revered filmmakers, Park Chan-wook has a vast filmography spanning 30 years and 11 films. Revenge thriller Oldboy and vampire drama Thirst secured his status as a master of macabre, visually arresting cinema, and his John le Carré television adaptation The Little Drummer Girl (starring Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård) received rave reviews.

Martin McDonagh always promises the unexpected. What’s surprising when you watch The Banshees Of Inisherin, his first film since the Oscar-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri five years ago, is that it’s both a reunion and the story of a break-up.

Before you see Decision To Leave (because we know you will) why not get to know director Park Chan-wook a little better...