Not recommended

Semi-commits to the Alien formula of not showing the object of terror, except Alien is a masterpiece of externalised fear and denaturalisation where Pitch Black views its creatures as a xenophobic, outside threat (thankfully stopping short of white supremacy with the inclusion of a black Muslim group seen on arrival). Or perhaps the creatures are just the broad perception of fear (without the unsettling paranoia of The Thing or Alien's unique understanding of space, emotion and relational stability).…

Not recommended

Hill's obsession with the comic book aesthetic is extremely off-putting, it doesn't help the film one bit either that it's structuring an intensely by-the-numbers plot interspersed with exposition dumps that are emotionally reinforced in the more interesting narrative anyway. Its heart is in the right place, and to some extent it works as a demonstration of gender dysphoria, but it does so through the use of forced surgery/therapy and applying metaphysical weight to gender roles (violence is masculine,…

Cw: emotional dissociation.

Theatrical (148 minute) cut.

Not recommended

Believe it or not, I was actually prepared to give this a chance. I'm not going to mention how it's a weirdly sexist tone poem, an even stranger expression of personal emotion or an unconscionably boring mess with pretty disgusting views on trauma because those topics have been covered by better people than I. Instead I find it best to stick to what I see, and what I see is emotional…

Cw: divorce, manipulation.

Not recommended

Marriage Story is wrong. This is Henry's (Azhy Robertson) story. Any attempt to distract from that is fundamentally misguided. Nicole's (Scarlett Johansson) action in hiring Nora (Laura Dern) - what the film seems set on portraying as underhanded - was absolutely a form of self-defence. Sure, fine, it put Charlie (Adam Driver) under emotional duress, but his concern isn't truly with Henry, it's with Nicole. That's his mistake, and the film is OK with that…