Review: Ride Your Wave

*** When 19-year-old surfer Hinako moved to a seaside town to pursue her passion, she never expected the waves to be this choppy… After a fire in her apartment complex ends with her being saved by handsome firefighter Minato, she soon falls in love, and the two begin an all-too-perfect whirlwind romance that looks like […]

Review: Days of the Bagnold Summer

**** Based on the graphic novel by writer Joff Winterheart, Days of the Bagnold Summer tells the stories of fifteen-year-old Daniel Bagnold (Earl Cave) and his mother Sue (Monica Dolan), who are forced to spend the summer holiday together after Daniel’s trip to visit his father’s new family in Florida is cancelled. The directorial debut […]

Review: Come To Daddy

**** The screen is black. Onto it appears a quote: ‘The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children’ – William Shakespeare. Beat. Another quote: ‘There’s no-one like my daddy’ – Beyoncé. It’s a bold opening, and one that effectively sets the tone for a film so full of dark, offbeat humour […]

Manga Madness: City Hunter (1993)

* Beginning its serialisation way back in 1985 and ending in the early nineties, Tsukasa Hojo’s City Hunter is a classic manga that hasn’t entirely aged well. The series has never received a full official release in English, and considering its near-constant barrage of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, perhaps it is for the best if […]

Review: Parasite

**** The Kim family can’t seem to catch a break. Destitute and living in a semi-basement apartment, Ki-taek Kim (Kang-ho Song), his wife Chung-sook (Hyae-jim Chang), and both their adult children are unable to find stable work in a jobs market where, as Ki-taek says, 500 graduates are competing for a simple driver’s job. Their […]

Review: Jojo Rabbit

**** Johannes ‘Jojo’ Belzter (Roman Griffin Davies) is a good little Nazi. He idolizes Adolf Hitler, plunges headfirst into his training with the Hitler Youth, and won’t believe any of the unpatriotic rumours that Germany is losing the war. Though his dedication is lauded by party officials, it soon begins to waver when he discovers […]

Review: Blinded By The Light

***½ The best music has always held the power to cross a multitude of boundaries, transcending time, space, and personal situation. In this way, the words of one man in New Jersey can radically alter the life of a Bedfordshire teenager many miles away. It is this power that takes centre stage in the latest […]