★★★★★ - LONDON EVENING STANDARD  - An electrifying, Oscar-worthy drama -  When friends recommend a “difficult” movie I sometimes/rarely/never watch it. Life’s too short. Luckily, Eliza Hittman, the director of this prize-winning abortion drama, knows audiences don’t want to be lectured. Her film,…

★★★½ - STUFF  - It was supposed to be a simple job. Former pizza delivery driver Freddy (James Rolleston) and his feckless mate Marvin’s (Samuel Austin) criminal careers were to start with a dual dairy robbery and cake collection for their boss. However, the boys’ desire of ultimately getting…

★★★★ - FILMINK  - New Zealand has been killing it at the cinema over the last few years. While it’s a little too easy to attribute that solely to the rising star of cringe, maestro Taika Waititi, that still wouldn’t account for everyone else who’s been bringing their A-game of late. Madeleine Sami…

★★★★ - STUFF  - Someone a lot wiser than me (and frankly, who isn't?) once said, “íf there truly is a god, and he likes us, then he would let dogs live longer”. Anyone who's ever been owned by a dog understands that exactly. Dogs do have a way of transforming us, even as they are moulting and…

★★★★ - SWITCH   - FALLING IN LOVE WITH INDIA, THE ROLLS ROYCE AND EACH OTHER -  Ashamedly, I was procrastinating watching this film as much as possible. The idea of watching an upper-class man drive around India in a symbol of colonialism had me agreeing to wash the dishes in an attempt to hold…

- SCREEN INTERNATIONAL -  Yeon Sang-ho ups the ante and moves the action forward from 2016’s Train To Busan to a post-apocalyptic and quarantined Korean peninsula which has been ravaged by the zombie outbreak. Now well established in Yeon’s Train To Busan and his prior animation Seoul Station, the…

★★★★ - STUFF  - A clever, likeable and occasionally inspired Kiwi black comedy -  As young men in small towns with tiny populations have for millennia, Sean is despairingly looking for love. However, the prospects of any swipe-right action on his profile video seem remote at best. Not because…

★★★★ - ARIZONA REPUBLIC  - Like many who will likely turn out to see Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I fell in love with the eccentric Bernadette Fox through the delicious best-selling novel by Maria Semple, which I gobbled up over a weekend last year. Yes, I’m one of those people who loves to read the…

★★★★ - STUFF  - Britt-Marie Was Here is a charming and convincing character study brought to life by perfectly pitched pacing, well-crafted writing and a terrific performance from the actor playing the main protagonist -  Britt-Marie Larsson (Pernilla August) has always led a “sensible life”. Pri…

★★★★ - STUFF  - Elisabeth Moss shines as troubled Haunting of Hill House author -  Having been gaslighted (The Invisible Man) and concubined (The Handmaid’s Tale) in her most recent high-profile roles, Elisabeth Moss looks like she’s having a ball as this subversive drama’s eponymous protagonist. …

★★★★ - GUARDIAN  - Elisabeth Moss anchors darkly compelling literary psychodrama -  A perversely entertaining take on a brief period of Shirley Jackson’s life gives the star one of her most daring roles to date. As willfully unconventional as a literary portrait could possibly be, Madeline’s…

★★★★★ - STUFF  - Armando Iannucci's five-star Dickens -  Charles Dickens was happy to tell the world that his eighth novel – David Copperfield – was his own favourite. And, fair enough too, I guess. For all the genre defining prowess of Great Expectations et al, it is David Copperfield that can…