Kim Newman

1 month ago | bfi.org.uk | Jane Giles |Adam Nayman |Kim Newman |Catherine Wheatley

Like Visconti’s erotically charged directorial debut Ossessione (1943), Motel Destino can in part be seen as a loose version of James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). Director Karim Aïnouz sets the action in the province where he was born, Ceará on the north-eastern coast of Brazil; together with cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Pina, 2011; Rocks, 2019; La chimera, 2023) he portrays an equatorial landscape fundamental to the film’s story.

1 month ago | bfi.org.uk | Adam Nayman |Kim Newman |Catherine Wheatley |Imogen Smith

Celebrity resentments and insecurities are portrayed with unusual tenderness in this clever Hollywood Hills satire featuring Elizabeth Reaser, Walton Goggins, and Pedro Pascal. 6 May 2025Nadia Conners’ The Uninvited is a Hollywood Hills psychodrama; its caustic, quippy vision of flawed showbiz professionals stumbling through a dark night of the soul sits at the intersection of The Player (1992) and Sunset Blvd. (1950).

1 month ago | bfi.org.uk | Kim Newman |Catherine Wheatley |Imogen Smith |Jessica Kiang

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has drifted since Avengers Endgame (2019), which tied up plotlines developed over a decade. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) – one of the series’ biggest hits – jokes about the underperformance of subsequent MCU projects. Proposed replacements for major characters like Captain America and Black Panther haven’t exactly been embraced. Marvel Comics had a similar wobble in the 1990s, when they launched the instantly-dated ‘Heroes Reborn’ reboot.

1 month ago | reactormag.com | James Davis Nicoll |Eugene Byrne |Kim Newman

Dissatisfaction with the state of the world is common. Far rarer are the drive and ability to do something about it. That’s why energetic visionaries, determined and able to reshape the world according to their desires, make fascinating figures around whom to build narratives. Here are five works that feature visionaries. A sultana finds herself strolling through city streets. To her discomfort, she is unveiled. However, no men use this as a pretext to pester her.

Feb 20, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Kim Newman |Katie McCabe |James J Leahy

In horror director Osgood Perkins’s nightmare version of America, a killer toy monkey’s rising body count becomes a source of local pride. 20 February 2025Stephen King’s 1980 short story ‘The Monkey’ is a surprisingly sombre take on the ‘cursed toy’ premise. When a moth-eaten toy clangs its cymbals, people die of natural but suspicious causes. The protagonist, a father worried that he’s failing his wife and sons the way his own father did, is also the victim of an economic downturn.