Rory Doherty

London

critic/screenwriter • ppa award finalist x2 • trans rights 🏳️‍⚧️ • ✍️ Flicks, Paste, Big Issue, Inverse, GQ, Vulture, BFI, AV Club • ✉️: [email protected]

Articles

Sex, murder and dancing: top picks from this year’s Sydney Film Festival

1 day ago | flicks.com.au | Clarisse Loughrey |Rory Doherty |Luke Buckmaster |Craig Mathieson

With hundreds of fascinating features on offer, Stephen A Russell navigates the twists and turns of this year’s cinematic offering. If your usual response to a sprawling film festival program is to panic, drop and roll, then fear for your soul no more. We are here to wade through the wonders of this year’s startlingly good Sydney Film Festival line-up, suggesting ten flicks we think might tickle your fancy.
10 great films about popes

1 week ago | bfi.org.uk | David Parkinson |Josh Slater-Williams |Chloe Walker |Rory Doherty

The papacy and cinema go back a long way. Leo XIII became the first moving picture pope in July 1896, with successor Pius X being filmed in 1907. He would become the first cine-saint when he was canonised in 1954, two years after Henri Vidon had played him in The Secret Conclave (1952), which was the first feature to recreate a papal election. Pius actually disapproved of moving images and forbade their exhibition in churches in 1909.
The Philippou bros, M3gan and new Final Destination bring scares back into cinemas

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | DAVID BROWN |Matt Glasby |Rory Doherty |Eliza Janssen

Horror fans get your watchlists ready as Matt Glasby – author of The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, available here – takes a look at what horror to watch (and what to watch out for) in May and June. Clown in a Cornfield Coming to Cinemas - 8 May Based on the Bram Stoker Award-winning 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, directed by Eli Craig of the excellent Tucker & Dale vs.
Fight or Flight Takes Us for a Crazy B-Movie Ride Before It Runs Out of Fuel

1 week ago | pastemagazine.com | Rory Doherty

You wonder how far into the development process the filmmakers behind Fight or Flight were before they came up with the bluntly amusing title for their aeroplane-set assassin brawler–there’s a nonzero chance that the so-obvious-it’s-brilliant pun title was instrumental in getting the movie financed.
10 great Japanese time-travel films

1 week ago | bfi.org.uk | Josh Slater-Williams |Chloe Walker |Rory Doherty

At the 48th edition of the Japan Academy Film Prize (also known as the Japanese Academy Awards), the big winner was A Samurai in Time (2023) from writer-director Jun’ichi Yasuda, which picked up best film. The low-budget feature has not only been a major awards triumph in Japan but a financial one too, passing the 1 billion yen mark at the domestic box office.
The Legend Of Ochi saps the magic from the coming-of-age fantasy movie

2 weeks ago | avclub.com | Rory Doherty

In Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, a big-eyed alien critter is stranded on Earth. After meeting Elliott (Henry Thomas), E.T. is protected by a band of local kids determined to keep him out of the clutches of the feds. When it’s time to say tearful goodbyes, Elliott asks his fantastical friend to stay. Of course he’ll stay, E.T. tells him, pointing at the boy’s forehead with a glowing finger, right there. And stay he did.
A simple scam turns explosive and thrilling in new series Dope Thief

2 weeks ago | flicks.com.au | Rory Doherty |Clarisse Loughrey |Samuel Scott |Laumata Lauano Volavola

Stars Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura join showrunner Peter Craig to chat with Steve Newall about their gripping new series Dope Thief. A new crime drama series follows a couple of lifelong friends and opportunists—Ray (Brian Tyree Henry – Atlanta and Causeway) and Manny (Wagner Moura – Narcos and Civil War)—as they get more than they bargained for in what initially seems like a victimless crime.
Reacher returns with action that’s bigger and better than ever before

2 weeks ago | flicks.com.au | Rory Doherty |Clarisse Loughrey |Samuel Scott |Laumata Lauano Volavola

There’s a lot (both figuratively and literally) to love about the new season of Reacher. Travis Johnson gets to grips with the appeal of this gargantuan hero and previews what’s to come in season three. Three episodes of Reacher season 3 drop on Prime Video this February 20th, which is handy because there’s a moment in the third one that neatly encapsulates the core appeal of author Lee Child’s hulking hobo hero.
Andor equips us with the ideas needed to fight the fascist evils it depicts

2 weeks ago | flicks.co.uk | Rory Doherty |Samuel Scott |Stephen Russell |Clarisse Loughrey

Clarisse Loughrey’s Show of the Week column spotlights a new show to watch or skip. This week: Andor returns, a Star Wars story directly about the here and now – the genocide in Gaza and fascism in the USA. Season two of Andor starts with a nobody. An imperial technician called Niya (Rachelle Diedericks) conducts one of her nightly routines, checking the TIE fighters for faults before she packs up and goes home.
Why the best Stephen King movies (like The Monkey) are based on his short stories

2 weeks ago | flicks.com.au | Rory Doherty |Clarisse Loughrey |Samuel Scott |Laumata Lauano Volavola

Director Osgood Perkins follows last year’s Longlegs with Stephen King adaptation The Monkey. Like King’s short stories, there’s a freedom to The Monkey that it gleefully and sadistically exploits, writes Rory Doherty.