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'The Chronology of Water' Is More Than What It Claims To Be
The way that The Chronology of Water (2025) is billed from a quick Google search is misleading. Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut cannot be reduced to a story about a swimmer. Adapted from the 2011 memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, the film explores abuse and trauma, but ultimately results in healing through the power of writing.
Emily Bunder
Dec 29, 20254 min read


‘Pillion’: Reuse, Repeat, Re-do.
Harry Lighton’s directorial debut, Pillion (2025), is everything it says on the tin and more. Inspired by Adam Mars-Jones’s novel, Box Hill (2020), we follow the relationship—or, perhaps more appropriately, arrangement—shared between two gay men living in south-east London—one an unassuming, barbershop-singing parking warden, and the other a mysterious, unabashedly kinky biker.
Maddy Maguire
Dec 9, 20254 min read


Bring Back Tween Media: A Necessary Resurrection
Photo by Raymond Yeung via Unsplash Teenagers of today exist within a technological autocracy - they are governed by their online existence and forget to literally touch grass. I think there has been a huge cultural shift in the Gen Z stratosphere which has made children (and yes, I do mean children) grow up too fast. Everyone from the ages of 10 to 18 wants to be an adult. This desire to exist outside their childhood has impacted vital childhood experiences. I worry about th
Zarah Hashim
Dec 5, 20255 min read


‘Epicly Palestine’d’ + ‘EXIST’ At LPFF
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona via Unsplash London Palestinian Film Festival returns to London, exploring the history, depth, urgency and unknown parts of Palestinian life and cinema. Epicly Palestine’d (2015) and EXIST (2025) form a conversation across time. Two films filmed nearly a decade apart, documenting the same fragile miracle: the emergence of skateboarding in Palestine, not as just a hobby, but as a language of resistance, identity, and breath. These are not
Nikita David
Dec 1, 20255 min read


Falafels and Friendship: ‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’ at LPFF
Once Upon A Time in Gaza , (Tarzan and Arab Nasser, 2025); Image courtesy of London Palestine Film Festival When I heard that the London Palestine Film Festival was showing a film with a plot involving a falafel shop and a drug operation, I was all ears. Add to the fact that it happens to be a black comedy directed by acclaimed filmmakers Tarzan and Arab Nasser, and I knew it would be worth the ride. Bizarrely, the movie begins with a recent quote from Donald Trump musing on
Shanai Tanwar
Nov 29, 20253 min read


Born In The U.S.A., Born Again In Cinema
Photo by Brett Jordan via Flickr (licensed under CC BY 2.0 ) Amongst the noise of Dylan and Presley, Elton and Williams, Deliver Me From Nowhere lands quietly, unfurling more than just a tale of hedonistic, rockstar excesses, but rather, something much deeper. Springsteen is immortalised in an intimate, slow-paced, introspective take on the ghosts we carry, how they haunt our daily lives, and the ways we choose to escape them. Jeremy Allen White brings life and depth to Sc
Lara Walsh
Nov 27, 20253 min read


M Is For Middling In Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk (2025)
H is for Hawk (2025) is a biographical drama film adapted by director Philippa Lowthorpe from the best-selling autobiography by the same name, published in 2014. The film follows Helen Macdonald, played by Claire Foy of The Crown fame, as she tends to a goshawk in the aftermath of her father’s death.

Hania Ahmed
Nov 25, 20253 min read


Between Two Worlds: Dislocation And Identity In 'A Pale View of Hills'
Nostalgia is a deeply human experience. But what happens when we romanticise the past to the point of reinventing it? In the film A Pale View of Hills, Kei Ishikawa invites the audience into the quiet world of Etsuko, a Japanese woman in England, whose bandages begin to unwrap as her youngest daughter, Niki, a young writer, itches to investigate her mother’s uncovered past.
Luiza Helena Britton
Nov 24, 20255 min read


But Do We Love LA?
Rachel Sennott’s ‘I Love LA’ was caught in a whirlwind of cast discourse even before it was released.
Malishka Shaikh-Kannamwar
Nov 24, 20255 min read


Is It Time To Give Reboots “The Boot”?
Photo by aj_aaaab on Unsplash A relative of mine recently said to me: “Films aren’t the same anymore, I don’t want to see anything at the cinema nowadays.” She worked in the film industry for 50 years. I had just finished asking her about her career and she reflected fondly, but to see her disappointment at what was once her scene saddened me. I thought back to the last time we had been to the cinema together. We saw The Naked Gun (2025), a legacy sequel to the original fra
Emily Bunder
Nov 24, 20256 min read
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