Little White Lies

Released 28 APRIL ‘Polite society’ is a turn of phrase that came to prominence in the late 1700s, epitomising haughty upper-class judgement that deemed certain behaviour to be unbecoming. As the title of Nida Manzoor’s completely delightful debut fea

Nida Manzoor, taking bites of a sugar-dusted cookie in a swanky Soho hotel, politely fudges the F-word. The only time she goes the full F-U-C-K is when scolding herself for being a South Asian good-girl. She’s living the social tension around pleasin

If you take a peek at Priya Kansara’s acting CV, you’ll currently only see a couple of credits: three short films; small roles in two Netflix series; and now, the lead role in Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society. An actress very much at the beginning of wh

The meeting spot is Larry’s in Peckham, a fairly recent addition to the Instagram foodie circuit and directly opposite Il Giardino, now in its fourth decade of serving South Londoners and day trippers Sicilian food (by way of Spain). Il Giardino is t

As Lena in Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society, Ritu Arya is passed through the ringer of twentysomething depression, sibling rivalry and a sudden marriage to a wealthy bachelor who’s not all he’s cracked up to be. Like her sister in the film, Ria (Priya K

History has been very kind to the film Bend It Like Beckham, the 2002 teen sports movie with an ethnic twist by British-Asian veteran director Gurinder Chadha. It’s the story of a young Punjabi Sikh woman living in the London suburb of Hounslow and,

Just before she turned 20, Shaina West had a fractured neck, a broken hand, had just lost her job and her relationship, all due to a motorcycle accident. “I didn’t have anything going for me, but I spent most of my time – if not all of my time – watc

There are so many pangs of delightful nostalgia in Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society, and one that hit us particularly hard was the fact that the film’s heroine, Ria, worships a poster of the ex-Gladiator-cum-Hollywood stuntwoman, Eunice Huthart, because

Over the course of her prolific career, Mia Goth has worked with some of the world’s most renowned auteurs, including Lars von Trier, Claire Denis and Luca Guadagnino, before going on to redefine the “scream queen” moniker with her roles in Ti West’s

Released 24 MARCH To say he’s 6’4 with perfect bone structure and the physique of a Rodin statue, Alexander Skarsgård plays a loser exceptionally well. We’ve seen glimpses of this talent in The Kingdom Exodus and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, but it’s

Released 17 MARCH The first film in this proposed trilogy, X, kinda sucked ass. 2 The focus on Mia Goth makes this one cook. Her performance is really something. 4 One to chalk up to that small but delightful sub-genre of retro slasher weepies. 4 Dur

Released 24 MARCH This auspicious and enigmatic second feature from French filmmaker Léa Mysius unfurls like an ethereal remix of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in its fantasy-flecked exploration of a pre-teen girl attempting to comprehend the romanti

Léa Mysius’ bewitching second feature, The Five Devils, explores the frightening fallout of a family’s past as it collides with the present. It sees pensive, eight-yearold Vicky (Sally Dramé) attempting to bottle the aroma of her mother, Joanne (Adèl

Released 24 MARCH The Beasts opens with Xan Anta (Luis Zahera) and his younger brother Lorenzo (Diego Anido) wrestling to get control of a wild horse. The scene, for all its muscular violence, is shot in close-up, which makes the struggle look peculi

Released 12 MAY Making the history of feminist film theory more accessible can only be a good thing… 3 Menkes’ accusations against other women directors border on misogyny. 2 The power dynamics of cinema spectatorship are better articulated by Laura

The films of Hlynur Pálmason operate as documents of their own making. He lives with his family off the beaten track, and spends his down-time creating intricate shots of the local flora and fauna. He made a massive splash with his 2019 film A White,

A French diplomat with elusive motivations in even more elusive circumstances wanders the island of Tahiti in Pacifiction, the latest exercise in languorous, maximalist cinema from Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra. The film focuses on protagonist De Ro

Released 14 APRIL The spectre of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami hangs over Japanese cinema, particularly in the films of beloved anime director Makoto Shinkai. He cited the events as an inspiration for 2016’s time-switching romance Your Name, and th

Released 31 MARCH A new film by The Fits’ Anna Rose Holmer, codirected by Saela Davis Go on then… 4 Watson’s (still) a national treasure, and Mescal’s no slouch either. 3 All a bit mid and inconsequential in the end. Looks great though. 3 A black she

Released 5 MAY A here is a lot about intimacy, sacrifice and love to be found in the delicate, subtle nuances of Maryam Touzani’s deeply affecting second feature. Halim (Saleh Bakri) is a maalem, an expert tailor who runs a traditional caftan shop in

Released 12 MAY It does sound like it could almost be real, which lends this speculative drama genuine intrigue. 4 Involving and understated, though it tails off towards the end. 3 A film of haunting unease, but not perhaps the complete package. 3 As

Released 5 MAY There is a romanticism around wanderlust which doesn’t always make sense. The idea of aimlessly travelling and taking in foreign cultures, customs and flavours is nice in theory, but what if you lose yourself in the process? Or started

Cambodian-French filmmaker Davy Chou creates an intimate, unpredictable character study in Return to Seoul, which documents a young woman’s journey to find her biological family in South Korea. Ji-Min Park gives an excellent performance as the headst

Released 28 APRIL It won the Coup de Coeur Prize in the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes in 2022. 3 A film that fires on all cylinders… 4 …even if it does eventually run out of gas. 3 There are so many different modes of survival depending on all m

Blu-ray/DVD Released 20 MARCH “Aman should never disturb a woman while she is dressing,” says Paul Held (Frank Morgan) in James Whale’s pre-code murder mystery The Kiss Before the Mirror after doing exactly that and being alarmed by what he finds. A

Blu-ray/DVD Released APRIL An underseen film recently granted a global second life following a new restoration, Govindan Aravindan’s ensemble portrait Thamp sees one striking image follow another as it showcases the practices, performances and daily

Blu-ray/DVD Released 17 APRIL “He’s a rookie, it’s his first murder,” says a veteran detective about a new recruit heard puking off-screen after witnessing the aftermath of the shockingly gory murder. This sets the action of Bo Widerberg’s The Man on

Kicking off the first iteration of this column on queer cinema – the title of which is a reference to the gold star-adorned, meticulously detailed diary that Judi Dench’s character keeps in Richard Eyre’s unhinged Notes on a Scandal – with a little d

Suleman Aqeel Khilji (b.1985.Quetta) is a Visual artist from Pakistan studying at the Royal Academy of Art London. He lives and works between Lahore and London. Dan Evans is an illustrator from London. He works with bright bold colours and loves usin