Review Category: Movie

Written and directed by Guy Taylor, this short drama is more chilling than some of the most notorious horror films.

Closing up The Blend Cafe for the night, Michelle (Lauren Budd) is asked for a drink by a stranger (Will Stevens) who doesn’t take the hint that he’s not welcome. As his insistence grows from calm and forceful to passive-aggressive, Michelle feels pressured to provide the extra drink, even though she needs to shut down and clean up the café.

Taylor and his actors build the dread perfectly. Starting as a breezy, lively coffee shop environment, the atmosphere soon grows awkward when the last customer refuses to leave without a drink. The fear that begins to go through Michelle’s head is palpable, all realised without saying it. Lauren Budd is fantastic, giving a realistic, anxious performance.

Will Stevens portrays the stranger with a quiet, sinister, entitled tone without going over the top. We’re never quite sure if he knows what he’s doing or is oblivious to the threatening signals he’s giving off.

One Shot of Espresso should be shown as a training vehicle to teach men how not to behave and to help them understand how their actions and tone can be perceived by women, particularly lone females. The climax is particularly powerful, with Taylor avoiding falling into a clichéd trap. It’s a short that will get under your skin and stay with you for quite a while.

ONE SHOT OF ESPRESSO will be doing the festival circuit soon. 

Let’s get this out of the way out of the gate. Toy Story 3 was the perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy. It was. We did not need the series to continue beyond this point, but it has. While the unfairly maligned Toy Story 4 justified its existence with an excellent and worthwhile – albeit bittersweet – story, we have to say the announcement of a part five raised eyebrows and made many of us say, “ok, they are pushing it”. Well, don’t throw those toys out of the pram just yet, because this fifth film in the beloved series not only hits the mark but actually makes the last film even better by its existence.

The story shifts focus onto Jessie (Joan Cusack) who fears that she is losing Bonnie to technology after the arrival of the high-tech Lilypad (Greta Lee). She calls out to Woody (Tom Hanks) for help, who says that this tech invasion is widespread, as more toys are facing abandonment and an uncertain future due to tech invading homes. But is the age of toys truly over? Is playtime dead? Or is Jesse about to find that sometimes what you feel in your gut matters a whole lot more than the latest trends and what online friends say?

Toy Story 4 was far from a monumental failure but make no mistake about it, this fifth film does more than merely justify existing, it enriches what came before and cements a future. Toy Story 5 is arguably the legendary series’ strangest film, and we mean that as a compliment. This film is not what we expected but offers up a thought-provoking and endearing animated adventure that entices with its themes of a screen-consumed technology-driven society, and offers heartfelt warmth in its depiction and celebration of our own individuality and uniqueness.

It’s imaginative in its beautifully (and uniquely) animated play sequences that give the film series another extra dream-like edge, funny and snappy in its scripting, and emotional in some of its well-chosen callbacks. This film balances nostalgia with a genuine embracement of moving forward and accepting the new without forsaking the old. It embraces the joys of the past and the gratification of life’s simple joys while not demonising a society that has advanced with its technological reach, instead offering an accepting but cautionary warning of using tech as a replacement for our imagination, experience and development, rather than something that can assist when used correctly and safely.

Relegating Woody to a side role is a choice that could have been detrimental but actually pays off; he still plays a vital role in coming to his friend’s aid, but the film instead chooses to enrich some of its other characters, particularly Jessie and Bullseye. One particular scene strikes hard at Jessie’s story while not resorting to a safe option. Buzz’s role also expands more than last time, with his emotional depth maturing with his age. And, a plethora of fresh characters are allowed to shine alongside age-old franchise regulars, without demeaning them. In fact, this is why the film – and indeed the series – continues to work; it grows, it ages and it does not hide from its passing years but embraces and acknowledges them warmly and with an approving nod.

Like a reconnection with old friends, this film is fun, heartfelt and full of some very pleasant surprises and stories. It’s a story of accepting that the times are a-changin’ and indeed evolving but not accepting that we have to let tech brainwash us with its new age gimmickry.

Toy Story 5 is a worthy addition to Pixar’s enduring and beloved franchise and one of Disney’s best animated offerings in years. We didn’t think Toy Story would still be going all these years later but are glad it is, as it still clearly has much to say and still makes us feel as strongly as it did three decades ago.

Did we need a part 4 or 5? We’ll leave that to you to answer. But this timely and lovely film has much on its mind and in its heart, and might just make many generations of viewers think about taking a moment to look up from the brightly lit screen and appreciate what we have around us and those who are and can be there in our lives.

Oh, and stay for the mid-credits sequence, because it is an all-timer for this writer personally, and goes some way into reversing a true character assassination from Lightyear. Fingers crossed it may be a sign of things to come.

Toy Story 5 is out in UK Cinemas Now.

Kindness may be the new punk rock, but there’s something to be said for the old ways too. Milly Alcock is pure piss whiskey and vinegar more whiskey as Kara Zor-El, the other survivor of a destroyed world. Introduced as a cameo in James Gunn’s Superman, Alcock’s Kara makes her full feature debut in this energetic sock-’em-up by Cruella director Craig Gillespie.

It’s Kara’s birthday and she’s off-world, on an intergalactic bar crawl while cousin Kal-El (David Corenswet) frets back at home in Metropolis. While he enjoys a healthy relationship with his adoptive planet (that whole Lex Luthor business notwithstanding), Kara is old enough to remember Krypton and those she lost. Fragile and tormented, she’s a more cynical figure than Kal or Clark or Superman, and has more interest in getting blotto under the red sun of a distant world than saving anyone else’s.

Enter young Ruthye (Eve Ridley), the sole survivor of a massacre which leaves her orphaned and thirsty for vengeance. After a chance encounter in a bar, she enlists Kara’s help in tracking down the man responsible – space bandit Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). Kara’s reluctant to get involved, but her hand is forced when Krem poisons her dog, the scene-stealing superhound Krypto. With only days to find an antidote, Supergirl charts her path to a showdown with killer Krem.

Gillespie’s Supergirl is an altogether heavier affair than its predecessor. Between its tormented hero and band of sex-trafficking villains, it doesn’t shy away from the story’s darker themes. Unfortunately, that’s not all that’s dark. So too is much of the cinematography, fermented in a brown-ish hue which pervades even when the film is at its liveliest. A shame, since the Star Wars slash Guardians of the Galaxy-esque world(s) Kara inhabits is an otherwise compelling one. This is especially galling given the beauty of the comic art upon which the film is nominally based – Tom King’s Woman of Tomorrow, as brought to life in page-popping glory by Bilquis Evely and colourist Matheus Lopes.

And Supergirl is at its best when it’s exploring those outer worlds – a Star Tours diversion involving Kara and a band of techno-pirates, or in flashbacks to her upbringing on Krypton. Alcock confidently alternates between hard-drinking rebel, swaggering superhero and vulnerable survivor, slipping into the role just as comfortably as Corenswet did his Superman. The same can’t necessarily be said for Jason Momoa’s over-egged Lobo (some things don’t translate well from the page to screen, and his delivery of the word “bastich” is one of them), nor Ridley’s fluctuating accent as Ruthye. But Alcock and Schoenaerts have chemistry to spare. And, hey, at least Momoa is having fun.

Supergirl is an imperfect but enthusiastic version of the superhero film. Relatably human (ish) stakes and an emotionally resonant core are let down by the rubbery combat and murky visuals, but it’s powered by a stratospheric performance from one of the nu-DCU’s most exciting stars. Long may she shine.

SUPERGIRL is out in UK cinemas from June 25th, 2026.

A love letter to film preservation, Nate Neal’s Treasure of the Lost Reel is Indiana Jones for cinephiles.

Heck (Sean Shannon) is a teacher by day and a hunter of lost film in his spare time. His latest acquisition is a rare Boffo cartoon. He’s approached by Bellamy (Kevin R. Free), who makes a convincing argument that his grandfather created a character, Biffo, which the company Pinnacle (who are definitely not Disney, no, sir… not at all) used to ‘inspire’ Boffo. With the original cartoon seemingly lost, Bellamy has no claim for copyright infringement. Heck takes on the task of finding the missing film, as does his ex, Laurel (Katie Hannigan), who runs a film-based show and wants to screen the cartoon. Pinnacle, however, wants to find the movie for more sinister reasons, since it would void the trademark on their Boffo character. They put their Mr Fix-it (William Russ) on the case, and he’ll go to extreme lengths to ensure Biffo never comes to light.

Populated with likeable characters, Nate Neal’s film is a passionate yet whimsical tale that feels as if it came from a different age itself. The love of physical film formats and classic animation is clear; the extracts from the shorts are pitch-perfect, evoking the classic Max Fleischer Betty Boop style. It also provides a quick guide to copyright law and an exaggerated look at how far some companies (ahem) will go to keep their characters from entering the public domain.  At its heart is the timeless story of the little guy fighting a big corporation, with some memorable exchanges between Heck and Pinnacle’s Mr Fix-it; the park chase being a highlight. Shot on the streets of New York, there’s a low-key charm to the film that’s difficult to resist.

TREASURE OF THE LOST REEL had its world premiere at New York Big Apple Film Festival and screens at Manhattan Film Festival on Thursday, June 18th.  

Five decades on from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and visionary director Steven Spielberg returns with his latest sci-fi adventure. Unfortunately, if his Disclosure Day is anything to go by, then it seems as though the well has run well and truly dry. The man who once made us believe that dinosaurs could walk the Earth struggles to do the same for a garden-variety fox. Let alone aliens.

The little green grey men are real, and Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) has evidence. He’s ready to share it with the world, but first he needs to get away from scary government stooge Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), who’s set on silencing the rogue nerd before he can blow the whistle. With Daniel on the run with girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), matters become further complicated when local weather-lady Margaret (Emily Blunt) begins babbling in guttural clicks like a parseltongue version of that one scene from Bruce Almighty.

The comparison is even more apt than that. Scanlon, you see, fears that the confirmation of alien life will send the world as we know it into an existential panic, upending all the major religions. Not that the world is doing particularly well in the first place. On the brink of World War III, Kellner and Margaret’s big day comes with all the major nations teetering on the precipice. Will their news bring the world together, or simply push it over the edge?

Spielberg, ever the sentimental, has his ideas, but there’s nearly two hours of rote chase film to get through first. Part Paul and part Watchmen, the story barrels from one low-effort set piece to the next, from dingy farmhouses to even dingier motel bathrooms. The urgency it does muster is undermined by the visuals, particularly during a climactic chase, which can’t even spare the pixels for a convincingly real-looking car. Rather that than the wildlife, which seems to have been dredged up from the same uncanny valley his alien lifeforms hail from.

O’Connor, Blunt and Hewson do their best with what they’ve been dealt, but David Koepp’s screenplay does nobody any favours. At least Firth has the good grace to ham it up – everyone else (including a wildly underused Colman Domingo) simply powers through with a faintly embarrassed expression upon their miscast faces. There’s no subtlety to be found here, and the script seems to have been written to best cater to those not even paying attention, largely relying on an exposition-barfing phone call from Blunt or Domingo whenever the characters get stuck. It’s little wonder poor Wyatt Russell looks so baffled the whole time.

Disclosure Day is a calamity, made all the more disappointing for the calibre of talent involved. Spielberg’s message is well-intentioned and necessary but the delivery is so far off the mark it’s practically on another planet.

DISCLOSURE DAY is out in cinemas now.