The Language of Film

Nevada Rose

A delightfully unnerving modern day time travel film from director Mark Jenkin set in a Cornish fishing village where a once lost at sea fishing boat mysteriously turns up in the old harbour without its crew and when it goes out to sea again its new crew find things aren’t quite the same as they were when they return to the old port. Rose of Nevada is released in cinemas on 24 April and on BFI Blu-ray and BFI Player this summer.

The arrival of the fishing trawler without its crew sends murmurs throughout the village that it is the return of a boat thought lost at sea with all its crew. Nonetheless, it is readied to go back out to fish again under Captain Murgey (Francis Magee), an old sea-hand who is joined by Nick (George MacKay), who needs the work to provide for his family and home, and fellow shipmate Liam (Callum Turner), who is looking to turn his luck around and get back on his feet again.

They set out to sea, which is captured with a documentary like appreciation of a trawler’s work, reconstructing the crew faring the salty sea conditions to haul in the fish before gutting and boxing them up in ice for market. There is a slow build up of tension as nothing untoward really happens except for the occasional sign that all is not what it seems amongst the disorientating rocking of the boat. The boat eventually returns to harbour and the young crew realise something strange has happened, the village characters have changed and they have travelled back in time to before the boat was lost at sea. Liam is slightly less concerned about this than Nick who finds himself completely panicked by what is happening.

The authenticity of the Cornish fishing community is highlighted by the almost unintelligible dialect of the sea captain that often needs subtitles. Played by Francis Magee (a fisherman for many years in real life), he manages the young men on the boat, showing them the ropes and giving them their day’s money with a warm sea shanty firmness.

Written, directed, edited and sound designed by Mark Jenkin, and shot in his preferred 16mm format, which gives the film an extra dynamic to its story telling, playing on the senses like a home movie retelling of past memories. The sound design brings its own unique contemporary arrangement to enhance the suspense on the mysterious boat and the unsettling transformation of the village, which the two young men now find themselves in. Adding to the confusion, the numerous cutaways on 16mm provide a subliminal effect giving the film a dizzying b-movie arthouse appeal that permeates the consciousness staying with you long after the film finishes.

The stylised imperfections of 16mm gives the film the hallmarks of an old UK cult classic in this ‘lo-fi folk horror’ created by a UK director whose specialism in the eerie and unusual from the southern coast of the UK makes entertaining alternative viewing.

Film: Rose of Nevada

Director: Mark Jenkin

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi

Stars: George MacKay, Callum Turner, Rosalind Eleazar

Run time: 1hr 54mins

Rated: 15

The Tasters

Based on the adaption of the novel ‘The Wolf’s Lair‘ by Rosella Postorino, this is the previously untold story about a group of German women chosen to taste Hitler’s food during World War II. In cinemas from 13 March 2026 (German with subtitles).

It’s 1st November 1943 during the Second World War, Rosa Souer (Elisa Schlott) is a German Secretary fleeing Berlin to live with her in-laws in Eastern Prussia without her conscripted husband. Their rural house is visited by German army officers and Rosa is escorted to an awaiting truck containing an equally worried looking group of German women who are taken to Hitler’s headquarters, known as the Wolf’s Lair. There they are corralled and filed into the building receiving health checks each before being shown into a large room. The women stand in the doorway gobsmacked as there, laid before them is a perfectly presented banquet dining table.

Famished from the war effort this is too good to be true and whilst some are keener than others to tuck in their scepticism and fears are realised when the chef, in pristine whites, tells them their job. They are there to taste Hitler’s food for poisoning, putting their lives on the line for the Führer and country in the most privileged yet banal way, but also dangerous as the war continues in the background with increasing uncertainty.

The film directed by Silvio Soldini focuses on this band of women thrown into this sedate yet oppressive situation. Some of the women know each other and others not, but are all in it together making intimate friendships and allegiances sharing their relationship woes, and secrets, and where loyalty and betrayal go hand-in-hand.

The cinematography captures the stark war time conditions and bleak outlook vividly despite the stately setting and aided by the period costume design. It follows the women around the grounds, squeezing them into frames at every opportunity, especially around the dining table as they eat under armed guard, often forcibly. The intimidating presence of the German soldiers keeping watch on the women is led with an iron grip by Lieutenant Ziegler, who takes his meal time orders deadly seriously and is certainly not one to be argued with at the dinner table. The story goes further into the characters’ lives particularly at Rosa’s in-law’s farm house where they gather round the dinner table and radio for updates on the war, and keep a look out for letters from her husband and news of his return.

Based on the unverified stories of Margot Wölk who at the age of 95 told her story to a German journalist for the first time in 2012, claiming to be the only survivor of the 15 tasters. Details of Hitler’s favourite meals (a vegetarian) make for strangely fascinating insights during what we now know as the climatic period during the War that included a failed suitcase bomb assassination at the Wolf’s Lair.

The film makes for an unusual side dish to the war sagas, and is ably arranged and executed with finesse.

Film: The Tasters

Director: Silvio Soldini

Genre: History, Drama, World War II, German, Biographical

Stars: Elisa Schlott, Max Riemelt, Alma Hasun

Run time: 2hr 03mins

Rated: 15

Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up

This animation from the Looney Tunes team features Daffy Duck and Porky Pig on a mission to save the world from alien invasion. In UK & Irish cinemas from 13th February 2026.

The tone is set as a scientist at an astrological observatory is alerted to an advancing asteroid heading directly towards earth along with a UFO that hurtles down and crash lands with an otherworldly glow, which is the cue for the eerie sci-fi music and the starting credits to roll.

The credits are a cartoon scrapbook look back at the origins of the two Looney Tunes characters Daffy Duck and Porky Pig and how they became best friends growing up on a farm under the protective eye of farmer Jim, and when farmer Jim moves on to the big field in the sky he hands over ownership of the farm house to a now fully fledged Daffy and Porky.

Porky wakes up to see it’s the Annual Home Standards Review inspection and so the two are forced into action to make sure the house passes mustard. Everything seems to be going well in its Looney Tunes way until the hostile inspector points out one small oversight…half the roof is missing from the UFO crash and without a fixed roof they will be evicted!

Daffy and Porky need to find work to afford the roof repairs and they try every job they can but can’t hold one down for more than five minutes without (usually Daffy) causing some kind of mayhem getting them fired. This is until they meet Petunia Pig in a cafe who tells them about a job at her bubble gum factory Goodie Gum where she is the flavour scientist.

The job couldn’t be simpler and all Daffy and Porky have to do is not screw it up. Of course strange things are afoot and despite Daffy’s propensity for disaster he’s on to something, discovering a trail of the ectoplasm goo that is identical to what they found on their roof. He begins to investigate and uncovers the plot of the alien invaders to tamper with the bubble gum ingredients in order to zombify the human race. Can the duo save the day and will Porky Pig woo Petunia Pig or will Daffy bring about total disaster?

Directed by Peter Browngardt, the simplicity and familiarity bring a warm nostalgia to be shared with all the family but not without complete anarchy ensuing. The potentially grown up themes of house upkeep, finding a job and an alien conspiracy are stripped Daffy Duck and Porky Pig bare with Daffy’s OTT remonstrations and a stuttering pig that still manages to pass the equality sensors. Despite or because of all the lunacy you leave the film with an ectoplasm glow and some grown up moral lessons to ponder.

Find your nearest cinema at: https://www.vertigoreleasing.com/movie/the-day-the-earth-blew-up-a-looney-tunes-movie

Film: Looney Tunes, The Day the Earth Blew Up

Director: Peter Browngardt

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Adventure, Farce, Sci-fi, Alien Invasion

Stars: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol

Run time: 1hr 31mins

Rated: PG

Nouvelle Vague

Richard Linklater directs a biographic docudrama tribute to the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking film Breathless and the beginnings of the French New Wave cinema. Starring Guillaume Marbeck and Zoey Deutch. In UK cinemas from 30 January 2026.

BFI London Film Festival / Photographer: JG

Film: Nouvelle Vague

Director: Richard Linklater

Genre: French, Docudrama, Biography, Drama, History

Stars: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Dullin

Run time: 1hr 46mins

Rated: 12A

No Other Choice

Director Park Chan-wook’s latest film is a comedy crime thriller about a man (Lee Byung-hun) who is made redundant and will do anything to get his job back including eliminating the competition. In UK cinemas from 23 January 2026.

Film: No Other Choice

Director: Park Chan-Wook

Genre: Korean, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Woo Seung Kim

Run time: 2hr 19mins

Rated: 15

H is for Hawk

Award winning director Philippa Lowthorpe directs this emotional drama based on the real life memoirs of Helen MacDonald. Starring Claire Foy in the central role and featuring Brendan Gleeson it’s the story about a daughter dealing with the grief of losing her father by making an unusual and unlikely friendship. In UK and Ireland cinemas 23 January 2026.

Film: H is for Hawk

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe

Genre: Docudrama, Drama

Stars: Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Denise Gough

Run time: 1hr 54mins

Rated: PG-13

The History of Sound

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor star in this love story between two men set over a decade during World War I in their journey to record early American folk music for the first time. In UK cinemas from 23 January 2026.

Film: The History of Sound

Director: Oliver Hermanus

Genre: Drama, History, Music, War, Romance

Stars: Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Chris Cooper

Run time: 2hr 08mins

Rated: 15

Hamnet

Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrel. this is a fictional tribute to the great English playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) that breathes new life into the old scribe’s backstory of courting his future wife Anne ‘Agnes’ Hathaway (Jessie Buckley), their children and the likely effect on his work, Hamlet. In UK cinemas from 9 January 2026.

Paul Mescal plays William Shakespeare and is the first surprise. A man of the moment in the acting sphere but to play William Shakespeare, the receding haired playwright from the 1600s is absurd, is it not? But, this instantly feels like a modern adaption whilst still keeping all the elements of the period, thus regenerating the bard back to life in the Stratford-upon-Avon countryside with a youthful vigour that fizzes with wit and charm in his pursuit of the hand of Agnes Hathaway. The next almost as equally surprising portrayal is Agnes Hathaway, the future wife of William Shakespeare, played here by Jessie Buckley, recreating her not as the archetypal English country rose but as a dirty faced tomboy with a love of falconry who has a close connection to nature bordering on witchcraft.

This is what captivates the imagination of a young William Shakespeare and the couple embark on a forbidden love all of their own and a speedy marital consummation ensues leading to their three children Susanna and the twins Hamnet and Judith. The sweet family dynamic showing the playful affection of the doting mother and father is disrupted when the father has to go to London to work and the children are not without the health troubles of the time, that strike the family with great tragedy when Hamnet dies. A mother and father’s grief drive the couple apart as the father pours himself into his work to deal with it in the only way he knows how.

Even if the connection of grief with the bard’s work is not anything new director Chloé Zhao pulls off this fictional account of the UK’s master story teller’s rise to prominence and family life with an understated but overwhelming effect. How much a historical biography should be faithfully adhered to is perhaps the prerogative of each story teller especially when there is little but conjecture to be exploited and when it is done with such intelligent inferences it is hard to argue with and deserves a cinematic curtain bow.

Film: Hamnet

Director: Chloé Zhao

Genre: Drama, History, Romance, Biography

Stars: Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley

Run time: 2hrs 5mins

Rated: 12A

Rating: 5

Giant

A true story boxing docudrama about one of the UK’s most prodigious pugilists Prince Naseem Hamed (Amir El-Masry) and his rise to becoming world boxing champion and then his eventual decline and fallout with his manager Brendan Ingles (Pierce Brosnan). In UK and Ireland cinemas 9 January 2026.

The story begins in the terraced streets of Sheffield with a scrawny asian school kid being bullied and racially harassed in the playground as he tries to nimbly outrun the perpetrators. His parents have concerns for their three young boys and so welcome the intervention of local boxing gym trainer, Irishman Brendan Ingles, who invites them to train at his gym.

The boys fully onboard with his training regime which offers more than physical education but also promotes a smart inclusive side to training life especially considering the racial backdrop of the neighbourhood, which is no less so in the boxing fraternity and is something the promising young “Naz”, gifted with coordination and speed, will have to navigate if he wants to make it as a professional boxer.

The business partnership between the young “Naz” and Ingles is sealed with a handshake and the rest is history as they say. “Naz’s” natural talent and unorthodox style is nurtured and allowed to develop under the protective guidance of Ingles which pays huge dividends with the boxer’s meteoric rise through the ranks as “Naz” backs up his incredible showboating showmanship, that is very uniquely his own, in the ring. When he finally reaches the top of the boxing game the two’s boxing egos and principles go head to head and with neither side wanting to back down it causes an inevitable split.

It’s a big ask for any actor to play a well-known sporting figure, especially someone of the mercurial talents of Prince Naseem. Expectations are high for comparable looks, speech and mannerisms and whilst Amir El-Masry is no “Naz” double, he does get across a sense of the cocky self-assured champ (in particular his famous ring entry although he may have needed some assistance with this) and combined with a well crafted story based on the relationship with his boxing trainer, supplied here by the support undercard of Pierce Brosnan, who swings the contest here back in favour of the mild mannered Irish trainer, both actors manage to do enough to get the job done.

This one is not just for sports fans and boxing aficionados as it brings a mix of emotions and tensions in the pursuit of success and money in a story about one of GB’s finest boxing exports that makes a strong case for the unsung trainers whose slaveless dedication to their sports gets far less recognition or reward. Here the points score comes out just about even.

Film: Giant

Director: Rowan Athale

Genre: Drama, Docudrama, Sport, Boxing

Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Amir El-Masry, Connor Porter

Run time: 2hrs

Rated: 15

Rating: 3

Desperate Journey

A true story about holocaust survivor Freddie (Knoller) who fled his home town of Vienna from the nazis to search for refuge in England via the Parisian nightlife scene, enduring capture and death camp marches, before being saved by the Ally forces. In UK cinemas from 28 November.

Freddie (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen) is a young man growing up in Vienna whose family send him to England to escape the persecution of the jews by the nazis. He makes his way as far as Paris and is attracted to the nightlife of the late-night clubs and the dancing girls he was enamoured with growing up. His linguistic skills get him a job in one of the clubs after he befriends the moustachioed maître d’ Christos (Fernando Guallar) who needs his help speaking German to entice the nazi officers into the club; the patrons with plenty of money to spend.

The story reveals more real life characters Freddie met in his survival story. Mrs Huberman (Smadi Wolfman) is the auberge owner who takes him in and shares in his troubles and when he needs false papers to get to England he is introduced to a cafe owner (Stephen Berkoff) offering forged passports at an ever rising price due to the increasing threat of the nazis in the neighbourhood. His perilous situation entertaining the German officers, played here with a charming sinisterness, is highlighted when officer Kurt (Til Schweiger) cruelly toys with Freddie by telling him of his ability to identify a jew through phrenology, and hence begins to feel the back of his head. The examination reduces Freddie to a hyperventilating mess showing more guilt than finding any bumps but he is relieved not to be discovered. Matters become further complicated in his escape as he falls for the lead burlesque dancer Jaqueline (Clara Rugaard) who he invites to dinner to persuade her to come with him.

Director Annabel Jankel brings this true survival story to life showing the juxtaposition between the horrors of the war and the rounding up of the jews against the backdrop of the streets of Paris and the drinking clubs frequented by nazi soldiers. There are frequent flash forwards to when Freddie is a prisoner being taken on a death march in subzero conditions that maintains the threat amongst the champagne and dancing girls. The city surroundings and interiors of Vienna and Paris are rendered in World War II periodic style, whilst the hunting down of escapee prisoners in the woods is shot in vivid darkness. Further factual poignancy is provided at the end in the rolling credits about the survivors and those that were never seen again.

A conspicuously entertaining holocaust war film that provides an astonishing representation that links together the harrowing time, the people there and one charmed survivor’s tale.

Film: Desperate Journey

Director: Annabel Jankel

Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War

Stars: Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Clara Rugaard, Fernando Guallar

Run time: 1hr 48mins

Rated: TBC

Rating: 3