Tag: London

Review: ‘London Calling’ (2025), starring Josh Duhamel, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Rick Hoffman and Aidan Gillen

September 20, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jeremy Ray Taylor and Josh Duhamel in “London Calling” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

“London Calling” (2025)

Directed by Allan Ungar

Culture Representation: Taking place in London and in the Los Angeles area, the action/comedy film “London Calling” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A jaded assassin agrees to be an assassin mentor to the dorky 18-year-old son of the assassin’s crime boss, who wants the son to be groomed to take over his criminal activities.

Culture Audience: “London Calling” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and unimaginative and silly movies about assassins and other criminals.

Jeremy Ray Taylor and Josh Duhamel in “London Calling” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

The vapid action comedy “London Calling” has the mentality of a kid who doesn’t know that the 1994 movie “Léon: The Professional” exists. The stale jokes don’t help London Calling’s predictable story about an assassin mentoring a criminal’s adolescent child. Some of the cast members are clearly having fun in their “London Calling” roles, but this violent movie’s comedy is too cornball and repetitive to be fun to watch.

Directed by Allan Ungar, “London Calling” was co-written by Ungar, Omer Levin Menekse and Quinn Wolfe. The movie takes place in London and in the Los Angeles area. “London Calling” was actually filmed in South Africa. The movie has no connection to the Clash’s 1979 “London Calling” album and title track, except for sharing the same title, and the Clash’s “London Calling” song can be heard in its entirety during the movie’s end credits.

“London Calling” begins by showing an American assassin in London. His name is Thomas “Tommy” Ward (played by Josh Duhamel), and he’s arrived at an upscale nightclub where the attendees are wearing masks. (It could easily be mistaken for an “Eyes Wide Shut” fan convention.) Thomas is on a hit job where he’s supposed to shoot and kill a man wearing a horse mask.

Instead, Tommy follows a man (played by Tristan de Beer) who’s wearing a donkey mask. It’s mentioned multiple times later in the movie that middle-aged Tommy has become near-sighted as he’s gotten older. Tommy corners the man outside the nightclub and is ready to shoot.

The man takes off his mask and says that this is a case of mistaken identity. The man says he shouldn’t be killed and warns Tommy that Tommy would be making a huge mistake if he commits this murder. The man identifies himself as the cousin of Freddy Darby’s wife. Freddy Darby (played by Aiden Gillen) is a crime lord who is Tommy’s boss.

Tommy is arrogant because he’s never before made a mistake in an assassination. He tells the man that the mask is a horse mask, not a donkey’s mask. And then, Tommy shoots and kills the man. After the murder, Tommy gets a closer look at the mask and finds out it really is a donkey mask, and the person wearing the horse mask got away.

Tommy leaves the scene and commiserates with his colleague Harry (played by Arnold Vosloo) about this big mistake. Harry mildly scolds Tommy about Tommy not taking Harry’s advice to get an eye exam. Tommy and Harry know it’s only a matter of time before Freddy finds out that Tommy killed a member of Freddy’s family, and Tommy will be put on Freddy’s hit list. Harry gets Tommy a one-way plane ticket out of London to Los Angeles.

Before Tommy leaves London, he goes to the apartment where his ex-wife Judi (played by Erica Wessels) lives with their son Oliver (played by Finnley Barnett), who’s about 9 or 10 years old. Judi has a live-in boyfriend named Ricky (played by Karl Thaning), who is a gym teacher at Oliver’s school. Tommy’s visit is so he can say a quick goodbye to Oliver, who isn’t allowed to spend time with Tommy because, as he tells Tommy, Judi frequently tells Oliver that Tommy is a “loser” who does dangerous things.

One year later, Tommy is living in Los Angeles, where he is working as an assassin for a crime boss named Benson (played by Rick Hoffman), a fast-talking sleaze who is rude and impatient. Benson is a widower (his wife died in a car accident) who has an 18-year-old son named Julian (played by Jeremy Ray Taylor), a geeky loner. Julian would rather play video games and go to live-action role playing (LARP) events (where people wear costumes as fantasy characters) than learn from his father on how to be a violent criminal. Benson is disappointed in Julian for not being equipped to take over the “family business.”

Benson has a subservient live-in girlfriend named Darya (played by Jazzara Jaslyn), whom he met at a Russian brothel, according to what Benson tells Tommy. A recurring “joke” in the movie is that Benson is always giving criticism to Darya for doing something that Benson thinks is incorrect. In other words, Benson is depicted as an irredeemable jerk who is cruel to just about everyone.

“London Calling” wastes nearly half of the movie before it gets to the central conflict of the story. Before that central conflict plays out in the film, “London Calling” shows that Julian is the target of a snobbish teenage bully named Barnabus (played by Daniel Lasker), a LARP enthusiast who wants to be the “alpha male” at all the LARP events that he attends. It just so happens that Julian has a crush on Barnabus’ sister Erika (played by (played by Daniah De Villiers), who attends the same LARP events.

The movie’s central conflict is revealed when Tommy finds out that Judi is going to marry Ricky. Tommy doesn’t respect Ricky because he thinks Ricky is a wimpy nerd. Tommy hasn’t seen Oliver for more than a year and wants to go back to London to make up for lost time and become an attentive father to Oliver. However, Tommy is apprehensive that Freddy has put a target on Tommy’s back for the killing of Freddy’s cousin-in-law.

Tommy and Benson make a deal: Benson will give Tommy extra protection that will be provided by Benson’s criminal connections in London. In exchange, Tommy has to train Julian on how to be an assassin so that Tommy and Julian can kill two of Benson’s enemies: Alistair McRory (played by Neil Sandilands) and Seamus McRory (played by Brandon Auret), who are gangster brothers. As already revealed in the “London Calling” trailer, Freddy finds out that Tommy is living in the Los Angeles area, so Freddy arrives in the area to get revenge on Tommy.

The rest of “London Calling” goes exactly how you think it will, with shootouts, fist fights, explosions and car chases—and plenty of bumbling along the way. Duhamel and Taylor have fairly good chemistry in their scenes together, but their dialogue is so mindless, the characters of Tommy and Julian just aren’t interesting enough to be entertaining for the entire movie. Meanwhile, all the other characters are one-dimensional. “London Calling” has some cheap laughs, but there’s nothing special about this derivative movie that is the very definition of a “hack job.”

Quiver Distribution released “London Calling” in select U.S. cinemas on September 19, 2025.

Review: ‘Deep Cover’ (2025), starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, Paddy Considine, Ian McShane and Sean Bean

June 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed and Bryce Dallas Howard in “Deep Cover” (Photo by Peter Mountain/Copertura Productions/Prime Video)

“Deep Cover” (2025)

Directed by Tom Kingsley

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the action comedy film “Deep Cover” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: Three people from an improv comedy group find themselves going undercover to deal with criminals. 

Culture Audience: “Deep Cover” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action comedies that are wacky and well-acted.

Paddy Considine, Bryce Dallas Howard, Nick Mohammed and Orlando Bloom in “Deep Cover” (Photo by Peter Mountain/Copertura Productions/Prime Video)

“Deep Cover” is exactly the type of twist-filled action comedy with gags, guns and gangsters that will delight fans who enjoy movies that have the madcap spirit of Guy Ritchie’s early films. The “Deep Cover” cast members are in top form.

Directed by Tom Kingsley, “Deep Cover” was written by Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 edition of SXSW London and had its North American premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “Deep Cover” takes place in London, where the movie was filmed on location.

“Deep Cover” is about three misfits who are unexpectedly brought together to go undercover for low-level police sting operations and then get involved in situations that are much more dangerous than they expected. Kat (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is an American who’s been struggling to become a famous actress/comedian. She teaches a improv comedy class, where she meets new students Marlon Swift (played by Orlando Bloom) and Hugh (played by Nick Mohammed), who are also frustrated with their lives in some way. Kat feels insecure about her life because all of her friends from college now have stable middle-class lifestyles, while she’s still financially struggling.

Marlon is a low-level actor who wants to be an action star. Instead, he’s reduced to performing in embarrassing commercials or on the street, as he wears various silly costumes. In the beginning of the movie, Marlon gets dropped by his agent. Hugh is an information technology nerd at an unnamed company. Hugh is socially awkward and has trouble making friends at work because his co-workers treat him like an outcast.

One day, a police detective sergeant named Billings (played by Sean Bean) recruits Kat to work with him on these sting operations for £200 a job. Billings explains to Kat that the people he needs for these stings have to be able to perform roles quickly and can’t look like undercover cops. Kat convinces Marlon and Hugh to team with her for this undercover work. Marlon sees it as a chance to practice being a gritty action star. Hugh is meek and easily led because he’s eager for people to like him.

The rest of “Deep Cover” can’t be described without revealing too much of the plot. It’s enough to say that Kat, Marlon and Hugh get entangled with a “tough guy” criminal named Fly (played by Paddy Considine); Fly’s loyal sidekick Shosh (played by Sonoya Mizuno); Fly’s ruthless boss Metcalfe (played by Ian McShane); and two police detectives named Dawes (played by Ben Ashenden) and Skender (played by Leart Dokle), who are determined to bring down the Metcalfe and his associates.

Kat, Marlon and Hugh invent undercover identities: Kat is no-nonsense group leader Bonnie, who presents herself as the mastermind for the trio’s plans. Marlon is impulsive hothead Roach, who doesn’t hesitate to use any weapons nearby. Hugh is the deceptively mild-mannered The Squier, who has connections in high society but leads a secret life as a cold-blooded criminal.

Hugh joined Kat’s improv comedy class as a way to get confidence and make friends. Some of the movie’s funniest scenes are about Hugh (who is very sheltered in real life) getting into situations that are way beyond what he ever imagined doing. There’s also an amusing “opposites attract” subplot about assertive Shosh and bashful Hugh showing a romantic interest in each other, with Shosh making the first moves.

“Deep Cover” has the right combination of gritty and goofy, Mohammed is a scene stealer, while Howard and Bloom also show their talent with great comedic timing. “Deep Cover” is the type of action comedy that makes up for Howard starring in the 2024 awful flop “Argylle,” another action comedy about people going undercover with fake identities. “Deep Cover” is sure to get repeat viewings from people looking for plenty of bloody good laughs.

Prime Video premiered “Deep Cover” on June 12, 2025.

Review: ‘Cleaner’ (2025), starring Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar and Clive Owen

March 11, 2025

by Carla Hay

Daisy Ridley in “Cleaner” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

“Cleaner” (2025)

Directed by Martin Campbell

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the action film “Cleaner” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A window cleaner, who left the U.K. miltary in disgrace, becomes the main person who can stop a group of terrorists who have taken hostages at a corrupt corporation that is in the energy business.

Culture Audience: “Cleaner” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of stars Daisy Ridley and Clive Owen and don’t mind watching a silly and derivative action flick.

Taz Skylar and Clive Owen in “Cleaner” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

“Cleaner” starts off as a promising thriller that’s obviously inspired by “Die Hard,” with a hero battling office-invading terrorists. But as the movie goes along, it becomes too ridiculous to take. Everything devolves into corny dreck with uneven acting.

Directed by Martin Campbell, “Cleaner” was written by Matthew Orton, Simon Uttley and Paul Andrew Williams. The movie, which takes place in London, has a story that happens over the course of a 24-hour period. (“Cleaner” was actually filmed in London and Malta.) The snappy dialogue that’s in the first 20 minutes of “Cleaner” all but disappears and is replaced by mind-numbing nonsense.

The protagonist in “Cleaner” is Joanna “Joey” Locke (played by Daisy Ridley), a feisty and foul-mouthed former U.K. Army soldier who now works as a skyscraper cleaner. Joey’s military career abruptly ended when she got into a fight that violated military rules. Depending on who you believe in the story, Joey either quit the military or she was dishonorably discharged.

Joey has a younger brother named Michael (played by Matthew Tuck), who has autism. Michael is a computer whiz who likes hacking into computers. (And you can bet these hacking skills will be used later in the movie.) In the beginning of the movie, Michael has been expelled from the home care facility where he was living because he’s the prime suspect in leaking confidential information about the home care facility to the media. Whoever leaked the information exposed some of the facility’s shady business practices.

Joey is seen storming into the home care office to pick up Michael after he’s been expelled. She gets angry at the on-duty administrator (played by Kate Nichols) by saying that the facility has no right to expel Michael without proof that he was the one who leaked the information. The administrator is unmoved and says Michael has to leave the property immediately. Later, Michael privately confesses to Joey that he did exactly what he was accused of doing.

Michael has nowhere else to go, and Joey is already running late for her job, so she reluctantly takes Michael with her to the high-rise building where she works. The building is the headquarters of a major corporation called Agnian Energy. On the way there, Joey and Michael race against time by going on a series of bus rides in a rather funny sequence where Michael tries and fails to get Joey to stop cursing so much.

Joey tells Michael that he can live with her until they can find a new place for him to live. Michael is thrilled about it, because he likes living with Joey. However, Joey doesn’t try to hide that she’s not keen on Michael living with her because of his high-maintenance needs. Joey flatly refuses Michael’s request to help him get the same job as a window cleaner. Joey tells Michael no because she says her boss Derek (played by Gavin Fleming) is a jerk.

It’s the late afternoon when Joey arrives at the Agnian Energy building. Joey tells Michael to wait for her in the building lobby until her work shift ends. She asks a lobby security guard named Big Ron (played by Russell De Rozario) to look after Joey, who doesn’t like feeling that someone has to babysit him. And as soon as Joey asks someone to look after Michael, you just know something is going to happen where Michael is going to slip out of the minder’s sight.

The two CEOs of Agnian Energy are brothers Gerald Milton (played by Lee Boardman) and Geoffrey Milton (played by Rufus Jones), who have opposite personalities. Older brother Gerald is a cocaine-snorting bully who cares more about being hedonistic on the job than actually doing the job. Geoffrey is the level-headed “brains” of the operation and does most of the real CEO work. Gerald and Geoffrey have opposite personalities, but they are both very corrupt.

How much of a nasty person is Gerald? Gerald, Joey and a pregnant housekeeper named Halina (played by Sol E. Romero) are all on a crowded elevator together. Gerald looks at Halina in disgust and tells her: “You better not fucking drop now. You should be at home.” Joey quips in response: “Maybe if you paid her proper maternity leave, she would be.” Gerald later asks a subordinate if Joey can be fired for being “lippy” to Gerald. Gerald is told no.

Agnian Energy is having a big corporate party in the building that evening. Several of the company’s investors and other business associates will be attending this party. Because Joey was late to work, Derek makes her work one hour past the end of her work shift, after it gets dark. And it’s here where the movie starts to fall off the rails because of how illogical it is to have a skyscraper window cleaner work outside at night when it’s too dark to see how clean the glass is.

Joey is outside on a platform and cleaning the building windows at night when she sees the masked terrorists who invade this office party. The six armed people who storm into the building are wearing green goblin masks and have an agenda: Take all the party attendees hostage and make them confess their business crimes on a livestream feed.

Who are these terrorists? They’re a radical group of environmentalists who think Agnian Energy is responsible for illegal pollution and other business crimes. The group is led by Marcus Blake (played by Clive Owen), who doesn’t want anyone killed during this office invasion.

Someone else in this group of terrorists has other ideas and gets in a power struggle with Marcus. This challenger is Noah Santos (played by Taz Skylar), a nihilist who says he hates all people and thinks the hostages at this party deserve to be murdered. Noah is very much a cartoonish villain, whose dialogue becomes more unhinged (and more cringeworthy) as the movie stumbles along from one stupid scene to the next.

If you know about “Die Hard” or other movies that are trying to be like “Die Hard,” then you can easily predict what will happen for the rest of “Cleaner,” which is a disappointing dud. The fight scenes are often ludicrous. And there’s even an idiotic scene where Joey is on her skyscraper platform outside while Noah forces her to shoot a gun at innocent bystanders below on the street.

The two main law enforcement officers on the scene are Detective Sergeant Claire Hume (played by Ruth Gemmell) and Detective Inspector Khan (played by Ray Fearon), who clash with each other over some decisions during this hostage crisis. Claire is the chief negotiator. Her colleague Khan doesn’t think she’s aggressive enough with the terrorists.

Ridley gives it her all to portray an action hero, but her acting efforts cannot overcome a terrible screenplay and sloppy direction. Owen (who is not in the movie for as much you might think) gives a mediocre performance, as do most of the other cast members. There isn’t one single plot development in “Cleaner” that is original or clever. Simply put: The filmmaking for “Cleaner” is as messy and unappealing as a muddy window.

Quiver Distribution released “Cleaner” in U.S. cinemas on February 21, 2025.

Review: ‘Black Bag’ (2025), starring Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page and Pierce Brosnan

March 6, 2025

by Carla Hay

Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender in  “Black Bag” (Photo by Claudette Barius/Focus Features)

“Black Bag” (2025)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the dramatic film “Black Bag” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Six agents who work for the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) find themselves involved in an undercover investigation to expose a mole/traitor in the group.

Culture Audience: “Black Bag” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and well-made spy movies.

Pictured clockwise, from left to right: Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, and Marisa Abela in “Black Bag” (Photo by Claudette Barius/Focus Features)

“Black Bag” is a sleek and stylish spy caper that invites viewers to indulge in the fantasy that so many spies look like movie stars. Their whip-smart and sarcastic conversations are just as entertaining as some of the action scenes. “Black Bag” might get some comparisons to the 2005 action film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (about two married spies who go to war with each other), but “Black Bag” has a darker tone and is more of an intriguing mystery rather than a comedy.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp, “Black Bag” has two married spies at the center of the story, but they don’t really get into the type of knock-down, drag-out fights with each other like the couple at the center of the “Mrs. & Mrs. Smith” movie. The spouses in “Black Bag” have a relationship that is steeped in devotion as well as distrust, thereby keeping their romance steady but also on edge. The movie’s title is based on a black bag where the two spouses keep their biggest spy secrets.

The marriage becomes fraught with more tension when the husband gets an assignment to find out which person on a list of five suspects is a mole/traitor. His wife is on the list. The husband and the five suspects all work for National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), a United Kingdom espionage agency whose specialty is technology. The mole is involved in a conspiracy regarding Severus, a type of malware that can destabilize a nuclear facility.

These are six people who are directly involved in the investigation to expose the mole:

  • George Woodhouse (played by Michael Fassbender) has a stoic personality that masks a lot of past trauma. (His father committed suicide.) Although George often appears to be cold in the way that he treats people, he is actually a loving and monogamous husband. George has been given the assignment to secretly investigate the other five people.
  • Kathryn St. Jean (played by Cate Blanchett) is George’s wife, who lives and looks like a Hollywood glamour queen. Unlike George, who keeps a lot of his feelings bottled inside, Kathryn doesn’t hesitate to express her opinions. Kathryn and George have been longtime spies. They do not have any children together.
  • Col. James Stokes (played by Regé-Jean Page) is considered to be a star on the rise at NCSC. He has recently gotten a promotion. And the person who thinks he deserved the promotion the most is James, who is intelligent but very arrogant. James is also very stubborn and unlikely to want to consider other people’s points of as being more valid than his.
  • Dr. Zoe Vaughn (played by Naomie Harris), a staff psychiatrist for NCSC, is in a volatile romance with James. Kathryn is one of her patients. Zoe is the one in this group of six is most likely offer help or advice to someone who is going through personal diffculties. But in a story where people don’t trust each other, does Zoe have ulterior motives when she offers counseling and finds out people’s secrets?
  • Freddie Smalls (played by Tom Burke) is a deeply insecure substance abuser, who appears to be addicted to alcohol, pills and sex. Freddie is jealous of James (who is younger and has less experience) because James got the promotion that Freddie wanted. Freddie knows his self-destructive ways have made him a risk for NCSC. However, Freddie thinks his blunt (in other words: rude) communication style is an asset.
  • Clarissa Dubose (played by Marisa Abela) is the youngest person in this group of six. She has recently begun dating Freddie, who’s about 20 years older than Clarissa. She’s found out the hard way what Freddie can’t stay faithful to one person, so she has a love/hate relationship with him. Clarissa is in awe of Kathryn, whom Clarissa considered to be a role model in espionage.

Everything in “Black Bag” is intended to make the ugly business of espionage look as alluring and glamorous as possible. When George gets the assignment to find the mole, it’s not in some drab office. He goes to an exclusive nightclub where trendy-looking young people are dancing and partying. Inside the nightclub, he meets up with Philip Meacham (played by Gustaf Skarsgård), a troubled agent supervisor who gives him the assignment and a list of suspects. “Good luck finding the rat,” Philip tells George.

George is in a profession where lying is a requirement of the job, so it’s ironic that George repeatedly tells anyone who listens that he hates dishonesty. Monogamous spies are rare, according to what this movie repeats in conversations and actions. Philip commends George for being a faithful husband, which Philip confesses is something he could never be. Pierce Brosnan has a supporting role as dapper Arthur Stieglitz, the leader of the NCSC.

George and Kathryn aren’t the types of spies who blend in so they won’t be noticed. They’re the type of spies who want to stand out, as they glide around in designer clothing and invite guests into their posh home. Speaking of George and Kathryn hosting visitors in their home, some of the best scenes in the movie are the dinner party scenes, where tensions run high, and insults are thrown like daggers across a room.

In their home, George isn’t subservient to Kathryn, but he’s not completely dominant either. George likes to think of himself as the smartest person in any room he’s in, but he isn’t stuck in a macho mindset of thinking that men and women should have “traditional” roles in a marriage. For example, when George and Kathryn invite James, Zoe, Freddie and Clarissa to a dinner party, George is the one who does all the cooking. Kathryn is more likely than George to initiating sexual intimacy and demand what she wants.

George and Kathryn consider themselves to be the “alpha couple” of these three couples because George and Kathryn have the most experience and apparently the most connections in the spy world. However, Kathryn tells Zoe in a therapy that Kathryn has been having ongoing nightmares that aren’t going away anytime soon. Kathryn is required to be in therapy, and she despises it.

Unmarried couple James and Zoe seem to be in a constant battle with each other to prove who’s smarter than the other in their relationship. Neither of them is faithful to each other. In a therapy session, Kathryn makes a personal dig at Zoe when Kathryn comments that Zoe’s current infidelity lover is riff raff who is beneath Zoe’s social status.

Freddie and Clarissa are simply a disaster together. And it’s not because of their age gap, although Freddie cruelly tells Clarissa during an argument that she’s got daddy issues because Clarissa’s father abandoned her as a child. Freddie and Clarissa are no good for each other because they seem to be hooked on their toxic and abusive relationship, which includes physical violence.

All of the principal cast members handle their roles well. However, there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about their performances because they’ve all played these types of personalities in other movies. What makes “Black Bag” stand out the most from other spy movies is Koepp’s snappy screenplay with this unique concept of three spy couples under scrutiny.

Amid all of the drama between these couples, “Black Bag” has a wickedly sly touch in showing that these “know-it-alls” actually don’t know a lot of things about each other. Sure, there are car chases, shootouts and bomb explosions to raise the “life or death” stakes in the story. But the most dangerous threats to the movie’s characters are the mind games that they play with each other.

Focus Features will release “Black Bag” in U.S. cinemas on March 14, 2025, with a sneak preview on March 12, 2025.

Review: ‘Touch’ (2024), starring Egill Ólafsson, Kōki and Pálmi Kormákur

July 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Kōki and Pálmi Kormákur in “Touch” (Photo by Lilja Jonsdottir/Focus Features)

“Touch” (2024)

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Some language in Japanese and Icelandic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Iceland, the United Kingdom, and Japan in 2020, with flashbacks to 1969, the dramatic film “Touch” (based on the novel of the same name) features a white and Japanese cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020, a widowed restaurateur from Iceland travels to the United Kingdom and Japan to search for the Japanese woman he fell in love with in London in 1969. 

Culture Audience: “Touch” will appeal primarily to people who are are interested in well-acted dramas about love that transcends different cultures, races and nationalities.

Egill Ólafsson in “Touch” (Photo by Baltasar Breki Samper/Focus Features)

“Touch” has beautifully moving performances in this memorable drama about a man searching for a long-lost love, 51 years after he last saw her. It’s a bittersweet romantic story that also has poignant observations of the traumatic damages caused by war. Although the story in the movie is fictional, many of the scenarios are very realistic, except for how the protagonist’s dementia is sidelined and ignored for almost the entire movie.

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, “Touch” is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s 2022 novel of the same name. Kormákur and Ólafsson co-wrote the movie’s adapted screenplay. “Touch” was filmed on location in Iceland, the United Kingdom, and Japan—the three countries where the movie’s story takes place. The movie has a lot of abrupt timeline jumping between 2020 and 1969. Some viewers might not like that the timeline constantly goes back and forth between these two years, but this narrative structure increases the suspense of what will happen.

“Touch” begins in early 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Kristófer Hannesson (played by Egill Ólafsson), an Icelandic widower in his 70s, is a restaurateur in Reykjavík, Iceland. He is shown looking at boxes of mementos, mostly from his college-age years, when he used to live in London. Kristófer has recently shut down his restaurant because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain travel borders will soon be closed because of the pandemic.

It’s soon revealed that Kristófer has been diagnosed with early-stages dementia after his MRI test results have been evaluated. Kristófer says he has vivid memories of things that happened in the past but he sometimes forgets to do simple things such as tie shoelaces. After Kristófer gets this dementia diagnosis, Kristófer’s physician Dr. Stefansson (played by Benedikt Erlingsson) advises him to take care of any unfinished business.

Kristófer looks at a photo of his deceased wife Inga (played by María Ellingsen) and says, “Forgive me.” He then tells his daughter Sonja (voiced by Harpa Elísa Þórsdóttir) in a phone conversation that he’s going to London to look for a missing person he once knew. Sonja is never seen in the movie, but she continues to have phone conversations with Kristófer during his travels. Sonja grows increasingly worried that Kristófer is going to different countries during the pandemic and won’t tell her the details of why this search so urgent for him.

The movie reveals very little about what Kristófer’s life has been like as a family man. There is one flashback scene that shows elderly Kristófer and Inga during a marriage counseling session, which is an indication that they had serious problems in their marriage. The movie doesn’t show or tell what those problems were.

It’s mentioned during this session that Sonja is not Kristófer’s biological child because Sonja is Inga’s daughter from a previous marriage or previous relationship. Kristófer and Sonja decided not to biological children of their own. Inga got married to Kristófer when Sonja was very young. It’s implied that Kristófer adopted Sonja after he and Inga got married.

As already shown in the “Touch” trailer, Kristófer has gone to London because he is looking for the woman he fell in love with in London in 1969. Flashbacks show that in 1969, Kristófer (played by Palmi Kormákur, a son of “Touch” director Baltasar Kormákur) was a London School of Economics (LSE) student who participated in left-wing activist protests. His two closest friends at LSE are also fellow Icelanders: Jónas (played by Sigurður Ingvarsson) and Markús (played by Starkaður Pétursson), who share his political interests.

Kristófer doesn’t consider himself to be a socialist but more like an “anarchist,” he says in a half-joking tone later in the movie. And even though he participates in student protests, Kristófer actually has an introverted personality. An early scene in the movie shows that other student activists look up to him as a leader, but he is reluctant to be the center of attention in a leadership role. In his free time, Kristófer likes to spend time by himself reading and listening to music.

Kristófer drops out of LSE because he “lost interest” in university studies, but he still wants to live in London. Nothing is revealed about Kristófer’s family and what they thought of him dropping out of LSE. Kristófer doesn’t discuss his background in detail in this movie. He is not shown communicating with anyone in Iceland while he is in London. However, he mentions during a restaurant job interview that he grew up in smaller cities in Iceland where he did a lot of fishing.

One day, while hanging out with Jónas and Markús, Kristófer sees a “help wanted” sign at a Japanese restaurant called Nippon. The job opening is a dishwasher position. Kristófer speaks to Nippon’s owner/manager is a widower named Takahashi-san (played by Masahiro Motoki) that he’s interested in the job. Takahashi-san is skeptical about Kristófer’s interest in working at a Japanese restaurant and tells Kristófer that this dishwasher job is full-time. Kristófer assures him that he can work these hours, so Takahashi-san tells him to come back the next day for a job interview.

As Kristófer is leaving, a pretty woman who’s about the same age as Kristófer walks through the front door. They look at each other in a way that people do in movies where you know they these two people will end up falling in love. Kristófer doesn’t know it yet, but the woman’s name is Miko (played Kōki), and she is Takahashi-san’s daughter and only child. Miko is a student at an unnamed university, and she works on weekends at Nippon.

The job interview that Kristófer has with Takahashi-san starts off awkwardly until Kristófer mentions he comes from a fishing village. It’s something that Kristófer and Takahashi-san have in common. Takahashi-san is also an immigrant living in London. Takahashi-san says he moved and Miko moved from Japan to London in 1957.

Takahashi-san is impressed with Kristófer’s knowledge of all types of fish. Takahashi-san mentions that the dishwasher job will also entail helping out doing some cooking kitchen. Kristófer says he’s eager to do it, and he gets the job.

Kristófer is a quick learner and shows great respect for Japanese culture and cuisine. He decides to learn Japanese. After Kristófer find out who Miko is, they mildly flirt with each other but he keeps a polite distance, even though they obviously feel attracted to each other. Kristófer also gets along with his Nippon co-workers. In particular, he has a very friendly rapport with a middle-aged waitress named Hitomi (played by Meg Kubota), who treats him a little bit like a younger brother.

The first time that Kristófer and Miko have a conversation, they’re in the back room of Nippon. The Plastic Ono Band anti-war song “Give Peace a Chance” (written and sung by John Lennon) is playing in the background, Miko says to Kristófer that he reminds her of Lennon—and it’s not just because Kristófer has dark hair, a beard and wears round glasses like Lennon. Miko is often coy when talking to Kristófer and sometimes she is very direct in asking him personal questions.

Kristófer’s hopes of getting closer to Miko are temporarily dashed when she introduces him to her boyfriend Naruki (played by Masaya Mimura), who looks like he’ about five to eight years older than Miko. Kristófer is polite to Naruki but deep down, Kristófer is disappointed that Miko already has a boyfriend. It’s later shown in the movie how romance develops between Kristófer and Miko and what eventually happened to Naruki.

The love story is the obvious center of “Touch,” but the movie also has empathetic portrayals of the generational traumas caused by the World War II atomic bombings in Japan, specifically in Hiroshima. Kristófer also sees firsthand that racism against Japanese people is a lot closer to him than he thought it was, when Jónas and Markús visit Nippon as customers and make racist remarks about Japanese people in front of the employees.

In order for a movie like “Touch” to have its greatest emotional impact, the love story between Kristófer and Miko has to be convincing. Fortunately, Pálmi Kormákur and Kōki give very good performances that will make viewers root for this couple who quickly fall in love but also keep their love affair hidden from Takahashi-san, for various reasons. Kristófer does not want their romance to be a secret, but Miko is very afraid of her father and other people in her Japanese community of find out this secret.

The trailer for “Touch” already reveals that in 1969, Kristófer was shocked to find out that Takahashi-san abruptly closed restaurant and left London with Miko, who never said goodbye or contacted Kristófer again. The Nippon employees were not given any information on where Takahashi-san and Miko went. A flashback in the movie shows that when Kristófer went to the apartment where Takahashi-san and Miko lived, no one there knew any information either.

Now that he is a widower, Kristófer wants to find out what happened to Miko and why she disappeared from his life so suddenly. The movie’s scenes that take place in 2020 consist of Kristófer getting clues and following those clues in his quest to find out what happened to Miko. The movie implies that Kristófer doesn’t know how to use the Internet because he uses other ways to get the information that he needs.

Ólafsson gives a very endearing performance as elderly Kristófer (who is still mild-mannered and gentle), but there are many unanswered questions about Kristófer by the time he goes on the search for Miko. It can be presumed that the filmmakers of “Touch” didn’t want to delve too much into elderly Kristófer’s life as a husband and father because it would perhaps take away from the intention for viewers to anticipate a reunion between Kristófer and Miko.

Aside from having big voids in Kristófer’s backstory from 1970 to 2020, it’s hard not to notice that Pálmi Kormákur is much taller (by about four or five inches) than Ólafsson. It’s somewhat distracting to see how much shorter elderly Kristófer is, compared to young Kristófer. (And it’s not because elderly Kristófer walks hunched over.)

This disparity in physical height is not nearly as problematic as how the “Touch” movie makes a point of mentioning in the beginning that elderly Kristófer has dementia, but then the dementia is never shown for the rest of the movie. It didn’t need to be a dementia sob story, but a little more realism would’ve helped in showing that elderly Kristófer has this serious disease and why he feels like his time is running out to find Miko. During the entire time that he looks for Miko, elderly Kristófer’s mental and cognitive abilities seem perfectly fine, with no signs of memory loss, as if his dementia magically disappeared.

Although “Touch” bungles the accuracy in portraying someone with dementia, the movie excels in the emotional aspects of this story. Of course, there are twists and turns in the search for Miko. “Touch” is very effective in showing that this search isn’t about nostalgia but it’s about reconnecting with a loved one and sharing the parts of yourself that never went away.

Focus Features released “Touch” in select U.S. cinemas on July 12, 2024. The movie was released in Iceland on May 29, 2024.

Review: ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’ (2023), starring Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabama Azmi and Emma Thompson

June 7, 2023

by Carla Hay

Shazad Latif and Lily James in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” (Photo by Robert Viglasky/StudioCanal SAS and Shout! Studios)

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” (2023)

Directed by Shekhar Kapur

Some language in Urdu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in London and briefly in Pakistan, the romantic comedy/drama film “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” features a white and Pakistani cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A white British documentary filmmaker, who is cynical about love and committed relationships, does a documentary about her close male Pakistani British friend having an arranged marriage, and she struggles with admitting that she might actually want him for herself. 

Culture Audience: “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” will appeal primarily to people who like capably acted romantic movies where friends could turn into lovers.

Pictured from left to right: Pazika Baig, Mim Shaikj, Iman Boujelouah, Shabana Azmi, Shazad Latif and Jeff Mirza in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” (Photo by Robert Viglasky/ StudioCanal SAS and Shout! Studios)

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” gets its title from the hypothetical question about what is really the key to a successful marriage. Are compatibility and respect more important than love, in order for a marital union to last? This romantic comedy/drama follows a very predictable formula, but the engaging lead performances by Lily James and Shazad Latif make the movie watchable. It’s a rare Western-studio film that explores the South Asian culture of arranged marriages.

Directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Jemima Khan, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” (which takes place in London and briefly in Pakistan) is a mixed bag of a film that has dialogue that is sometimes witty, sometimes cringeworthy. The movie’s perspective of contrasting cultures keeps everything from sinking into forgettable blandness. Within the first 15 minutes of the film, it’s all very easy to predict how it will end.

In the meantime, most of the characters have enough appeal to be interesting but not enough uniqueness to be outstanding. A movie about two longtime best friends who could end up being lovers usually makes these two would-be lovers have opposite personalities. That’s certainly the case with documentarian Zoe Stephenson (played by James) and her longtime best friend Kazim “Kaz” Khan (played by Latif), who is a medical doctor.

Zoe and Kaz have known each other ever since their childhoods, when Zoe’s family (who are native Brits) and Kaz’s family (who are mostly Pakistani immigrants) used to be neighbors. Kaz is 32, and Zoe is about the same age. Zoe is impulsive, sometimes tactless, and has a messy love life. Kaz likes to plan ahead, is very diplomatic, and usually has stable relationships with the women he dates.

Zoe’s parents got divorced when Zoe was a child because her father left the family to be with a younger woman. Zoe’s mother Cath Stevenson (played by Emma Thompson) is still bitter about it. And although Zoe doesn’t really like to admit it, Zoe has also been negatively affected by the divorce, because she doesn’t think having a loving and committed relationship is going to happen to her.

Zoe is very close to her sister Helena (played by Alice Orr-Ewing), who is not as cynical about love and commitment as Zoe is. Helena and her husband Harry (played by Peter Sandys-Clarke) have two children together: Lily (played by Grace Askew) and Maud (played by Lolly Askew), who are about 7 to 9 years old. Zoe sometimes babysits her nieces, whom she adores. The movie uses a narrative technique of Zoe telling fairytales to Maud and Lily. The fairytales are really based on what Zoe is currently going through in her love life.

Kaz has two happily married siblings. His brother Farooq Khan (played by Mim Shaikh) is in an arranged marriage to Yasmin Khan (played by Iman Boujelouah), who is also of Pakistani heritage. Kaz’s sister Jamila (played by Mariam Haque) is married to a white Brit named David (played by Michael Marcus) in a non-arranged marriage. The parents of Kaz are well-meaning but domineering Zahid Khan (played by Jeff Mirza) and Aisha Khan (played by Shabana Azmi), who are also in an arranged marriage. Zahid’s mother Nani Jan Khan (played by Pakiza Baig) lives with Zahid and Aisha.

The Khan family is very close to each other, for the most part. The biggest rift in the family is that Zahid and Aisha do not approve of Jamila being married to someone who isn’t Muslim. Zahid and Aisha are also upset because Jamila did not take their advice to have an arranged marriage. As a result, Jamila has become estranged from the rest of the family.

The beginning of “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” shows the Khan family at a traditional Pakistani wedding, with Zoe and Cath also in attendance. At the moment, Zoe is feeling lovelorn because she hasn’t had any luck finding true love. She tells Kaz that at this point in her life, she’d be happy to settle for someone she likes instead of a grand love affair: “Someone I could commit to watching a whole TV series would be nice.”

And then, Kaz surprises Zoe with the news that he’s agreed to his parents’ wishes to get an arranged marriage to someone whom he hasn’t met yet. Kaz doesn’t like to call it an “arranged marriage.” He prefers to call it an “assisted marriage.” Zoe isn’t happy about this news because she thinks it’s a big mistake for Kaz to be in this type of marriage. She says out loud to him that she thought he had more independence to make his own decisions on whom to marry.

Shortly after getting this news, Zoe has a meeting with two movie producers named Olly (played by Alexander Own) and Sam (played by Ben Ashenden), two fast-talking filmmakers who have a “film bros” attitude tinged with sexism. Olly and Sam tell Zoe that they’re not moving forward with her pitch to do a documentary about honor killings. Sam and Olly think the subject matter is too depressing and not something that they think a woman filmmaker should do.

Zoe is desperate to get financing for her next project, so she impulsively tells Olly and Sam that her next documentary will be about arranged marriages, with her friend Kaz as the main subject. She also spontaneously thinks of the documentary’s title: “Love Contractually,” in a cheeky nod to the title of the 2003 romantic dramedy “Love Actually.” Olly and Sam like this idea and give the go-ahead to Zoe to do the movie.

Zoe lies and says that Kaz and his family have agreed to be in the documentary. Luckily for her, she quickly persuades Kaz and his family to do the documentary by promising them that she will be respectful of their Pakistani and Muslim customs. Kaz is reluctant at first, but he changes his mind when Zoe convinces him that she will make everyone look good. And as soon as she makes this promise, you just know that something will go very wrong.

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” then goes back and forth between showing Zoe working on the documentary and trying unsuccessfully to find her next boyfriend. Cath, who has a dog named Barney, asks Zoe to take Barney to a veterinarian named James (played by Oliver Chris), a nice guy who just happens to be an eligible bachelor. It’s all a matchmaking setup from Cath. Zoe resists it at first, but she eventually agrees to date James out of sheer loneliness and desperation.

Meanwhile, Zoe gets more irritable as Kaz’s wedding date gets closer. Kaz’s bride-to-be is a 22-year-old aspiring human rights attorney named Maymouna (played by Sajal Ali), who is seemingly quiet and reserved. Kaz and Maymouna like each other, even though their conversations are awkward, as they get to know each other better. Kaz doesn’t quite understand why Zoe isn’t very happy that he’s getting married. You know where this is all going, of course.

To the movie’s credit, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” doesn’t portray the principal characters as ideal human beings. Zoe is not a perfectly likeable heroine. She’s got some big flaws, including having horrible judgment when it comes to dating, as well as a tendency to let her pride get in the way of being honest about her feelings.

Zoe’s mother Cath can be very prickly and difficult. Cath also has a racist side, such as in a scene where Cath privately tells Zoe that Cath is amazed that Kaz’s Pakistani family is sophisticated because the family is Pakistani. As for Kaz, his main personality flaws are his stubbornness and his reluctance to admit to his mistakes. Kaz’s tendency to be a people pleaser sometimes leads him to be deceptive in ways that can hurt people, including himself.

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” doesn’t clutter up the movie with too many characters, but parts of the film lack focus, such as when it goes off on a tangent by showing some of the things going on in the marriage of Helena and Harry. Asim Chaudhry has a brief but hilarious supporting role as Mohammad “Mo” Bagri, a London-based matchmaker whose specialty is matchmaking for people of South Asian heritage. He has a company called Mohammad Bagri’s Matrimonial Bureau that is featured in Zoe’s documentary, because the Khan family is a client.

Although some of the characters occasionally come close to being caricatures, the principal characters (the Kaz’s family and Zoe’s family) all retain realistic qualities. “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” benefits from having a talented cast that can portray these characters with a certain level of believability. James and Latif have good-enough chemistry, but it’s not great. Thompson, as Zoe’s mother Cath, is always a delight to watch, even when she’s portraying a character who says and does off-putting things.

What isn’t as believable is some of the inevitable, contrived mush that gets crammed into the latter part of the movie, in order to deliver the resolutions that most audiences expect for this type of romantic film. “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” shows flashes of clever satire, such as in how Olly and Sam represent the smarmy side of the film industry. But in the end, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” succumbs to conventionality. Considering the subject matter, it’s not a surprise, but it’s handled capably enough for it to deliver some genuinely funny scenes amid the romantic fluff.

Shout! Studios released “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” in select U.S. cinemas on May 5, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on May 26, 2023.

Review: ‘Polite Society,’ starring Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya

April 28, 2023

by Carla Hay

Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya in “Polite Society” (Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh/Focus Features)

“Polite Society”

Directed by Nida Manzoor

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the comedy film “Polite Society” features a racially diverse cast of characters (South Asian, white and a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A teenage girl, who wants to become a stunt performer, tries to stop her older sister from getting married to a smooth-talking, wealthy man, who wants the couple to move to Singapore after the wedding. 

Culture Audience: “Polite Society” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching female-empowerment comedies, told from a multicultural perspective.

Nimra Bucha stars as Raheela and Priya Kansara in “Polite Society” (Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh/Focus Features)

“Polite Society” has fun with its absurdist take on action films. It makes clever commentary about modern feminism and how aspirational culture affects people. Nida Manzoor has sharp writing and directing in this well-cast movie with great comedic timing. It’s an impressive feature-film debut for Manzoor, who has TV directing credits for “Doctor Who” and “We Are Parts.” “Polite Society” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

In “Polite Society” (which takes place in London), two intelligent sisters named Ria Khan (played by Priya Kansara) and Lena Khan (played by Ritu Arya) are feeling frustrated with their lives for different reasons. Ria, who’s about 16 years old, wants to be a stunt performer and is taking martial arts classes in preparation. Ria believes in herself when pursuing this goal, even though most people around her think that this goal in unattainable for her. Lena, who’s in her early-to-mid 20s, is enrolled in art school in the very beginning of the film, but she drops out of school because she doesn’t believe that she has the talent to become a successful artist.

Ria is very upset that Lena has dropped out of school because she thinks that Lena is a talented artist but just gave up too easily. Lena moves back into the family home and mopes around while she contemplates what she might want to do with her life. The parents of Ria and Lena are immigrants from Pakistan. Based on the language accents of the Khan family members, it’s implied that Ria and Lena were either born in the United Kingdom or have been raised in the United Kingdom from a very young age.

Ria and Lena live and experience British and Pakistani cultures. Even though Lena has dropped out of school and is unemployed, her traditional Pakistani parents aren’t as worried about Lena as they are about Ria. That’s because Lena’s accountant father Rafe (played by Jeff Mirza) and homemaker mother Fatima (played Shobu Kapoor) think that Lena can redeem herself by finding a husband, preferably someone who is affluent. Rafe and Fatima think Ria’s interest in being a stunt performer is an unrealistic dream and not very feminine.

Ria attends an elite private school, where her two best friends are classmates: feisty Clara (played by Seraphina Beh) and mild-mannered Alba (played by Ella Bruccoleri), who are the only people in Ria’s life who encourage Ria to pursue her goals of being a stunt performer. Ria also makes amateur stunt videos that she puts on social media. Lena sometimes does camera work for these videos.

One of Ria’s goals is to do an internship with Eunice Huthart, a longtime stunt performer/coordinator who has worked on several superhero films and other action flicks. “Polite Society” includes voiceover narration from Ria, including Ria reading aloud the fan mail that she sends to Eunice. You know where this part of the story is going, of course.

Early on in the movie, Ria’s mother scolds Ria by saying, “Do you think your father sends you to that school to be a stunt woman?” At Ria’s school, there’s a guidance counselor session where students are assigned internships, according to what a counselor decides would be the best career direction for each student. It’s something that should be discussed privately, but these evaluations are done in front of the entire classroom.

When it’s Ria’s turn to get her assignment, she tells the counselor Ms. Spence (played by Jenny Funnell) that she wants to be a stunt performer. Ms. Spence is dismissive of that career goal, because she thinks being a stunt performer isn’t a real job for women or even a real job in acting. Ms. Spence assigns Ria to be an intern to a medical doctor, even though Ria tells her she has no interest in this line of work. There are some racial undertones to this assignment because of the stereotype that children of Pakistani immigrants want to work in careers involving science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

A loudmouth bully named Kovacs (played by Shona Babayemi), who is a female classmate, predictably taunts Ria about Ria’s desire to be a stunt performer. Ria retorts by loudly reminding the class that Kovacs’ father was in prison for financial fraud. At one point in the movie, Ria and Kovacs get in a physical fight in a school library. It won’t be revealed who wins this fight, but it’s enough to say that the fight confirms to Ria that she shouldn’t give up on her goal to be a stunt performer.

Meanwhile, Fatima is seen having lunch with a small group of high-society Pakistani immigrant women. The “queen bee” of this group is wealthy widow Raheela Shah (played by Nimra Bucha), who loves to brag about her eligible bachelor son Salim Shah (played by Akshay Khanna), a doctor whose specialty is in genetics. Fatima comes from a lower-income household than those of the other women, and she somewhat desperately wants to fit in this group.

And now that Lena has a lot of time on her hands, Fatima thinks it would be a good idea to play matchmaker for Lena. It just so happens that Raheela has invited the Khan family to a party at her mansion. Salim (who is in his late 20s or early 30s) is at the party, and he’s surrounded by adoring women, who all look like they want to date him. However, Raheela has been telling all of her lady friends that Salim is very picky and rejects almost all the women whom Raheela introduces to him.

As soon as Lena arrives at the party and isn’t one of the women fawning over Salim, you just know he’s going to take an interest in her. Lena and Salim begin talking. When he asks her what she’s doing with her life, Salim seems impressed by Lena’s honesty when she tells him, “What do I do? I disappoint my parents.” And when Lena says that she’s taking some time to figure out what she wants to do with her life, Salim tells her: “I think it’s great that you’re allowing yourself to be working it out.”

Meanwhile, Ria doesn’t have a very good impression of Salim. At the party, Ria tells an acquaintaince named Jezah (played by Tia Dutt), who’s close to Ria’s age, what she thinks about Salim as soon as she sees him: “What a prick.” Jezah openly swoons about how handsome and rich Salim is and says to Ria: “I hear he’s quite nice.” Ria says in sarcastic response: “Biscuits are nice.”

Ria is bored at this party, so she goes wandering around the mansion. And she makes a discovery that further raises her suspicions: In a study room, she finds a desk with several individual photos of women on it. Lena is one of the women in these photos. It looks like someone is planning which women could possibly date Salim. This type of planned matchmaking is very common in South Asian cultures, but Ria thinks it’s offensive.

It’s already revealed in the trailer for “Polite Society” that Lena and Salim get engaged. It’s a whirlwind courtship where Salim proposed to Lena after they were dating for only one month. Ria, who vehemently disapproves of this relationship, gets even more upset when she finds out that Lena and Salim plan to move to Singapore after the wedding. Ria also thinks it’s alarming that Salim is a “mama’s boy” who seems overly attached to his mother.

The rest of “Polite Society” is about Ria’s schemes to stop the wedding by any means necessary. She enlists the help of Clara and Alba. And the three pals also get some assistance from an unlikely person. There’s a lot of slapstick comedy in “Polite Society” but also some emotional moments about family relationships.

“Polite Society” takes a satirical look at the lengths that some people might go to climb up a social ladder or to stroke their own egos. The movie is filled with examples of how several people want to be accepted by those who are rich and powerful, while those who are rich and powerful often want to make other people feel inferior. In the beginning of the movie, Lena likes to think of herself as bohemian and edgy, but even she gets caught up in the idea of being a pampered trophy wife who is the opposite of bohemian and edgy.

Even with all the jokes and over-the-top action scenes, “Polite Society” also depicts examples of how women and girls can be “gaslighted” into thinking that they’re “crazy” for pursuing certain goals or for trusting their gut instincts. Although much of the plot is about Ria trying to stop Lena from getting married, the movie isn’t anti-marriage. It’s against the idea that people, especially women, have to give up who they are, in order to fit into someone else’s idea of what a “perfect spouse” should be.

One of the reasons why “Polite Society” is so entertaining to watch is because of the believable chemistry between the cast members. Kansara and Arya are especially convincing as sisters who have a volatile relationship that still has a lot of love. Bucha has some standout moments as Raheela, who becomes Ria’s biggest nemesis in the story.

“Polite Society” doesn’t present Ria as always being correct. It would be very easy to portray Ria as a crusading feminist who has all the answers, but the movie doesn’t make that lazy mistake. Ria is realistically presented as a flawed human being. Ria can get obnoxious in trying to prove her point, because one of Ria’s flaws is that she thinks she is always right. And it causes an even bigger rift between Ria and Lena.

In the last third of “Polite Society,” there’s a plot development that some viewers might not like because they’ll think the movie is taking a sharp turn into science fiction. However, there are clear indications throughout the movie that this story is a heightened version of reality. It’s not easy to balance wacky comedy with serious commentary about how women and girls are constantly being dictated to about how they should look or act when living their lives. “Polite Society” handles this balance as skillfully as an agile stunt performer.

Ria makes some comments in the movie that are criticisms of patriarchy, but “Polite Society” is not a feminist film that’s about bashing men. It’s a movie that encourages tolerance for women’s choices in life. Some of those choices might be mistakes, but people should be given an opportunity to learn from those mistakes.

Ria has to learn that her way of approaching life might not work for other people. Ria’s first impulse is to “rescue” her sister Lena from a life that Ria thinks will make Lena unhappy, but does Lena really need Ria to tell Lena what should make Lena happy? These types of meaningful observations make “Polite Society” better than the average female-oriented action comedies, which often depict feminism as shallow scenarios instead of experiences that truly embody female empowerment.

Focus Features released “Polite Society” in U.S. cinemas on April 28, 2023.

Review: ‘Rye Lane,’ starring David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah

April 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah in “Rye Lane” (Photo by Chris Harris/Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)

“Rye Lane”

Directed by Raine Allen-Miller

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the comedy film “Rye Lane” features a cast of white and black characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man and a woman in their 20s, who have opposite personalities and have had recent romantic breakups with other people, meet by chance in a public restroom and start a banter-filled relationship that could turn into more than a friendship. 

Culture Audience: “Rye Lane” will appeal primarily to fans of quick-paced romantic comedies that skillfully blend realistic and fantastical elements.

David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah in “Rye Lane” (Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)

“Rye Lane” takes the usual romantic comedy formula, gives it a witty spin, and drenches it in Great Britain’s vibrant South London culture. Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson give winning performances in this funny and endearing movie. “Rye Lane” is the type of romantic comedy that could charm viewers who don’t like most romantic comedies, as long as viewers who understand the English language are willing to tolerate the heavy London accents in the movie.

Directed by Raine Allen-Miller, “Rye Lane” (her feature-film directorial debut) brings a dynamic visual aesthetic that is very reminiscent of hip-hop videos of the mid-to-late 1990s: bright hues, fish-eye lens camera shots, and fantasy sequences interspersed with the main characters’ “reality.” (Olan Collardy is the cinematographer for “Rye Lane.”) This visual flair greatly complements the appealing “Rye Lane” screenplay, which was written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. “Rye Lane” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

“Rye Lane” (which takes place entirely in South London) begins with overhead views of the camera looking down at various people in toilet stalls in a unisex public restroom at a trendy art exhibit. One of the people in the stalls is a mild-mannered accountant in his mid-20s named Dom (played by Jonsson), who is privately weeping over a breakup he had three months ago with a girlfriend he had dated for six years. An outspoken woman, who’s about the same age as Dom, enters the toilet stall next to his stall during his heartbroken sobbing.

Her name is Yas (played by Oparah), which is short for Yasmin. Dom doesn’t know it yet, but Yas will soon become a part of his life. Yas notices that Dom is crying and tells him that she can hear him. A startled Dom says that Yas is in the men’s room, but Yas corrects him and says that the restroom is actually unisex. Yas peeks underneath the stall and sees the lower half of what Dom is wearing. An embarrassed Dom quickly leaves the restroom.

The art exhibit is for Dom’s friend Nathan Armstrong (played by Simon Manyonda), an avant-garde photographer whose current specialty is taking close-up photos of people’s body parts. For this particular exhibit, the photos are close-ups of people’s open mouths. It’s an interesting metaphor for this dialogue-driven movie, where the two protagonists get to know each other through snappy conversations that later turn into heartfelt revelations.

Dom is obviously still reeling from the breakup. He gets upset with Nathan when he finds out that Nathan had brunch at the home that Dom used to share with Dom’s ex-girlfriend Gia (played by Karene Peter). Dom later mentions that he and Nathan have been friends since they were teenagers. They also used to work together at Kentucky Fried Chicken. At this event, Nathan is hyper and more concerned about what people think about his art exhibit than whatever breakup blues that Dom is experiencing.

It doesn’t take long for Yas to find Dom in this exhibit space. She strikes up a conversation with him. Dom explains why he was crying in the restroom. Yas says she broke up with her most recent boyfriend Jules, also known as Julian (played by Malcolm Atobrah), about a month ago, because he cheated on her with his life coach Tabby (played by Alice Hewkin).

It turns out that Dom’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend Gia also ended because of infidelity. Dom tells Yas that he caught Gia cheating on him with his best friend Eric (played by Benjamin Sarpong-Broni). Dom found out that Eric and Gia were lovers during a video chat with Gia, when he saw a naked Eric in the background of the apartment where Dom and Gia lived. There’s a little more to the story about how Dom found out about this betrayal, but those are comedy details that won’t be revealed in this review.

In Dom’s first version of this breakup story, he tells Yas that after he found out about the cheating, he immediately stormed over to the apartment and gave Eric a beatdown. This scenario is shown in the movie. But then, Dom quickly admits that this version isn’t the truth. In reality, when Dom found out about this infidelity, he went to see a movie by himself and cried in the theater.

“Rye Lane” has several scenes where the characters tell their versions of the truth or express fantasies that come alive on screen. Dom and Yas continue their conversation after leaving the exhibit. She wants him to tell her about his life: “I’m interested in people who have messes,” Yas says. “Everyone has a mess.”

Dom says that, believe it or not, he always wanted to be an accountant. By contrast, his friends wanted to get rich and famous as “footballers or YouTube sensations.” He currently lives rent-free with his parents. Dom’s father (played by Andrew Francis) wanted Dom to be more athletic. Dom’s mother (played by Sandra Daley) is overprotective and pampers him by bringing meals to him in bedroom. His mother has fixation on making hard-boiled eggs.

Yas does not reveal much about her background, except to say that when she was a child, she wanted to be like Prince during his “Purple Rain” era. Yas tells Dom that she’s currently a fashion buyer for “an online brand you’ve never heard of,” and her dream is to become a costume designer. “I’ll get there eventually,” she says with wistfulness. Yas has a supportive best friend Cass (played by Poppy Allen-Quarmby), who makes only a few brief appearances in the movie,

During the conversations between Yas and Dom, it’s obvious that they have different personalities. Yas is bold, brash and fast-talking. Dom is a little timid, more hesitant about himself, and he thinks more carefully about how his words can affect someone’s feelings. Yas says she’s ready to move on from her recent breakup, while Dom isn’t so ready to get over his breakup.

Dom believes he’ll able to get closure by accepting an invitation to meet with Gia and Eric (who are now a couple) for dinner at the same restaurant where Dom and Gia used to go on romantic dates. Dom mentions the name of the restaurant to Yas. Yas gives her unsolicited opinion that Dom will be “rolling over like a bitch” if he has this meeting.

Still, Yas offers to be Dom’s date to help him get through this meeting. He politely declines the offer, and she seems slightly hurt by this rejection. When Dom reaches out to shake her hand and say goodbye, Yas flippantly tells Dom: “Good luck not having an extraordinary life.”

But since “Rye Lane” is a romantic comedy, Dom hasn’t seen the last of Yas. Shortly after this awkward dinner meeting begins, Yas suddenly shows up at the restaurant, sits down next to Dom, and pretends that she’s his new lover. And she doesn’t hold back on her sassiness and brutally honest opinions. It’s the beginning of an emotional roller coaster for Dom and Yas.

As good as the writing and direction are for “Rye Lane,” much of the movie’s liveliness comes from the believable chemistry between Jonsson and Oparah. It’s a case of “opposites attract” for Dom and Yas, but in a relatable way that will make viewers want to root for Yas and Dom to become a couple. “Rye Lane” also pokes some fun at working-class people who are social climbers and put on pretentious airs—as exemplified by Nathan and Jules, who makes very tacky art decorations and consider himself to be a high-end artist. Yas met Nathan because Nathan and Jules know each other, which is why Yas was invited to Nathan’s art exhibit, where she met Dom.

There’s a very contrived plot development of Yas and Dom trying to gain access to Jules’ home when he’s not there, because she wants to retrieve her vinyl album of A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory” that she accidentally left behind in the breakup. The expected hijinks ensue, but “Rye Lane” still has some unexpected surprises. One of these surprises (that has no bearing on the plot) is an uncredited cameo by Colin Firth, as a food server named Colin at a Latino fast-food place called “Love Gua’ctually,” which is “Rye Lane’s” cheeky nod to Firth’s 2003 romantic comedy/drama “Love Actually” and the guacamole served at this fast-food place. Like all entertaining romantic comedies that resonate with audiences, “Rye Lane” has plenty of amusing moments but also shows the beauty of what happens when people open up and show their true selves when falling in love.

Hulu premiered “Rye Lane” on March 31, 2023. Searchlight Pictures released the move in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2023.

Review: ‘My Happy Ending,’ starring Andie MacDowell, Miriam Margolyes, Sally Phillips, Rakhee Thakrar, Tom Cullen, Michelle Greenidge and Tamsin Greig

March 11, 2023

by Carla Hay

Tamsin Greig and Andie MacDowell in “My Happy Ending” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“My Happy Ending”

Directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon

Culture Representation: Taking place mainly in London, the comedy/drama film “My Happy Ending” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and people of South Asian heritage) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: While in London to work in a West End play that flops, a famous American actress reluctantly gets treatment for Stage 4 colon cancer in a public hospital, where she makes unexpected friends with three other female cancer patients. 

Culture Audience: “My Happy Ending” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Andie MacDowell and movies that have simple-minded depictions of cancer treatment.

Sally Phillips, Andie MacDowell, Miriam Margolyes and Rakhee Thakrar in “My Happy Ending” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“My Happy Ending” is anything but joyful. The only happy ending that viewers might get from watching this poorly made and fake-looking cancer comedy/drama is when this boring train wreck is finally over. Tamsin Greig gives the movie’s only adequate performance. Everyone else’s acting falls flat.

Directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, “My Happy Ending” is based on the play “Sof Tov,” written by Anat Gov. Rona Tamir wrote the shoddy adapted screenplay for “My Happy Ending.” Most of the movie takes place in the section of a London hospital where cancer patients are being treated. Anyone who endures the entirety of this dreadful film will have to sit through tiresome scenes that either show people complaining about something, gossiping about other people, or having fantasies about being in an exotic place.

Almost nothing about this movie looks authentic, including the fact that the story’s protagonist has Stage 4 colon cancer, but she never looks like she’s sick or in pain. Cancer just seems to be used as a cheap gimmick to get laughs from listless and unfunny dialogue posing as “jokes.” Cancer is a tricky subject to cover for entertainment. “My Happy Ending” fails miserably on every single level.

The improbably healthy-looking Stage 4 cancer patient who’s at the center of “My Happy Ending” is a famous American actress named Julia Roth (played by Andie MacDowell), who spends much of the movie whining that she doesn’t want to be at this hospital that isn’t private enough for her. Considering all the hospitals that exist in England, viewers will constantly be thinking this solution to Julia’s hospital problem: “Why don’t you just leave?” It’s the same question that viewers might be thinking if they’re stuck watching this movie somewhere and are debating whether or not to keep watching this mopey garbage.

The movie has this flimsy excuse for why Julia doesn’t leave the hospital that she’s constantly griping about: Her main physician Dr. Fletcher (who is never seen or heard in the movie), who is in the United States, recommended her to Dr. Ben Hanson (played by Tom Cullen), who only works at this particular hospital. Someone should have told Julia: “Haven’t you heard of getting another doctor’s opinion?”

Julia also reveals about halfway through the movie that she only recently found out that she has cancer, and she doesn’t know what Stage 4 cancer means. It means she needs to get a better doctor. And it means this movie needed a better screenplay.

These are just a few of many reasons why “My Happy Ending” falls off the rails over and over again in pathetic attempts to be a “female empowerment” film. Most of the scenes with the female cancer patients together show that the women are too gossipy and too catty to become real friends. Julia is uncomfortable because she’s put in an infusion therapy room with three other female patients, who immediately recognize her. Julia throws a little bit of a diva tantrum, because she was promised her own private room for the infusion treatments, but she’s told by a no-nonsense nurse named Emilia (played by Michelle Greenidge) that Julia has no choice but to be in this shared room with other patients.

What is Julia doing in London? She recently starred in a West End play that flopped. (The play opened and closed during the same week.) Even though Julia is famous, her career peaked years ago. She blames her “has-been” status on sexism and ageism against women who are over the age of 50. It’s probably the only complaint that Julia makes that sounds believable and grounded in reality.

Julia has only told a few people she has cancer. Members of her immediate family do not know yet. Julia is also very paranoid that the media will find out about her cancer. Julia tries to hide in a section of the room that has a thin fabric partition, similar to a shower curtain, but it’s a futile attempt to get some privacy, because three nosy women in the room can still hear Julia talking on the phone and talking to hospital employees.

The three other cancer patients in the room are star-struck that celebrity Julia is in their midst while also envious that Julia still has a full head of hair. Middle-aged Mikey (played by Sally Phillips) is an intrusive busybody and a single mother who regrets being a neglectful parent when she was younger. Elderly cynic Miriam (played by Miriam Margolyes) is a Holocaust survivor who says she was born in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Young married mother Imaan (played by Rakhee Thakrar) is the quietest and most mild-mannered of these three women. It turns out that Mikey is a big fan of Julia and is kind of obsessed with her, which makes Mikey look creepy and weird.

Julia has a very hyper and snobby manager named Nancy (played by Greig), who is openly a lesbian and just so happens to be the sister of Julia’s ex-husband. (The ex-husband is never seen or heard in the movie.) Even though that marriage failed, the friendship of Nancy and Julia survived the divorce. Nancy is Julia’s closest friend, which is a sign that Julia is a lonely person if her closest friend is also her manager. Nancy, who is an ambitious schemer, is the only person in Julia’s inner circle who knows about Julia’s cancer.

Julia has a daughter in her 20s named Cassidy (played by Lily Travers), who is getting married in an upcoming wedding. Julia frets about what Julia will look like when she’s at the wedding. “My Happy Ending” has a scene where Julia reacts in horror when she imagines being at Cassidy’s wedding in a wheelchair and with no hair. Instead of worrying about how glamorous she wants to look at her daughter’s wedding, Julia should be more worried about living long enough to be at the wedding.

The first third of the movie is about Julia not being able to make up her mind if she wants to be friends with “common folks” like Mikey, Miriam and Imaan. They aren’t exactly welcoming to Julia either at first. Julia has to listen to these three (especially loudmouth Mikey) constantly make reaction comments as they eavesdrop on conversations that Julia has with Nancy or hospital employees. It’s just a “mean girls” scenario that is neither amusing nor interesting.

Julia asks Nancy to find her another hospital, but there are vague and weak excuses made that the nearest hospital that could treat Julia is just too far away. Meanwhile, the movie has a lot of time-wasting scenes of Julia clashing with Dr. Hanson, as if he’s the only person who could possibly be her doctor. The movie also drags on and on in stretching out the subplot of Julia deciding whether or not she will get chemotherapy.

Eventually (as shown in the “My Happy Ending” trailer), Julia decides that these three other cancer patients in the infusion room are worth getting to know. The movie then goes off on a very corny tangent where Mikey confides in Julia that they all have group fantasies together to take their minds off of their cancer issues. Mikey invites Julia to join in on their group fantasies, which range from frolicking in a forest to eating sumptuous banquets in open fields to having rave parties on exotic beaches.

There is so much that looks awkward and phony in “My Happy Ending,” including MacDowell’s very stiff acting. It’s a disappointment, because MacDowell is capable of doing much better, but there’s only so much she can do with a terrible screenplay and misguided direction. When she grits her teeth in the movie, it’s probably not because her Julia character is uncomfortable. It’s probably because MacDowell knows that she signed up to be in a bad movie.

British comedian David Walliams has a cameo as a hair stylist named Joey, who stops by the infusion room to bring Mikey some wigs to choose from, since Mikey is bald because of chemotherapy. And what a coincidence: Joey worked with Julia years ago on a movie adaptation of a Jane Austen novel. He’s surprised to see Julia in this hospital room for cancer patients, so Julia lies and tells Joey that she’s doing “research” for a movie role. Walliams’ cameo is so inconsequential, it just reeks of the “My Happy Ending” filmmakers thinking, “Oh, look, we’ve got David Walliams in our movie. Let’s not bother to have a good role for him. Stunt casting is enough.”

That’s not the only thing that reeks in “My Happy Ending.” This entire movie reeks of glib insincerity. Even though Julia wallows in a lot of self-pity about having Stage 4 cancer, the movie never actually shows her going through any real physical suffering that a Stage 4 cancer patient would experience. It’s such a fraudulent way of making a cancer film, it will surely offend people who’ve had cancer experiences in real life. “My Happy Ending” actually has a horrible ending that’s proof the filmmakers made the tacky decision to use cancer in an exploitative way, in order to get people interested in this awful movie.

Roadside Attractions released “My Happy Ending” in select U.S. cinemas on February 24, 2023.

2023 BAFTA Awards: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is the top winner

February 19, 2023

Felix Kammermer in “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Photo by Reiner Bajo/Netflix)

With seven awards, including Best Film, Netflix’s World War I drama “All Quiet on the Western Front” was the top winner for the 76th annual BAFTA Film Awards, which were presented at London’s Royal Festival Hall on February 19, 2023. The ceremony (hosted by Richard E. Grant and Alison Hammond) was televised in the United Kingdom on BBC and in the U.S. on BBC America. Eligible films were those released in the United Kingdom in 2022. With 14 nominations going into the ceremony, German-language “All Quiet on the Western Front” made BAFTA history as the non-English-language movie with the most BAFTA nominations. The BAFTA Film Awards are nominated and voted for by the British Academy of Film and Television.

In addition to winning Best Film, “All Quiet on the Western Front” won the BAFTAs for Best Director (for Edward Berger), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Not in the English Language. Also winning multiple BAFTA Film Awards was Searchlght Pictures’ Irish comedy/drama “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Warner Bros. Pictures’ Elvis Presley biopic “Elvis,” which won four prizes each. “The Banshees of Inisherin” won Best British Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (for Barry Keoghan), and Best Supporting Actress (for Kerry Condon). “Elvis” took the prizes for Best Leading Actor (for Austin Butler), Best Casting, Best Costume Design, and Best Make Up and Hair. Cate Blanchett of “TÁR” won the prize for Best Leading Actress. Costume designer Sandy Powell was given the Fellowship Award, a non-competitive prize whose recipient is announced before the ceremony takes place.

Here is the complete list of winners and nominations for the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards:

*=winner

Best Film

“All Quiet on the Western Front”*
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Elvis”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“TÁR”

Outstanding British Film

“Aftersun”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”*
“Brian and Charles”
“Empire of Light”
“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”
“Living”
“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”
“See How They Run”
“The Swimmers”
“The Wonder”

Best Director

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Edward Berger*
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin Mcdonagh
“Decision to Leave” – Park Chan-wook
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
“TÁR” – Todd Field
“The Woman King” – Gina Prince-Bythewood

Best Leading Actor

Austin Butler, “Elvis”*
Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
Daryl McCormack, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”
Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
Bill Nighy, “Living”

Best Leading Actress

Cate Blanchett, “TÁR”*
Viola Davis, “The Woman King”
Danielle Deadwyler, “Till”
Ana De Armas, “Blonde”
Emma Thompson, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”
Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”*
Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Good Nurse”
Albrecht Schuch, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Micheal Ward, “Empire of Light”

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Hong Chau, “The Whale”
Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”*
Dolly De Leon, “Triangle of Sadness”
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
Carey Mulligan, “She Said”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell*
“Living” – Kazuo Ishiguro
“The Quiet Girl” – Colm Bairéad
“She Said” – Rebecca Lenkiewicz
“The Whale” – Samuel D. Hunter

Best Original Screenplay

“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh*
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
“The Fabelmans” – Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg
“TÁR” – Todd Field
“Triangle of Sadness” – Ruben Östlund

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

“Aftersun” – Charlotte Wells (Writer/director)*
“Blue Jean” – Georgia Oakley (Writer/director), Hélène Sifre (Producer)
“Electric Malady” – Marie Lidén (Director)
“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” – Katy Brand (Writer)
“Rebellion” – Maia Kenworthy and Elena Sánchez Bellot (Directors)

Original Score

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Volker Bertelmann*
“Babylon” – Justin Hurwitz
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Carter Burwell
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Son Lux
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” – Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – James Friend*
“The Batman” – Greig Fraser
“Elvis” – Mandy Walker
“Empire of Light” – Roger Deakins
“Top Gun: Maverick” – Claudio Miranda

Film Not in the English Language

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Edward Berger, Malte Grunert*
“Argentina, 1985” – Santiago Mitre, Producer(S) Tbc
“Corsage” – Marie Kreutzer
“Decision to Leave” – Park Chan-wook, Ko Dae-seok
“The Quiet Girl” – Colm Bairéad, Cleona Ní Chrualaoí

Documentary

“All That Breathes” – Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons
“Fire of Love” – Sara Dosa, Shane Boris, Ina Fichman
“Moonage Daydream” – Brett Morgan
“Navalny” – Daniel Roher, Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller, Odessa Rae*

Animated Film

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” – Guillermo Del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley*
“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” – Dean Fleisher Camp, Andrew Goldman, Elisabeth Holm, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” – Joel Crawford, Mark Swift
“Turning Red” – Domee Shi, Lindsey Collins

Casting

“Aftersun” – Lucy Pardee
“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Simone Bär
“Elvis” – Nikki Barrett, Denise Chamian*
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Sarah Halley Finn
“Triangle of Sadness” – Pauline Hansson

Production Design

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper
“Babylon” – Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino*
“The Batman” – James Chinlund, Lee Sandales
“Elvis” – Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn
“Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio” – Curt Enderle, Guy Davis

Best Costume Design

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Lisy Christl
“Amsterdam” J.R. Hawbaker, Albert Wolsky
“Babylon” – Mary Zophres
“Elvis” – Catherine Martin*
“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” – Jenny Beavan

Best Make Up and Hair

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Heike Merker
“The Batman” – Naomi Donne, Mike Marino, Zoe Tahir
“Elvis” – Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, Shane Thomas*
“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” – Naomi Donne, Barrie Gower, Sharon Martin
“The Whale” – Anne Marie Bradley, Judy Chin, Adrien Morot

Best Editing

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Sven Budelmann
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
“Elvis” – Jonathan Redmond, Matt Villa
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Paul Rogers*
“Top Gun: Maverick” – Eddie Hamilton

Best Sound

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Lars Ginzsel, Frank Kruse, Viktor Prášil, Markus Stemler*
“Avatar: The Way of Water” – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Julian Howarth, Gary Summers, Gwendoyln Yates Whittle
“Elvis” – Michael Keller, David Lee, Andy Nelson, Wayne Pashley
“TÁR” – Deb Adair, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley, Steve Single, Roland Winke
“Top Gun: Maverick’ – Chris Burdon, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Mark Taylor, Mark Weingarten

Best Visual Effects

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Markus Frank, Kamil Jafar, Viktor Müller, Frank Petzold
“Avatar: The Way of Water” – Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon*
“The Batman” – Russell Earl, Dan Lemmon, Anders Langlands, Dominic Tuohy
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Benjamin Brewer, Ethan Feldbau, Jonathan Kombrinck, Zak Stoltz
“Top Gun: Maverick” – Seth Hill, Scott R. Fisher, Bryan Litson, Ryan Tudhope

British Short Animation

“The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse” – Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, Cara Speller, Hannah Minghella*
“Middle Watch” – John Stevenson, Aiesha Penwarden, Giles Healy
“Your Mountain Is Waiting” – Hannah Jacobs, Zoe Muslim, Harriet Gillian

British Short Film

“The Ballad of Olive Morris” – Alex Kayode-kay
“Bazigaga” – Jo Ingabire Moys, Stephanie Charmail
“Bus Girl” – Jessica Henwick, Louise Palmkvist Hansen
“A Drifting Up” – Jacob Lee
“An Irish Goodbye” – Tom Berkeley, Ross White*

EE Rising Star Award (public vote)

Aimee Lou Wood
Daryl McCormack
Emma Mackey*
Naomi Ackie
Sheila Atim

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