Look Both Ways
Lili Reinhart stars as Natalie, a college student who sleeps with her best friend just before graduation and inevitably gets pregnant. This fluffily entertaining film then takes a Sliding Doors turn as we see how Natalie’s life turns out with a baby and also how it would have been if she had not fallen pregnant. The message seems to be that things will turn out fine whatever happens. Very lightweight.
Rating: 5 out of 10

Loving Adults
A twisty Danish thriller about the consequences for a man and his girlfriend when his wife discovers their affair. The framing device of a cop looking back at a case where he could not prove the guilt of a person he believed was a murderer works reasonably well but it never really takes off.
Rating: 5 out of 10

That’s Amor
Sofia loses her job, finds out her fiancée is having an affair and breaks her leg on the same day. She goes to live with her mother to recuperate and lick her wounds and there she meets Matias, a handsome Spanish chef. That is not a promising set up and the romantic plot is far from special. However, the mother/daughter relationship is much more interesting with Nancy Lenehan and especially Riley Dandy, as Sofia, are both excellent.
Rating: 6 out of 10

I Came By
Hugh Bonneville as Hector Blake heads an impressive cast in this British thriller about a seemingly respectable retired judge who has a sinister secret. Babak Anvari and Namsi Khan cleverly weave issues of race, privilege and class into their script, whilst director Anvari builds the tension nicely. As well as Bonneville, George Mackay as a graffiti artist who discovers what Blake has in his cellar and Kelly MacDonald as his terrified mother are both great. However, there are some issues towards the end. One large plot hole is glossed over and things are tied up a bit too neatly and quickly.
Rating: 7 out of 10

Blonde
This is an unconventional biopic of Marilyn Monroe by director Andrew Dominik from his script based on a book by Joyce Carol Oates. This has been billed as fictionalised telling of the life of the iconic actress, which gives Dominik scope for lasciviously filming Marilyn having a threesome and having sex in a cinema whilst one of her films plays. At nearly 3 hours, this is a bloated, messy film that is nearly, but not quite saved by Ana de Armas as Monroe and Julianne Nicholson as her mother.
Rating: 5 out of 10

And now for the rest, including the usual dross…

Love in the Villa is a dull romcom set in Verona and populated by unlikeable leads with cliched Italian supporting characters. Similarly, the Spanish drama Under Her Control about a career woman getting pregnant is made almost unwatchable by an infuriating lead character.

Set in the world of free water swimming, No Limit is based on a true story that oddly never rings true! It is meant to be haunting or mesmerising I imagine but it just feels boring. It does have stunning underwater photography though. The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11 is a very disappointing documentary about the 2001 US anthrax attacks. Such an interesting subject should have made a better film, but the clunky dramatized sequences just do not work.

The high school vampire flick Hollyblood features a decent performance from Isa Montalban but is let down by a some poor acting from the rest of the young cast and a lack of scares. Norwegian drama Diorama follows a couple’s ups and downs in their marriage from a scientific point of view. Annoying and embarrassing.

Watch Out, We’re Mad is a hybrid remake/sequel to the 1974 film of the same name. The fact that story centres on a stolen dune buggy means it has a 70’s feel. There is little else good to say about it though. Too manic and badly acted. Nigerian drama Collision Course is an impassioned take on police brutality. It is hard to argue against the message but there is little new or nuanced in the story.

Love in the Villa: 3.5
Under Her Control: 3
No Limit: Rating: 3.5
The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11: 4.5
Hollyblood: 4.5
Diorama: 1.5
Watch Out, We’re Mad: 2
Collision Course: 4.5