Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems by Claude Schmitz is a cosy French mystery movie that scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had. Sequels please!
Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems. A Charming Cosy Mystery.
Festivals
Reviews and dispatches exploring the best new cinema premiering around the world.
Love is Art in Tell Me What You Feel
Despite, or perhaps because of, its cringe characters, Tell Me What You Feel is a heartfelt exploration of whether art and love can really understand trauma.
Butterfly Leaves No Effect
Sentimental Value star Renate Reinsve returns in a much more forgettable drama: the absolutely dire Gran Canaria set comedy-drama Butterfly.
Lesbians Forever!
Barbara Forever is a loving tribute to the life and work of Barbara Hammer that excellently shows how she paved the way for many queer filmmakers to come.
Favourite Film Festivals 2025
From Tallinn to Austria to London, here are our picks for our favourite film festivals in 2025, celebrating the places that make cinema so special.
The Mysteries of the Festival Organism
Operating under public funding cuts, the Festival of Auteur Films in Belgrade reflects on Balkan division, politics and the potential for change.
Bruising and Vanishing
Tales of trauma, pain, memory and vanishing animate an instructive and illuminating Tallinn Black Nights, a ray of light amid bleak November.
18 Holes to Paradise Keeps Things Under Par
The absurdities of the privileged in the face of incoming disaster is smartly dissected in João Nuno Pinto’s Tallinn entry 18 Holes to Paradise.
The Pupil Hauntingly Depicts Grooming Hidden in Plain Sight
At a time when “groomer” is used as a political smear, The Pupil shows us the truly sickening impact the reality can have on young boys and girls.
Peeping Trojans, Slivering Sofas
A sleek German answer to Philip Noyce’s Sliver, Interior uses a sexual taboo to interrogate a world where all we do is watch — and rarely intervene.