FilmPhonic.com | Movie news, reviews & recommendations

Nightbitch (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 98min Genre: Comedy, Drama, Horror Director: Marielle Heller Cast: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Emmett Snowden…and more Writers: Marielle Heller and Rachel Yoder -Synopsis- In present day American suburbia, a stay-at-home mom struggles with the pressures of parenthood and its effect on her life and career, only to unexpectedly connect with a more primal instinct which transforms her in the […]

Maria (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 124min Genre: Fact-based, Drama, Music Director: Pablo Larraín Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher…and more Writers: Steven Knight -Synopsis- During her final days in 1970s Paris, the great Maria Callas recounts her life whilst struggling with her health and a hallucinatory pill addiction, reflecting on her loves and losses and on an incredible career with pain hidden beneath […]

Conclave (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 120min Genre: Drama, Thriller Director: Edward Berger Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow…and more Writers: Peter Straughan and Robert Harris -Synopsis- After the unexpected death of the Catholic church’s leader, a respected cardinal is charged with leading the Conclave in its secretive effort to select a new Pope only to be drawn into a conspiracy by powerful […]

The Apprentice (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 122min Genre: Fact-based, Drama Director: Ali Abbasi Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova…and more Writers: Gabriel Sherman -Synopsis- In the 1970s through the ’80s, a young Donald Trump’s star rises through New York real estate and beyond as his personality and life ethos is shaped by his close relationship with a questionable mentor—US government lawyer turned New York […]

BFI London Film Festival 2024

After another turbulent and disruptive year in 2023 for a film industry in constant flux, cinema returned with a vengeance in 2024, once again taking over an autumnal “Big Smoke” and UK cinemas beyond, courtesy of the the British Film Institute (BFI), as the 68th edition of one of the world’s most accessible major film festivals— the London Film Festival […]

Anora (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 219min Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance Director: Sean Baker Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eidelshtein, Karren Karagulian…and more Writers: Sean Baker -Synopsis- A spirited young New York exotic dancer and working girl finds a seemingly fairytale way out of the sex industry when she beguiles and swiftly marries a wild and wealthy young Russian, only for his disapproving parents and […]

Blitz (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 120min Genre: Drama, Thriller, War Director: Steve McQueen Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan, Paul Weller…and more Writers: Steve McQueen -Synopsis- In the midst of the Nazi bombings of the British capital, a young East End mother struggles to track down the son she sent to the country for safety, but who decided to return alone and traverse a dangerous […]

A Real Pain (2024)- BFI London Film Festival 2024

Review 90min Genre: Comedy, Drama Director: Jesse Eisenberg Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Jennifer Grey…and more Writers: Jesse Eisenberg -Synopsis- Two estranged and very different American cousins come together on a trip to Poland to honour their grandmother’s origins and re-connect with their Jewish roots, only to get on each other’s last nerve and realise why they grew apart […]

12 Films to Watch in 2024 (July to December)

Following our ’12 Films To Watch’ for the first half of 2024, we return to break down 12 of what we think might be some must-see films released in the UK and worldwide during the rest of the year—spreading the love out with two per month and only including films which have confirmed UK release dates. There will be plenty […]

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Once again May in Europe focused the world’s attention on the French Riviera to truly kick off the 2024/2025 movie season, start the award show express headed towards next year’s Oscars, and turbocharge this year’s film festival season, as the world’s media and the great & good of global cinema gathered once again at world’s biggest and most prestigious film […]

Poor Things (2023)- BFI London Film Festival 2023

Review 221min Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo…and more Writers: Tony McNamara and Alasdair Gray -Synopsis- In a surrealist Victorian Britain, a tragically deceased young woman is re-born and given a second shot at life when she’s re-animated by an eccentric mad scientist, as her childlike blooming takes an impulsive […]

BFI London Film Festival 2023

In the midst of yet another turbulent and disruptive year for the film industry, cinema once again took over “The Big Smoke” and UK cinemas beyond, courtesy of the the British Film Institute (BFI), as the 67th edition of the London Film Festival (LFF)—one of the world’s most accessible major film festivals—gathered global cinema players in the British capital once […]

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)- BFI London Film Festival 2023

Review 206min Genre: Fact-based, Crime, Drama, Romance Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro…and more Writers: Martin Scorsese, Eric Roth and David Grann -Synopsis- In 1920s Oklahoma a series of unexplained murders and exploitation of the oil-rich Osage Nation sparks an FBI investigation which uncovers a sobering conspiracy, triggering the breakdown of communities and forcing a […]

Hit Man (2023)- BFI London Film Festival 2023

Review 113min Genre: Comedy, Crime, Romance Director: Richard Linklater Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio…and more Writers: Richard Linklater, Glen Powell, Skip Hollandsworth -Synopsis- A mild-mannered straight-laced American professor who moonlights as a contractor for the cops unexpectedly ends up deep undercover as a fake hitman to catch those who order the killings, taking to it like a duck […]

Academy Awards 2023

The 2023 award season railway made its final stop this year once again as a mid-March affair, bringing with it the great and the good of mainstream and global cinema for the industry’s biggest and most glitzy back-patting extravaganza in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, gathered to award the achievements in cinema over the last twelve months at the 95th edition of […]

The BAFTAs 2023

The award season railway made its penultimate major stop in the “Big Smoke” on Sunday for the biggest night in the British film calendar, as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) gathered the great and the good of global cinema and headed south of the river for the first time, congregating on the South Bank and in […]

12 Films to Watch in 2023 (January to June)

Following our ’12 Films To Watch’ lists for previous years and their absence over the fluid chaos of the pandemic era release slate, we return to break down 12 of what we think might be some must-see films released in the UK and worldwide during the first half of 2023—spreading the love out with two per month and only including […]