Umnia El-Neil is a British-Sudanese artist and professional pop culture fan.
Reviews
Oh, the price of pop music! Queens of Drama is a glittery, colourful, camp 2000’s fever dream, an ode to standom culture in it’s infancy, the toxicity of fame, the lure of pop culture. All wrapped up in a Lesbian love story for the ages - truthful, raunchy
Festivals
My life is the way this documentary feels. Lifestyle. I have found it exceedingly hard to explain to people what it was like growing up as a Black girl on the internet when I was too young to be on the internet. ‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’ is the first document that
Ghost Story! It’s actually a ghost story you guys, fair warning! Adapted from the August Wilson play, ‘The Piano Lesson’ is theatre. There are no subtle performances, which would be entirely against the format of the material, which demands strong and robust emotional expression of all kinds - which
Reviews
The average cinephile may turn their nose up at the visual style of this film - it’s very grounded, unpretentious, and starkly digital, giving the general British vibe of an episode of Eastenders, or maybe just what a student would film on a DSLR. This in no way is
Trophy Case
If you love anything I reccomend you, you will simply adore ‘Maria’. It is a visual feast, a compassionate and beautiful symphony of moments from the Diva’s life, a musical tapestry, an uplifting and empowering narrative, and did I mention it was GORGEOUS to look at? Angelina Jolie stars
SOPHISTICULTURE
A short but beautiful surrealist film that breaks structure and form. I thought I might honor it’s brevity and anti-plot structure by doing the same for my review. All hail halation.
Reviews
There are going to be moments so frustrating, so unashamedly long and tense to watch, that you are going to conteplate leaving the cinema. As someone seeing it from the other end - you have nothing to fear. The film very rarely will jump scare you, so now, with that
Know your history! I was born in ‘96, and by the time I was old enough to know British Music, let alone Black British Music, my tastes were decidedly set on pop. I had never been exposed to 2-Tone, or to the history of Black artists in the UK that
Reviews
OK. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Anora does a great job of insisting you’re not watching what you think you’re watching. Aside from the impeccably kind and respectful handling of sex workers, you are going to be told, nay, rallied into ignoring your first instincts.
BFI LFF 2024
I’m not going to say this film won’t surprise you. It truly will, in ways you cannot comprehend yet. The intrigue and passion and speed and patience and beauty alone will astound you. What I will say is whatever prediction you make at the start, will probably be
Reviews
The first beat of Blitz immediately signals to you that you are in danger. Far away from heroic depictions of a London on the defensive, we are instead confronted with immediate and benign terror. Sure, it’s an air raid - but we’re following firefighters. And the enemy they