OBSCURAE (Page 2)

Latest

Why should you care about physical DVDs and DIY movie nights?

One woman's guide to bringing the fun back into your cinematic life.

Shelby Oaks: A horror movie mashup

Despite all it's flaws, it's definitely not a "horrible movie" but it's certainly a messy debut.

And now, a mini LFF Roundup

Some rapid fire reviews for films I was less enthused by...

The best films of the year were all made by women.

Incredible coincidence – will hollywood heed the message?

🇬🇧🇸🇩When home can only be in the mind, it's time for Green Screen: Khartoum (Documentary Review) | BFI LFF 2025 (English with Arabic Translation)

With humour, unpretentiousness and deep care, five brave Sudanese icons recount their brave escape from the Civil War, and green screen helps visualise the Khartoum they were forced to leave behind.

I have an axe wound: Queens of the Dead (Review)

A campy, tender romp through Zombie conventions, this collection of colourful characters remind us that Horror has always been for the Gworls.

Lush Hyperrealism: 100 Nights of Hero | BFI London Film Festival 2025

Adapted from a queer feminist graphic novel that borrowed from Scheherazade, this luscious experiment in fantasy-as-realism is a true treat for the Ren Faire Romance Set (my friends and collaborators all), and is bound to be a cult favourite.

Tuwaine Barrett & Bradley Banton dissect the process of creating "More Life" | BFI London Film Festival 2025

Set entirely in an Instagram Live, this hangout movie quietly catalogues friendship, identity and performance -- Lead Actor Tuwaine Barrett and Actor/Writer/Director Bradley Banton get into the process with us.

The Chronology of Water (Review) | BFI LFF 2025

Based on the 2011 memoir by American writer Lidia Yuknavitch, Kristen Stewart's debut is more experimental than narrative – and does more to honour than it does to analyse.

Instagram is ✨Cinema: More Life (Review) | BFI LFF 2025

Where theatre meets Instagram Live, you can make cinema, and director Bradley Banton has found a unique angle on the hangout film here.

I saw the Face of God in the Jet Wash (Short Film Review) | BFI LFF 2025

In homage to the short, this review is written in a similar style to how the film is narrated. In 2019 I had decided that Music was evading me, and become too heavy a craft considering it had birthed my career as an Audio Engineer, and was now somewhat badly

I saw this film again and it actually got better: 'The Testament of Ann Lee' | BFI London Film Festival 2025

"This is a story about how pacifism is political. How gender, race, religion are all precursors for violence, and how the denial of that violence is a radical act. However, the story opens up further, like a deep network of roots underground, the more you observe."

Film

Jay Kelly & Boomer Regrets | BFI London Film Festival 2025

Baumbach meditates on sacrifice, career and family, in a way only a man who's old and over the hill can. (Sorry Noah, but it's true.)

Deep Dive

My beef with Yorgos: Why I'm not reviewing Bugonia

In a piece I removed from public view a few years ago, I detail why his type of filmmaking doesn't work for me, and why Yorgos himself has become persona non grata on OBSCURAE despite all of his collaborators being filmmakers I love and respect.

Film

Luca Guadagnino just gets it™ - After the Hunt (Review) | BFI London Film Festival 205

In an intense display of cognitive skill, an old man managed to fool everyone into thinking he was dunking on Gen-Z, and then excoriated his fellow olds.

Film

🇬🇧🇪🇸El Cautivo: And Historians Will Call Them...

"The thin line between reality and fiction is not only acknowledged but embraced by the film’s storytelling structure as we follow the events of Cervantes’ time held captive in Algiers..."