Molly McGlynn’s Fitting In is both a coming-of-age drama and a teen sex comedy. 16-year-old Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) has just moved to a new city with her therapist mother, Rita (Emily Hampshire), but things are going well for her: she already has a best friend called Vivian (Djouliet Amara), a crush on schoolmate Adam (D’Pharaoh…
Review: Hoard
Luna Carmoon’s feature debut, Hoard, opens in 1984 on Cynthia (Hayley Squires): a young single mother with long dark hair, donned in a fur coat and a black jewelled cap. She is bin-dipping with her seven-year-old daughter, Maria (Lily-Beau Leach), putting their findings in an old shopping trolley. One would think they were homeless, but…
Review: And Mrs
When Gemma’s (Aisling Bea) American fiancé Nathan (Colin Hanks) dies shortly before their wedding, Gemma decides she wants to go ahead and marry him anyway. Nathan was a hopeless romantic, whereas marriage didn’t mean that much to Gemma. Wanting to prove her love and commitment to him, Gemma has to contend with a 200-year-old law…
Review: Black Dog
Written and directed by young actor George Jaques in his debut feature, Black Dog is about two teenage boys from contrasting London backgrounds who embark on a road trip together up North, all the way to Scotland. Nathan (Jamie Flatters), who has almost aged out of foster care, wants to locate his biological sister, whereas…
Review: Hell Hole
Opening in 19th century Serbia during the Napoleonic wars, a platoon of lost and starving soldiers wander around looking for food when they stumble upon a lone woman with a horse. With a cunning smile, she lets them take the horse: A Trojan horse! In present day Serbia, an American fracking crew led by John…
Review: Duchess
Scarlett Monaghan (Charlotte Kirk), a supposedly tough, working class petty criminal, is busy one night pickpocketing drunks when she catches the eye of supposedly charismatic ex-marine, Robert McNaughton (Philip Winchester). While initially cautious, Scarlett enters a whirlwind romance with Robert, complete with a montage of them falling in love, which ends in gunfire. Rob reveals…
Review: Ganymede
Ganymede opens to a calming lake, but the score is tense as a single tear drops down the face of a man, smoking alone on a pier, before he jumps in, never to return. The man’s identity becomes clear later, but in the present day, we’re introduced to two very different teenagers who become drawn…
Book Review: Cheryl: My Story by Cheryl Tweedy
I started reading this book last year but didn’t get past page 26 for some reason. I picked it up again last week after seeing Girls Aloud perform on 23rd May and I’m so glad I did. I really enjoyed reading this despite it being an emotional rollercoaster. I flew through it. Cheryl: My Story…
Book Review: Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
In the early 1990s, in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out place. She’s always felt this way and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn’t appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend who is in love with her. Lucy begins to make sense…
Book Review: Girlcrush by Florence Given
Feminist influencer and illustrator Florence Given’s debut fiction novel, Girlcrush, follows Eartha on a wild and weird modern-day exploration as she exits an abusive relationship with a man and commences life as an openly bisexual woman, while also becoming a viral sensation on Wonder Land, a social media app where people project their dream selves…