Oliver Battershall

Alice in Wonderland (1951) 4/5
A joyously magical and surreal ride that moves at an engrossing breakneck speed. Every movement is so silky smooth and every voice so wonderfully eccentric.

Jeepers Creepers (2001) 3/5
Definitely flawed and characters make their fair share of silly decisions (at least they’re self-aware about one of them), but if there’s one thing you’re guaranteed about a Justin Long horror movie it’s that you’ll have some fun. That final shot was super good.

Shaft (1971) 3/5
My fourth ever Birthday Movie (after Logan Lucky in 2017 and The Naked Gun/I Walked with a Zombie in 2023). This had been on my watchlist for a while because I knew it was a Blaxploitation staple. Overall it was fairly slow but was helped along by an iconic Isaac Hayes soundtrack and some snappy lines. The best thing I can say about this is that I can now appreciate Black Dynamite more.

The Bad Guys 2 (2025) 3/5
The latest decent kids movie I’ve watched at work. Very polished looking and has some familiar but well-executed messages while still being pretty fun. Kudos to whichever studio exec realised Sam Rockwell sounded just like George Clooney and was available to do his whole shtick for 5% the cost.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1961) 4/5
Guess which simpleton had (free!) cinema tickets for this but misremembered the start time until it was too late. Ah well, watched on telly instead. The nice thing about Nottingham is that it’s culturally important enough to feel plenty of local pride but small enough for any representation of it in media to warrant much excitement. That was a huge draw for me here. I loved seeing what my city used to look like and hearing all the familiar accents and dialects, it was very comforting. The film itself is a great mix of the tender and abrasive, weaving threads of regret, anxiety and wry mischief between multi-dimensional characters. Sensitive portrayals all round, I’d be eager to check out Sillitoe’s other work.

Grand Prix of Europe (2025) 2/5
Maybe I don’t need to always preface these reviews by saying I watched them at work, I just don’t need my cool followers thinking I’m constantly watching kids films of my own accord. I knew right away I wouldn’t like this because the voice actors were very irritating. So much non-American media tries to do this very American style of whimsy now that I don’t like, they were even pronouncing ‘garage’ their way! There’s a character who always comes second and everyone fawns over him then it turns out he’s a nasty cheater, they must’ve paid a hefty sum to get Mikel Arteta’s image rights.