Oliver Battershall

Grand Illusion (1937) 3.5/5
Most ‘war movies’ worth their salt are scarcely ‘about’ war at all, simply using it as a backdrop to explore and emphasise something more universal. I enjoyed this journey of trials and tribulations where basic human understanding triumphs, accompanied by an appropriately rousing score. As the movie loves to remind you with a line of dialogue every once in a while, war really is just a grand illusion.

One Battle After Another (2025) 5/5
Believe. The. Hype. I’m confident enough now to say I reckon Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest director of all time and this is absolutely up there with his best work. He’s only 55 by the way! With modern medicine we can squeeze a good dozen or so more movies from him before he gives in. His needle-drops, his casting, his ability to make a long film feel breezy, all his usual fortes were at their maximum here. Completely engrossing from start to end. Sean Penn is delightfully evil, DiCaprio is back on top form and Del Toro is a welcome reassuring presence amid the hectic tension. Shout out to the location scouts for finding those hilly roads, great scene! Favourite film I’ve seen all year.

Iron Man 2 (2010) 3.5/5
Slick big-budget fun. Flawed, not unlike the first movie (why is Tony randomly allowed to join an F1 race last minute?) but undeniably enjoyable. Starting to feel like I might have enough context to finally watch an Avengers movie.

Rocky (1976) 4/5
Conceptually it’s a refreshingly simple underdog story, but made so memorable by the biting cold of its urban Pittsburgh setting, the charming comic book-y evil of Creed and the dynamic between Rocky and Adrian (although they start off a little too Baby It’s Cold Outside for me). Stallone is fantastic and the context behind the movie’s production embellishes his performance even more. That iconic score makes itself scarce throughout but when it kicked in I almost felt like shadowboxing.

Saturday Night (2024) 3.5/5
It’s fair to say that the novelty and humour of SNL, even at its inception, has lost a lot of its shine when looked at retrospectively from the perspective of a younger generation. Because of this, at times the attitude of the characters and the film itself towards SNL felt a little irritatingly self-important at times. The general humour of this was a little rough, there were parts where a character would tell a joke and everyone would laugh and I genuinely hadn’t noticed that a joke had just been told. All that being said, the casting was good (I now really want to see more of Cooper Hoffman) and towards the end the frenzy of activity all channelled into one goal fuelled by the collective desire to make something special and subversive did definitely grow on me.

Super 8 (2011) 4/5
Really enjoyed this, Abrams’ lens flare-y cosmic gravitas elevates Spielberg’s prowess with making a film with kids just WORK. The child actors were all fantastic and the theme of trauma that pervaded through the whole film was explored thoughtfully. One of the best post-credits scenes ever.

Secret Zoo (2020) 2.5/5
A silly comedy with lots of promise and some good moments before it has a bit of an identity crisis and tries to ground itself in drama and social commentary a little much. A lot of this just ends up feeling like melodramatic fluff around what should be a light-hearted time.

The Princess and the Frog (2009) 4/5
Being a jazz lover I always thought I would enjoy this film, and I was right! Disney are really good at picking a location and completely immersing their film in and identifying it with that place’s lore and culture. I loved the accents, environments and villain that all were so emphatically New Orleans. The songs were great and I really found myself earnestly rooting for the leading duo, just a joyous time the whole way through.