Alex J. Reviews
 

Poster for Remarkably Bright Creatures The adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s NYT Best Selling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures (dir. Olivia Newman) recently hit Netflix, starring Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Alfred Molina, to rave reviews. It’s a rare kind of story in that a giant pacific octopus called Marcellus (voiced by Molina) narrates the film, as he observes the life around him from his aquarium home that Field’s character Tova is the caretaker of. Tova is our centre

A shot of the first journey in Tube Film. On 25 th August 2025, Orla Smith took the tube on the London Underground for the first time in almost two years. Back in 2023, Orla had a horrible panic attack on the Central Line that prevented her from being able to use the underground again. After wanting to confront this fear for a while but struggling to set out the time to do so, Orla decided that the best motivation for her was to make a mid-length documentary film about it w

When I think back to my favourite films or TV shows as a child, I realise the one thing that connects them all together, and why I was so drawn to them in the first place, was because they had fully realised, intelligent and more-than-capable female characters at their centre. Of course, as a 5 year old pretending to be Princess Leia, I was too young to understand why I was so in love with these kind of characters, but looking back I can confidently say this is why. Great f

Every time someone asks what my favourite Christmas film is, I always say The Polar Express , and have done since I was about 5. But every time I give my answer, I’m always met with comments about how creepy and weird it is, particularly the animation. And yes, it is a bit creepy and weird - the characters look like wax figures slowly melting away before our eyes. However, it’s the film’s very nature of being slightly eerie and spooky that keeps me coming back every year and

Jolie as Callas. In this haunting, if borderline depressing film Maria (2024), Pablo Larraín completes his trilogy of films focusing on important female figures of the 20th century by taking the famed opera singer Maria Callas as its subject (its predecessors being Spencer and Jackie about Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy/Onassis respectively). Angelina Jolie is given the role of a lifetime as Maria Callas as she plays the singer in the last week of her life, beginning on th

It’s definitely an interview we’ll never forget for those of us who watched Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview in 2019 (which, let’s face it, was most of us). I fear the phrases “Pizza Express in Woking” and “it was just a straightforward shooting weekend” are etched into my brain forever. And five years after it aired, we have been given not one but two dramatizations of this interview a few months apart. The first to be released was the Netflix film Scoop (2024, dir. Phili

I wanted to review They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? as I think it’s an underappreciated standout in the work of Sydney Pollack as well as of its star Jane Fonda. Fonda is one of my favourite actresses of all time, and I’ve been obsessively following and watching her work since I was a teen, and then carrying that admiration into the essays and dissertation I wrote on her at University. Out of all the incredible performances she’s given over the years, I think They Shoot Horses

I wrote this review of All of Us Strangers several months ago after the film first came out in cinemas, so I thought I'd share it here. Whilst I usually gravitate towards films with female leads, you can never go wrong with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal... ever. A cute little postcard I picked up from the cinema. SPOILERS AHEAD Cinemagoers have undoubtedly been held in an emotional chokehold since the release of All of Us Strangers . With its combination of euphoric highs (qui

I first watched The English Patient about a year ago and have since watched it several times. It quickly became a firm favourite, but in logging it numerous times on Letterboxd (and putting it as one of my four favourites!) I noticed a mixed bag of reviews on the film and realised that there is controversy around its Best Picture win at the Academy Awards in 1997. The English Patient, if you haven't watched it, stars Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche an

Norma Rae is one of my all-time favourite films, and a few months ago I attempted the daunting task of writing a review of the film on my Instagram (@/ alexj.reviews ), so here is the now slightly adapted version: Norma Rae tells the story of a young woman working in dire conditions at a textile mill in North Carolina. It was the only textile company left in America at the time whose workers did not have a formal union, so the factory is met with the arrival of Reuben Warshow