Alex J. Reviews
 

Last night (February 23rd) was the airing of the final episode of the miniseries Miss Austen , which has been shown on BBC1 over the last three Sundays. It is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Gill Hornby and focuses on Cassandra, the only sister of literary icon Jane Austen. You may have heard about the infamous story of Miss Cassandra Austen burning her sister’s letters after her death, leaving very little personal and private information about Jane behind, with

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