Other Mommy (2026)

Director: Rob Savage
Screenplay: Nathan Elston
Based on: ‘Incidents Around the House‘ by Josh Malerman
Producer: James Wan
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass
Cinematography: Lowell A. Meyer
Editing: John Cutler
Score: Patrick Jonsson
Genre: Supernatural psychological horror
Runtime: 93 minutes

Everyone and their mother would be terrified if there was a malevolent entity skulking in their home.

Perhaps not seven-year-old Bela, who’s visited by her sinister Other Mommy, taking the shape of her real mum Ursula (Jessica Chastain). Young Bela doesn’t have any friends her own age. Her interests include dancing and animals. She’s a child uncorrupted by the effects of modern technology. An innocent, living in a house where her parents are putting on an act of marital bliss.

Other Mommy senses the strife and seizes the opportune moment to become carnate by tricking Bela into letting her into her heart.

Ursula is a flawed character. A mother whose pregnancy wasn’t a concious decision. A wife who is well acquainted with a man who isn’t her husband. She’s not a monster. Though it is interesting that of all the people Other Mommy could metamorphose into, it’s the figure of fallibility. Maybe it’s because mother knows best, yet Bela is closer with her father.

Amidst the body horror, there’s sage wisdom that keeps the film somewhat grounded. It teaches the value of vocalising the truth no matter the ugliness. Donning a façade of happiness may be alright with strangers present but with the ones we hold dear, it will only make a bad situation worse.

The use of colour distinguishes it from your usual dimly-lit frightfests and the scenes where Other Mommy takes command are wildly hallucinatory. The movie goes too far in its bombast during the séance at grandma’s house but a case of course correction sees us returning to the family’s suburban abode for the closing chapter, where the madness is reined in enough to let the narrative speak once again.

‘Other Mommy‘ is a mother lode of talent; Arabella Olivia Clark as Bela, Jay Duplass as her dad, while Chastain is suitably creepy as the demonic doppelgänger.

My rating: 6 / 10

The Runner (2026)

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Screenplay: Mark Gibson
Producer: David Kosse
Cast: Gal Gadot, Damian Lewis
Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing: Sam Rice-Edwards
Score: Tom Hodge
Genre: Action thriller
Runtime: 84 minutes

When her son is kidnapped, Maia (Gal Gadot), a prosecutor, has just 60 minutes to run five miles through the heart of England’s capital to ensure his release. Before she can get him back safely, she’s instructed by a mysterious caller (Damian Lewis) to kill a key witness in an upcoming trial. To raise the stakes even higher, her son is diabetic and the threat of putting him into a hypoglycemic coma is dangled in front of her.

It’s fortunate that Maia is one of those people who jogs for fun. She’s jogging around Hampstead Heath when she gets the dreaded call. She’s dressed for the occasion for sure. I can barely manage running down a single street to catch my bus before I get a stitch and feel like I’m on the brink of collapse. I don’t know how she does it.

There’s going for a light jog and there’s this. Maia spends nearly the entire duration on foot, ending up a sweaty mess by the conclusion. She somehow has all the stamina in the world and not once decelerates. She’s almost hit by a bike, collides with pedestrians, falls flat on her face and is knocked off her feet by a car at one point and, nevertheless, staggers off after coming to in an ambulance. There’s some realism in the commotion of rush hour traffic, both in bipedal and vehicle forms, but that’s where the actuality ends. Maia should’ve been struck by more cars than that. The effects of adrenaline would’ve worn off halfway through. It’s theoretically possible yet there’d be far too many rude civilians on streets that would block her path.

Suspend your disbelief. ‘The Runner‘ is a tight, high-octane thriller which refuses to pause for a rest. Put simply, it’s a film about Gal Gadot running around, if that’s your kind of thing. As time runs out, we have to listen to the stiff dialogue between the caller and Maia as she races to her destination. Lewis is a menacing presence, lurking in the shadows, while Gadot never runs out of breath. Her acting is alright too.

My rating: 6 / 10

Office Romance (2026)

Director: Ol Parker
Screenplay: Brett Goldstein, Joe Kelly
Producer: Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett, Jennifer Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Benny Medina, Brett Goldstein, Joe Kelly
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin
Cinematography: Robert Yeoman
Editing: Peter Lambert
Score: Michael Andrews
Genre: Romantic comedy
Runtime: 115 minutes

Never mix business with pleasure. That’s the mistake Jackie Cruz (Lopez), an airline CEO, makes when she meets Daniel Blanchflower (Goldstein), a lawyer hired as the company’s legal counsel. The corporation is beset by legal issues so the two will be seeing quite a bit of each other. Sparks fly and there’s palpable chemistry between the pair, so much so that an off-screen romance was speculated about yet was denied by Lopez herself.

A courtship is off the cards as there’s a strict ‘no dating’ policy in the organisation. Jackie keeps things by the book…for a while at least. A jaunt to the Dominican Republic for a deposition provides the perfect backdrop to give in to temptation. Jackie and Daniel have a one-on-one and get down to business. That’s me being subtle – something the film never attempts to be.

Daniel’s nationality (he’s British) is referred to so often it gets tedious quickly. It’s as if the characters haven’t ever met a Brit in the wild before. I thought it might be a jab at ‘Ted Lasso‘ star Goldstein’s English gentility until I discovered he actually had a hand in scripting the movie. Is he mocking himself? We get it, you’re a bloody Brit!

Anyway, you’d think he would bring a more sophisticated writing quality to the table but the whole thing smacks of your standard poor American rom-com; kooky side characters serving absolutely no purpose, humour that doesn’t land and a cheesy happy ending. It’s formulaic to the point of inducing boredom. A comedy on cruise control.

‘Office Romance‘ is NSFW – by which I mean not safe for watching.

My rating: 4 / 10

The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025)

Director: Simon Stone
Screenplay: Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse, Simon Stone
Based on: ‘The Woman in Cabin 10‘ by Ruth Ware
Producer: Debra Hayward, Ilda Diffley
Cast: Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce, David Ajala, Art Malik
Cinematography: Ben Davis
Editing: Katie Weiland, Mark Day
Score: Benjamin Wallfisch
Genre: Psychological thriller
Runtime: 95 minutes

A notable journalist, Laura (Keira Knightley), is invited on a cruise aboard a luxury yacht by a dying billionaire. She accepts the invite, needing to clear her mind after witnessing the murder of the source of a previous article, and also because the terminally ill philanthropist has set up a new charity worth covering.

During Laura’s first night on the superyacht, she overhears an argument coming from the neighbouring cabin. Then a splash. Laura peeks her head over the railing and thinks she’s seen someone in the water. Adamant that that’s the case, Laura refuses to let it go, quickly becoming the pariah among the other guests as she hunts for the truth. Her recent trauma is brought up as an excuse for her behaviour, a prime example of gaslighting.

It’s not just Laura who is the victim of being gaslit; it’s us viewers too. The twist in the tale is so ridiculous it’s insulting. One could argue that none of the characters are attuned to the surrounding events as they’re too self-absorbed. My eyes were glued to the screen for the build-up but the more I watched, and thought about afterwards, the more points I want to deduct from my rating. This seafaring ‘The Lady Vanishes‘ has a plothole so huge, it threatens to sink the boat.

Most of the big name cast feel like they’re there to fill a contractual obligation. Hannah Waddingham, David Morrissey and Kaya Scodelario appear onscreen for a scant amount of minutes, as does Gugu Mbatha-Raw, bookending the film as Laura’s boss.

Maybe Laura did see something hurled overboard – it was me, escaping such fatuousness.

My rating: 5 / 10

Restless (2024)

Director: Jed Hart
Screenplay: Jed Hart
Producer: Benedict Turnbull, Iain Simpson, Jens Nielsen, Sophie Ede, Harri Kamalanathan
Cast: Lyndsey Marshal, Aston McAuley, Barry Ward
Cinematography: David Bird
Editing: Anna Meller
Genre: Black comedy drama thriller
Runtime: 89 minutes

Neighbours. Everybody needs good neighbours.

Nicky (Lyndsey Marshal) could only dream for some. She lives alone (her son is at university) in a semi-detached house; the other half used to belong to her deceased parents. Underpaid and underappreciated at her job as a nurse, she spends what little free time she has baking cakes, listening to classical music and watching snooker. Pretty idyllic. Everything changes once next door acquires a new occupant, the aggressive Deano (Aston McAuley). In stark contrast to Nicky, Deano enjoys nothing more than inviting his mates over and blasting obnoxious rave tracks all night. Every night. Relentlessly.

The constant pounding of a bassline invading her bedroom renders poor Nicky an insomniac. She’s become a prisoner inside her own domesticity. A brief respite: a thunderstorm-induced power cut occurs, an exaltation in between bouts of noise pollution. She leaves home one morning and ends up stepping in dog poo, which she assumes is the fault of her neighbour. In a darkly comedic flourish, she scrapes the excrement off her shoe and adds it to her mixing bowl. She presents to Deano: a plate of delicious chocolate treats.

‘Restless‘ is the kind of film that works best in the United Kingdom. If the events had unfolded in an American suburb, Nicky would’ve marched up to Deano’s door and blasted him away with a shotgun after just the first sleepless night. Bang – problem solved. Instead, this is a taut thrill ride where, as the dread gradually mounts, you think things couldn’t get worse…you’re proven wrong. Lyndsey Marshal is fantastic – an underrated actress. Don’t miss it!

My rating: 8 / 10

Marching Powder (2025)

Director: Nick Love
Screenplay: Nick Love
Producer: Chris Clark, Will Clarke
Cast: Danny Dyer, Stephanie Leonidas, Calum MacNab
Cinematography: Simon Stolland
Editing: Pani Scott
Score: Alfie Godfrey
Genre: Comedy-drama
Runtime: 96 minutes

Ah, the ‘c word’. Not ‘cocaine’, on display in copious amounts here. Nor is it ‘cockney’. Or ‘cringe’, though that fits best. I shan’t spell out the real word – if you want to hear it fired in quick succession like a machine gun with Tourette’s, go see ‘Marching Powder‘; it’s about an absolute sod, Jack Jones (Danny Dyer), who has an addiction to drugs and zero self-control. He has a wife too, treated like an afterthought. What she sees in him is anyone’s guess.

Following a brawl with rival football supporters, Jack faces a prison sentence unless he can prove to the court he can turn his life around. What does he do? He picks another fight. He snorts another line of crack. Every time he comes within a 5 mile radius of cleaning up his act, he self-sabotages, paying his old friend nose candy a visit. So much coke was inhaled, I was worried he’d end up resembling Danniella Westbrook.

Danny Dyer is definitely no actor, his fourth wall breaks make it seem as if he’s presenting his life story, if it were the most pathetic biography ever told. A Wikipedia entry doesn’t even exist (at time of writing), as if to say ‘we don’t wish to soil our site with this filth’.

This movie didn’t do anything for me. Wait, that’s not strictly true – it polluted my ears with its incessant swearing. It’s the type of thing that would appeal to a certain ilk; the beer swigging, non-woke men you’d find chanting and cheering their favourite footy team at the pub with the lads.

The short runtime of 96 minutes felt like a stretch; we get it – he’s a loser beyond the point of redemption. It reminded me of something I flushed down the toilet. Did not leave me in ‘high spirits’.

My rating: 3 / 10