The Movie Mull

What We've Been Watching - Blink Twice, Speak No Evil, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Nosferatu

This week, we have four new reviews for you... First, two films recently released on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming services: Justin reviews Zoe Kravtiz' directorial debut Blink Twice and then Richard talks about recent horror-remake Speak No Evil from director James Watkins.  After that, Neil shares his views on the recent return of the Hell-Boy franchise The Crooked Man, before Darren wraps things up his review of the first cinema release of 2025, Robert Eggers' reimagining of the silent movie era classic: Nosferatu. 
Spoiler Alert Warning: The review of 'Blink Twice' includes reference to the whole plot including the film's ending. If you haven't seen it yet, you may wish to skip forward and return to the review after you have seen the film. The second review begins at 17:51.

2025 Preview Epsiode

This week, the mulls are eagerly discussing the great films that we can all look forward to in 2025. They start by looking at the plethora of January releases We Live In Time, A Complete Unknown, Wolfman, Nosferatu, A Real Pain, Maria, Here... before looking ahead to the films arriving through the rest of the year from three separate returns to the MCU to John Wick spin-off Ballerina to the final(?) Mission Impossible adventure. 
Get in touch to let us know what you're looking forward to seeing on the big screen in 2025.

A Review of 2024

Happy New Year everyone!  Yes, it's that time of year when everyone is putting together their lists of favourite movies from the previous 12 months - and our Movie Mulls are no different.  
On this week's episode, they cast their minds back over the cinema and streaming releases from 2024 and discuss the surprises, the disappointments, their favourite set pieces, performances and the debut efforts that caught their eye - before wrapping things up by listing their Top Ten Movies of 2024.  
We'll be adding our Top Tens to our social media feeds this week... Let us know your favourite films - and any recommendations for 2024 releases we may have missed.  

How do you decide on a film's star rating?

This week our host, Justin, asks us to reflect on the different ways in which critics and websites communicate and summarise their response to films... How do you decide on a star rating? Should a review aim to be entirely objective? Is that possible - or even desirable?  Should a star rating reflect the quality of the film or how entertaining the film is? 
Through the episode, guided by our host, the mulls work their way through this questions... and many more!  Alongside their usual tangents and detours!  
Listen in and then let us know what you find desirable in a film review... 

What We've Been Watching XMAS Special: Dear Santa, Tokyo Godfathers, About A Boy, That Christmas

This week, the mulls are back with a Christmas What We've Been Watching Special... Neil starts us off with a review of Jack Black-starring Dear Santa, Justin enjoys re-watching the Hugh Grant comedy drama About A Boy, Darren heads back to 2003 to catch-up with that year's Japanese anime cult-classic Tokyo Godfathers, and our host Richard wraps things up by talking about the new Netflix animated adaptation of Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb's children's books, That Christmas (as a bonus, we also sneak in a few words about Red One which has just been released on Amazon Prime!).
Wishing all of our listeners a very happy Christmas - hope you all have time to enjoy one of your favourite Christmas movies. 

The Greatest Character Actors

For this week's episode, Neil asks us to think about our favourite character actors... those performers who turn up - often in a supporting role - and make the scene, the whole movie even, that much better.  Or maybe they're the sort of actor who completely transforms themselves for every role - disappearing inside the character. 
Who are those performers that you just love to discover when you sit back to watch? Listen in and then let us know your favourites too.  

What We've Been Watching - Kneecap, Femme, Saturday Night, Gladiator 2

For this week's What We've Been Watching episode, the mulls are back with four new reviews... First up is Darren who loved Kneecap (released in cinemas earlier this year and now appearing on Prime), Richard then tells us all all about emotional drama Femme which has recently landed on Netflix, Neil gives us a preview of the film based-on-true-life events that led to the very first Saturday Night Live (coming to UK cinemas early in 2025), while Justin wraps things up with an in-depth review of Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel Gladiator 2 likely to be found still playing at cinemas near you today.

The Very Best of Christopher Nolan

Whether we're travelling through Leonardo DiCaprio's brain in Inception, or swinging across Gotham with The Dark Knight, or solving a mystery while stepping back through time... Christopher Nolan has brought us some of the most thought-provoking blockbuster moments of the past two decades and more.
This week, the movie mull team sift through all of his filmography to decide on the ultimate Top 5 movies created by this highly-acclaimed director and writer.
Listen in and then let us know your favourite film in the Nolan-verse and what makes it special. 

Best of the Year (So Far!) - Recorded LIVE at Grays Town Park Cafe

At the start of November, three of our mulls (one was away on his holidays!) were invited down to Grays Town Park Cafe to record another very special live episode.
Among other things, we talked about our favourite movies of 2024 - so far, at least!  With a couple of months of releases still to go at the time of recording, these lists may change, but at the moment these are the top films from this year that we'd really recommend you check out - many of which are now available on DVD or streaming. 
We'll be back at Grays Town Park Cafe for further live recording in 2025.  Follow us on social media to find out the next date - and, if you're not too far away, we'll see you there for plenty of movie chat, a great coffee and some delicious cake! 

Both Sides of the Camera: Who are the greatest actor/directors?

For this week's episode, our host Justin brings us a topic for discussion raised by one of our lovely listeners.  Who are the greatest directors who started their film career on the other side of the camera? 
Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Greta Gerwig, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Mel Gibson... The list is vast, but who are the actors that have had the most influential career (so far!) from the director's chair? What are the skills that lend themselves to each of these roles? What might inspire an actor to take on that directorial responsibility? 
Listen in, then let us know your thoughts and favourites...