Brisk action, suspense and a great cast in “Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom”
Douglas Camfield, “Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom” (1976) Inspired or heavily influenced by Howard Hawks’s 1951 film “The Thing from Another World” and two British…
Horror
A poor conclusion to a distinctive action-hero period in “Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders”
Barry Letts, “Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders” (1974) Centuries after the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) visits the planet Metebelis 3 to souvenir a blue crystal (in…
A moral tale about decisions, actions and their consequences in “Doctor Who: The Green Death”
Michael E Briant, “Doctor Who: The Green Death” (1973) Many of the stories featured during Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Third Doctor in the old classic…
Political philosophy / science fiction action thriller in “Doctor Who: Inferno”
Douglas Camfield, “Doctor Who: Inferno” (1970) “Inferno” represents “Doctor Who” at its best as a science fiction / action thriller television series dealing with some very…
The End of Oak Street: dinosaurs as a metaphor for hidden middle class suburban repression
David Robert Mitchell, “The End of Oak Street” (2026) The premise is intriguing enough, and one might detect a critique of 1980s- American-style suburbia (with all…
Backrooms: a science fiction / psychological horror meditation on memory, loss and grief in a nihilistic universe
Kane Parsons “Backrooms” (2026) Originally an Internet phenomenon that appeared on the imageboard website 4chan in 2019, and then branching into videogames and Youtube channels of…
Italian and Italian-language Films
Examining Nazi German ideology and attitude to art and culture in “Hitler’s Big Fear – The Trial of Degenerate Art”
Simona Risi, “Hitler’s Big Fear – The Trial of Degenerate Art” (2026) Centred on a major exhibition of 20th-century German art held by the Musée National…
British Films, North American Films
Glimmer of hope and rebirth in a desperate world in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”
Nia DaCosta “28 Years later: The Bone Temple” (2025) At the end of the first film in this trilogy, we saw young Spike (Alfie Williams) being…
Brazilian Films, Portuguese-language Films
O Agente Secreto: confronting past crimes and suppressed history and memory to heal trauma
Kleber Mendonça Filho, “O Agente Secreto / The Secret Agent” (2025) Folks anticipating a fast-paced spy thriller might be disappointed to discover this film is actually…
No Other Choice: how late-stage global capitalism moulds its victims to turn on one another
Park Chanwook, “No Other Choice” (2025) Behind a convoluted plot in which a paper industry expert, unceremoniously retrenched after 25 years of giving his all to…