2024 BFI Flare Review – Merchant Ivory (2023)
Their names are associated with period dramas – beautiful settings, elegant costumes and buttoned up emotions – yet, in fact,...
Freda Cooper
Freda is a Senior Writer at The People's Movies.
A lifelong movie fan and a film critic for over ten years, Freda’s natural habitat is the darkened rooms frequented by fellow cineastes. She can also be found asking questions of some of the biggest names in the business – from Cate Blanchett to Daniel Craig or Mike Leigh to Pete Docter – or crafting reviews for a number of sites and publications, including The People’s Movies. And listeners to BBC Local Radio can catch her views on the latest releases. She always – and probably always will – cite The Third Man as her favourite film of all time. Her top ten? That’s a moveable feast …..
Film Review – Robot Dreams (2023)
Jimmy Kimmel and his scriptwriters hardly covered themselves with glory at the Oscars. Robert Downey Jnr was unimpressed by the...
2024 BFI Flare Review – Backspot (2023)
It’s not a sideshow any more. Cheerleading’s a sport in its own right, demanding dedication, teamwork and fitness. But success...
2024 BFI Flare Review – Close To You (2023)
While it neither opens nor closes this year’s BFI Flare, Close To You is easily the festival’s hottest ticket. And...
2024 BFI Flare Film Review – Chasing Chasing Amy (2023)
Released back in 1997, Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy had a patchy critical reception. The legendary Roger Ebert loved it, others...
2024 BFI Flare Film Review – Silver Haze (2023)
Five years ago, director Sacha Polak introduced us to the raw, then-untrained acting talent of Vicky Knight in Dirty God....
Film Review – The New Boy (2023)
After six years away from cinema screens, Australian director Warwick Thornton returns with a story which draws on his childhood...
Interview: The Burning Season’s Jonas Chernick (2024 Glasgow Film Festival)
A visit to the Glasgow Film Festival is something of a tradition for Jonas Chernick. It’s the fourth year that...
Review – The Burning Season (2024 Glasgow Film Festival )
It’s a familiar concept. The rocky, destructive love affair that breaks hearts but is so all-consuming that it’s addictive. And...
Glasgow Film Festival 2024 Interview: The G’s Dale Dickey
It’s a term of endearment. Not something that The G (Dale Dickey) is used to – she’s always been at...
Review – The G (2024 Glasgow Film Festival)
“Old age isn’t for sissies.” The G’s Ann (Dale Dickey) wouldn’t disagree with Bette Davis. If anything, she’d go further:...
Interview – Wicked Little Letters’ Thea Sharrock and Jonny Sweet swear by the film’s language
It’s a tale of sworn enemies - and possibly the most foul mouthed fun you’ll have had in the cinema...
Film Review – Wicked Little Letters (2023)
In the days not-so-long before social media, trolling took a different form. Anonymous letters. Or, to use their more descriptive...
Film Review – Memory (2023)
We rely on it all the time, but memory is remarkably fragile, unreliable and changeable. Yet, as Michel Franco’s film...