A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in January 2026

This month featuring, among others: Peter Hujar’s Day, Rental Family, Mercy, No Other Choice, It Was Just an Accident, Nouvelle Vague, Labyrinth, The Brotherhood of Satan and some Wallace & Gromit.

Peter Hujar’s Day (2025), Ira Sachs – Resolutely nothing happens very slowly, which I really enjoyed.

Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989) and Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave (1995), Nick Park – These were on a double bill at the Picturehouse Kids’ Club so I had to drag a child along with me. They are so funny, and the easter eggs, attention to detail, and the doffs to other movies are top notch. I’d have sworn blind they were more recent than this though!

Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright (Hammersmith Apollo), Simon Evans – Lovely to be in the presence of consummate professionals Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, I slightly preferred the first act to the second, but I’ll keep my thoughts to myself in case you ever get the chance to see it unspoilered.

Labyrinth (1986), Jim Henson – Dear lord, good grief, no thank you.

Becoming Victoria Wood (2026), Catherine Abbott – Highly recommended and I alternated between bellyache laughter at her work and ugly sobbing at her life story and how she was so hard on herself.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025), Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Maïlys Vallade – The cute animation style rather masked how dark the themes of life, death and generational trauma were. Then I missed the ending because I miscalculated the runtime and dashed to the toilet when I thought there was 20 minutes left, and actually it was about two.

The Brotherhood of Satan (1971), Bernard McEveety – I went into this with very low expectations as it doesn’t have great reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I won a prize in the spot quiz during the intermission, so a good time was had by all. Except the children murdered and possessed by Satan, obviously.

This was a Bar Trash screening by Token Homo at Finsbury Park Picturehouse, and Token Home also replicated the gimmick of the film’s original release, given away some of “Satan’ soul seeds” to protect us from evil.

Rental Family (2025), Hikari – Watchable enough hokum, with the Tokyo locations the real star for me.

Johatsu: Into Thin Air (2024), Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori – My third Japanese-themed movie in three days, and this documentary was deeply depressing, littered with damaged people living damaged lives.

The Traitors: Series 4, The Final (2026), Ben Archard – I’d never got into the Traitors before, but watched this series, so went to the pub – WTF in Leyton – to watch the final, whereupon I discovered there are actually people cheering on the faithful rather than the traitors. Absolute wrong’uns.

Child’s Play (1988), Tom Holland – It is quite incredible that this was considered a potential Satanic influence on children because it was fucking ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious from start to finish.

A Bar Trash screening by Token Homo at Beer Merchants Tap, Hackney Wick

Mercy (2026), Timur Bekmambetov – I imagine this idea could have worked as a two-hander in the theatre, but weirdly felt like watching somebody playing a video game where the interface was based on Windows 95.

[Picture caption: Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson in Mercy]

It Was Just an Accident (2025), Jafar Panahi – Superb and thought-provoking, in a way that Mercy probably aspired to be and simply wasn’t. A black comedy farce with a strong anti-authoritarianism message.

Kes (1969), Ken Loach – Rather like Labyrinth, I’d never seen this before, and without the veneer of nostalgia I was a underwhelmed. Brian Glover, though. Is there any film he is in where he doesn’t just steal absolutely every second of every scene he’s on screen?

No Other Choice (2025), Park Chan-wook – An occasionally laugh out loud brutal takedown of the pressure that losing your job in South Korea brings for families, and the extreme lengths and emotions it drives them to.

Nouvelle Vague (2025), Richard Linklater – While watching this it occurred to me that there isn’t much music about making music, but there are a lot of films about making films. Paris in the 1960s looks as glamorous as you’d imagine, there is a huge ensemble cast as big as a film crew, and there can’t be a single frame without a cigarette in shot.

Read more of my one-line spoiler-free reviews of everything I’ve watched in the cinema, which last month included Bugonia, Palestine 36, Animalia, The Shining, The Alien Dead, Train Dreams, plus big screen music experiences from The Cure, A Certain Ratio, and David Bowie.

Sign up to get my blog posts sent to you via email.