A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in November and December 2025

A double helping as I’m back at work full-time which has slowed down my afternoon cinema trips, but nevertheless I got to see 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.

Bugonia (2025), Yorgos Lanthimos – I’ve never really fancied any Lanthimos films before, but this was dark and funny at the same time, even if the messaging was a little obvious.

Palestine 36 (2025), Annemarie Jacir – Infuriating for two reasons. Firstly a beautifully shot and rendered period piece with lavish attention to detail occasionally had little interludes of archive footage in the uncanny valley of colourisation and (maybe?) AI upscaling which was really jarring. Secondly, it was like watching No Other Land, different decade, same shit being done in Palestine, which I guess was maybe the point.

The War Between the Land and the Sea: Homo Aqua and Plastic Apocalypse (2025), Dylan Holmes Williams – I was invited to the double-bill premiere of this Doctor Who spin-off, and wrote about it for the Guardian – ‘The fans need something to believe in!’ Will this spin-off save Doctor Who? – an article with the first appearance of the acronym TWATBLAST on the Guardian website.

The Alien Dead (1980), Fred Olen Ray – This was something else. Erratically shot, inaudible dialogue, cheesy effects, rip-roaringly entertaining.

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

Tribeca (1980), Michael H Shamberg and ACR:NYC 1980 (2025), Merrill Aldighieri – A double bill which will be the closest I ever get to seeing ACR in their heyday, with behind the scenes stuff in Tribeca and then a full-on concert playing basically all the stuff I loved from their early years, all while being able to drink, stand up and dance at Walthamstow’s lovely Trades Hall.

I went to Derby at the beginning of December for the Quatermass event, and reviewed the three movies and two television episodes I saw there separately.

Off the back of that I also wrote for the Guardian about the search for missing TV episodes from the pioneering decades of the medium.

[A First Edition I wrote about missing TV episodes]

The Cure: The Show of a Lost World (2025), Nick Wickham – I was at the Cure’s Troxy show last year and it was blissful to witness it on the big screen, with a much better view of how simply silly Robert Smith can be during the uptempo fun numbers. Also without getting into a drunken fight with a random.

[The Cure at the Troxy. Fight with random not pictured]

And then unexpectedly it turned out to have been Perry Bamonte’s final show with the band before his death last week.

Animalia (2023), Sofia Alaoui – I found this gripping as it went along, especially the middle section where Oumaima Barid shines as a stranger in a strange land. The idea that something huge has happened in the background but the cast can’t find out what it really is because of their lack of mobile signal and inability to get the news is a clever device, but please don’t ask me to explain what happened or what it was all about.

David Bowie: The Final Act (2025), Jonathan Stiasny – I have strong feelings that it was a brilliant 45 minute documentary called ‘The Final Act’ about the last few years of his life, but if you were going to see it, you didn’t need the first half explaining who he was. Nevertheless, I cried several times.

The Shining (45th anniversary) (1980), Stanley Kubrick – Another movie that made a massive impression on me via the telly when I was probably too young to have watched it or understand it all. Career-best performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, and so many great scenes and brilliantly composed shots.

I totally forgot about it having a couple of seconds of inexplicable furry sex going on in one of the rooms though.

Train Dreams (2025), Clint Bentley – A meditative treatise on grief, ageing, time, progress and change, without a huge amount happening or any defining over-arching philosophical point, but with some nice doggies.

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