David R. Walker

Archive for September, 2025

Under the Volcano

Director: Damian Kocur

Cast: Roman Lutskyi, Anastasiya Karpenko, Sofia Berezovka

Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Film Festival: European Film Festival

Language: Ukrainian with English Subtitles.

Polish director Damian Kocur’s film Under the Volcano explores the effect of the 2022 Russian Invasion of the Ukraine has on a blended Ukrainian family on holiday in the Canary Islands in Tenerife at the time of the invasion.

Kocur’s family drama focuses on a father Roma played by Ukrainian actor Roman Lutskyi and his new wife Nastia played by Anastassiya Karpenko, and their son Fedir aged 6 and Roma’s daughter from another marriage Sofia played by Sofia Berezovka.

The happy go lucky Ukrainian family are enjoying the sites of Tenerife and when their plan to return to Kyiv in the Ukraine is thwarted as they discover that Russia has invaded. Their flights are cancelled and the Spanish hotel manager says they can stay in Tenerife for as long as is required.

Their stranded situation in Tenerife is amplified when Sofia, the teenage girl meets an African immigrant who came to Tenerife by boat. Their stilted relationship reflects two people stranded in a geographic location in which they had no choice to be there and seemingly cannot escape from.

The main tension in this family drama comes from the strained relationship between husband and wife as Roma realizes that when he returns to the Ukraine he will have to join his friends in the military front lines. Nastia will have to remain in Warsaw as a refugee with her young son Fedir and her mother.

Unfortunately, Under the Volcano does not have a good script and many scenes are drawn out and just involve fighting. The pace of this film is very slow and there is no dimensionality to an otherwise fascinating topic – what do families do when they are away from their own country when it has been invaded?

Besides the beautiful settings of Tenerife, Under the Volcano could have been a much better film, but its narrative meanders pointlessly so that one crucial scene of the family getting lost on a mountainous hike sums up the efforts of a mediocre scriptwriter.

Director Damian Kocur’s film about refugees and war’s effect on the family needs to be sharpened in terms of pace and tone. While Under the Volcano is not a bad film, it could have been so much better. There was so much more to unpack on this subject and the director seem to hold back.

Under the Volcano gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and is a slow paced family drama about the effects of an ongoing European war which has reshaped that continent security concerns.

One Battle After Another

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast: Leonardo di Caprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Chase Infiniti, Tony Goldwyn, Wood Harris, Alana Haim

Running Time: 2 hours and 41 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson who produced such brilliant films as The Master, Phantom Thread and There will be Blood returns to the big screen with his most audacious and relevant film One Battle After Another starring Oscar winners Leonardo di Caprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro.

One Battle After Another is set in a semi-satirical world of America in which migrants have flooded into sanctuary cities and there is an urban terrorist group called the French 75 who are anarchists and there to disrupt any conventional authority whether this is freeing the migrants from internment camps or blowing up banks and federal buildings. Within this radical environment a love affair develops between Perfidia Beverly Hills and Bob, a paranoid loser who is incredibly good at explosives.

Perfedia Bevely Hills is a full on radical urban terrorist, brilliantly performed by Teyana Taylor (Coming 2 America) who deserves a best supporting actress Oscar nomination.

Perfedia is a strong and militant black woman who has an affair with the blue eyed Caucasian Bob, excellently played with the right balance of zealous and uncertainty by Oscar winner Leonardo di Caprio (The Revenant) who channels a similar crazy energy to his role in The Wolf of Wall Street except this time swapping the Wall Street suits for a dirty nightgown and black sunglasses. Di Caprio just hits the right amount of panic and paranoia especially as the film develops and he is the one looking after their love child, their daughter of the revolution, Willa superbly played by newcomer Chase Infiniti.

Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson always paints a broad and multi-dimensional cinematic canvas and in this film he creates the perfect villain in the form of Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw played with precision and brilliance by two time Oscar winner Sean Penn (Milk, Mystic River) and he definitely deserves an Oscar for this role.

Penn is absolutely electrifying as the fanatical army colonel who is out to destroy the French 75, the dangerous lunatics, the scum of the earth that has stained the heart of white America. Lockjaw is one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s best characters, an evil and slightly kinky army colonel who had the military on his side but whose fanaticism drives him to join a secret society of men that cherish racial purification involving a bizarre scene featuring Tony Goldwyn as the suave, yet sinister Virgil Throckmorton.

Lockjaw’s aim is to capture Bob and his daughter Willa and soon a bizarre and bloody chase ensues which ends in some startling revelations.

On one level One Battle After Another acts a satirical film about the social ills of 21^st century America from immigration to gun control, but on another it is a perceptive exploration of patriarchy and the woman that resist it, with names like Jungle Pussy and Perfidia Beverly Hills.

With an original script by Paul Thomas Anderson and outstanding performances by Di Caprio, Penn and del Toro, One Battle After Another is an exhilarating ride through the dark and deceptive underbelly of American society touching on every facet from racism to urban terrorism, from military power to the flaws of an underground movement that has lost its agency.

With a brilliantly shot car chase scene near the end to the captivating musical score by Oscar nominee Jonny Greenwood (The Power of the Dog, There will be Blood), One Battle After Another is an outrageous satire on contemporary America packed with dark humour and ominous warnings.

Drawing inspiration from Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson creates a modern day masterpiece with One Battle After Another about subversion, conversion and the product of a love affair during the heady time of social revolution.

One Battle After Another gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and is original cinema, expertly crafted with some memorable scenes which will imprint on the viewers psyche forever. Highly recommended viewing and a definite 2026 Oscar contender.

Unicorns

Directors: Sally El Hosaini & James Krishna Floyd

Cast: Ben Hardy, Kate Lindsey, Jason Patel, Sagar Radia, Ali Afzal, Taylor Sullivan

Running time: 1 hour and 59 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Festival: European Film Festival

PLEASE NOTE THIS FILM IS NOT FOR SENSITIVE VIEWERS

Unicorns is an odd mixture for a British film, at times fascination and other times, disturbing. From directing duo Sally El Hosaini & James Krishna Floyd, Unicorns explores the strange sexually charged relationship between a mechanic from Essex, the brawny Luke, superbly played by Ben Hardy (Bohemian Rhapsody, X-Men: Apocalypse) and Aysha, an Indian drag queen well played by Jason Patel.

Aysha also known as Ashiq actually comes from a conservative Muslim family in Manchester but when living in London he transforms himself into the flamboyant and radiant Aysha, a sparkling drag queen for the Gasian community also known as the Gay Asian community.

Luke is a single dad to a 5 year old boy played by Taylor Sullivan but has split from the mother of his child, Charlie, a confused young woman who abandons her son and lets Luke take charge.

Sexually, Luke is an enigma as initially in the film’s provocative opening shot he is having sex with a woman on an open field outside an east London housing estate.

Aysha is all glamour and attitude and her pronouns are Legend and Icon. The two meet when Luke mistakenly walks through the back room of an Indian restaurant into a secret Gasian disco complete with drag queens and muscle boys, one in particular is Faiz who is Aysha’s designated driver.

Let’s face it drag queens don’t drive themselves to parties. Faiz is played by Industry star Sagar Radia who was brilliant in the British TV version of Succession as the foul mouthed, coke sniffing gambler Rishi Ramdani who marries into WASP privilege in the smart London set.

At the heart of Unicorns is the complex story of two people from very different worlds who meet, fall in love and ultimately navigate a tricky world between conservative Indian culture and the non-descript world of a working class mechanic in Essex who is dazzled by Aysha, a fascinating drag queen whose identity as a cross dresser is ultimately threatened in a vicious queer subculture which is as much about making money as it is about cutting edge glamour.

As Luke becomes Aysha’s driver around England usurping the sulky Faiz, their relationship gradually transforms from transactional to emotional.

While some of the Gasian subculture scenes are very frenetic and overdone, it is really the performances of the two main actors who make this uniquely queer love story riveting, while transcending traditional social, cultural and religious conformities.

The fabulous but gritty Unicorns gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for those that enjoy queer love stories.

Le Mohican

Director: Frederic Farrucci

Cast: Alexis Manenti, Mara Taquin, Paul Garette, Marie-Pierre Nouveau

Running Time: 1 hour 27 minutes

Language: French with English subtitles

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Festival: The European Film Festival

French director Frederic Farucci combines the beauty of Corsica with a shadowy mafia in his new thriller Le Mohican (The Mohican) about a goat herder Joseph Cardelli who has a beautiful plot of land on the coast which greedy developers want to take from him and which he refuses to sell.

Cardelli well played by Alexis Manenti becomes a fugitive on the island and soon reaches folklore status after he accidentally kills the nephew of a Parisian crime boss, and subsequently goes on the run.

His tech savvy niece Vannina played by Mara Taquin makes Joseph an island hero on social media using the hashtag #LeMohican as he deftly evades the gangsters who also have the police on their payroll. Despite his efforts to escape to Sardinia, Joseph needs to confront the gangsters and protect his right to exist in an island which is beautiful yet increasingly becoming a target for crime, overdevelopment and urbanization.

Le Mohican had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and is worth watching with a strong narrative about a fugitive, a decent and honest goat herder who stands up for his rights to continue existing in a pastoral fashion and not give in to the greed and corruption of organized crime.

With exquisite cinematography by Jeanne Lapoirie, Le Mohican is a gripping action film about survival and resilience while the continual threat of being hunted takes its bloody toll on the hero Joseph Cardelli. The violence is systemic and shocking while the storyline is straightforward with sparse dialogue which could have been elaborated upon.

Like many islands in the Mediterranean, Corsica is in danger of being over commercialized and Le Mohican shines a light on this issue as greedy mobsters plan on developing land meant for farming.

Le Mohican focuses on the story of an ordinary man’s survival and his niece’s uncanny ability to turn him into a local hero with the nickname the Mohican, the last of the coastal goat herders.

With a beautiful backdrop, Le Mohican gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended viewing as a genre action film about one ordinary man fighting the mafia in a storyline which is distinctly French and unassuming. Worth seeing.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Director: Simon Curtis

Cast: Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Dominic West, Phyllis Logan, Allen Leech, Robert James-Collier, Sophia McShera, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Penelope Wilton, Jim Carter, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Harry Hadden-Paton, Douglas Reith, Simon Russell Beale, Arty Froushan

Running Time: 2 hours and 3 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

It’s the 1930 season in London and scandal erupts when at a royal gathering, Lady Petersfield played by Joely Richardson (Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Anonymous) discovers much to her shock and horror that Lady Mary Talbot of Downton Abbey, superbly played by Michelle Dockery, is divorced. Lady Mary resplendent in a ravishing red gown abruptly leaves the party with her reputation in ruin.

So begins the fractious premise of the final film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale beautifully directed by Simon Curtis and featuring an all-star cast including newcomers Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle, Kraven the Hunter) as a scheming American Gus Sambrook and Persian American actor Arty Froushan as the witty playwright Noel Coward.

It is the age of Noel Coward and the Crawleys need to face some fresh challenges without the wit and sharp humour of the late Lady Gratham, a role written especially by screenwriter Julian Fellowes for the late Oscar winner Maggie Smith.

Besides Lady Mary’s divorce, there is the future of Lord and Lady Grantham, a sophisticated combination of British tradition and American wealth which is now on shaky ground. Paul Giamatti plays Lady Grantham’s brother Harold Levinson fresh off the boat from New York with startling news that the American wealth has somehow been depleted.

Lord Grantham played with vigour by Hugh Bonneville is facing the prospect of an early retirement, but screenwriter Julian Fellowes with skill and determination creates an elegant narrative tapestry expertly weaving several subplots into a brilliant storyline involving a character heavy story about a new decade in which old traditions are challenged and fresh ideas are hinting at an approaching modernity.

With beautiful costumes by Scottish designer Anna Mary Scott Robins particularly evident in the fabulous Ascot scene, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale brings all the joy of the original series along with the cinematic grandeur of the big screen as the film follows the final chapter of The Crawleys as they navigate a changing world in which many of their customs vanish while the noble family learn to adapt, survive and embrace change.

Some notable scenes are between Laura Carmichael and Alessandro Nivola and of course between Oscar nominees Elizabeth McGovern (Ragtime) and Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man, The Holdovers). It’s as if the supporting cast now has an opportunity to shine without the cynical gaze of Dame Maggie Smith looking at them with contempt. Although Maggie Smith’s absence in the film is felt keenly and Julian Fellowes acknowledges her ever lasting legacy.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is an exquisite film centred on a masterful script filled with wit, humour and nuance written so beautifully by Oscar winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) who has a knack of discovering the fine line between the landed gentry and the servants downstairs, whose lives are continually entwined.

If audiences enjoy etiquette, good wit and sophistication, then be sure not to miss Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale a lovely British film about the elegant transfer of power from one generation to the next in a rapidly changing world.

With a massive supporting cast, beautiful houses and gorgeous costumes, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing especially for those that loved the TV series.