David R. Walker

Archive for February, 2026

The British Academy Film Awards –

The 78th British Academy Film Awards, also known as the BAFTAs, were held on 22nd February 2026 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2025.

Best Film: One Battle After Another          

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

Best Actor: Robert Aramayo – I Swear

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

Best Supporting Actress: Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners

Best British Film: Hamnet

Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

Best Costume Design: Frankenstein

Best Foreign Language Film: Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier

Rising Star Award: Robert Aramayo

Crime 101

Director: Bart Layton

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Barry Keoghan, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Corey Hawkins, Tate Donovan

Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

American Animals director Bart Layton reunites with Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin) along with Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight, Poor Things) and Oscar winner Halle Berry (Monsters Ball) in the twisty crime thriller Crime 101 set entirely in Los Angeles.

Layton makes the Los Angeles urban landscape with its infinite freeways, it’s glittering skyscrapers, it’s homeless and its fascinating characters almost another character in Crime 101.

Chris Hemsworth stars as the elusive jewel thief Mike who is trying to score a big heist and grab some walk away money as he reluctantly takes orders from his boss Money played by Oscar nominee Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides, Affliction, Warrior).

Mike soon has competition in the form of the crazy bike riding violent criminal Omon who rips off a high end jewellery store in Santa Barbara. While Mike is trying to figure out his next move, he targets the 53 year old insurance executive Sharon brilliantly played with bitterness and grit by Halle Berry.

The reluctant hero Mike also falls in love with the down to earth Maya, a radiant performance by Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) whose presence lights up the screen in contrast to the surliness of Mike’s character.

Mark Ruffalo is excellent as the well weathered LAPD detective Lou who is trying to identify the perpetrator behind the crime capers along the extensive 101 freeway.

With flashy film noir overtones, Crime 101 is a story about greed, desperation and redemption as writer and director Bart Layton creates a tapestry of morally dubious characters that all converge in a thrilling scene on the 10^th floor penthouse suite of the plush Beverly Wilshire Hotel in L. A.

The best scenes are between Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo whose experience and skill as screen actors shine through.

Crime 101 is a clever and gripping crime drama set along the 101 freeway about thieves, dodgy policeman, ruthless billionaires and an insurance executive desperate to escape corporate misogyny while having access to valuable diamonds.

Director Bart Layton creates an adult thriller, stylish, sexy and intriguing expertly using a cast of multi-generational characters that are multifaceted, malicious and malleable.

Crime 101 gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for those that enjoy a film noir contemporary thriller set in Los Angeles. Worth watching for the incredible cast.

Wuthering Heights

Director: Emerald Fennell

Cast: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell, Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, Amy Morgan

Running Time: 2 hours and 16 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

They say you have to be cruel to be kind. Let’s start with the cruelty.

Did director Emerald Fennell read Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights that was a sensation when published in 1847?

Actress Emerald Fennell turned director with her Oscar winning film Promising Young Woman and then followed that up with the shockingly bizarre and strange Saltburn which was actually terrible. So it was with trepidation I learnt that Emerald Fennell would be doing a film version of Wuthering Heights, a mid-Victorian romantic novel which has been turned into a film countless times from the famous Oscar winning 1939 version starring Sir Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon and David Niven to more recent versions with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley.

Wuthering Heights was always about a tragic love triangle but at its emotional core is the fiery and unpredictable love between the wilful Catherine Earnshaw and the orphan boy Heathcliff.

In the 2026 version, Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I,Tonya; Bombshell) stars as Catherine and then the best casting choice ever was to have the hunk of the moment, the towering Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) cast as the dashing and brutal Heathcliff.  

While Margot Robbie did her best as the doomed heroine Catherine Earnshaw, I kept seeing Barbie on the Yorkshire Moors and not Catherine. Catherine, despite all warnings from everyone, does indeed ruin her prospects. Robbie seemed to be crying in every scene of the film.

Jacob Elordi on the other hand was brilliant as Heathcliff, looming and hulking, chopping wood with his hairy torso displayed while Catherine succumbs to indecision and repressed desire. Although that desire does not remain that repressed for director Emerald Fennell then decides to turn this version of Wuthering Heights into a vaguely 1970’s soft porn video.

There is a bizarre scene of Catherine masturbating on the moors while Heathcliff sneaks up on her in disbelief. Then there is the equally strange scene of Catherine spying on the kinky servants having a bondage love scene, with the servants played by Ewan Mitchell and Amy Morgan.

Then there is the dubious casting choices in this contemporary version of Wuthering Heights. While Oscar nominee Hong Chau (The Whale) who is superb as the downtrodden servant Nelly, it is the weird choice of British actor Shazad Latif (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as Edgar Linton. There was zero chemistry between Latif and Robbie while obviously this is counterpointed by the onscreen chemistry between Robbie and Elordi.

Veteran British TV and film actor Martin Clunes (Shakespeare in Love) is excellent as Catherine’s alcoholic gambling father Mr Earnshaw and another notable exception is Irish actress Alison Oliver as the repressed and gorgeous Isabella, Mr Linton’s ward, filled with Shakespearean notions of love.

Now for the kindness. To be fair to the production designer Suzie Davies who beautifully captures the Moors and the rambling dilapidation of the country estate Wuthering Heights and the fabulous costumes by Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina, Little Woman), this film does manage to elevate itself out of the mundane and look like an amazing Vogue cover shoot, drawing on inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

Besides the costumes and sets, the dialogue manages to maintain the correct Victorian diction reflective of the times, however there were some completely unnecessary scenes in this version, which Emerald Fennell included to be provocative without respecting the provenance of the original Gothic romantic novel.

Wuthering Heights will do well at the box office as it has enough stunning cinematic moments that the two main stars help generate and will appeal to 21^st century audience. However, I do urge the 21^st century audience to read the far better novel by Emily Bronte who would turn in her grave if she saw this outlandish version.

The statuesque and smouldering Jacob Elordi saves this version from being trashy and he proves that he is a leading man of this age.

Wuthering Heights expertly marketed to be released on the Valentine’s Day weekend gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. Recommended viewing for the production design and the costumes but not for its disrespect to the original novel.

Frankenstein

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance, David Bradley, Christian Convery

Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Please note this film is only available on Netflix

Ever since Mexican director Guillermo del Toro burst onto the cinema world stage with his extraordinary Oscar winning Spanish language film Pan’s Labyrinth twenty years ago in 2006, del Toro has been a director to watch. He helmed such brilliant films as The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley.  Now del Toro takes on with relish the Victorian Gothic re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Gothic horror novel Frankenstein.

With Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein we get the perspective of both the inventor and the creature which has been invented. The monster in this case is expertly played by rising star, the tall and handsome Australian actor Jacob Elordi (Saltburn). Elordi’s performance is brilliant as the naïve, immortal but super-strong monster who only understands that men are cruel and violent.

Frankenstein is set in mid 19^th century Europe and all praise has to go the superb costume designs by Kate Hawley and the stunning production design by Tamara Deverell. Frankenstein is a dark and contemplative film about the nature of creation and the ethics of Dr Frankenstein brilliantly played by Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year) who should have also received an Oscar nomination.

Frankenstein is supported by an array of talented character actors expertly chosen for their menace and their beauty. Charles Dance (White Mischief, Gosforth Park, The Imitation Game) plays Victor Frankenstein’s cruel father Baron Frankenstein and Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained) plays the scheming and wealthy arms manufacturer Harlander and Felix Kamerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) plays Frankenstein’s unsuspecting younger brother William.

Then there is radiance of Mia Goth as Elizabeth resplendent in dazzling Victorian outfits which sets her quite apart from the vicious and egotistical men. Goth’s character is the only one that feels true compassion for the Creature and he reciprocates his feelings for the gorgeous Elizabeth without realizing his own desire.

Frankenstein is superbly told from two opposing perspectives, but at the heart of such a lavish and spectacular film which beautifully captures the Victorian Gothic obsession with creatures and the afterlife, death and destruction, is a captivating performance by Jacob Elordi who physically embodies the awkwardness of the creature, it’s vulnerability and strength. The fact that Elordi is very tall made him the perfect actor to play the creature so savagely reassembled.

Frankenstein is beautifully done, violent and extraordinary, cruel and dazzling.

Director Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a cinematic feast to behold and is highly recommended viewing. Frankenstein gets a film rating of 8 out of 10.