Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we run through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: post-apocalyptic drama, Spanish screenwriter inception, and two very different takes on sexual liberation…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
The Dog Stars
Directed by Ridley Scott, The Dog Stars stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, a pilot who has survived a flu pandemic that wiped out most of the world’s human population. He and his dog are living with a military survivalist, Bangley (Josh Brolin) and fending off attacks from a dangerous band of scavengers known as the Reapers. But one day a faint radio signal from distant survivor Cima (Margaret Qualley) tempts Hig into leaving the safety of his compound in search of more compassionate companionship.
Although he’s had a few sub-par releases recently, Ridley Scott is still a big name guaranteed to draw an audience. This feels like it plays to the strengths of the better films in his back-catalogue, combining the epic scale of Gladiator, the danger-in-the-dark of Alien and the themes of isolation and making the best of a bad situation from The Martian. It also has a great cast, combining major up-and-comers like Elordi and Qualley with veterans like Brolin, Guy Pearce and Allison Janney.
The reviews haven’t been amazing – it currently has 40% on Rotten Tomatoes – but if you enjoy a post-apocalyptic drama then this should tick all the boxes.
- The Dog Stars on IMDB
- The Dog Stars on Rotten Tomatoes
One Night Only
One Night Only is set in an alternative universe where people are only allowed to have pre-marital sex on one night of the year. That night has become a desperate free-for-all for lonely singles looking for a quick hook-up. Stepping cynically into that situation are Owen (Callum Turner) and Allie (Monica Barbaro), who happen to meet that night and decide to try for something a little more romantic.
The concept is pretty ridiculous – how would it work in practice? Who’s policing it? At what point does the night become the next morning? Why was it ever instituted in the first place? Is the film suggesting that these people would be incapable of meeting and falling in love any other time of year? Hopefully these questions might be answered in the film, and maybe even in an interesting satirical way, but without any of that exposition in the trailer it’s hard to get past how daft the idea is. Whether that makes a good setting for a rom-com is another question. But the central pair do seem to have a genuinely nice chemistry. I’m a big fan of Monica Barbaro in particular – she was the reason why I got home from a Bob Dylan biopic and immediately asked Alexa to play Joan Baez – but Turner has also been good in what I’ve seen of him. Director Will Gluck made the excellent Easy A as well as the distinctly less excellent Peter Rabbit, so make of that what you will. Again, this isn’t getting great reviews – it’s currently sitting at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes – but it does lend a rare twist into the traditionally formulaic rom com genre.
- One Night Only on IMDB
- One Night Only on Rotten Tomatoes
Bitter Christmas
In 2004, advert director Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) tries to navigate a busy Christmas weekend. In 2026, writer-director Raul (Leonardo Sbaraglia) writes a screenplay about Elsa’s story and her interactions with her boyfriend and friends. As the lines blur between reality and fiction, Raul starts to look more closely at his own life and the relationships that define him.
Bitter Christmas is all about autofiction – the process of writing about your own life but weaving in fictional elements. It is most obvious in Raul’s writing about Elsa, but the same can probably also be said of legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar writing about Raul. Almodóvar’s own national and sexual identity have often been defining themes in his films, and it isn’t hard to see this as an analogy for his own filmmaking process, drawing on personal experiences and embellishing them into a separate narrative. I’m not too familiar with the cast – Almodóvar regulars Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz are absent from this one – but the director’s name on the poster is more than enough of a draw. This is getting excellent reviews, with a solid 91% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing, and should make for a really interesting watch.
- Bitter Christmas on IMDB
- Bitter Christmas on Rotten Tomatoes
I Want Your Sex
Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) lands a dream job working for provocative artist Erika Tracey (Olivia Wilde). But he finds himself out of his depth when she ropes him into being her sexual muse.
To anyone not currently going through puberty, this film doesn’t give the best first impression, but it’s actually getting some good reviews (it currently has the same 91% Rotten Tomatoes score as Pedro Almodóvar’s introspective indie). Olivia Wilde is normally a sign of a good film, and this would probably make for an interesting double-bill with her turn in The Invite from a few months ago, where her character started dipping her toe into sexual experimentation. Hoffman’s last film, on the other hand, was The Long Walk, which was a very, very different film to this one, but he was excellent in that. The supporting cast includes Mason Gooding (from the Scream reboot films, and son of Cuba Jr), Charlie XCX, Daveed Diggs (Lafayette/Jefferson in the original Hamilton cast) and, randomly, Johnny Knoxville. The reviews have said that it’s (knowingly) a bit silly, but it has some surprisingly mature messages about the complex relationship between carnal desires and meaningful connections.
- I Want Your Sex on IMDB
- I Want Your Sex on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Bitter Christmas – an autofictional film about autofiction from one of Spain’s greatest auteurs.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Coyote vs Acme – A really fun film with a clear love and respect for its Looney Tunes characters and a lot more satire than you might expect from a film where the villains are John Cena and a cartoon chicken. I was (perhaps unfairly) expecting slightly more from the courtroom drama element, but there were thematic reasons why it didn’t go the way I was hoping and it’s hard to begrudge that when the rest of the film is so entertaining. Wile E Coyote is a brilliantly written character and manages to convey a lot of emotion without ever (vocally) saying a word, and his interactions with Will Forte are very sweet. Well worth a watch for all ages.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- The Odyssey
Trailer of the Week
When season 1 of Blue Eye Samurai hit Netflix in 2023, it quickly became a firm favourite here at Geeky Brummie. The story of Maya Erskine’s Mizu’s quest for revenge across feudal era Japan had the perfect blend of gorgeous animation, thrilling action scenes, character-driven drama and great voice acting (including from the likes of George Takei and Ming Na Wen). It rightfully won a bunch of awards, despite strong competition from the likes of X-Men ’97 and Scavengers Reign, and it’s been a long wait for season 2. But the trailer has finally been released, promising a treacherous sea voyage with Kenneth Branagh’s villainous Abijah Fowler in tow as Mizu heads to London in search of her other targets. Blue Eye Samurai will return to our screens in January.
Leave a Reply