Phoenix FM Film Reviews

This week Mark reviews: Memory - Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple life and structured life. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past. Perfect Days - A janitor in Japan drives between jobs listening to rock music. The Last Rifleman - A World War II veteran...

This week Mark reviews: Bob Marley: One Love - Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley overcomes adversity to become the most famous reggae musician in the world. The Taste of Things - Esteemed cook Eugenie and her husband Dodin create fine gourmet for an exclusive club. How To Have Sex - Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday – drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should...

This week Mark reviews: The Iron Claw - The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the 1980s. Gassed Up - Ash, who is trying to earn money to raise his 14-year-old sister and send his mother to rehab, gets caught up with an organized crime ring led by a young and charismatic Albanian immigrant. The Settlers...

This week Mark reviews: American Fiction - A novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. The Zone of Interest - The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to...

This week Mark reviews: All Of Us Strangers - A screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbour as he then discovers that his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died, 30 years ago. The Eternal Daughter - Returning to a hotel now haunted by its mysterious past, an artist and her elderly mother confront long-bu...

This week Mark reviews: The Holdovers - A cranky history teacher at a private school is forced to remain on campus over Christmas with a student who has no family plans. The Kitchen - In a dystopian London, Izi lives in a social housing community known as The Kitchen. As the police try and force out the remaining tenants, Izi meets 12-year-old Benji, who is struggling to find his way in the world...

This week Mark reviews: Poor Things - Bella Baxter is a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter. The Exorcist: Believer - When two girls disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, the father of one girl seeks out Chris MacNeil, who’s been forever altered by what happened to her daughter fifty y...

This week Mark reviews: Priscilla - When teenage Priscilla meets Elvis, the man is already a rock and roll superstar. But he becomes someone else entirely unexpected in private moments. Society of the Snow - The flight of a rugby team crashes on a glacier in the Andes. The few Passengers who survive the crash find themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments to survive. One Life - Nichol...

Phoenix FM film critic Mark Searby joins presenter Spencer Carter to countdown their favourite films of 2023.

This week Mark reviews: The Boy And The Heron - A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother, ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. Maestro - Chronicling the lifelong relationship between conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Coh Bernstein. Ferrari - Set in the summer of 1957, with Enzo Ferr...

This week Mark reviews: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - Having pulled off an escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has found a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new threat, and Ginger and her team decide to break in. Passages - A gay couple’s marriage is thrown into crisis when one of them impulsively begins a passionate affair...

This Week Mark reviews: Wonka - With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for it’s chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers. May December - Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past. A Hau...

This week Mark Reviews: Candy Cane Lane - A man is determined to win the neighbourhood’s annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an Elf to help him win. But the Elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life, which brings chaos to the town. The Mean One - In a sleepy mountain town, Cindy’s parents are murdered and her Christmas is stolen by a bloodthirsty green fi...

This week Mark reviews: Napoleon - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is on a relentless journey to power. However, his addictive and volatile relationship with his wife Josephine might just derail his world domination. Girl - The curious relationship between a girl and her mother is threatened by the hostile community around them. The Retirement Plan - When Ashley and her young daughter Sarah get...

This week Mark reviews: Saltburn - A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten. Santa Claus: The Movie - The legend of Santa Claus is put in jeopardy when an unscrupulous toy manufacturer attempts to take over Christmas. Gran Turismo - Jann M...

This week Mark reviews: The Killer - After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal. Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose - When famed paranormal psychologist Dr. Nandor Fodor investigates a family’s claim of a talking animal, he uncovers a mysterious web of hidden motives where everyone is a suspect in his relentle...

This week Mark reviews: Bottoms - Two unpopular queer high school students start a fight club to have sex before graduation. Cobweb - An eight-year-old boy tries to investigate the mysterious knocking sounds that are coming from inside the walls of his house, unveiling a dark secret that his parents have kept hidden from him. The Royal Hotel - Backpackers Hanna and Liv take a job in a remote Austr...

This week Mark reviews: Pain Hustlers - Liza dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter. She gets a job at a bankrupt pharmacy company, and Liza’s guts catapult the company and her into the high life. But this puts her in the middle of a criminal conspiracy. Talk To Me - When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill,...

This week Mark reviews: Killers of the Flower Moon - Members of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major F.B.I. investigation. It Lives Inside - An Indian-American teenager struggling with her cultural identity has a falling out with her former best friend and, in the process, unwittingly releases a demonic entity that grows st...

This week Mark reviews: Daliland - In 1973, a young gallery assistant goes on a wild adventure behind the scenes as he helps the aging genius Salvador Dali prepare for a big show in New York. Shortcomings - Follows a trio of young American urbanites – Ben, Miko and Alice – as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships while traversing the country in search of the ideal connection. Transf...

This week Mark reviews: Blackberry - The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone. Joy Ride - Four Asian American friends travel to China to help one of them find her birth mother. Golda - Golda Meir, also known as the ‘Iron lady of Israel’, must face intense scrutiny and responsibilities to her decisions during the Yom Kippur War.

This week Mark reviews: The Creator - Against the backdrop of a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, a former soldier finds the secret weapon, a robot in the form of a young child. Reptile - Tom Nichols is a hardened detective. He is assigned a case where a woman has died in mysterious circumstances. He suspects everyone, but this case is not as it seems and begins to disman...

This week Mark reviews: The Lesson - A young writer takes a tutoring position at the estate of a legendary writer. Junk Head - In a distant future, humanity has lost its ability to reproduce. An expedition is sent to an underground city where artificial humanoids are still fertile. The Flash - Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world w...

This week Mark reviews: Bolan’s Shoes - Penny and Jimmy are brother and sister. They grew up in a children’s home after they were involved in an accident after attending a T-Rex concert. Decades later both of them must come to terms with what happened on that fateful night. Return To Seoul - A twenty-five-year-old French woman returns to Korea, the country she was born in before being adopted by a...

This week Mark reviews: Past Lives - Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea to America. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny. No Hard Feelings - On the brink of losing her home, Maddie finds an intriguing job listing: helicopter parents looking for s...