It’s been a while since I’ve posted links to my ‘day job’ film reviews here. There’s no strict or particular reason for this; it’s just something that I’ve been doing by rote for the largest chunk of what one could call my career (it is, in fact, the practice that kickstarted it all), so that it often feels superfluous to point to it in any explicit way.

But this is, of course, just my own psychological cushioning and laziness at play, and shouldn’t be given all the credence it’s been getting. So for whatever it’s worth, here’s a handful of recent reviews I’ve written up for ye olde and trusty homestead at MaltaToday.

Too Much Colour: Aquaman

(…too much, but that’s okay…)

“While certainly not without its faults, James Wan’s brave and confident handling of the latest offering from the struggling ‘shared universe’ by DC moves at a steady clip despite its cumbersome running time and some perfunctory exposition. With nary an original beat in sight, what we do get is a classic hero origin story all set in a mesmerising undersea world that is not afraid to indulge the full technicolour bliss of comic book fantasia.”

Click here to read the full review

Two Colours Only: Roma

“An autobiographical story that somehow manages to feel both intimate and massive, Alfonso Cuarón’s trip down memory lane is a masterful feat of empathy and historical reckoning. In a world where repressive governments insist on barring entry to outsiders, and where a toxic political discourse based on constricting identity politics chokes the global conversation, Roma feels like a welcome breath of intimate and complex humanity.”

Click here to read the full review

The Colours Are Just Right: The Favourite

“Caustically funny without being flippant or excessively mean-spirited and beautifully wrought but eschewing visual fetishisation, The Favourite is a rare beast indeed: a sneakily entertaining anti-period drama that deconstructs the foibles of its erstwhile genre while sustaining the momentum of a mutually destructive human vortex that is perversely, beguilingly entertaining from start to finish.”

Click here to read the full review

To go along with the colour-wheel vibe established here, my review of Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw is out in today’s edition of the paper. Online version will be up in a few days’ time, but suffice it to say that my take is about as unflattering as anything Gyllenhall’s sneery art critic character could come up with on a good-bad day.