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Stephen A. Russell

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Stephen A Russell is a freelance film critic hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, and based in Melbourne, Australia. You can read his reviews at The New Daily, and listen in on Joy 94.9FM show Sunday Arts Magazine.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Proclivitas (2025) EDIT “Proclivitas may leave us wanting a little bit more, but Tunnecliffe’s confident direction ensures we’ll be waiting, eagerly.” – ScreenHub Mar 19, 2026 Full Review Anemone (2025) 52% EDIT “Bean and Day-Lewis senior are sterling actors, but even they struggle to ground Ronan’s lumbering screenplay ... Anemone feels, at last, like it only got made because of you know who.” – ScreenHub Mar 12, 2026 Full Review The Plague (2025) 97% EDIT “Like the fainting mania of Anna Rose Holmer’s breathtaking film, The Fits, Polinger’s en pointe portrayal of youthful ferocity allows just the right amount of doubt –and the ambiguity has you wondering if there is a plague on their pool house?” – ScreenHub Mar 11, 2026 Full Review Pillion (2025) 99% EDIT “Writer/director Harry Lighton's limber debut feature ... isn't as easy to pin down as Colin is by Ray ... Pillion unzips straight-laces, revving its enigmatic engine to bend expectation.” – ABC News (Australia) Mar 11, 2026 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% EDIT “Rajab’s testimony is integral to this refusal to allow her voice to be annihilated. This reconstruction is a refusal to allow her murderers to rewrite her story with their lies.” – ScreenHub Mar 7, 2026 Full Review THE BRIDE! (2026) 57% EDIT “Much wilder in spirit than Gyllenhaal’s also feminist-fired debut feature – the Elena Ferrante adaptation The Lost Daughter, which also featured Buckley – The Bride! is a ferociously stylish beast with a bleeding heart.” – ScreenHub Mar 4, 2026 Full Review Saccharine (2026) 73% EDIT “An acerbic interrogation of the onerous body image demands that are thrust upon young women by social media and their merciless peers, Saccharine is equal parts about self-torturing disgust and empowered resistance. ” – ScreenHub Mar 3, 2026 Full Review Sad Girlz (2026) EDIT “Mexican filmmaker Fernanda Tovar delicately handles the aftermath of sexual assault ... in a non-didactic way that will nevertheless prove an invaluable conversation-starter for young adults mature enough to consider enthusiastic consent.” – ScreenHub Feb 28, 2026 Full Review The Loneliest Man in Town (2026) EDIT “If, like me, you can’t get enough of proudly stubborn oldies holding the line against property developers from hell, a la Aquarius, then this delightful, Vienna-set character study will be the stuff of dreams for you too. ” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review The Education of Jane Cumming (2026) EDIT “German filmmaker Sophie Heldman was fascinated by the true story of the 19th-century teachers Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie ... when Mia Tharia’s titular character ... complains about their closeness, scandal ensues.” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review In A Whisper (2026) 90% EDIT “Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid unpicks the intergenerational trauma of queer erasure in this radiant family drama ... wonderfully captured by cinematographer Sébastien Goepfert” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review Trial of Hein (2026) EDIT “German filmmaker Kai Stänicke’s startlingly assured debut feature is a strange and beguiling beast ... Memory itself is on the line, as the muddy waters are stirred in this cracking mystery.” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review Rose (2026) 100% 5/5 EDIT “Austrian filmmaker Markus Schleinzer’s mesmerising third feature harnesses the unbridled acting power of The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall star Sandra Hüller ... this gorgeously shot, black-and-white masterpiece, my joint fave at the Berlinale.” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review Queen at Sea (2026) 95% 5/5 EDIT “Juliette Binoche puts in a performance for the ages in this astonishing, if confronting, London-set family drama ... There are no easy answers in the thorny morality play that follows” – ScreenHub Feb 26, 2026 Full Review The Weight (2026) 94% EDIT “The Weight is the kind of ragtag, band-against-the-odds adventure that used to fill cinemas back in the day.” – Time Out Feb 24, 2026 Full Review Yellow Letters (2026) 82% EDIT “A well-observed and performed family drama. It’s heartbreaking to watch Namal and Biçer getting ratty with one another, as the pressure builds and Çatak’s slicing dialogue ricochets” – Time Out Feb 24, 2026 Full Review Rosebush Pruning (2026) 30% EDIT “Rosebush Pruning is a fabulous feast for the eyes and ears – and those who like their cinema deliriously queer.” – Time Out Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Animol (2026) EDIT “This prison drama breaks free from expectations. Nyuot is astonishing in a tight ensemble that also includes Stephen Graham” – Time Out Feb 15, 2026 Full Review The Moment (2026) 66% EDIT “A blistering take-down of the social media-driven celebrity culture, The Moment combines the anxiety-inducing mayhem of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and the omnishambles clusterfuck of The Thick of It.” – Time Out Feb 15, 2026 Full Review Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) 82% EDIT “Matthew Robinson’s sloppy screenplay feels like it may have been churned out by AI itself. It’s crammed with leaden exposition and clumsy with hammy dialogue in which everyone over-explains themselves, as if we’re watching it with one eye on our phones.” – Time Out Feb 13, 2026 Full Review Is This Thing On? (2025) 87% EDIT “An enjoyable enough character study, it coasts along on the near-unrivalled strength of Dern, with Arnett just about keeping up. ” – ScreenHub Feb 6, 2026 Full Review Marty Supreme (2025) 93% EDIT “Marty Supreme is propulsive fun, all go, go, gosh, he’s a liability.” – ScreenHub Jan 19, 2026 Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 92% EDIT “Once again, we’ll land on astonishingly incongruous, wildly beguiling tenderness ... majestic filmmaking at its finest.” – ScreenHub Jan 15, 2026 Full Review Nouvelle Vague (2025) 92% EDIT “Really, really, funny, Zoe Deutch's eye-rolls alone are really worth it ... and it looks beautiful ... will appeal to anyone who enjoys film history ” – ABC News Radio Jan 7, 2026 Full Review Babygirl (2024) 76% EDIT “A genuinely horny morality (fore)play that crackles with all the energy of a 90s erotic thriller as viewed through the disappointments of the post-Me Too era and the dashed hopes that attend what was supposed to rewrite the scene.” – Orion's Shoulder (Substack) Jan 3, 2026 Full Review
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