Turns out the pandemic has really done a number on us.

It’s true to say that Julio Torres sparkles.

Unexpected themes can crop up at festivals. At this year's South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, there were two shorts that dealt with vets at the end of a pet's life.

It's a double win for Bob Trevino Likes It. Not only did Tracie Laymon's cringe-cute comedy win the Grand Jury Award for narrative feature at last week's South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, now it's walked away with the audience award.

There are a thousand versions of The Idea of You that would be a bad or at least uninteresting film: a sickly, bland, trope-laden rom-com about an older woman and a younger pop star. But none of those would have been directed by Michael Showalter.

We all have those moments when hearing a certain song instantly transports us back to a specific moment in time, when a sudden flash from our personal past overwhelms the present. In the romantic drama The Greatest Hits, however, this human quirk becomes pathological rather than pleasant.

German filmmaker Tillman Singer became a phenom on the festival circuit in 2019 for his experimental demonic horror Luz, but there was a creeping suspicion that it was undeniable style over substance.

Civil War is not the film you think it is. The trailers. The initial, enigmatic descriptions. The title. It all infers an analysis of America as a divided nation, one where the risk of a second great conflagration seems all too imminent.

In another world, Joseph (Jaeden Martell) would probably be winning medals at science club and thinking about college, while Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) would be hanging out after class, trying to spend a few extra minutes with Charlotte (Sadie Soverall), the girl next door.