Film reviews - The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodovar; 2024), Blitz (Steve McQueen; 2024) and Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants; 2024)

Pedro Almodovar’s contribution to cinema will go down in the history books. With works as diverse and original as Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Live Flesh and Pain & Glory, he has successfully mined and explored a very particular variety of Spanish-ness while telling stories with universal appeal. In short, he’s one of the greats — which is precisely why his latest effort, The Room Next Door, is astonishing. And not in a good way.

In modern-day New York, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) finds out that Martha (Tilda Swinton), a friend with whom she’s lost contact, is suffering from terminal cancer. She reconnects with her and, before too long, is asked whether she’ll offer help with Martha’s plan to commit suicide. The two of them move into a flashy apartment where Martha intends to end her days. So far, so intriguing. Indeed, the premise of the film is both fascinating and timely. But the execution is so simplistic and so jaw-droppingly amateurish, you spend nearly the entire running time wondering how on earth any of what you’re seeing ever got past the planning stage.