ralph fiennes – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE – Review by Susan Granger

February 18, 2026February 27, 2026 Susan Granger 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, alex garland, Alfie Williams, amazon prime, danny boyle, Jack O'Connell, nia dacosta, ralph fiennes, sony

Determined to continue Danny Boyle’s bleak, dystopian franchise, screenwriter Alex Garland and director Nia DaCosta create a bizarre, somewhat incoherent installment: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – now available for rent on Amazon Prime. Reaching beyond the ghoulish brain-eaters known as zombies, this hardcore horror thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic world, re-introduces deranged-yet-erudite Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who built an ominous Bone Temple – ‘an ossuary’- an immense pyramid of bleached skulls, surrounded by tall, thin towers of trussed-together bones, resembling white bamboo columns – as a monument to death.

Reviews

THE CHORAL – Review by Lynn Venhaus

January 28, 2026February 1, 2026 Lynn Venhaus Alan Bennett, Amara Okereke, Nicholas Hytner, ralph fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, The Choral

With music a wholesome unifier, The Choral is a character-driven wartime drama told in an old-fashioned way that reflects British customs and attitudes in 1916. The Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire, is determined to keep singing while young men are being called to the western front. The choral master is demanding and driven, and some have doubts about what secrets he may have, but they forge ahead. Fiennes is ideally suited to play this rigid, uncompromising music man. Expect to be introduced to fussbudgets, busybodies, old biddies, and fuddy-duddies as singers come together. The film emphasizes sacrifices and community, and how music makes the townsfolk forget World War I for a bit.

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28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, alex garland, Alfie Williams, danny boyle, Jodie Comer, nia dacosta, ralph fiennes

Bathed in iodine, his blue eyes and thoughtful cadence exuding calm amid towers of bones and songs from Duran Duran and Iron Maiden, Ralph Fiennes is the MVP of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. This latest chapter of the 28 Days Later postapocalyptic zombie saga—the second part of a new trilogy—has story issues familiar for many a middle portion, namely, that anyone who missed the previous film will feel lost. That said, those who found last year’s 28 Years Later engrossing and poignant, thanks in part to Fiennes performance, will enjoy seeing him hold the focus more this time around.

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28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE – Review by Sarah Ward

January 15, 2026January 19, 2026 Sarah Ward 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, alex garland, Alfie Williams, danny boyle, Jodie Comer, nia dacosta, ralph fiennes

This tremendous dystopian saga, a humans-amid-the undead tale that has now spanned more than two decades for audiences and within the world of its movies, returned in 2025 for the first time since 2007’s 28 Weeks Later. Whenever Alex Garland is meaningfully involved, and Danny Boyle as well, the horror genre gains a new masterpiece. With its unforgettable images of a deserted London, Cillian Murphy’s soulful lead performance, Boyle’s trademark energy, and post-apocalyptic musings both intelligently existential and emotionally evocative, it was never a surprise that the original film sparked continuations.

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28 YEARS LATER – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 28, 2025January 19, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin 28 Years Later, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, alex garland, Alfie Williams, danny boyle, Jodie Comer, nia dacosta, ralph fiennes

Two decades after jolting the zombie genre with 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a follow-up that’s bloody, brutal, and in parts surprisingly beautiful. Garland relishes exploring a world gone to hell, something the Oscar-winning Boyle showcases here. But 28 Years Later proves most memorable and elegiac in its quieter moments. It’s easy to draw a parallel between the film’s quarantine and various world events, how easy it is to forget horrors when they fade from public consciousness.

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28 YEARS LATER – Review by T.J. Callahan

June 18, 2025January 17, 2026 T. J. Callahan 28 Years Later, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, alex garland, Alfie Williams, danny boyle, Jodie Comer, nia dacosta, ralph fiennes

Back in 2002, a group of animal rights activists freed test monkeys from a biological weapons laboratory in Great Britain. Unbeknownst to them, the monkeys were infected with a highly contagious virus which quickly spread throughout the United Kingdom. A handful of people survived and carved out a village on a small island. The infected became man-eating zombies. Now, 28 Years Later, it’s the alive vs the living dead. You don’t need to have seen the previous two films to understand and enjoy 28 Years Later. 28 Years Later is a family’s love story and a coming of age drama. It’s about bravery and compassion all while trying to keep one step ahead of ravenous naked zombies.

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by Susan Granger

October 29, 2024 Susan Granger Carlos Diehz, Conclave, isabella rossellini, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, Robert Harris, stanley tucci

The psychological thriller Conclave revolves around the selection of a new Pope, a mysteriously secretive process that begins with the death of the Holy Father whose private chambers are immediately sealed as Roman Catholic Cardinals from all over the world descend on the Vatican to be locked in the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes for his successor. “Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith,” intones British Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the anguished, reform-minded Dean of the College of Cardinals who presides over the proceedings. “Let us pray that God grants us a pope who doubts.”

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by T.J. Callahan

October 21, 2024October 20, 2024 T. J. Callahan Carlos Diehz, Conclave, isabella rossellini, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, Robert Harris, stanley tucci

As the Chalice Turns, Conclave isn’t non-fiction, but it plays like the ‘E! True Vatican Story’ of the search for a new Holy Father. The saintly soap opera is full of secrets, scandals and sacraments. The Robed and the Popeless. Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris, Conclave follows Dean Lawrence, played impeccably by Ralph Fiennes, as he’s tasked with organizing and carrying out the selection of a new pope after the current pontiff unexpectedly dies. His fellow cast of Cardinals, including Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, begin drawing battle lines for succession until the all knowing Sister Agnes, played by a stone faced Isabella Rossellini, and an unknown clergyman from Kabul (Carlos Diehz) arrive and place a pall on everyone’s plans.

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by Diane Carson

October 18, 2024 Diane Carson College of Cardinals, Conclave, Edward Berger, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, stanley tucci, Vatican

In director Edward Berger’s Conclave, Roman Catholic cardinals convene to choose a new Pope, a formidable task given the political intrigue and jockeying for power. With everyone sequestered for the duration of the election, the twists and turns keep revealing depths of deceitful, cunning machinations. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow hold center stage in dynamic, combative performances. Unfolding like an intricate, masterfully played chess match, Cardinal Lawrence guides the proceedings: seeking the truth, reacting to dangerous revelations, fighting for spirituality, and fearing the outcome of the virulent power plays. A taut thriller and a fascinating dramatization of religious duplicity, Conclave is one of this year’s best films.

Reviews

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HENRY SUGAR – Review by Susan Granger

October 16, 2023October 26, 2023 Susan Granger Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, dev patel, netflix, ralph fiennes, Richard Ayoade, Roald Dahl, The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson

Netflix has quietly launched Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and three additional Raoul Dahl short stories. This whimsical cinematic anthology is the creation of Wes Anderson, who became intrigued by the emotional truths in Roald Dahl’s work after adapting his novel into the Oscar-nominated, stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Each is a fanciful fable drawn from the extensive ‘idea’ files that eccentric, cardigan-clad, curmudgeonly storyteller Dahl (Ralph Fiennes) kept in Gipsy House, his isolated ‘writing hut’ adjacent to his home in Buckinghamshire, England. Stumped on how to translate Dahl’s jottings to the screen, Anderson decided to have the four principal actors (Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade), playing various characters, narrate the author’s adroit descriptions and their actions directly into the camera at a rapid pace with deadpan directness.

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