Founder & Editor · Film & Culture
Kaiser Khan is Founder & Editor of Celluloid and founder of Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd, which owns CelluloidScore.com. An entrepreneur and cultural producer, he sets the site’s answer-first editorial standard and transparent four-input Celluloid Score.
Founder & Editor, Celluloid · Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd
Author page (E-E-A-T): Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor
External profile: mrkaiserkhan.com
904 reviews published on Celluloid
Editorial standards: Editorial Policy · Scoring Policy · About & ownership
★★★½☆
Anthropoid dramatises the Czech resistance mission to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in occupied Prague: a grim, tense WWII thriller with a slow first half.
Yes, with reservations. Its second half is gripping and its history vital, but the build-up drags. Best for viewers who like sober, grounded WWII thrillers.
★★★½☆
Boo Junfeng's Apprentice follows a young prison officer drawn to Singapore's veteran hangman: a taut, unsettling death-row drama that is cool to a fault.
Yes, with reservations. It is a gripping, morally serious study of capital punishment with a superb Wan Hanafi Su, though its reserve keeps its hero hard to reach.
★★★★½
Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius stars Sônia Braga as a Recife widow who refuses to sell her flat to developers: a rich, defiant drama about memory and home.
Yes. It is a superb, slow-burning Brazilian drama with a career-best Sônia Braga. Give it time, because its 146 minutes build to something quietly powerful.
★★★★★
Arcane turns League of Legends into a painterly animated tragedy about two sisters split by a city's class divide, and it is one of the best series of its decade.
Yes, unreservedly. It is essential viewing for adults who love serious drama or great animation, and no knowledge of the video game is needed at all.
★★★★☆
Nia Dinata's Arisan! is a sharp, affectionate satire of Jakarta's social elite and a landmark Indonesian comedy about the secrets old friends keep.
Yes, with minor reservations. It is a witty, brave landmark of Indonesian cinema that still entertains, even if its early-2000s soap-opera styling now looks dated.
★★★½☆
Asog follows Rey, a non-binary teacher and typhoon survivor, on a road trip toward fame: a playful, uneven Filipino hybrid of comedy, documentary and protest.
Yes, with reservations. It is a warm, original blend of comedy and climate testimony, best for adventurous viewers who can forgive its loose, uneven structure.
★★★★½
Ayla is Can Ulkay's Korean War drama about a Turkish soldier who takes in a lost Korean girl, a true-story tearjerker that earns most of its tears.
Yes. It is an unashamed weepie built on a remarkable true story, best for viewers who welcome big emotion and don't mind being steered toward it.
★★★★½
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion completes S. S. Rajamouli's Telugu epic with bigger battles and richer melodrama, a mythic blockbuster built for the biggest screen.
Yes. It is Indian blockbuster filmmaking at its most operatic. Watch Baahubali: The Beginning first, then give yourself to the melodrama as much as the battles.
★★★★☆
Baahubali: The Beginning launches S. S. Rajamouli's Telugu fantasy epic with jaw-dropping set pieces, a dated romance and a story that stops at the halfway mark.
Yes, with reservations. It is a thrilling first half of a larger epic, best for spectacle lovers who can forgive a clumsy romance and plan to watch Part 2 next.
★★★★½
Baby Reindeer is Richard Gadd's raw Netflix drama about a comedian and the woman who stalks him, a fearless study of trauma and shame that is very hard to forget.
Yes, for viewers who can handle very difficult material. It is bold, brilliantly acted drama for adults, though its true-story framing raises real ethical questions.
★★★★½
Back to the Future is Robert Zemeckis's 1985 time-travel comedy, a near-flawless feat of storytelling engineering powered by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
Yes. It is one of the best-built crowd-pleasers Hollywood has made, ideal for families and first-timers alike, with only a few dated jokes to forgive.
★★★½☆
Backstreet Rookie is a light Korean rom-com set in a neighbourhood convenience store, bright and likeable thanks to Ji Chang-wook and Kim Yoo-jung, but thinly written.
Mostly yes. It is a breezy, low-stakes watch for fans of its two stars and workplace rom-coms, though its romance has an uneasy backstory and the humour is uneven.
★★★★☆
Bacurau is a genre-bending Brazilian western in which a remote village, erased from the map and hunted for sport, fights back. Strange, furious and bold.
Yes, with reservations. It is a bold political western for adventurous viewers who can handle sudden, graphic violence and a deliberately slow first hour.
★★★½☆
Bait is Riz Ahmed's six-part satire about a struggling actor up for James Bond, a restless comedy about fame, race and self-doubt that is sharp if sometimes overstuffed.
Mostly yes. Fans of bold, self-lacerating British comedy should give it a go, but its surreal detours and crowded ideas will not work for every viewer.
★★★½☆
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is Kabir Khan's Hindi crowd-pleaser in which Salman Khan escorts a lost, mute Pakistani girl home. Big-hearted, overlong and politically simple.
Yes, with reservations. It is a warm family film lifted by a lovely child performance and Nawazuddin Siddiqui's comedy, if you can accept its length and easy politics.
★★★★☆
Batman Begins is Christopher Nolan's grounded 2005 origin story, a serious study of fear and vigilantism that rebuilt the superhero film, if not its action scenes.
Yes, with reservations. It is a gripping, grown-up superhero origin with a superb cast, best for viewers who value story over spectacle and can forgive choppy fights.
★★★★½
Battle Royale is Kinji Fukasaku's savage Japanese satire in which a school class is forced to fight to the death, a shocking thriller with a furious heart.
Yes. It is a ferocious, blackly funny survival thriller that still outclasses its imitators, for adult viewers who can stomach graphic violence among teenagers.
★★★☆☆
Beast is Nelson Dilipkumar's Tamil hostage thriller, with Vijay as a former spy trapped in a hijacked mall. Plenty of star swagger, very little real suspense.
It depends. Vijay fans will enjoy the swagger, the songs and Nelson's deadpan jokes; anyone hoping for a tight hostage thriller will find the plot thin and the stakes weightless.
★★★½☆
Becoming Human is Polen Ly's Cambodian fantasy about a ghost who guards an old cinema facing demolition, a gentle, melancholy fable about memory and change.
Yes, with reservations. It is a tender, unusual ghost story for patient viewers who love films about cinema and memory, though its quiet allegory can feel slight.
★★★½☆
Before, Now & Then is Kamila Andini's elegant Indonesian period drama about a woman rebuilding her life in 1960s West Java, carried by two superb performances.
Yes, with reservations. It is a beautiful, restrained period drama for patient viewers who enjoy subtle character studies, though its history stays mostly offscreen.
★★★★★
Better Call Saul turns Breaking Bad's lawyer into the hero of a patient, devastating character study, and it stands as the equal of the series that spawned it.
Yes, without reservation. It is essential for anyone who values character-driven drama, whether or not they have seen Breaking Bad, as long as they accept its slow burn.
★★★★½
Better Days is Derek Tsang's harrowing Chinese drama about a bullied student and the young street fighter who protects her, a raw, tender and gripping film.
Yes. It is a harrowing but deeply moving youth drama with two superb lead performances, for viewers ready for difficult themes of bullying and violence.
★★★½☆
Big Brother casts Donnie Yen as a former soldier turned teacher fighting for a class of written-off students, an earnest school drama with crisp action breaks.
Yes, with reservations. It is a warm, sincere inspirational-teacher film with a few crisp Donnie Yen fights, best for viewers who can take its sentiment at face value.
★★★★☆
Birdman is Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Best Picture-winning backstage comedy, with Michael Keaton as a faded superhero star staking everything on a Broadway play.
Yes, with reservations. It is a dazzling, darkly funny showbiz satire with a career-best Michael Keaton, though its restless technique and self-regard can be exhausting.