Bethan Ackerley

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Oct 17, 2026 ... a brutal takedown of the forces and failures behind planetary degradation. Held together by a terrific performance from Tom Cruise, Digger is more than worth your time – even if you end up hating it. Go to Full Review Digger (2026) 53% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Oct 17, 2026 Whalefall, a film about a diver who gets swallowed by a sperm whale and has only an hour to escape, is fantastic when it focuses on that very scenario. But every scene not set in a cetacean – and there are a surprising number – is an utter chore Go to Full Review Whalefall (2026) 74% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Apr 28, 2026 I’d watch a dozen more films in the same Cornish milieu directed with such flair. Rose of Nevada is a real achievement: a haunting tale of time lost, owed and regained. Go to Full Review Rose of Nevada (2025) 92% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Mar 11, 2026 Project Hail Mary is a beautifully shot, utterly charming adventure – and for me, a lesson in pushing through your initial misgivings. Go to Full Review Project Hail Mary (2026) 95% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Feb 8, 2026 Watching The White House Effect is a smothering experience. It will leave you embittered... And if the film is a polemic, it’s a necessary one, designed to shake us from apathy and stagnation by any means possible – or necessary. Go to Full Review The White House Effect (2024) 94% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Feb 8, 2026 Of all the takeaways from this brutal, brilliant film, the biggest is that our understanding of the infected needs to evolve... It might be time for the infected to inherit the Earth Go to Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 91% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Feb 8, 2026 Shakespeare this isn’t (the dialogue is crass, to put it politely), but there is no denying the draw of this meticulously crafted world. Come for the visuals, stay for Payakan Go to Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Feb 13, 2025 At times, My Husband, the Cyborg feels like being trapped at a dinner party with the most exhausting couple you know. But the longer the experiment runs, the better the film gets. This very modern... love story makes for fraught and fascinating viewing. Go to Full Review My Husband, the Cyborg (2025) - - - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Jan 24, 2025 I left War Game with questions about the exercise’s purpose. I didn’t learn much and I’m not sure anyone in the situation room did either. That said, for capturing the precarity of the US government in such scary circumstances, this is worth your time. Go to Full Review War Game (2024) 80% - -

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Jul 19, 2023 I defy you to watch Sisters With Transistors without feeling transported to another time and place. Let the stories of these groundbreaking women and their work wash over you, and you will find yourself caught up in the current. Go to Full Review Sisters with Transistors (2020) 97% 62%

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Jul 19, 2023 Benson and Moorhead have still created a grim, uneasy thriller with genuinely hair-raising moments. Go to Full Review Synchronic (2019) 79% 76%

Bethan Ackerley New Scientist Jul 19, 2023 The film rarely finds the will to be interested in the man Tesla actually was. Coupled with its incoherent – if striking – aesthetic, this means Tesla too often feels like an empty frame, or a motor without the power to keep it running. Go to Full Review Tesla (2020) 58% 43%