
Festival Review: The Pearl Button / El botón de nácar (2015)
★★★★☆
A cosmological constellation of water, native tribes and Chile’s disappeared, Patricio Guzmán’s The Pearl Button is a powerful wave of connections.
★★★★☆
A cosmological constellation of water, native tribes and Chile’s disappeared, Patricio Guzmán’s The Pearl Button is a powerful wave of connections.
★★☆☆☆
The visual odyssey of a knight’s quest in search of the meaning of life, Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups loses itself in its own watery reflection.
★★★★☆
Dividing the world in two on a butterfly’s wing, Marco Berger’s Mariposa is a charming, delicate tale of the unflappable nature of love.
★★★★☆
A beautifully lensed portrait of Mayan life under the Pacaya volcano, Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul exposes the terrifying vulnerability of indigenous peoples.
★★★☆☆
A tense tale of Mexican machismo as a young gun-runner hooks up with a US cop, Gabriel Ripstein’s 600 Miles shows the gangster genre from its sensitive side.
★★★☆☆
A mesmerising portrait of the loneliness of the beautiful, Lírio Ferreira’s Blue Blood is an enigmatic blend of circus, ballet and cinema.
★★★☆☆
A powerful dramatisation of Martin Luther King’s final battle, Ava DuVernay’s Selma is a moving account of the march on racism and the man behind the movement.
★★★★☆
With a brilliant one-hander from Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed trekking the PCT, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild makes for rehydrated but beautiful soul food.
★★★★★
Ferocious, electric and unrelenting, Simmons and Teller never miss a beat in Damien Chazelle’s phenomenal second feature Whiplash.
★★★★★
Carell, Ruffalo and Tatum are a stellar triumvirate in this unsettling and bone-chillingly creepy true story.
★★★★☆
Satire and fantasy mix intriguingly as an actor known for his portrayal of a superhero in a movie series tries to earn artistic credibility by financing a Broadway production of his own adaptation of a novel.
★★★☆☆
A well-deserved and accomplished tribute to a survivor’s trials of war, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken is nevertheless a shallow experience of suffering.
★★★☆☆
A fascinating tale of friendship and betrayal, Nadav Schulman’s documentary The Green Prince reminds us of the importance of placing ethics over politics.
★★★★☆
Jason Reitman’s incisive slice of modern suburbia is a sad, humorous and painfully relevant snapshot of our subservience to social media.