The German Doctor / Wakolda (2013)
★★★☆☆
Uncovering Josef Mengele’s hideout in Argentina, Lucía Puenzo’s The German Doctor struggles to make a monster of the Angel of Death.
Americas
Joe (2013)
★★★☆☆
Dark and uncompromisingly grim, David Gordon Green’s Joe is a wicked Southern Gothic tale of violence and vice in the heart of the Deep South.
Boyhood (2014)
★★★★★
Richard Linklater’s intimate portrayal of growing up is an intoxicating combination of humour, melancholy and unbridled hope that will mean something to everyone.
Cold In July (2014)
★★★★☆
A rich, pulpy, synth-infused southern thriller, Jim Mickle’s Cold In July is a brutish neo-noir homage to the cult classics of old.
TS Spivet (2013)
★★★☆☆
With a magical use of 3D, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s TS Spivet sees a gifted 10-year-old trek across America to receive an award for his invention, given to him in the belief he is an adult.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
★★★★☆
The powerfully dramatised true story that recreates the last day of a 22-year-old black man, Oscar Grant, shot by railway police in the San Francisco Bay area on New Year’s Day 2009.
Cheap Thrills (2013)
★★★☆☆
Fast-moving, gruesome, twisted, about-to-be cult thriller that underneath the horror may pack a violent satirical punch. If ever a film did what it says on the tin, it’s this.
Heli (2013)
★★★★☆
In a corrupt and broken Mexican society, Heli sees an innocent family bring violent retribution on themselves when they unwittingly cross a brutal drug cartel.
Fading Gigolo (2013)
★★☆☆☆
A Jewish caper in New York, John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo finds its gentle comedy in a star-studded Manhattan romance.
The Two Faces Of January (2014)
★★★★☆
Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces Of January is a stylish adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith thriller as a married couple and a stranger get drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship of mutual dependence.
Blue Ruin (2013)
★★★☆☆
A big hit at Robert Redford’s Sundance Festival in the US and previewed at Sundance London, this suspenseful, original and darkly comic revenge thriller set in America’s South is hugely enjoyable.
Reaching For The Moon / Flores Raras (2013)
★★★☆☆
Bringing to light the sexual blossoming of American poet Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil, Bruno Barreto’s Reaching For The Moon loses its way in an overload of story.
Tom At The Farm / Tom à la Ferme (2013)
★★★★☆
A relationship tattooed in love and hate, Xavier Dolan’s Tom At The Farm is a tense thriller where homosexual love meets homophobia at its most dangerous.