Biutiful (2010)
★★★☆☆
Dying of prostate cancer and struggling to put his house in order, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful sees shady Javier Bardem melt away.
Americas
Blue Valentine (2010)
★★★★☆
A dazzling, thought-provoking reflection on love found and love lost, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine puts marriage on trial.
Abel (2010)
★★☆☆☆
With its little boy lost fresh from the mental ward, Diego Luna’s fictional debut Abel is a family story, both comic and tragic. Albeit a bit bipolar.
127 Hours (2010)
★★★★☆
Audiences are bound to be divided over Danny Boyle’s flashy visuals, but James Franco goes all out on a limb to ground the supersonic 127 Hours with a bit of gravitas.
Somewhere (2010)
★★★☆☆
With Stephen Dorff as Sunset Boulevard’s latest fading star and a put-upon debutante daughter, Somewhere is Sofia Coppola’s most autobiographical film to date.
Easier With Practice (2009)
★★★☆☆
Centred round a geeky fantasist’s phone-sex relationship, Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s Easier With Practice flirts with the danger of wet dreams coming true.
The Thorn in the Heart / L’Épine dans le Coeur (2010)
★★★☆☆
Franco-Hollywoodien director Michel Gondry’s latest, L’Épine dans le Coeur, turns the camera en his own famille in this heartfelt documentary.
Leap Year / Año Bisiesto (2010)
★★★★☆
Minimalism on a microbudget, Michael Rowe’s Camera d’Or winning Mexican debut Leap Year is a masochist’s delight. With an Australian fascination for light.
The American (2010)
★★★☆☆
With George Clooney playing the strong and silent type, Anton Corbijn’s photogenic The American has Tinseltown set firmly in his sights. All chestnuts blazing.
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
★★★★☆
With pitch-perfect performances by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right is by no means playing it straight.
Buried (2010)
★★★☆☆
One man, one coffin and 90 minutes’ oxygen, Rodrigo Cortés Buried is a deliciously claustrophobic one-hander for Ryan Reynolds. But can Cortés play by the rules?
Winter’s Bone (2010)
★★★☆☆
Set deep in the bone-chilling Ozark woods, Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone rides high on the national spectre of repossession and will make Jennifer Lawrence a star.
Alamar / To The Sea (2009)
★★★★☆
Pedro González-Rubio’s Alamar is a touching tale of paternal love afloat upon the drifting Mexican sea.
The Maid / La Nana (2009)
★★★★☆
Replacing a passive-agressive, quarrelsome maid isn’t easy, as Sebastián Silva’s comic gem La Nana shows. It’s class conflict gone the family way.