Hinterland (2015)
★★★☆☆
Sensitive low-budget British indie Hinterland follows two childhood friends getting to know each other again on a weekend road trip to Cornwall.
Europe
The Duke Of Burgundy (2014)
★★★★☆
Evoking Lynch, Polanski and Buñuel, The Duke of Burgundy is a boldly unique film from an exciting British filmmaker; it’s quite mad, quite funny, and quite brilliant.
Maidan (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Uncompromising in its running time, Sergei Loznitsa’s sedate shooting style renders this potentially remarkable account of civil unrest quite the opposite.
Festival Review: Pioneer Heroes (2015)
★★★☆☆
The portrait of a lost generation, Natalya Kudryashova’s Pioneer Heroes unpicks the disappointment of not living up to those childhood Octoberist dreams.
Festival Review: Dora Or The Sexual Neuroses Of Our Parents (2015)
★★★☆☆
The portrait of a teenage mentally handicapped girl in the first throes of sex, Stina Werenfels’ Dora Or The Sexual Neuroses Of Our Parents comes unhinged.
Festival Review: Why Me? / De Ce Eu? (2015)
★★★☆☆
More an existential dilemma than a corruption thriller, Tudor Giurgiu’s Why Me? is an important but longwinded tribute to the man who fought the law.
Festival Review: Misfits (2015)
★★★☆☆
A portrait of life for gay and lesbian youth in Tulsa, Jannik Splidsboel’s Misfits explores homophobia and identity in the Bible Belt.
Greenery Will Bloom Again / Torneranno i prati (2014)
★★★★☆
A stunning portrait of life in the trenches during the Great War, Ermanno Olmi’s Torneranno i prati is a handsome tribute to loneliness and fear.
Festival Review: The Misplaced World / Die Abhandene Welt (2015)
★★☆☆☆
Despite all-singing performances from Katja Riemann and Barbara Sukowa, Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World still makes for a jarring thriller.
Festival Review: Fassbinder To Love Without Demands (2015)
★★★★☆
With unique archive footage, Christian Braad Thomsen’s Fassbinder To Love Without Demands delivers an honest and intelligent portrait of the German director.
Snow In Paradise (2014)
★★★☆☆
Drugs and violent crime trigger a surprising religious conversion for a small-time gangster in London’s East End, in a story that reflects a changing urban society.
Festival Review: Sworn Virgin / Vergine Giurata (2015)
★★★★☆
With a great performance from Alba Rohrwacher, Laura Bispuri’s Sworn Virgin is a stunning but underwhelming glimpse into celibacy in the Albanian mountains.
Festival Review: Elser / 13 Minutes (2015)
★★★☆☆
What can change a man from pacifist to freedom fighter? Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 13 Minutes pays tribute to the German resistant Georg Elser.
Festival Review: Eisenstein In Guanajuato (2015)
★★★★☆
A visual extravaganza of the Russian director’s sexual awakening in Mexico, Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein In Guanajuato is a shameless return to form.