The Universal Theory (2023) (Die Theorie von Allem)
★★★☆☆
The Universal Theory directed by Timm Kröger is a stunning homage to all those black-and-white film-noir mysteries of the 1940s with a dreamlike sci-fi twist.
Picturehouse
Only the River Flows (2023)
★★★★☆
Only the River Flows is a scintillating Chinese neo-noir, the third film directed by Wei Shujun.
About Dry Grasses (2023) (Kuru Otlar Üstüne)
★★★★★
About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is another masterpiece from the Turkish auteur.
Orlando, My Political Biography (2023) (Orlando, Ma Biographie Politique)
★★★☆☆
Orlando, My Political Biography by trans activist Paul B Preciado is a moving documentary inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel.
La Chimera (2023)
★★★★☆
La Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher is an enigmatic, dreamlike Italian fable.
Sundance London 2024: 6-9 June: Picturehouse
★★★★☆
Sundance London 2024
Evil Does Not Exist (2023) (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
★★★★☆
Evil Does Not Exist by Palme-d’or-winning director Ryu Hamaguchi is a sensitive, mesmeric ecological fable.
Monster (2023) (Kaibutsu)
★★★★☆
Rumours, lies, cover-ups and maybe the truth – all are layers of the onion in the compelling Monster, directed by award-winning Hirokazu Koreeda, written by Yûji Sakamoto, with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The Taste of Things (2023) (The Pot-au-Feu) (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)
★★★★☆
The Taste of Things, directed by Tran Anh Hung is so, so French. It’s beautiful and it’s a 19th-century love story that is also food and beauty obsessed.
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
★★★★☆
Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet’s Palme d’or winner, stars Sandra Hüller in a gripping, ambiguous puzzle of a courtroom drama.
Past Lives (2023)
★★★★☆
Universally acclaimed romantic Past Lives is an extraordinary feature debut by US/Korean Celine Song.
Scrapper (2023)
★★★★☆
Scrapper, an inventive, award-winning first feature written and directed by Charlotte Regan, was the crowd-pleasing opening film of the Sundance London Film Festival.
Smoking Causes Coughing (2022) (Fumer Fait Tousser)
★★★☆☆
Smoking Causes Coughing, the brainchild of über-absurdist Quentin Dupieux, is bizarre, very, very silly, strangely disquieting and rather flimsy.
Mother and Son (2022) (Un Petit Frère)
★★★★☆
Mother and Son is an ★★★★☆
involving, compassionate film by Léonor Serraille that poignantly shows the difficulties and the effects on a family – both positive and negative – of immigration into a strange country.