Tiny Furniture (2010)
★★★☆☆
Tiny Furniture sees young filmmaker Lena Dunham trying to carve out a path for herself amidst the monochrome post-graduate confusion of New York.
Female Filmmakers
Wuthering Heights (2011)
★★★☆☆
“Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home,” Andrea Arnold drops the high drama of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in return for an opulence of visual treats.
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
★★★★★
With Tilda Swinton’s soul-splintering performance as the mother of a high-school psychopath, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin is killing me. Softly.
Tomboy (2011)
★★★☆☆
The portrait of the cross-dresser as a young boy, Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy explores a summer of sexual awakening and the limits of identity.
In A Better World / Haevnen (2010)
★★★★☆
Split between Kenya and Denmark, Susanne Bier’s In A Better World has war and peace in its sights as its playground bullies test the pacifists to the limit.
Love Like Poison / Un Amour Violent (2010)
★★★★☆
Ivorian director, Katell Quillévéré’s first feature, Love Like Poison is a tender coming of age tale set amid the religious fervour of small-town Brittany.
Island (2011)
★★★☆☆
Based on the novel by Jane Rogers, Elizabeth Mitchell and Brek Taylor’s debut Island throws hateful young Nikki into an enchanted isle of folklore and revenge.
Meek’s Cutoff (2010)
★★★☆☆
With wide vistas of the Oregon Desert and sumptuous desolation, Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff explores the unspoken battle of the sexes on the prarie trail.
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.
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.
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.
Film Review: Bluebeard / Barbe Bleue (2009)
★★★☆☆
A faithful adaptation of Perrault’s fairytale, Bluebeard nevertheless conceals a bevy of Catherine Breillat’s favourite themes. But where’s the eroticism?
La Mujer Sin Cabeza / The Headless Woman (2008)
★★★☆☆
Foaming with hit-and-run guilt, Lucrecia Martel’s La Mujer Sin Cabeza is a murky swamp of middle-class morals. These troubled waters run deep.