Festival Review: What Happened, Miss Simone (2015)
★★★★☆
Pieced together out of archive footage, interviews and diaries, Liz Garbus’ What Happened, Miss Simone? makes a soul-stirring melody out of the blues.
Berlinale
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: I Am Michael (2015)
★★★☆☆
Charting Michael Glatze’s path from gay poster-boy to Christian pastor, Justin Kelly’s I Am Michael is a confused, emotionless journey back into the closet.
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.
Festival Review: Stories Of Our Lives (2014)
★★★☆☆
A beautifully monochromatic look at LGBT life in Kenya, the NEST Collective’s Stories Of Our Lives is an important history of fear.
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: Chasuke’s Journey (2015)
★★★☆☆
Despite a promising concept of heavenly screenwriters, Sabu’s Chasuke’s Journey ends in an occasionally visually arresting but hare-brained disappointment.
Festival Review: Cinderella (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A live action remake of Disney’s cartoon classic, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is saved by great performances from Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter.
Festival Review: Big Father, Small Father And Other Stories / Cha và con và (2015)
★★★☆☆
An atmospheric evocation of life on the banks of the Saigon River, Dang Di Phan’s Big Father, Small Father And Other Stories is a gently haunting muddle.
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.
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: Gone With The Bullets (2014)
★☆☆☆☆
A carnival of singing, dancing, car chases and bullets, Wen Jiang’s Gone With The Bullets gets lost in an amorphous hall of mirrors.