Wild Mouse (2017)
★★★☆☆
A delicious comedy exposing the tit-for-tat that sees violence perpetuate, Josef Hader’s Wild Mouse is an uproarious plea for emotional honesty.
Berlinale
Final Portrait (2017)
★★★☆☆
Documenting the creative process of Alberto Giacometti painting his model, Stanley Tucci’s Final Portrait offers a tantalising glimpse inside the artist’s studio.
On Body And Soul (2017)
★★★☆☆
Intersplicing oneiric images of deer in the snow with slaughterhouse romance, Ildikó Enyedi’s On Body And Soul is an unexpectedly romantic vision of star-cross’d loving.
Django (2017)
★★★☆☆
Giving a face to the plight of Roma and Sinti during the Final Solution, Etienne Comar’s Django makes a strange hero of the King of Swing.
Chi-Raq (2016)
★★★★☆
A dazzling rap musical against the epidemic of gun violence amongst Chicago’s black communities, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is sensational.
BFI LFF 2016: A Quiet Passion (2016)
★★★★☆
A portrait of the poet as a young revolutionary, Terence Davies’ Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion sees a fiercely independent woman martyred.
The Commune (2016)
★★★★☆
Inspired by his experience growing up in a commune, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune loses emotional power, buried under a multitude of individual stories.
Festival Review: 24 Weeks (2016)
★★★☆☆
As a couple struggle to come to terms with their unborn baby’s condition, Anne Zohra Berrached’s 24 Weeks uncovers a grey world of female courage.
Festival Review: Letters From War (2016)
★★★★☆
A black and white correspondence between an army medic and his new wife, Ivo Ferreira’s Letters Of War is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of war.
Festival Review: Mahana / The Patriarch (2016)
★★★★☆
The moving portrait of a Maori family seething under the lash of a ruthless patriarch, Lee Tamahori’s Mahana takes heart in a young man finding his way.
Festival Review: Shepherds And Butchers (2016)
★★★★☆
Exposing the inhumanity of capital punishment on the men who lead them to the gallows, Oliver Schmitz’s Shepherds And Butchers is a powerful portrait of a human timebomb.
The 66th Berlin Film Festival – Berlinale 2016
Focusing on the refugee crisis, the 66th Berlin Film Festival awards Gianfranco Rosi’s Fuocoammare the Golden Bear and underscores the importance of standing together.
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Festival Review: Inside The Chinese Closet (2015)
★★★☆☆
With fake marriage markets and illegal babies, Sophia Luvara’s intimate documentary Inside The Chinese Closet reveals gay men and women shouldering their parents’ burden.
Festival Review: Don’t Call Me Son (2016)
★★★☆☆
Depicting the impossible situation of teenagers reclaimed by birth parents, Anna Muylaert’s Don’t Call Me Son clothes her emotion in a plain black smock.