The Rider (2017)
★★★★★
The Rider is a magical, must-see mixture of real life and fiction by director Chloe Zhang that opens up a world of modern-day cowboys through the story of injured rodeo rider Brady Jandreau,
Cannes Film Festival 2017
The Ciambra (2017)
★★★★☆
The Ciambra is an extraordinary first feature by Jonas Carpignano, a follow-up to Mediterraneo, that has ordinary people, non-professional actors, playing fictionalised versions of themselves in a reality-rooted drama.
Ismael’s Ghosts (2017)
★★★☆☆
Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismaël’s Ghosts is an abstract, at times melodramatic, interweaving of nightmare, filmmaking, fiction and reality.
Redoubtable (2017)
★★★☆☆
In a timely release for the anniversary of the May 1968 almost-revolution in Paris, Michel Hazanavicius wickedly funny re-invention of Jean-Luc Godard in Redoubtable, as seen though the eyes of Anne Wiazemsky, his second wife.
How To Talk To Girls At Parties (2017)
★★★★☆
John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties is an unlikely mash-up of punk and aliens in the British suburbs.
Let the Sunshine In (2017)
★★★★☆
Juliette Binoche stars in a rom-com departure for Claire Denis in Let the Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Interior).
Western (2017)
★★★★☆
The captivating German/Bulgarian culture clash in Valeska Grisebach’s Western could only happen in the EU and it’s subversive.
A Gentle Creature (2017)
★★★★☆
Savage satire by Sergei Loznitsa in A Gentle Creature eviscerates contemporary Russia.
Wonderstruck (2017)
★★★★☆
In Wonderstruck Todd Haynes opens a cabinet of cinematic wonders as two deaf children’s stories interlink 50 years apart in the magic of New York.
The Square (2017)
★★★★☆
Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning The Square is a chilling satire on the pretensions of art and Sweden’s comfortable society.
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
★★★★☆
You Were Never Really Here by Lynne Ramsay is a dark, disturbing odyssey into the mind of a brutal yet tender hitman.
Loveless (2017)
★★★★★
Shown through a couple’s reactions to the disappearance of their son, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (Nelyubov) is a crushing comment on a loveless society and its people.
Jupiter’s moon (2017)
★★★★☆
In Jupiter’s Moon Kornél Mundruczó takes an intriguing and timely magical realist premise but leaves its resolution in mid air.
Ava (2017)
★★★★☆
In Ava, the increasing darkness of Léa Mysius’ direction echoes the encroaching blindness of its young heroine in a strikingly original coming-of-age story.