Fire Will Come (O Que Arde) (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Fire Will Come is a prophetic, arresting and mesmerising love letter to nature by Oliver Laxe.
Cannes
Bacurau (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho is an exhilarating mixture of genres – political satire, western, science fiction – underpinned by savage political and social comment. It’s a blast.
And Then We Danced (2019)
★★★★☆
A deeply physical coming-of-age gay romance in the dance world, And Then We Danced directed by Levan Akin is an uplifting and inspiring feature about the path to queer liberation.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a sumptuously sensual lesbian love story set in 1770 that comments fiercely on the role of women in society – then and now.
First Love (Hatsukoi) (2019)
★★★★☆
Deceptively titled First Love is Takeshi Miike’s irresistibly anarchic yakuza noir, stuffed with gratuitous violence, comedy, romance and severed heads.
The Lighthouse (2019)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Di Qiu Zui Hou De Ye Wan) (2018)
★★★★☆
Long Day’s Journey Into Night is memorable, mesmeric virtuoso filmmaking by Gan Bi, creating a universe where time moves sinuously.
So Long, My Son (2019)
★★★★☆
So Long, My Son (Di jiu tian chang) by Wang Xiaoshuai is a deeply moving, generations-spanning drama exploring the long-term effect of China’s one-child policy on a small circle of friends.
Atlantics (2019)
★★★★☆
Atlantic (Atlantique) is Mati Diop’s dreamlike feature debut focusing on the women left behind when Senegalese migrant workers take to the seas.
La Belle Époque (2019)
★★★★☆
La Belle Époque by Nicolas Bedos has sublime performances from its central characters that combine with a clever, witty, seamless screenplay to create an unashamedly super-enjoyable film.
I Lost My Body (2019)
★★★★★
I Lost My Body by Jérémy Clapin is a dreamlike, beautiful, unbearably sad and tender animation.
London Palestine Film Festival: It Must Be Heaven (2019)
★★★★☆
It Must Be Heaven continues Elia Suleiman’s deadpan global quest for recognition of Palestinian identity and homeland.
Sorry We Missed You (2019)
★★★★☆
Sorry We Missed you is a coruscating anti-capitalist manifesto from veteran politically engaged filmmaker Ken Loach and his longtime collaborator and screenwriter Paul Laverty.
