Lucky (2017)
★★★★☆
John Carroll Lynch’s wonderful, poignant Lucky is a fitting career-end for brilliant actor Harry Dean Stanton.
Sundance
First Reformed (2018)
★★★★☆
Paul Schrader’s gripping First Reformed links spiritual and physical torment to the environmental threat to the future of the earth.
Sundance London ’18: Hereditary (2018)
★★★★☆
Hereditary is a sophisticated, updated horror movie by Ari Aster that showcases Toni Collette as her family falls apart.
Leave No Trace (2018)
★★★★☆
Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace is a sympathetic, realistic character study of a father and daughter trying to adapt to society after being off grid in a US wilderness.
Sundance London 2018
★★★★☆
Sundance London 2018: 31 May-3 June
The Wound (2017)
★★★★☆
The Wound (Inxeba) by John Trengove stars Nakhane Touré in a tense drama of gay male sexuality brought into focus by the traditional Xhosa circumcision rite of passage.
Thoroughbreds (2017)
★★★★☆
A film adapted from his stage play, Thoroughbreds is Corey Finley’s directorial debut. It’s a stylised teen thriller/black comedy of well-plotted cross and double-cross with two amoral central characters.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
★★★☆☆
Ruff cut – Wes Anderson’s surprise venture into animation in Isle of Dogs.
The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)
★★★☆☆
Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident unravels a noir thriller against the political background of Egypt’s revolution in 2011.
Menashe (2017)
★★★★☆
Menashe by Joshua Z Weinstein is a very human story set in a uniquely closed community that turns out to have universal appeal.
Marjorie Prime (2017)
★★★★☆
Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime takes us into a future where human holograms help families cope with memories, death and grief.
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
★★★★☆
A delightfully nostalgic and evocative portrait of young love, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name has all of the pleasure and only some of the pain.
BFI LFF 2017: Manifesto (2015)
★★★★☆
Blanchett and Rosefeldt have teamed up to produce a series of manifesto-based vignettes that not only ponder the subject of art, but revel in its being.
Bitch (2017)
★★★★☆
Bitch is a satirical feminist parable about domestic nightmare directed by Marianna Palka, in which she plays the central character.