Play (2011)
★★★★☆
Through teen scams, Native American song and an ownerless cradle, Ruben Östlund’s Play offers a long hard look at social discomfort at play.
2011
Shun Li And The Poet / Io Sono Li (2011)
★★★★☆
Andrea Segre’s Shun Li And The Poet is a tender tale of friendship between a Chinese immigrant and a Venetian fisherman-cum-poet.
Come As You Are / Hasta La Vista (2011)
★★★★☆
Polemicising the sexless adolescence of disabled youth, Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are seeks salvation on the Spanish costa.
Rebellion / L’Ordre et la Morale (2011)
★★★★☆
Restoring law and order in the South Pacific, Mathieu Kassovitz’s Rebellion is a war of words, bullets and cynical politicians.
Bullhead / Rundskop (2011)
★★★★★
With a tour-de-force and muscle-bound performance from Matthias Schoenaerts, Michaël R. Roskam’s debut feature Bullhead puts masculinity on trial in Belgium.
Jiro Dreams Of Sushi (2011)
★★★★☆
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a beguiling and beautifully crafted documentary focusing on the life of Japanese sushi chef Jiro Ono.
Elena (2011)
★★★☆☆
With its divided society of rich and poor, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena pushes its morals aside for a murderous take on modern Russia.
Five Broken Cameras (2011)
★★★★☆
Documenting life on Palestine’s front lines, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s 5 Broken Cameras sees a man with a movie camera uncovering the ethics of filmmaking.
Eames: The Architect And The Painter (2011)
★★★☆☆
Beyond the illustrious modernist chair, Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey’s Eames: The Architect & The Painter unseats the man and wife design team with an illuminating bio-doc.
Dark Horse (2011)
★★★☆☆
Delicately new and surprisingly tender, Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse is both a break from the past and a ghostly visitation of the indie auteur’s oeuvre.
Polisse (2011)
★★★★☆
With a fantastic ensemble cast, Maïwenn’s Polisse offers an enjoyably human look into the nether reaches of humanity and its bluecoat defenders.
The Turin Horse / A Torinói ló (2011)
★★★★☆
An apocalyptic tale of human survival in a godless world, Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse is a graceful rebuke to the hypnotic temptations of nothingness.
Sing Your Song (2011)
★★★☆☆
Charting fifty years of prejudice and injustice, Susanne Rostock’s biopic documentary Sing Your Song is a serenade to Harry Belafonte and the philanthropy of celebrity.
Café de Flore (2011)
★★★★☆
Twisting through two love stories in Sixties’ Paris and modern Montreal, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Café de Flore is a devastating tornado of story and image.