10,000 km (2014)
★★★★☆
10,000 km stars Natalia Tena and David Verdaguer as the heartbreakingly real couple in Carlos Marques-Marcet’s compelling story of love stretched to the limit, now on DVD/VOD.
2014
Festival Review: Virgin Mountain / Fúsi (2014)
★★★★☆
Beautifully paced and scripted, Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain is the deft tale of an ageing mummy’s boy who finds both love and himself.
Festival Review: A Guy From Fenyang (2014)
★★★☆☆
Uncovering the life and works of Jia Zhangke in his home city, Walter Salles’ A Guy From Fenyang reveals the metropolis behind the man.
A Girl At My Door (2014)
★★★☆☆
Combining gay rights with all the tropes of a horror movie, July Jung’s A Girl At My Door is strangely haunting, but struggles with a split personality.
La Famille Bélier (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Highlighting one teenage girl’s struggle to manage life as the only hearing member of her deaf family, Eric Lartigau’s La Famille Bélier is riddled with clichés.
Pasolini (2014)
★★★★☆
Evoking the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini lets the controversial Italian filmmaker’s thoughts and ideas do the scandalising.
Miss Julie (2014)
★★★☆☆
Transporting August Strindberg’s play to colonial Ireland, Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie imbues her underwhelming tale of forbidden love with Swedish style.
Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)
★★★☆☆
A fictional retelling of the bloody final days of the Medellin cartel, Andrea Di Stefano’s Escobar: Paradise Lost brings a personal touch to Escobar’s violence.
Gemma Bovery (2014)
★★★☆☆
As light and summery as one of her floaty summer frocks, Anne Fontaine’s Gemma Bovery brings to life Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel of Flaubert’s classic.
The Treatment / De Behandeling (2014)
★★★☆☆
A fast-paced and tense police thriller, Hans Herbots’ The Treatment plumbs the murky depths of child abuse and male impotence.
Good People (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Armed with a stellar cast and a stylishly bleak cinematography, Henrik Ruben Genz’ Good People is let down by a run-of-the-mill script with nowhere to go.
Theeb (2014)
★★★★☆
A stunningly beautiful Bedouin Western by first-time director Naji Abu Nowar, Theeb uses fabulous locations in Jordan to tell a gripping coming-of-age story.
Marshland / La Isla Minima (2014)
★★★★☆
A police thriller in the dark heartland of ’80s Andalusia, Alberto Rodríguez’ Marshland is a gripping and stylish study of Spain both then and now.
Manglehorn (2014)
★★★★☆
David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn is a surreal and painfully accurate portrayal of isolation that features the most essential Pacino performance in over a decade.