Opus Zero (2017)
★★☆☆☆
Willem Dafoe is central to Opus Zero, Daniel Graham’s nebulous, Mexico-set feature debut.
61st BFI London Film Festival 2017
A Season in France (2017)
★★★★☆
A Season in France is Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s moving film focusing on the plight of a father and his family, asylum seekers in the grip of hostile bureaucracy.
Disobedience (2017)
★★★★☆
Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience is an unorthodox love story set within the constraints of an Orthodox Jewish community.
Lucky (2017)
★★★★☆
John Carroll Lynch’s wonderful, poignant Lucky is a fitting career-end for brilliant actor Harry Dean Stanton.
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (2017)
★★★★☆
Frederick Wiseman’s compelling and comprehensive documentary reveals the behind-the-scenes work of a monumental American institution, the New York Public Library.
Zama (2017)
★★★★☆
In Lucrecia Martel’s hallucinatory, dreamlike, absurdist Zama, Spanish colonialists take on South America and lose.
On Chesil Beach (2017)
★★★☆☆
On Chesil Beach is a well-acted, sensitive adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novella.
Lean on Pete (2017)
★★★★☆
Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete is coming-of-age road movie grounded in the all-American setting of quarter-horse racing.
Beast
★★★★☆
Michael Pearce’s assured feature debut Beast is a clever, feral psychological horror that constantly surprises.
Western (2017)
★★★★☆
The captivating German/Bulgarian culture clash in Valeska Grisebach’s Western could only happen in the EU and it’s subversive.
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.
Journeyman (2017)
★★★★☆
Paddy Considine directs and stars in Journeyman, a melodrama about the hidden toll of boxing.
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.
Dark River (2017)
★★★★☆
Her native rugged Yorkshire is the setting for Dark River, Clio Barnard’s follow-up to The Selfish Giant, a grim drama of a dysfunctional family and their failing farm.