The Final Year (2018)
The Final Year is a fascinating documentary by Greg Barker that’s almost Shakespearean in the rise and fall of its central characters, Barack Obama…
Read MoreAlexa Dalby
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
★★★★★
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is Michael McDonagh’s five-star drama laced with humour featuring a gloriously Oscar-worthy performance by Frances McDormand.
A Woman’s Life (2017)
★★★★☆
A Woman’s Life is a beautifully staged and acted period drama by Stéphane Brizé that unfolds over decades in 19th century France.
Glory (Slava) (2016)
★★★★☆
Based on a true story, Glory (Slava) by Peter Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva is an all-too-believable satirical parable about an honest man, corruption and spin.
Brad’s Status (2017)
★★★★☆
First-world problems trigger beta-male, middle-aged angst in Mike White’s comedy drama Brad’s Status, with a father/son relationship at its heart.
Jupiter’s moon (2017)
★★★★☆
In Jupiter’s Moon Kornél Mundruczó takes an intriguing and timely magical realist premise but leaves its resolution in mid air.
Ava (2017)
★★★★☆
In Ava, the increasing darkness of Léa Mysius’ direction echoes the encroaching blindness of its young heroine in a strikingly original coming-of-age story.
Youth (2017)
★★★★☆
Feng Xiaogang’s Youth is a massive, immersive sweep of Chinese history that makes the political heart-rendingly personal.
Mountains May Depart (2015)
★★★★☆
Jia Zhang Ke’s Mountains May Depart is an epic vision of decades of change in China, its people and diaspora, with a compelling central character.
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.
The Unseen (2017)
★★★☆☆
Gary Sinyor’s The Unseen is a well-made, contemporary British thriller with an original slant.
Bingo: The King of the Mornings (2017)
★★★☆☆
Rampant with brash 1980s Brazilian political incorrectness, Daniel Rezende’s Bingo: The King of the Mornings is based on a true story of an actor’s downfall.
Stronger (2017)
★★★★☆
Stronger, directed by David Gordon Green, stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a gruelling but inspirational portrait of a man rebuilding his life after the Boston Marathon bombing.
Happy End (2017)
★★★★☆
Michael Haneke’s Happy End deconstructs the internal dynamics of a wealthy bourgeois family living a life oblivious to the human beings around them, with chilling results.
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