Festival Review: Suffragette (2015)
★★★☆☆
Celebrating nearly a century of women’s right to vote, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette is an important and inspirational film on democracy in action.
Alexa Dalby
Life (2015)
★★★☆☆
Recreating a brief episode in James Dean’s life, Anton Corbijn’s Life sees the icon on the cusp of fame thanks to a series of photographs for Life magazine.
Mia Madre (2015)
★★★★☆
A very personal film, Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre sees a film director cope with the death of her mother whilst shooting a film with an uncontrollable star.
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.
The Legend Of Barney Thomson (2015)
★★★☆☆
The Legend Of Barney Thomson, Robert Carlyle’s first feature as a director is a black comedy that stars him as an inept Glaswegian barber mistaken for a serial killer.
Li’l Quinquin / P’tit Quinquin (2014)
★★★★☆
A French Twin Peaks where crimes are investigated Clouseau-style, Bruno Dumont’s absurd black comedy P’tit Quinquin is both ‘policier’ and satire.
Second Coming (2014)
★★★☆☆
An intriguing film debut for playwright Debbie Tucker Green, Second Coming is a thought-provoking allegory of an unexplained pregnancy in contemporary London.
Listen Up Philip (2014)
★★★☆☆
Conceived by a writer/director influenced by Philip Roth, Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip is a darkly comic satire of the American literary world.
The Goob (2014)
★★★☆☆
Written and directed by Guy Myhill, The Goob is a memorable British coming of age drama with an unusually strong sense of place in its rural setting.
Rosewater (2014)
★★★☆☆
Jon Stewart’s Rosewater is a political satire focusing on the absurd interrogation of a journalist imprisoned for his coverage of the presidential elections.
Phoenix (2014)
★★★★☆
In war-damaged Berlin a disfigured concentration camp survivor strives to rediscover her identity as she searches for the husband who may have betrayed her.
Spooks – The Greater Good (2015)
★★★☆☆
Picking up the TV series’ espionage story lines, the disgraced head of MI5 goes rogue, hunting a terrorist on the loose and a traitor in ‘the firm’.
Hackney’s Finest (2014)
★★★☆☆
Chris Bouchard’s Hackney’s Finest is a darkly comic caper with much more violence, hard drug taking and serious swearing than you’d expect.
White Bird In A Blizzard (2014)
★★★☆☆
As one girl comes to terms with the strange disappearance of her mother, Gregg Araki’s White Bird In A Blizzard gets under the skin of a family mystery.