Festival Review: Evolution (2015)
★★★☆☆
A stylish dystopia set in a world without men, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution comes adrift in a sea of beautiful images.
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Festival Review: Brooklyn (2015)
★★★★☆
A brilliant adaptation of Colm Tóibin’s novel, John Crowley’s Brooklyn is a funny and moving portrait of an Irish girl finding herself and emigrating to the USA.
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.
Festival Review: Our Little Sister (2015)
★★★☆☆
When three sisters become four, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Our Little Sister is a homely rumination on family and female friendship.
Festival Review: The Witch (2015)
★★☆☆☆
An old fashioned tale of God-fearing devilry and witchcraft in New England, Robert Eggers’ The Witch sacrifices tension for gothic set pieces.
Festival Review: Very Big Shot (2015)
★★★☆☆
With gangster cartels, a film set and violent politicians, Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s Very Big Shot has a strangely watchable identity crisis.
Festival Review: Black Mass (2015)
★★★☆☆
Exposing the links between the FBI and Boston’s most notorious gangster, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass comes undone with a criminal lack of story.
Festival Review: From Afar (2015)
★★★☆☆
With a fantastic performance from Alfredo Castro, Lorenzo Vigas’ From Afar is a delicate but passionless tale of a love that dare not speak its name.
Festival Review: Arabian Nights (2015)
★★★☆☆
A six-hour reflection on the financial crisis in Portugal, Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights is an intelligent and visually arresting compendium of uneven tales.
Festival Review: Gold Coast / Guldkysten (2015)
★★★☆☆
Plunging the sorry history of Danish colonialism, Daniel Dencik’s Gold Coast brings a wealth of image and colour to a dark time.
Festival Review: My Nazi Legacy (2015)
★★★☆☆
Revisiting history through the descendants of two high-serving Nazis and a Holocaust survivor, David Evans’My Nazi Legacy bites off more than it can chew.
Festival Review: Room (2015)
★★★★☆
A sensitive study of imprisonment and the painfulness of freedom, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is an emotional, cinematic tour-de-force.
Festival Review: The Assassin (2015)
★★★☆☆
Glacial beauty with flashes of choreography, Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin is a feast for the senses.
Festival Review: The Embrace Of The Serpent (2015)
★★★★☆
A beautiful, haunting monochrome vision of a lost world, Ciro Guerra’s The Embrace Of The Serpent exposes the indigenous peoples at risk from the white man.