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.
film
Beast
★★★★☆
Michael Pearce’s assured feature debut Beast is a clever, feral psychological horror that constantly surprises.
The Wound (2017)
★★★★☆
The Wound (Inxeba) by John Trengove stars Nakhane Touré in a tense drama of gay male sexuality brought into focus by the traditional Xhosa circumcision rite of passage.
Funny Cow (2017)
★★★★☆
Funny Cow showcases Maxine Peake’s versatility when she stars as a ground-breaking female comedian surviving in the misogynistic Seventies.
Let the Sunshine In (2017)
★★★★☆
Juliette Binoche stars in a rom-com departure for Claire Denis in Let the Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Interior).
Festival of Commonwealth Film 2018
★★★★☆
The first ever Festival of Commonwealth film is on 14 and 15 April at the British Library, London.
Western (2017)
★★★★☆
The captivating German/Bulgarian culture clash in Valeska Grisebach’s Western could only happen in the EU and it’s subversive.
A Gentle Creature (2017)
★★★★☆
Savage satire by Sergei Loznitsa in A Gentle Creature eviscerates contemporary Russia.
Custody (2017)
★★★★☆
Custody is a superbly acted, terrifying domestic abuse drama by Xavier Legrand.
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.
Wonderstruck (2017)
★★★★☆
In Wonderstruck Todd Haynes opens a cabinet of cinematic wonders as two deaf children’s stories interlink 50 years apart in the magic of New York.
120 BPM
★★★★★☆
In BPM director Robin Campillo turns his naturalistic documentary-style technique from The Class on a group of AIDS activists in the epidemic of the 1990s in a moving, tender and compassionate film.
The Islands and the Whales (2016)
★★★★☆
The Islands and the Whales is a stunningly beautiful, unobtrusively shot documentary by Mike Day with a narrative that takes us into the lives of real people caught between tradition and global environmental change in the remote Faroe Islands.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
★★★☆☆
Ruff cut – Wes Anderson’s surprise venture into animation in Isle of Dogs.