Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf’s (2013)
★★★☆☆
Matthew Miele’s Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s is a suitably sleek star-studded behind-the-scenes documentary looking at New York’s über department store.
Laura Bennett
Utopia (2013)
★★★☆☆
Veteran documentary filmmaker John Pilger’s latest, Utopia, is a hard-hitting investigation into modern Australia’s commitment to its indigenous communities.
What Maisie Knew (2012)
★★★☆☆
Scott McGehee and David Siegel bring Henry James’s novel bang up-to-date with What Maisie Knew, proving that the kids are not always alright.
Shun Li And The Poet / Io Sono Li (2011)
★★★★☆
Andrea Segre’s Shun Li And The Poet is a tender tale of friendship between a Chinese immigrant and a Venetian fisherman-cum-poet.
Thursday Till Sunday / De Jueves A Domingo (2012)
★★★☆☆
Dominga Sotomayor’s Chilean road movie Thursday Till Sunday is a beguiling and tender children’s-eye-view of a changing adult world.
Reality (2012)
★★★★☆
Matteo Garrone’s Reality is a well thought-out satire on fame and the pursuit of celebrity in Berlusconi’s reality TV-obsessed Italy.
Jiro Dreams Of Sushi (2011)
★★★★☆
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a beguiling and beautifully crafted documentary focusing on the life of Japanese sushi chef Jiro Ono.
Tiny Furniture (2010)
★★★☆☆
Tiny Furniture sees young filmmaker Lena Dunham trying to carve out a path for herself amidst the monochrome post-graduate confusion of New York.
How To Re-establish A Vodka Empire (2012)
★★★☆☆
How To Re-establish A Vodka Empire is a creative look at Dan Edelstyn’s attempt to retrace his lost Ukrainian heritage and relaunch the family vodka brand.
Patience (After Sebald) (2012)
★★★☆☆
Patience (After Sebald) sees Grant Gee’s richly-textured path meander through the Suffolk countryside and the work of the acclaimed Anglo-German writer.
The Nine Muses (2010)
★★★☆☆
Respected Afro-British director John Akomfrah’s haunting film The Nine Muses is an unusual, genre defying, literary based contemplation of migration, memory and the power of elegy.
Mysteries Of Lisbon / Mistérios de Lisboa (2010)
★★★☆☆
Prolific Franco-Chilean director, Raúl Ruiz’s penultimate film, Mysteries of Lisbon, is a labyrinthine, pan-European, Proustian epic that twists and turns across the generations.
Perfect Sense (2010)
★★★★☆
David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense is a twist on both thriller and love story as a couple find each other while the world around them crumbles, sense by sense.
The Hedgehog / Le Hérisson (2010)
★★★☆☆
Mona Achache’s adaptation of The Hedgehog is a touching, tragic tale of unlikely friendships and a contemporary take on the malaise of the Parisian bourgeoisie.