Festival Review: Der Nachtmahr (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A German horror film of Berlin clubs and imaginary creatures, Akiz’s Der Nachtmahr is a pulsating delirium of colourful and haunting images.
London Film Festival
Festival Review: A Guy From Fenyang (2014)
★★★☆☆
Uncovering the life and works of Jia Zhangke in his home city, Walter Salles’ A Guy From Fenyang reveals the metropolis behind the man.
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.
Festival Review: Mountains May Depart (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A triptych of melancholy Chinese stories, Jia Zhangke’sMountains May Depart builds an awkward narrative of nostalgia – past, present and future.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)
★★★☆☆
An Iranian skateboarding vampire movie, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a quirky, stylish addition to the genre.
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.
The Salvation (2014)
★★☆☆☆
A Danish Western with the magnetic Mads Mikkelsen, Kristian Levring’s The Salvation is gorgeous to look at but as hollow as a Ten-gallon hat.
Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder (2014)
★★★☆☆
With a transgender teen searching for her true self, Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break lends a poetic look at the unbecoming state of becoming.
The Face Of An Angel (2014)
★★★☆☆
A self-referential odyssey of filmmaking and its ethics, Michael Winterbottom’s The Face Of An Angel loses its way in a labyrinth of satire and horror.
Wild Tales / Relatos Salvajes (2014)
★★★★☆
Crazy, caustic, and ingeniously clever, Damián Szifrón’s Wild Tales is an excellent Argentine selection box of intricate short stories.
Mommy (2014)
★★★★☆
A violent, visual explosion of fiercely maternal love and insuppressible energy, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy reveals a love that will surely tear us apart.
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.
Maidan (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Uncompromising in its running time, Sergei Loznitsa’s sedate shooting style renders this potentially remarkable account of civil unrest quite the opposite.
Love Is Strange (2014)
★★★★★
A poignant New York story of love in a dark time, Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange makes for a fine romance of the most human kind.