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.
London Film Festival
Shame (2011)
★★★★★
Michael Fassbender is at his leg-tapping best in Steve McQueen’s Shame, a tale of lonely frustration, sexual addiction and grim redemption.
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.
The Artist / L’Artiste (2011)
★★★★★
With dazzling performances from Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist is a vibrant homage to silent films and the talkies’ falling stars.
Las Acacias (2011)
★★★☆☆
A slowly elegant meditation on intimacy and friendship, Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias will have you screaming from the back seat with glee,”Are we nearly there yet?”
We Have A Pope / Habemus Papam (2011)
★★★☆☆
Our man in the Vatican, Nanni Moretti’s We Have A Pope delights both in the vibrant ritual of the papal conclave and rattling its cardinals’ chasubles.
Take Shelter (2011)
★★★★☆
With thunderous performances by Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter is a mind blowing twister of mental illness, austerity America and the apocalypse.
The Deep Blue Sea (2011)
★★★★☆
With a career redefining performance from Rachel Weisz, Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea is a tour de force of classic filmmaking and nostalgia.
Wuthering Heights (2011)
★★★☆☆
“Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home,” Andrea Arnold drops the high drama of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in return for an opulence of visual treats.
Oslo, August 31st (2011)
★★★★☆
Revisiting Louis Malle’s Le Feu Follet and the existential malaise, Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st casts a beautiful eye over the death of summer.
Weekend (2011)
★★★★☆
A Nottingham-set gay love story, Andrew Haigh’s Weekend is love in the real lane – tender, confusing and painful. It’s funny, but it ain’t no hom-com.
Film Festival: The 55th London Film Festival 2011
There’s a lot to celebrate at this year’s London Film Festival – over 300 shorts and features with some gems from some of cinema’s…
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We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
★★★★★
With Tilda Swinton’s soul-splintering performance as the mother of a high-school psychopath, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin is killing me. Softly.
Restless (2011)
★★★★☆
Doomed love with a straight twist, Gus Van Sant’s Restless hides a Last Days morbidity in a quirky teenage romance between a terminally ill girl and a funeral mourner.