The Tribe (2014)
★★☆☆☆
An unspoken history of violence, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe offers a challenging and controversial but ultimately unfitting parable for the Ukraine.
Mark Wilshin
Future Beach / Praia do Futuro (2014)
★★★★☆
A sumptuous gay love story in Brazil and Berlin, Karim Aïnouz’s Future Beach is a provocative and sensual tale of maleness, same-sex love and self-discovery.
Still (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Unpicking class tension in the aftermath of the London riots, Simon Blake’s Still blends genres to create a strange yuppies-in-peril gangster-horror hybrid.
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (2014)
★★★☆☆
The closing film in Roy Andersson’s trilogy, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence offers a blackly humorous look at you, the living.
The Falling (2014)
★★☆☆☆
As a wave of falling sickness takes over an all-girls school, Carol Morley’s The Falling plucks female empowerment from a maelstrom of teenage desire.
Gente de Bien (2014)
★★★☆☆
Building relationships across the class divide, Franco Lolli’s Gente de Bien turns into an unexpectedly moving portrait of father and son bonding.
Woman In Gold (2015)
★★★☆☆
Telling the story of Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece, Simon Curtis’ Woman In Gold paints a portrait of Nazi-looted art and its journey back into the right hands.
Force Majeure / Turist (2014)
★★★★☆
Exposing the domestic tensions of a family following a near-avalanche, Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure offers a captivating and wry look at male weakness.
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 Decent One / Der Anständige (2014)
★★★☆☆
Diagnosing the internal conflict of high-ranking Nazi and family man Heinrich Himmler, Vanessa Lapa’s The Decent One exposes the indecency of the “decent”.
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.
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.
Suite Française (2014)
★★★☆☆
Turning Irène Némirovsky’s novel of French occupation into a love story across enemy lines, Saul Dibb’s Suite Française is a powerful, arrogant adaptation.
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.