The Stuart Hall Project (2013)
★★★★☆
A study of the great British cultural theorist, John Akomfrah’s bio-doc The Stuart Hall Project is a patchwork of black identity exposing the empire state of mind.
Mark Wilshin
More Than Honey (2012)
★★★☆☆
Sweating the sweet stuff, Markus Imhoof’s More Than Honey stirs the hornets’ nest with a look inside the hive at the threats facing the world’s bees.
Museum Hours (2012)
★★☆☆☆
A documentary-style feature where fiction fades into the background, Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours is a thought-provoking contemplation of art beyond the frame.
Upstream Color (2013)
★★★★☆
A rhapsody in blue, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color takes a trip through other worlds and interconnected lives.
The Kings Of Summer (2013)
★★☆☆☆
Building a getaway cabin in the woods, Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ The Kings Of Summer sees males rutting and rebellious teenage dreamers turn from boys to men.
Winter Of Discontent (2012)
★★★★☆
A timely revisit to Egypt’s democratic revolution, Ibrahim El-Batout’s Winter Of Discontent exposes the human side of the Arab Spring and the power of the image.
Call Girl (2012)
★★★★☆
With its corrupt politics and hustling broads, Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl offers a pleasurably nostalgic vision of teenage girls living in a material world.
Kuma (2012)
★★★★☆
East meets West in Umut Dag’s Kuma when a Turkish girl, chosen as a second wife, sets an immigrant family living in Vienna awhirl.
Silence (2013)
★★★★☆
Part documentary and part fiction, Pat Collins’ Silence is an Irish evocation of one man’s long journey home.
Foxfire (2012)
★★★☆☆
It’s girl power Fifties style in Laurent Cantet’s Foxfire as a brazen girl-gang, taking on man and the world, spread dissent like wildfire.
Looking For Hortense / Cherchez Hortense (2012)
★★☆☆☆
With the fate of a young woman hanging on a middle-aged nobody, Bonitzer’s Looking For Hortense is a rather bloodless comedy on husbands and wives, fathers and sons.
Paradise Hope / Paradies Hoffnung (2013)
★★★★☆
With a teenager falling for an older man at fat camp, Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Hope remains optimistic of a better life. All it needs is a little discipline.
Frances Ha (2012)
★★★★☆
Down and out in Paris and Brooklyn, Noah Baumbach’s playful comedy Frances Ha is a bittersweet romp through the earnest dreams of youth.
Viramundo (2013)
★★★☆☆
On tour through the globe’s indigenous and marginalised peoples in Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s Viramundo, Gilberto Gil is turning the world upside-down.