The Great Beauty / La Grande Bellezza (2013)
★★★★☆
A love poem to the Italian capital and a searing portrait of its glitterati, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is a virtuoso vision of fiddling while Rome burns.
Reviews
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.
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.
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.
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.