Girls Will Be Girls (2024)
★★★★☆
Girls Will Be Girls, writer/director Shuchi Talati’s first feature, is a well-observed dramatisation of the misogyny that affects the lives of girls and women.
Sundance
Kneecap (2024)
★★★★☆
Kneecap, written and directed by Rich Peppiat, is the comic, fictionalised story of the rise to fame of the Irish-language rap trio Kneecap – played by themselves.
Shayda (2023)
★★★★☆
Shayda, the heartfelt first feature directed by Noora Niasari, is a compelling story of an Iranian woman fleeing domestic abuse to seek cultural freedom.
Passages (2023)
★★★★☆
Passages is Ira Sachs’ toxic European love triangle set in Paris, starring Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos.
Leonor Will Never Die (2022)
★★★★☆
Comedy-thriller and Sundance award-winner Leonor Must Never Die, written and directed by first-time filmmaker Martika Ramirez Escobar, is an intriguing, galloping meta-romp-mix of fantasy, action pastiche and reality about the power of filmmaking.
I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) (2021)
★★★★☆
US festival favourite I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) is a touching, positive indie movie, female written and directed, made during Los Angeles’ lockdown (see the mask use) focusing on the struggles to be independent of a widowed mother who happens to be homeless, black and female – and beautiful.
A Love Song (2022)
★★★★☆
Dale Dickey plays a widow reflecting on life and love and the possibility of connection with an old friend in writer/director Max Walker-Silverman’s tender character study A Love Song.
Faya Dayi (2021)
★★★★☆
Faya Dayi, a poetic documentary by director, producer and cinematographer Jessica Beshir, paints a tapestry of haunting recollections and stories about khat that create a vivid picture of the socio-political landscape in Ethiopia.
Flee (2021)
★★★★★
Flee, by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, a documentary made with a blend of animation and archive footage tells an immensely powerful true story of a gay Afghan refugee in Denmark.
A Cop Movie (2021) (Una Película de Policías)
★★★★☆
Award-winning Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacio with A Cop Movie has made a brilliant, intriguing and innovative – and startlingly genre-unclassifiable – film, starring Mónica Del Carmen and Raúl Briones.
BFI LFF 2021: Faya Dayi
★★★★☆
Faya Dayi, a poetic documentary by director, producer and cinematographer Jessica Beshir, paints a tapestry of haunting recollections and stories about khat that create a vivid picture of the socio-political landscape in Ethiopia.
Sequin in a Blue Room (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
An Australian teen’s obsession with an anonymous sex app ventures into dangerous territory when he is invited into the Blue Room in Samuel Van Grinsven’s stylish gay thriller Sequin in a Blue Room.
The Climb (2019)
★★★☆☆
In original, smart buddy comedy movie The Climb co-writer/directors Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino play two losers also called Kyle and Mike.
Koko-di Koko-da (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
Psychological horror Koko-di Koko-da is a genre-bending, adult riff on a Swedish nursery rhyme, directed by Johannes Nyholm.