Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
Despite its silly title, black comedy Dogs Don’t Wear Pants by J.-P. Valkeapää is a touching – if harrowing – study of an extreme way of overcoming corrosive grief.
The Truth (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Hirokazu Koreeda turns to Europe for a French-language family drama with comic undertones that spans the generations in The Truth.
Misbehaviour (2020) – DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
★★★★☆
Misbehaviour, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, made by an all-woman team and starring women, is a clever, funny, inspirational feminist film about the Women’s Lib Movement and the Miss World contest. Attempts to bring down the patriarchy remain ongoing.
Bacurau (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho is an exhilarating mixture of genres – political satire, western, science fiction – underpinned by savage political and social comment. It’s a blast.
Berlinale 2020: The Winners
★★★★☆
The Berlin Film Festival awards presented on 1 March 2020…
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019) – On demand
★★★★★
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ spellbinding tribute to a literary treasure that makes you feel as if you have lost a friend.
RUN (2019) – ON DVD AND DOWNLOAD FROM 25 MAY 2020
★★★☆☆
Scottish nouveau dreich, downbeat Run, expanded from a short by director Scott Graham, still has a way to go.
Villain (2020)
★★★☆☆
Villain, director Philip Barantini’s feature debut, is an ironically titled, violent slice of old and new crime in the East End, with a dominating performance by Craig Fairbrass.
Dark Waters (2019)
★★★★☆
Dark Waters, caringly directed by Todd Haynes and starring Mark Ruffalo, is the true story of one brave man’s exposure of the cover-up of a far-reaching environmental catastrophe.
The True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)
★★★★☆
In The True History of the Kelly Gang Justin Kurzel memorably reimagines the Australian legend in the searing, burning landscapes of Peter Carey’s award-winning novel.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a sumptuously sensual lesbian love story set in 1770 that comments fiercely on the role of women in society – then and now.
Greed (2019)
★★★★☆
Nothing exceeds like excess in Michael Winterbottom’s broad satire Greed, starring Steve Coogan as a super-rich high-street-fashion mogul.
Steve McQueen Exhibition (2020)
★★★★★
Director Steve McQueen’s stunning new exhibition of photographs and video installations at the Tate Modern makes you open your eyes and really, really look.
First Love (Hatsukoi) (2019)
★★★★☆
Deceptively titled First Love is Takeshi Miike’s irresistibly anarchic yakuza noir, stuffed with gratuitous violence, comedy, romance and severed heads.