Festival Review: 54 The Director’s Cut (2015)
★★★★☆
Chosen to premiere at Berlin (home of Cabaret), Mark Christopher’s 54: The Director’s Cut recreates a bygone age of synth-infused hedonism.
★★★★☆
Chosen to premiere at Berlin (home of Cabaret), Mark Christopher’s 54: The Director’s Cut recreates a bygone age of synth-infused hedonism.
★★★☆☆
The comic story of a New York gay couple trying for a baby with their 30-something best friend, Sebastián Silva’s Nasty Baby falls apart in the final reel.
★★★★☆
More than a biopic, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy is a portrait of musical genius and mental illness with tour de force performances from Dano, Cusack and Banks.
★★☆☆☆
The visual odyssey of a knight’s quest in search of the meaning of life, Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups loses itself in its own watery reflection.
★★★☆☆
A powerful dramatisation of Martin Luther King’s final battle, Ava DuVernay’s Selma is a moving account of the march on racism and the man behind the movement.
★★★★★
Ferocious, electric and unrelenting, Simmons and Teller never miss a beat in Damien Chazelle’s phenomenal second feature Whiplash.
★★★★★
Carell, Ruffalo and Tatum are a stellar triumvirate in this unsettling and bone-chillingly creepy true story.
★★★★☆
Satire and fantasy mix intriguingly as an actor known for his portrayal of a superhero in a movie series tries to earn artistic credibility by financing a Broadway production of his own adaptation of a novel.
★★★☆☆
A well-deserved and accomplished tribute to a survivor’s trials of war, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken is nevertheless a shallow experience of suffering.
★★★☆☆
A fascinating tale of friendship and betrayal, Nadav Schulman’s documentary The Green Prince reminds us of the importance of placing ethics over politics.
★★★★☆
Jason Reitman’s incisive slice of modern suburbia is a sad, humorous and painfully relevant snapshot of our subservience to social media.
★★★☆☆
Emotional revelations in store in this beautifully acted drama as an American claims his inheritance of a valuable Paris flat and finds there is a sitting tenant.
★★★☆☆
Three unconnected stories of three couples in three cities – New York, Paris and Rome – are interwoven in a surprising way.
★★★☆☆
A superb performance from Tom Hardy and a cast of intriguing supporting characters saves this often rudderless New York based crime drama from the drop.