Before Midnight (2013)
★★★★☆
Relationships laid bare on a Greek island, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight seduces with its beauty, intelligence and wit. But is this love?
★★★★☆
Relationships laid bare on a Greek island, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight seduces with its beauty, intelligence and wit. But is this love?
★★★☆☆
Pushing the cold killer and family guy to breaking point, Ariel Vromen’s The Iceman features a stellar performance from Michael Shannon and a cluster of stars.
★★★☆☆
Taking on the American dream in the Bronx, Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot walks the highline from fading dreams to blossoming romance.
★★★★☆
An infinite circle of fatherhood and wrongdoing, Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines is a cinematic triptych of masculinity in crisis.
★★★☆☆
Based on real events, Craig Zobel’s Compliance is a disturbing foray into civic obedience, gullibility and the limits of compassion.
★★★★☆
Exposing Sixties race relations in the sultry heat of a Florida summer, Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy is a hothouse of lust and violence.
★★★★☆
An unlikely odd-couple relationship between man and robot, Robot & Frank poignantly contrasts human memory and ageing with its computerised counterparts.
★★★☆☆
With nods to Hitchcock and Clouzot, Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects takes on the pharmaceutical industry and the doctors risking it all on wages of fear.
★★★☆☆
With its loose strands of lonely souls looking for love, Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder reaches for the stars with his poetry of image.
★★★☆☆
Despite great performances from a stellar cast, Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock muddles between biopic, a making of and a troubled marriage drama.
★★★★☆
Through the testimony of signing victims, Alex Gibney’s documentary Mea Maxima Culpa Silence In The House Of God lifts the lid on Church secrecy and child abuse.
★★★★☆
Released barely a year and a half after the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty rides high on a wave of political currency.
★★★☆☆
Transporting Tolstoy to Los Angeles, Bernard Rose’s Boxing Day is an entirely unfestive Christmas carol on altruism and greed.
★★★★☆
A long hard look at the brotherhood and bravery of men on the right side of the law, David Ayer’s End Of Watch takes on the mean streets of LA.