Before The Winter Chill / Avant l’Hiver (2013)
★★★☆☆
As a thirty-year marriage crumbles in Luxembourg, Philippe Claudel’s Before The Winter Chill goes beyond family drama to find a black heart of darkness.
Europe
American Interior (2014)
★★★☆☆
Gruff Rhys’ musical journey to retrace the footsteps of relative John Evans is a weird and mostly wonderful romantic odyssey.
A Thousand Times Good Night / Tusen Ganger God Natt (2013)
★★★☆☆
Compelling in its gut-wrenching portrayal of conflict, A Thousand Times Good Night is a solid film buoyed by an assured and powerful central performance
Exhibition (2013)
★★☆☆☆
Centred around a modernist house in West London, Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition exposes art, womanhood, relationships and architectural space.
The Informant / Gibraltar (2013)
★★☆☆☆
In Gibraltar, a French bar owner agrees with French Customs to inform on international drug smugglers and quickly gets out of his depth.
An Episode In The Life Of An Iron-Picker / Epizoda u životu beraca željeza (2013)
★★★★☆
Following in the footsteps of a Roma family struggling to survive, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron-Picker finds the documentary in fiction.
After The Night / Até Ver a Luz (2013)
★★★☆☆
Of loneliness and low-lives in the slums of Lisbon, Basil da Cunha’s intimate community portrait After The Night brings neo-realism into the 21st century.
Locke (2013)
★★★★☆
With Tom Hardy single-handedly driving the film and Steven Knight’s dirty, pretty script at the wheel, Locke is an elegant one-hander of life in the fast lane.
We Are The Best/Vi är bäst! (2013)
★★★☆☆
As three schoolgirls form a punk band in Stockholm in 1982, Lukas Moodysson’s We Are The Best smells like early-teen punk spirit.
Calvary (2013)
★★★☆☆
With its story of a good priest getting ready to meet his maker, John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary puts the Catholic Church on trial.
Half Of A Yellow Sun (2013)
★★★☆☆
The personal and political intersect in an epic drama from the heady days of Nigeria’s independence to the failed attempt to set up the breakaway independent republic of Biafra, and the start of a civil war.
The Past / Le Passé (2013)
★★★★☆
The emotional secrets of two families are revealed when an Iranian returns to Paris to finalise his divorce from his French wife.
The Fold (2014)
★★★☆☆
A meditation on maternity and mourning, John Jenck’s The Fold finds a strange kind of love in this muddled would-be thriller.
Starred Up (2013)
★★★★★
A powerful, emotional and violent look at prison and reform, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up offers a glimpse of a life beyond bars.