The Ghoul (2016)
★★★★☆
Executive produced by Ben Wheatley, The Ghoul is a teasingly self-aware psychological thriller.
UK
Chubby Funny (2016)
★★★★☆
Chubby Funny is Harry Michell’s sophisticated debut as writer, director and star in a very funny comedy about contemporary generational angst.
Alone in Berlin (2016)
★★☆☆☆
Adapting Hans Fallada’s German resistance novel for the silver screen, Vincent Perez’ Alone In Berlin recreates the plot but none of the drama.
Sodom (2017)
★★★★☆
Sodom is an impressive, assured, thought-provoking debut for writer/director Mark Wilshin.
Churchill (2017)
★★★☆☆
Jonathan Teplitzky’s Churchill focuses on the tragedy of a previously indomitable, ageing leader recognising his failing powers to command in wartime in the tense lead-up to D-Day.
The Shepherd (El Pastor) (2016)
★★★★☆
In The Shepherd (El Pastor) Jonathan Cenzual Burley captures the heart of rural Spain in a beautifully observed and moving David and Goliath battle.
Michelangelo: Love and Death (2017)
★★★★☆
To coincide with a major show at London’s National Gallery, Michelangelo: Love and Death, the latest offering from Exhibition on Screen, retraces the genius of the Florentine master.
Interlude in Prague (2017)
★★★★☆
John Stephenson OBE’s take on Mozart’s making of Don Giovanni is a romantic farrago of beautiful costumes and music in Interlude in Prague.
Cannes review: How to talk to girls at parties (2017)
★★★★☆
John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties is a weird mixture of punk and aliens in the British suburbs – and it works.
Cannes review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
★★★★☆
In The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos creates a disturbingly strange and brutal dilemma.
Spaceship (2016)
★★★★☆
Spaceship is a dreamlike, semi-psychedelic, free-flowing story of teenage cyber goths and alien abductions.
The Journey (2016)
★★★★☆
Director Nick Hamm has Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness in the back of his car in The Journey, imagining a spellbinding road trip that might have triggered their bromance in government in Northern Ireland.
The Pyramid Texts (2015)
★★★★☆
An old boxer returns to the ring one last time to record a video message to his son. It’s an award-winning,moving monologue from veteran star James Cosmo in the Shammasian Brothers’ The Pyramid Texts.
Their Finest (2016)
★★★★☆
Danish director Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest is a very British romcom.