Animal Kingdom (2010)
★★★☆☆
Streuth, it’s a jungle out there! David Michôd’s gangster flick Animal Kingdom pits might against right when a young innocent stumbles into the Australian badlands.
True Grit (2010)
★★★☆☆
It may be a remake of the John Wayne classic True Grit, but don’t be fooled – the Coen brothers’ latest Western outing is their straightest story yet.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
★★★☆☆
Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s retro-fiction novel, Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go basks in a very British nowhereland of clones, existential moans and unrequited love.
Two In The Wave / Deux de la Vague (2009)
★★★☆☆
Travelling from the love between Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut to a bitter hatred, Emmanuel Laurent’s Two In The Wave is a breathless histoire(s) du cinéma.
Nénette (2010)
★★★☆☆
Nicolas Philibert’s latest documentary observes the supreme diva, Nénette, a 40-year old orang-utan and the star attraction at Paris’ Jardin des Plantes zoo.
Rabbit Hole (2010)
★★★★☆
A portrait of a couple coping with their son’s death, Rabbit Hole is a parallel universe of grief and self-censure. For John Cameron Mitchell it’s worlds away.
Black Swan (2010)
★★★★☆
With a mesmerising performance from Natalie Portman, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is entirely gripping in its pas de deux of black sensuality and white innocence.
Biutiful (2010)
★★★☆☆
Dying of prostate cancer and struggling to put his house in order, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful sees shady Javier Bardem melt away.
Blue Valentine (2010)
★★★★☆
A dazzling, thought-provoking reflection on love found and love lost, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine puts marriage on trial.
The King’s Speech (2010)
★★★★☆
From bumbling hesitancy to majestic articulacy, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech exuberantly charts the rise of the man who would be king.
Abel (2010)
★★☆☆☆
With its little boy lost fresh from the mental ward, Diego Luna’s fictional debut Abel is a family story, both comic and tragic. Albeit a bit bipolar.
Ten in 2010
And so, like a wet goat, another year is born; an ideal opportunity to reflect on 2010 and make widescreen resolutions for 2011. You…
Read More
127 Hours (2010)
★★★★☆
Audiences are bound to be divided over Danny Boyle’s flashy visuals, but James Franco goes all out on a limb to ground the supersonic 127 Hours with a bit of gravitas.
Somewhere (2010)
★★★☆☆
With Stephen Dorff as Sunset Boulevard’s latest fading star and a put-upon debutante daughter, Somewhere is Sofia Coppola’s most autobiographical film to date.