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.
Genre
Oz Film Fest: Hounds of Love (2016)
★★★☆☆
Ben Brown’s first feature Hounds of Love is a brutal serial killer thriller.
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.
Sundance London: Bushwick (2017)
★★★★☆
Bushwick by Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott is an action-filled dark imagining of civil war in the streets of Brooklyn.
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.
Sundance London: The Incredible Jessica James (2017)
★★★★☆
The Incredible Jessica James is director Jim Strouse’s irresistible rom-com vehicle for rising star Jessica Williams.
Sundance London: The Big Sick (2017)
★★★★☆
The Big Sick by director and comedian Michael Showalter is a culture-clash rom-com set in Chicago that’s genuinely moving and funny – what’s more, it’s based on a real-life love story.
Cannes review: Before We Vanish (2017)
★★★★☆
Before We Vanish by Kiyoshi Kurosaw is a genre-bending Japanese bodysnatchers movie that provokes an alien apocalypse on Earth.
Cannes review: Wind River (2017)
★★★★☆
Taylor Sheridan’s heart is on his sleeve in his directorial debut in gripping, atmospheric Native American thriller Wind River.
Cannes review: Rodin (2017)
★★★★☆
Rodin is a ploddingly, inexplicably uninteresting biopic of the revolutionary sculptor by Jacques Doillon.
Cannes review: Good Time (2017)
★★★★☆
A manic night of nonstop motion ensues as a small-time bank robber tries to free his brother in the Safdie brothers’ ironically titled thriller Good Time.
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: 120 BPM (120 beats per minute) (2017)
★★★★★☆
In BPM director Robin Campillo turns his naturalistic documentary-style technique from The Class on a group of AIDS activists in the epidemic of the 1990s in a sober, moving, tender and compassionate film.