Lucky (2017)
★★★★☆
John Carroll Lynch’s wonderful, poignant Lucky is a fitting career-end for brilliant actor Harry Dean Stanton.
★★★★
Wajib (2017)
★★★★☆
Wajib translates as ‘duty’ and Annemarie Jacir’s film focuses on a beautifully observed father-son relationship as they take a road trip around Nazareth amid the confines of being an Arab in Israel.
Open City Documentary Festival 2018
★★★★☆
30 features, 48 shorts, 30+ countries! Astonishing debut Baronesa from Brazilian film maker Juliana Antunes opens the festival and it features the World Premiere of the inspirational H Is For Harry from Bafta-nominated British filmmaker Jaime Taylor.
The Guardians (2017)
★★★★☆
Xavier Beauvois’ The Guardians Les Guardiennes is a beautiful period recreation of a time of change for women and society in rural France during the First World War.
The Heiresses/Las Herederas (2018)
★★★★☆
Economically crumbling Paraguay after many years of patriarchal dictatorship is the setting for a subtle story of female self-discovery in Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses.
First Reformed (2018)
★★★★☆
Paul Schrader’s gripping First Reformed links spiritual and physical torment to the environmental threat to the future of the earth.
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (2017)
★★★★☆
Frederick Wiseman’s compelling and comprehensive documentary reveals the behind-the-scenes work of a monumental American institution, the New York Public Library.
The Ciambra (2017)
★★★★☆
The Ciambra is an extraordinary first feature by Jonas Carpignano, a follow-up to Mediterraneo, that has ordinary people, non-professional actors, playing fictionalised versions of themselves in a reality-rooted drama.
Filmworker (2017)
★★★★☆
Tony Zierra’s intriguing Filmworker tells Stanley Kubrick’s assistant Leon Vitali’s story and casts a hitherto-hidden light on the great director and his working methods.
Beast
★★★★☆
Michael Pearce’s assured feature debut Beast is a clever, feral psychological horror that constantly surprises.
The Wound (2017)
★★★★☆
The Wound (Inxeba) by John Trengove stars Nakhane Touré in a tense drama of gay male sexuality brought into focus by the traditional Xhosa circumcision rite of passage.
Western (2017)
★★★★☆
The captivating German/Bulgarian culture clash in Valeska Grisebach’s Western could only happen in the EU and it’s subversive.
A Gentle Creature (2017)
★★★★☆
Savage satire by Sergei Loznitsa in A Gentle Creature eviscerates contemporary Russia.
Wonderstruck (2017)
★★★★☆
In Wonderstruck Todd Haynes opens a cabinet of cinematic wonders as two deaf children’s stories interlink 50 years apart in the magic of New York.