Sundance London: Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
★★★★☆
Trump-era America is under an unforgiving spotlight in Miguel Arteta’s visually beautiful dark comedy Beatriz at Dinner, starring a luminous Salma Hayek.
★★★★
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 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: The Desert Bride (2017)
★★★★☆
The Desert Bride (La Novia del Desierto) is a charming Argentinian road move about a late-life blossoming.
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: 24 Frames (2017)
★★★★☆
Abbas Kiarostami’s experimental, posthumous 24 Frames is a meditative insight into a great filmmaker’s creative process.
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.
The Other Side of Hope (2016)
★★★★☆
Aki Kaurismäki is in top droll, compassionate form dealing with the refugee crisis in The Other Side of Hope.
Cannes review: Happy End (2017)
★★★★☆
Michael Haneke’s Happy End deconstructs a wealthy bourgeois family living a life oblivious to the human beings around them with chilling results.
Cannes review: The Beguiled (2017)
★★★★☆
Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled is compelling Southern Gothic, richly textured and deeply feminine.
Cannes review: The Square (2017)
★★★★☆
Ruben Östlund’s The Square is a chilly satire on the pretensions of art and Sweden’s comfortable society.
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.
Cannes review: Okja (2017)
★★★★☆
Netflix’s Okja is Bong Joon-ho’s and Jon Ronson’s satire-cum-expose of the genetically modified food industry through the adventures of a delightful Korean girl and an outsize giant pig.
Cannes review: 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.