Reality (2012)
★★★★☆
Matteo Garrone’s Reality is a well thought-out satire on fame and the pursuit of celebrity in Berlusconi’s reality TV-obsessed Italy.
★★★★☆
Matteo Garrone’s Reality is a well thought-out satire on fame and the pursuit of celebrity in Berlusconi’s reality TV-obsessed Italy.
★★★★☆
Exposing Sixties race relations in the sultry heat of a Florida summer, Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy is a hothouse of lust and violence.
★★★★☆
An unlikely odd-couple relationship between man and robot, Robot & Frank poignantly contrasts human memory and ageing with its computerised counterparts.
★★★★☆
Set in 1945 in a Germany coming to terms with defeat, Cate Shortland’s Lore is an intimate and evocative portrait of lost innocence.
★★★★☆
Through the testimony of signing victims, Alex Gibney’s documentary Mea Maxima Culpa Silence In The House Of God lifts the lid on Church secrecy and child abuse.
★★★★☆
Televising the revolution, Pablo Larrain’s No puts advertising and happiness at the heart of Chile’s campaign to depose Pinochet.
★★★★☆
Released barely a year and a half after the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty rides high on a wave of political currency.
★★★★☆
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a beguiling and beautifully crafted documentary focusing on the life of Japanese sushi chef Jiro Ono.
★★★★☆
A colourful journey through India’s rich history, Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children is a beautiful adaptation of Rushdie’s unfilmable novel, vibrant and beguiling.
★★★★☆
Stylish, witty and clever, Xavier Dolan’s Queer Palm winner Laurence Anyways shows the pain of reinvention, the tragedy of impossible love and the survival of the spirit.
★★★★☆
Where do British serial killers go on holiday? Caravanning in the Lake District, of course.
★★★★☆
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, as Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt exposes the brutality of blind prejudice faced with the spectre of child abuse.
★★★★☆
A long hard look at the brotherhood and bravery of men on the right side of the law, David Ayer’s End Of Watch takes on the mean streets of LA.
★★★★☆
An intimate two-hander between Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, Michael Haneke’s Amour sneaks a peek at love behind Parisian closed doors.