Festival Review: Green Room (2015)
★★★☆☆
Carving out his own genre of trapped men fighting for survival, Jeremy Saulnier’s taut, gruesome and suspenseful Green Room pulls no punches.
★★★
Festival Review: Krisha (2015)
★★★☆☆
Filmed at home with friends and family, Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha is a Cassavetes-style portrait of recovery and addiction. And much more than a home video.
Festival Review: An (2015)
★★★☆☆
With cherry blossom, sweet red bean paste and lovable pensioners, Naomi Kawase’s An is a light, soft-centred Japanese fancy.
Festival Review: The Endless River (2015)
★★★☆☆
Drifting through a gamut of murder, revenge and forgiveness, Oliver Hermanus’ The Endless River offers three perspectives on violence in South Africa.
Festival Review: The People Versus Fritz Bauer (2015)
★★★☆☆
Shining a light on German denazification, Lars Kraume’s The People Versus Fritz Bauer is an important story of a forgotten hero.
Festival Review: A Bigger Splash (2015)
★★★☆☆
A sumptuous but strangely outdated adaptation of La Piscine, Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash is a watery enigma of jealousy and miscommunication.
Festival Review: Evolution (2015)
★★★☆☆
A stylish dystopia set in a world without men, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution comes adrift in a sea of beautiful images.
Suffragette (2015)
★★★☆☆
Celebrating nearly a century of women’s right to vote, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette is an important and inspirational film on democracy in action.
Festival Review: Our Little Sister (2015)
★★★☆☆
When three sisters become four, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Our Little Sister is a homely rumination on family and female friendship.
Festival Review: Very Big Shot (2015)
★★★☆☆
With gangster cartels, a film set and violent politicians, Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s Very Big Shot has a strangely watchable identity crisis.
Festival Review: Black Mass (2015)
★★★☆☆
Exposing the links between the FBI and Boston’s most notorious gangster, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass comes undone with a criminal lack of story.
Festival Review: From Afar (2015)
★★★☆☆
With a fantastic performance from Alfredo Castro, Lorenzo Vigas’ From Afar is a delicate but passionless tale of a love that dare not speak its name.
Festival Review: Arabian Nights (2015)
★★★☆☆
A six-hour reflection on the financial crisis in Portugal, Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights is an intelligent and visually arresting compendium of uneven tales.
Festival Review: Gold Coast / Guldkysten (2015)
★★★☆☆
Plunging the sorry history of Danish colonialism, Daniel Dencik’s Gold Coast brings a wealth of image and colour to a dark time.