Festival Review: Crosscurrent (2015)
★★☆☆☆
An ambitious portrait of modern China, Yang Chao’s Crosscurrent is a poetic knot of yearning, mourning and the shifting sands of time.
★★
Festival Review: Alone In Berlin (2015)
★★☆☆☆
Adapting Hans Fallada’s German resistance novel for the silver screen, Vincent Perez’ Alone In Berlin recreates the plot but none of the drama.
Festival Review: Death In Sarajevo (2016)
★★☆☆☆
Set in the multilayered world of a hotel, Danis Tanovic’s Death In Sarajevo begs the question whether we really need a metaphor for the Balkans.
Festival Review: Hedi (2016)
★★★☆☆
A tale of personal and political freedoms, Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi finds a troubled revolution in Tunisia’s deserted tourist resorts.
Festival Review: Desierto (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A horror movie set on the Mexican border, Jonas Cuaron’s Desierto is a barren wasteland of American violence and Mexican victims.
Festival Review: The Witch (2015)
★★☆☆☆
An old fashioned tale of God-fearing devilry and witchcraft in New England, Robert Eggers’ The Witch sacrifices tension for gothic set pieces.
Festival Review: Der Nachtmahr (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A German horror film of Berlin clubs and imaginary creatures, Akiz’s Der Nachtmahr is a pulsating delirium of colourful and haunting images.
Festival Review: Mountains May Depart (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A triptych of melancholy Chinese stories, Jia Zhangke’sMountains May Depart builds an awkward narrative of nostalgia – past, present and future.
La Famille Bélier (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Highlighting one teenage girl’s struggle to manage life as the only hearing member of her deaf family, Eric Lartigau’s La Famille Bélier is riddled with clichés.
Good People (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Armed with a stellar cast and a stylishly bleak cinematography, Henrik Ruben Genz’ Good People is let down by a run-of-the-mill script with nowhere to go.
Cub / Welp (2014)
★★☆☆☆
In Jonas Govaerts’ Cub, solid filmmaking and worthy performances fold under the excessive weight of tropes and contrivances in this full-on descent into torture porn.
Eden (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Charting the hopes and dreams of her DJ brother Sven, Mia Hansen-Løve’s celebration of French house music Eden might be leading us up the garden path.
The Choir / Boychoir (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Boasting a stellar cast of Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Izzard and Kathy Bates, François Girard’s The Choir belts out one disappointing cliché after another.
Les Combattants (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Apart from an engaging performance from Adèle Haenel, Les Combattants is a listless love story that never quite gets its feet off the ground.