The Tribe (2014)
★★☆☆☆
An unspoken history of violence, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe offers a challenging and controversial but ultimately unfitting parable for the Ukraine.
★★
Still (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Unpicking class tension in the aftermath of the London riots, Simon Blake’s Still blends genres to create a strange yuppies-in-peril gangster-horror hybrid.
The Falling (2014)
★★☆☆☆
As a wave of falling sickness takes over an all-girls school, Carol Morley’s The Falling plucks female empowerment from a maelstrom of teenage desire.
The Salvation (2014)
★★☆☆☆
A Danish Western with the magnetic Mads Mikkelsen, Kristian Levring’s The Salvation is gorgeous to look at but as hollow as a Ten-gallon hat.
Altman (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Ron Mann’sAltman is a stoic by-the-numbers documentary celebrating the films of the great director, but offering little insight into the man behind the lens.
Maidan (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Uncompromising in its running time, Sergei Loznitsa’s sedate shooting style renders this potentially remarkable account of civil unrest quite the opposite.
Festival Review: Cinderella (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A live action remake of Disney’s cartoon classic, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is saved by great performances from Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter.
Festival Review: The Misplaced World / Die Abhandene Welt (2015)
★★☆☆☆
Despite all-singing performances from Katja Riemann and Barbara Sukowa, Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World still makes for a jarring thriller.
Festival Review: Aferim! (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A black and white romp through 19th century Romanian feudalism, what Radu Jude’s Aferim! lacks in substance, it makes up for in style.
Festival Review: Knight Of Cups (2015)
★★☆☆☆
The visual odyssey of a knight’s quest in search of the meaning of life, Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups loses itself in its own watery reflection.
Festival Review: The Queen Of The Desert (2015)
★★☆☆☆
A bombastic wannabe epic about desert explorer Gertrude Bell, not even Kidman and Franco can save Werner Herzog’s The Queen Of The Desert.
Amour Fou (2014)
★★☆☆☆
A sober portrait of the woman accompanying Heinrich von Kleist into the hereafter, Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou isn’t quite as mad as it should be.
You And The Night / Les Rencontres d’Après Minuit (2013)
★★☆☆☆
After causing a stir in Cannes earlier this year, Yann Gonzalez’s You And The Night is an existential orgy of misfits finding each other after midnight.
Wilde Salomé (2011)
★★☆☆☆
A companion piece documentary to Pacino’s Salomé, Wilde Salomé uncovers the man behind the play. Funny, flamboyant and famous, both of them.