Schemers (2019)
★★★☆☆
Schemers is director David McLean’s appealing comedy-drama – a blend of Trainspotting and Gregory’s Girl with a touch of Good Vibrations – of how he became a teenage music promoter in Dundee.
2019
Monsoon (2019)
★★★☆☆
Writer/director Hong Khaou draws upon his own experiences in Monsoonwith this moving story of a British-Vietnamese man returning to Saigon.
Nocturnal (2019)
★★★☆☆
Nocturnal, by director/writer Nathalie Biancheri, has a suspenseful surprise that turns creepy horror into emotional drama.
Rocks (2019) and Q&A
★★★★☆
Rocks by Sarah Gavron is a sad and joyous film about the resilience and spirit of girlhood – sisterhood at its most powerful.
Waiting for the Barbarians (2019) – Digital download
★★★☆☆
Waiting for the Barbarians by acclaimed director Ciro Guerra is a beautiful, well-acted, slow-moving allegory of imperialism.
Koko-di Koko-da (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
Psychological horror Koko-di Koko-da is a genre-bending, adult riff on a Swedish nursery rhyme, directed by Johannes Nyholm.
Les Misérables (2019)
★★★★☆
Les Misérables is an explosive first feature about simmering racial tensions in a Paris banlieu from Malian-French actor and director Ladj Ly.
Hope Gap (2019) – Streaming
★★★☆☆
William Nicholson’s Hope Gap benefits from a starry cast in the stagey story of the death of love in a middle-aged, middle-class marriage on the South Coast.
Perfumes (2019) (Les parfums)
★★★☆☆
Charmingly fragrant, very French not-exactly romcom Perfumes by Grégory Magne stars Emmanuelle Devos and Grégory Montel as the autumnal odd-couple.
Babyteeth (2019)
★★★★☆
Babyteeth is a vivid new take on coming-of-age directed by Shannon Murphy from a script that Rita Kalnejais adapted from her play of the same title.
Papicha (2019) ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Papicha is a stunning female-centred drama freely inspired, its director Mounia Meddour says, by real events in Algeria in the 1990s.
Make Up (2019) – in cinemas and on demand. Online Q&A 3 August
Make Up is an original coming-of-age horror/drama by first-time director Claire Oakley.
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Proxima (2019)
★★★★☆
The superbly focused French female astronaut in woman-centred Proxima directed by Anna Winocour is torn apart by the conflict between needing freedom to achieve and the pain of separation from her daughter.
The Uncertain Kingdom (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
The Uncertain Kingdom collection of short films is a powerfully diverse commentary on 21st century Britain.