Billie (2019) – On demand
★★★★☆
Billie is no bio-pic in the conventional sense. James Erskine’s documentary transcends the clichés and presents a new angle on the Billie Holiday legend.
2019
Perfect 10 (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
Perfect 10 is a bold, moving and immersive coming-of-age debut by rising star writer-director Eva Riley.
Proxima (2019) – On demand
★★★★☆
The French female astronaut in woman-centred Proxima, directed by Anna Winocour, is torn apart by the conflict between needing the freedom to achieve and the pain of separation from her daughter.
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.
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.