BFI LFF 2019: Monos (2019)
★★★★★
Monos by Alejandro Landes (Porfirio), set among volatile, trainee teenage guerillas in Latin America, is quite simply one of this year’s best and most disturbing films.
Berlinale
Transit (2018)
★★★★★
Transit is a disorienting Casablanca for our times by the renowned German director of Barbara and Phoenix, Christian Petzold.
Varda by Agnès (2019)
★★★★★
In Varda by Agnès, her last film, iconic film director and feminist Agnès Varda looks back on her ground-breaking, long career at the age of 90. of 90.
3 Days in Quiberon (2018)
★★★★☆
3 Days in Quiberon by Emily Atef is a compelling slice of a few days in the life of actress Romy Schneider as she gives her last interview.
The Heiresses/Las Herederas (2018)
★★★★☆
Economically crumbling Paraguay after many years of patriarchal dictatorship is the setting for a subtle story of female self-discovery in Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses.
The Wound (2017)
★★★★☆
The Wound (Inxeba) by John Trengove stars Nakhane Touré in a tense drama of gay male sexuality brought into focus by the traditional Xhosa circumcision rite of passage.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
★★★☆☆
Ruff cut – Wes Anderson’s surprise venture into animation in Isle of Dogs.
A Fantastic Woman (2017)
★★★☆☆
Facing the humiliation of social exclusion after losing a loved one, Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman is a heartbreaking portrait of loneliness.
Berlinale: Transit (2018)
★★★★☆
Christian Petzold’s fascinating present-day World War II film Transit is thematically and narratively dense, but there’s nothing dense in the way it goes about handling it.
Berlinale: Garbage (2018)
★★★☆☆
Q’s Garbage unfurls like a beautiful scream of pain and rage against Indian society gone dystopianly wrong.
Berlinale: Dovlatov (2018)
★★★☆☆
Alexey German Jr’s character study of a great Russian writer in Dovlatovencapsulates its time period superbly, but fails to go beyond that.
Berlinale: Tower. A Bright Day. (2017)
★★★☆☆
As mystifying as it is transfixing, Jagoda Szlec’s feature-length debut Tower. A Bright Day is an astute blend of dread and mundanity.
Félicité (2017)
★★★★☆
The (African) portrait of a lady, Alain Gomis’ Félicité is a dazzling, vibrant depiction of Africa, womanhood and dreams of a life.
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
★★★★☆
A delightfully nostalgic and evocative portrait of young love, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name has all of the pleasure and only some of the pain.