BFI LFF 2016: Staying Vertical (2016)
★★★☆☆
As a scriptwriter turns shepherd, Alain Guiraudie’s Rester Vertical reveals an existence of fear and lusting in the Midi-Pyrénées.
★★★☆☆
As a scriptwriter turns shepherd, Alain Guiraudie’s Rester Vertical reveals an existence of fear and lusting in the Midi-Pyrénées.
★★★☆☆
A feelgood father-and-daughter comedy, Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann sees the joylessness of the corporate world undone by paternal clowning.
★★★★☆
A sumptuous new adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden is a dazzling tale of duplicity and deception.
★★★★☆
Bringing Christian fundamentalism to the playground, Kirill Serebrennikov’s The Student satirises the conservatism of Russian institutions.
★★★☆☆
Taking place in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack, Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada reveals a family in turmoil when the patriarch dies.
★★★☆☆
Oliver Laxe’s second film Mimosas is an enigmatic, spiritual North African odyssey.
★★★★☆
In Hell or High Water,
★★★★☆
A teen maelstrom of romance, secrets and family in the Essex countryside, Joe Stephenson’s Chicken is a moving portrait of a breaking idyll.
★★★★☆
Bringing Christian fundamentalism to the playground, Kirill Serebrennikov’s The Student satirises the conservatism of Russian institutions.
★★☆☆☆
A portrait of revolutionary dancer Loie Fuller, Stephanie Di Giusto’s La Danseuse makes for a disappointingly pedestrian biopic.
★★★☆☆
Divided into stalwarts of French cinema and non-professional actors, Bruno Dumont’s crime caper Ma Loute exposes the grotesque in everyone.
★★★☆☆
With George Clooney and Julia Roberts, financial media gurus come under the gun in Jodie Foster’s star-studded Money Monster.
★★★★★
Moving, tragic and brutally direct, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is a scathing portrait of Britain’s benefits system.
★★★★☆