A big screen reworking of Lynda La Plante’s 1980s TV series may seem a left field choice for artist-turned-auteur director Steve McQueen, but this ambitious and sprawling, if flawed, follow up to ’12 Years a Slave’ boasts enough visual flourishes and brav…
Luca ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Guadagino’s remake of Dario Argento’s 70s shocker trades the lurid fever dream quality of the original for a more densely themed but problematic approach. Johnson is Susie Bannion, a seemingly innocent from a Mennonite communit…
This charming animation from Japanese writer-director Mamoru Hosada tells the hugely rewarding story of a headstrong tot who learns to adapt to what seems a catastrophic change in his life. Four-year-old Kun (voiced by Kamishiraishi) lives with his slight…
For this affecting and darkly humorous character study, Italian director Garronne returns to the scuzzy, heightened social realism of his most celebrated work, crime picture ‘Gomorrah’, while retaining the fable-like quality of his last film ‘Tale of Tal…
Director Moselle’s 2015 debut picture ‘The Wolfpack’ was a fascinating documentary about a band of siblings who had been locked in a Manhattan apartment recreating their favourite movies. This, her fictional debut, deals with another, more mobile, close k…
This bold and visually striking rotoscoped animated drama explores sex, drugs and hypocrisy in contemporary Iran via three troubled protagonists. We begin with a jolt as we encounter prostitute Pari (Rafizadeh) giving a blow job in a car to one of her cli…
There’s a genuine sense of dread pervading Matthew Holness’ feature debut, a psychological horror picture that elevates it above the mere pastiche one might have anticipated from the creator and star of cult series ‘Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place’. Sean Harr…
A trio of excellent performances from Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater elevate this otherwise flawed feminist-hued drama, based on Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 book. It’s 1992 and married couple Joan (Close) and Joe (Pryce) Castleman are unable to …
Writer-director Pawlikowski’s follow-up to his low-key masterpiece ‘Ida’ charts an ill-starred romance over a tempestuous period, running from the end of the 40s to the beginning of the 60s. Wiktor (Kot) is a jazz-loving pianist and one half of a duo of m…
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton gets a fitting send-off as the titular irrepressible small-town-dwelling old codger in this elegiac but whimsically amusing character study from actor-turned-director John Carroll Lynch. We first encounter the ninetysome…
Iranian-American director Desiree Akhavan follows-up her amusing indie comedy ‘Appropriate Behaviour’ with this 90s-set drama adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s 2012 novel. Moretz is the titular protagonist, an orphaned teenager taken in by religious relati…
Early in this documentary about Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam - aka rapper and songwriter MIA - she is asked what makes her such a problematic figure. She struggles to answer. Fashioning a coherent portrait of the artist proves equally elusive. Drawing fro…
Irish director Lenny Abrahamson’s follow-up to the excellent ‘Room’ is a disappointingly staid adaptation of Sarah Walters’ novel, a gothic drama set in the late 40s/50s, when pre-war class certainties were dissolving. It begins in 1948 with country physi…
Veteran Nouvelle Vague director Agnes Varda’s enduring zest for life and boundless curiosity is evidenced in this charming documentary, a freewheeling road movie that also serves as a tribute to normal folk. On her trip the nonagenarian Varda is accompani…
Directing duo Grassadonia and Piazza’s follow-up to the highly-praised Mafia hitman pic Salvo is a bewitching combination of dramatized true crime story, angsty teen romance and dark fairy tale. It’s based on the real life 1993 kidnap of Giuseppe Di Matte…
Gemma Arterton gives a career best performance in this attentive and humane, if occasionally harrowing, portrait of depression from writer-director Dominic Savage. She is Tara, a stay at home mum of two, living in the London suburbs, married to the brash …
After the bleak conclusion of Avengers Infinity War, Marvel Studios lighten matters up considerably for the second standalone picture for thief-turned-shrinking-superhero, Scott Lang aka Ant-Man. Set before the events of Infinity War, it begins with Scott…
There have been a number of recent films commemorating the centenary of World War 1. French director, Beauvois’s picture delves into a hitherto underexplored aspect, the plight of the women who stayed at home to maintain the farms. The picture, adapted fr…
Even the appealing presence of ‘Park and Recreation’s’ Nick Offerman fails to elevate this indie-flavoured comedy about a middle-aged dude learning to move on, above the merely rote. He plays Frank Fisher, an ex-nearly was musician, now the owner of a def…
The second Ian McEwan adaptation of the year, following On Chesil Beach, is another well-acted but underwhelming slice of middle class angst. Thompson is Fiona Maye, a high court judge specialising in thorny child cases. We first encounter Maye deliberati…
While there’s a distinct sense of revisiting former glories in Scorsese’s latest, an adaptation of the memoirs of crooked stockbroker Jordan Belfort, it’s also one of the director’s most energised pictures for some time.…
Director: Guillermo del Toro Stars: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunman, Rinko Kikuchi, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman…
If you only see one black and white psychedelic English Civil War film this month, then Ben Wheatley’s “A Field In England” should be somewhere near the top of your list.…
Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud. Featured voices: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Benjamin Bratt…
Director: Ben Wheatley. Stars: Reece Shearsmith, Michael Smiley, Ryan Pope, Richard Glover…
Director: Sofia Copolla. Stars: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Leslie Mann…
Director: Dan Scanlon. Featured voices: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina…
Director: Alex Gibney. This well-mounted but frustrating documentary history of the Wikileaks website is severely hobbled by the filmmaker Gibney’s failure to secure any input from its primary subject, the site co-founder, Julian Assange. …
Director: Drake Dormeus. Stars: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan, Mackenzie Davis…
Director: Daniel Espinosa. Stars: Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic…
Director: Marc Forster. Stars: Brad Pitt, Peter Capaldi, Mirielle Enos, James Badge Dale, David Morse…
Director: Richard Linklater. Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Walter Lassally, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Panos Karonis, Athina Rachel Tsangari…
Director: Steven Soderbergh. Stars: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd…
Seasoned arthouse habitués may have already been familiar with French actor Romain Duris for his role as student Xavier in Euro comedy drama 'Pot Luck'. …
Director: Joss Whedon. Stars: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Sean Maher, Clark Gregg, Nathan Fillion…
Director: Régis Roinsard. Stars: Romain Duris, Déborah François, Bérénice Bejo…
Director: Shane Meadows Features: Ian Brown, John Squire, Gary Mounfield, Alan Wren…
Director: Mike Whitecross. Starring Elliot Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Jordan Murphy, Emilia Clarke, Lesley Manville, Steve Evets…
Director: Tom Shkolnik. Stars: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Edward Hogg, Steven Robertson, Elisa Lasowski…
Director: Gilles Bourdos. Stars: Michel Bouquet, Chista Theret, Vincent Rottiers…
Director: Ariel Vroman. Stars: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, Stephen Dorff, Ray Liotta…
Director: Joachim Lafosse. Stars: Émilie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup…
Director: Chris Wedge. Featured Voices: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Jason Sudeikis, Aziz Ansaris, Cristoph Waltz, Chris O’Dowd…
Director: Todd Phillips. Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman…
Director: J. J. Abrams Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg, Peter Weller, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood…
Director: Tobias Lindholm Stars: Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Dar Salem, Gary Skjoldmose Porter…
Director: Adam Leon Stars: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickman, Zoë Lescaze, Meeko…
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Stars: Javier Cámara, Lola Dueñas, Cecilia Roth…
Director: Olivier Assayas Stars: Lola Créton, Clément Métayer, Felix Armand…
Director: Daniel Espinosa Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic…
Director: Pablo Trapero Stars: Ricardo Darin, Jérémie Renier, Martina Gusman…
Director: Jay Bulger. American journalist Bulger’s profile of the veteran drummer sets its stall out in the opening scene in which the filmmaker is assaulted and given a bloody nose by the seventy-something Baker.…
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the classic British film ‘Billy Liar’ and it’s getting a sparkling new blu-ray/DVD release in May.…
Director: Shane Black Stars: Robert Downey Jnr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle…
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