Special Feature: The Best Films of 2011
The New Year is nearly upon us, and so to celebrate the denouement of what has been a fantastic 2011, CineVue’s top staff writers...
★★★★☆ Inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar, veteran Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski’s latest is a darkly comic and moving fable about a wayward donkey living through fate’s tender mercies. EO is at once a cinematic curiosity, a compelling drama and a harrowing portrait of cruel whimsy.
★★★★☆ American director Darren Aronofsky has made a career out of exploring individuals who are physically and psychologically self-destructing in the throes of obsession. It could be the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle; building a boat to avoid a genocidal flood; ballet or wrestling; drugs or food.
★★★★★ Documentary filmmaker Alice Diop’s (We, La Permanence) first narrative feature Saint Omer is a major achievement and an investigation into motherhood, judgment and the other. Kayije Kagame plays Rama, a university professor and writer who is working on a new book.
★★☆☆☆ After his girlfriend is killed in a brutal attack, former boxer and paramedic Jan (Milan Ondrík) falls into profound despair. Exploring themes of guilt, masculinity and justice, boxing-inflect crime film from Slovakian director Peter Bebjak shows much promise, but fails to coalesce into a coherent vision.
★★★☆☆ Bulgarian documentarian Andrey Paounov turns his hand to fiction in this adaptation of Yordan Radichkov’s 1974 play. January is an intriguing, eerie, ponderous narrative set entirely within the confines of a forest cabin. Religious allegories, monochrome photography and folk horror trappings ensue.
★★☆☆☆ Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans had all the ingredients to ascend as cinema’s new darling. Yet, as this semi-autobiographical film plods on, there is an unshakeable sense that in reaching for the stars, The Fabelmans instead lands somewhere more mediocre and disappointing.
The New Year is nearly upon us, and so to celebrate the denouement of what has been a fantastic 2011, CineVue’s top staff writers...
We’re extremely happy to announce that CineVue has been nominated for Best UK Film Blog Site 2011 at this year’s Richard Attenborough Film Awards. Voting...
★★★★☆ The idea of a second film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so soon after Neils Arden Oplev’s 2009 movie...
★★☆☆☆ Director Brad Bird is perhaps best known for Pixar efforts The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007), but has now turned his hand to live...
★★★★☆ Starting its life as a successful children’s book by British writer Michael Morpurgo before consequent adaptations as a hugely successful international theatrical hit and...
The majestic surroundings of Manchester Town Hall played host to the final See Film Differently event of 2011, an exclusive preview screening of Phyllida...
★★★☆☆ Over three months on from its theatrical release – and as we approach its DVD/Blu-ray release on 26 December – it’s still difficult...
★★★☆☆ The Final Destination franchise, which began its life over a decade ago with the release of the 2000 original, holds a special place...
★★★☆☆ Wreckers (2011), written and directed by first time filmmaker D.R. Hood, is a technically accomplished drama starring the ever popular Benedict Cumberbatch –...
★★★★★ Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – Vincente Minnelli’s timeless classic now rereleased by the BFI – is like an old friend you...
★★★★☆ Perfectly rounding off an exceptionally strong year for documentary filmmaking in style, Carol Morley’s Dreams of a Life (2011) is a warm-hearted and...
★★★☆☆ British director Guy Ritchie returns this week with steam-punk sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), with Robert Downey Jr. reprising his...
How do you review a film that you’re not allowed to talk about? New film releases are generally placed under an embargo of some...
★★☆☆☆ The First Movie (1999) is an ultimately disappointing, overly self-reverential documentary from filmmaker and journalist Mark Cousins, whose recent More4 TV series The...