American-Iranian director Maryam Keshavarz is a woman who doesn’t fear courting controversy – a fact very much apparent in her first feature, Circumstance (2011), which claimed the Sundance Audience Award back in 2011. The film follows two wild-spirited teenage girls living in Iran (Sarah Kazemy and Nikohl Boosheri) who, tired Continue Reading
★★★★☆ British director James Marsh returns to fictional filmmaking (of sorts) with Shadow Dancer (2011), having previously moved with the documentaries Man on Wire (2008) – for which he received an Academy Award – and the sublime Project Nim (2011). Utilising the tried-and-tested docudrama approach, Marsh’s latest is a thriller Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Saturday Night Live writer and director Akiva Schaffer’s latest offering the The Watch (2012) (formerly know as Neighbourhood Watch) is a boisterous US studio comedy with an extra-terrestrial twist. Starring comedy heavyweights Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Britain’s own Richard Ayoade, Schaffer’s ensemble rib-tickler is bustling with Continue Reading
★★★★★ All great documentaries start with a fascinating subject, and Bart Layton’s The Imposter (2012) has one of the most bizarre and compelling you may ever hear. The film focuses upon the mysterious Frédéric Bourdin, who manages to convince a grieving Texan family that he is their sixteen-year-old son, Nicholas Continue Reading