★★★★☆ One of the most unique and inimitable inclusions at this year’s London Film Festival, Jaime Rosales’ The Dream and the Silence (Sueño y Silencio, 2012) is a fascinatingly opaque examination of grief on a tight knit family dynamic. A teacher and her architect husband live a serene life with Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ A brief synopsis of director Miroslav Momcilovic’s satire, Death of a Man in the Balkans (2012) might not exactly bring the punters flooding into the cinema. A Serbian comedy about those arriving at the scene of a composer’s suicide, shot entirely from the point of view of a web-cam Continue Reading
★★★★☆ From Radu Jude, the director of The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), comes London Film Festival entry Everybody in Our Family (2012). An almost unequivocal critical hit at this year’s Berlinale, this exhilarating Romanian comedy is one of this year’s most enjoyable and perfectly executed inclusions at the Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Japanese arthouse drama The Samurai That Night (2012) is a compelling tale of a young, nervous man who, after losing his wife in a hit and run accident, collapses inward, failing to connect with the world that surrounds him and ultimately becoming consumed with revenge. Directed by Masaaki Akahori Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ The lifeblood of any great band is its drummer, with their percussive pulse acting as the beating heart behind a song’s memorable melody. Perhaps one of the greatest drummers to ever grace the stage was Cream’s Ginger Baker – the subject of Jay Bulgar’s award winning documentary Beware of Continue Reading
★★★★☆ After premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard’s elegant yet muscular Rust and Bone (2012) was met with assorted feelings, with the film’s heightened melodrama and contrasting aesthetics appearing somewhat jarring in comparison with the director’s previous work. Thankfully away form the harsh judicious glare of the Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Starring Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo, Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Francine (2012) is a surprisingly provocative piece of stripped-down social realism that’s subtle approach belies its powerful core themes. After serving time in prison for an undisclosed crime, Francine (Leo) begins to rebuild her life in a Continue Reading
