★★★★☆ A hidden beach at the lapping edges of a glorious lake provides the sole setting for Alain Guiraudie’s exceptional, erotically-charged French thriller Stranger by the Lake (2013) (released through Peccadillo Pictures next year). Having scooped a couple of awards earlier in the year at Cannes, it now arrives as Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Having worked under the tutelage of some of Hollywood’s finest directors in his twentysomething years in the industry, it would be safe to say that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has had a masterclass in the art of filmmaking en route to making his first feature. Rather than play it safe, Gordon-Levitt Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ After a run of low-brow comedies that fans may have found a little disappointing, David Gordon Green – the writer and director of George Washington (2000) – seems to have made a return to more thoughtful filmmaking. His new film, Prince Avalanche (2013), may have the same potential trappings Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Liz Garbus’ latest documentary, Love, Marilyn (2012), opens with a bold gambit; reminding us that its subject has previously been the focus of hundreds of books. This move creates an immediate air of expectation that will lead viewers to anticipate something startlingly new from what is to follow. The Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Following his sweet-natured children’s film I Wish (2011), which was released to great acclaim earlier this year, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son (2013) is another great work from one of Japan’s greatest contemporary directors. While the former saw events from children’s perspectives, the latter unfolds from the adults’ Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Once fierce box office rivals, the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are looking as stacked as ever as they team up for their second film in as many years, Mikael Håfström’s Escape Plan (2013). A retro-actioner of the same build as their eighties hits, this is a chance to Continue Reading