★★★★☆ One of a number of talented Iranian creatives currently working outside their own country (some, like fellow director Jafar Panahi, are unable to vacate), Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi leaves behind the miasma of his home nation for the Paris-set The Past (2013), another fantastically intricate exercise in domestic complexity. Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ Following a breakup with his girlfriend, My Stuff (2013) director Petri Luukkainen decides to put all of his worldly possessions into storage and retrieve them one item per day, ridding himself of the ennui caused by his cluttered life. Helped by friends who look on with a mixture of Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ The lights have been lit once more for James Bobin’s Muppets Most Wanted (2014), a somewhat lacklustre follow-up to his 2011 comeback hit The Muppets, with Tina Fey and Ricky Gervais replacing Amy Adams and Jason Seigel as the film’s human points of interest. In The Muppets, the fuzzy Continue Reading
★★★★☆ In Dangerous Acts (2013), Madeleine Sackler documents a year in the life of the Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an acclaimed theatrical troupe forced to work underground in their native country. President Lukashenko, often dubbed Europe’s last remaining dictator, has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for the past twenty Continue Reading