★★☆☆☆ British director Andrew Haigh gallops onto the Venice Lido with Lean on Pete, an equine coming-of-ager about a young boy and his horse. An adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel, Haigh shifts from his arthouse roots of Weekend and 45 Years to full-blown Americana. Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) is a Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Premiering at Venice, Gilles Bourdos’ Endangered Species plays like a French Riviera version of Robert Altman’s Shortcuts. It’s a deliciously shot vivisection of family life via three intertwining tales based on the short stories of American writer Richard Bausch.We open with a thrilling ride through the night as a Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Showing in the Horizons sidebar at Venice, Jason Raftopoulos’ debut film West of Sunshine is a day in the life of Jim (Damien Hill), an inveterate gambler who somehow has to come up with the money to see off his bookie while at the same time looking after his Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Daniel McCabe’s documentary is at times lyrical, at times shocking, frequently eye-opening and constantly fascinating. It’s an honest attempt to not only show that ‘this is Congo’, but also to ask the all-important question: how did the DRC fall into such disrepair? “To grow up as a child in Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Receiving its world premiere at Venice, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei crosses borders with his wide-ranging documentary Human Flow, an angry and compassionate witnessing of what looks like being the greatest man-made tragedy of our times.“No one leaves home lightly,” says a female refugee from Iraq. “You suffer hardship Continue Reading
