Festivals

★★★★☆ Showing in the Un Certain Regard section at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Michel Franco’s After Lucia (Después de Lucía, 2012) is a devastating and harrowing look into high school bullying. Following the death of her mother in a car accident, teenager Alejandra (Tessa Ia) and her father Roberto (Hermàn Mendoza), a successful high-end…

Continue

★★★★☆ Danish director Thomas Vinterberg enters the chase for the Palme d’Or with The Hunt (Jagten, 2012), a tense thriller about a primary school teacher unjustly accused of paedophilia. Mads Mikkelsen plays Lucas, a recent divorcee in the midst of a bitter custody dispute over his teenage son Marcus (Lasse Fogelstrøm), who despite this enjoys…

Continue

★★☆☆☆ An contemporary re-telling of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Darezhan Omirbaev’s Student (2012) paints a grim portrayal of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, with occasional moments of wry, bitter humour. The film follows a poor, unnamed philosophy student who lives in the basement flat of an old lady’s house, with barely enough money to do anything other than…

Continue

★★★★★ Austrian director Michael Haneke gives us the first real masterpiece of the 65th Cannes Film Festival with French language effort Amour (Love, 2012), a surprisingly warm meditation on old age and death and undoubtedly a strong contender for the coveted Palme d’Or. His most personal film to date, Amour revolves around a married couple,…

Continue

★★☆☆☆ This year’s 65th Cannes Film Festival welcomed not one but two Cronenberg’s as David’s son Brandon premiered his debut film Antiviral (2012). Set in an alternative/near future, the cult of celebrity has become so extreme that the masses now pay to contract their illnesses. For a price, you too can have Angelina Jolie’s cold…

Continue

★★☆☆☆ Australian singer/songwriter Nick Cave’s numerous collaborations with fellow countryman John Hillcoat stretch back to video shoots, debut film Ghosts…of the Civil Dead (1988), Aussie western The Proposition (2005) and The Road (2009). With Lawless (2012) (formerly The Wettest County), the pair team up once again for an adaptation of Matt Bondurant’s Prohibition era novel,…

Continue

★★★☆☆ Palme d’Or hopeful Beyond the Hills (2012) is only the third film from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, whose last effort, the grim but compelling abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (2007), won the award back in 2007. Based on true events and a pair of non-fiction novels by Tatiana Niculescu Bran,…

Continue

★★★★★ After receiving rapturous acclaim earlier this year at Sundance, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) makes its way to the 65th Cannes Film Festival under an ominous cloud of anticipation. The film follows Hushpuppy (played by outstanding newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis), a little girl who lives with her daddy, Wink (Dwight Henry), in…

Continue

★★★★★ Matteo Garrone’s 2008 Grand Jury Prize winner Gomorrah was a huge success both internationally and in its native Italy, where its director has since become something of a national hero – albeit one who remains under permanent police guard. For his follow-up, Reality (2012), Garrone has bravely eschewed material aping his blood-drenched crime drama.…

Continue

★★★☆☆ Screened at this year’s 65th Cannes Film Festival, Robert B. Weide’s Woody Allen: A Documentary (2012) combines the usual talking head interviews and archive footage with a generous dollop of the Brooklyn-born actor, comedian and director moping about his bedroom, discussing his artistic process and wandering his old neighbourhood to the obvious amusement of…

Continue