John Bleasdale

★★★★☆ Tradition and duty are the themes of Fill the Void (2012), a tightly observed family drama and Rama Burshtein’s debut feature. Set in a Orthodox Jewish community in Tel Aviv, the film draws a sympathetic portrayal of a young girl Shira (Hadas Yaron) who must come to terms with the sudden death of her…

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★☆☆☆☆ 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 wry amusement, scepticism and bewilderment,…

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★★★★★ Crusading documentaries have now become a common sub-genre: from Michael Moore’s slick polemics and eco-worrier Al Gore’s persuasive An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to the animal rights appeals of both The Cove (2009) and Blackfish (2013). As such, these high profile offerings present the film critic with something of a dilemma. How does one judge…

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★★★☆☆ “What are you looking forward to doing on your release?” Johann Rettenberger (Andreas Lust) is asked by his parole officer at the beginning of Benjamin Heisenberg’s lean Austrian crime thriller The Robber (Der Räuber, 2010). “Not running around in circles,” he replies. However, Johann doesn’t simply mean his regular exercise regime is going to…

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★★★☆☆ It would certainly be tempting to dismiss completely British director Ridley Scott’s drug trafficking drama The Counsellor (2013) and write a hell-for-leather kicking of the film, as many already have. Likewise, it would be relatively easy to position yourself outside of the choir and herald it as a masterpiece that will, in years to…

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★★★☆☆ Following the roaring success of Senna (2010) and Ron Howard’s asphalt drama Rush (2013), Paul Crowder’s Formula One doc 1: Life on the Limit (2013) provides a more comprehensive history of the sport and examines in particular the tension between the glamour of danger and the human cost. The cards are slapped on the table from…

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★★★★☆ On 5 December 2013, former ANC leader, past South African president and the world’s most famous political prisoner, Nelson Mandela, died following a long period of sustained ill health. His life was justly celebrated not only for the part it played in the dismantling of apartheid but even more significantly in the bloodless manner…

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★★★☆☆ Alan Taylor’s ‘Phase Two’ offering Thor: The Dark World (2013) sees Chris Hemsworth’s thunder god return in his second standalone movie, and provides much of the humour, full-on special effects and breathtaking set pieces we have come to expect from the Marvel Studios production line. The Nine Realms are once again in danger from…

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★★★☆☆ Muscle Shoals, which lends its name to Greg Camalier’s doc, is an Alabama city based on the southern banks of the Tennessee River (population 12,000). Back in the fifties it was even smaller, a rural smudge on the map, but it was in the neighbouring town of Sheffield that record producer Rick Hall opened…

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