★★★☆☆ Terence Davies is no stranger to biographical film, having mined his own life story to great effect in Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes. The overall tone of his sensitive Emily Dickinson biopic mirrors the great American poet’s contemplative style. The languorous pace may divide audiences, Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Raoul Peck’s provocative and timely documentary I Am Not Your Negro is an incisive meditation on America’s Civil Rights Movement told through the eyes of the late novelist James Baldwin. Peck’s Oscar-nominated film focuses on Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House, about the lives and murders of Martin Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Mick Jackson’s courtroom drama Denial focuses on the 1996 British libel suit brought by David Irving (Timothy Spall), the infamous Holocaust denier, against American historian Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) and her publisher Penguin Books. Based on Lipstadt’s book Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, and adapted for screen by David Continue Reading
★★★★☆ The final film in a trilogy focusing on New York City, Ira Sachs’ latest feature Little Men, starring Jennifer Ehle and Greg Kinnear, follows the rites of passage of two thirteen-year-old boys, Jake (Theo Taplitz) and Tony (Michael Barbieri). Jake is a sensitive loner whose artistic talents are derided Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Mia Hansen-Løve’s fifth feature, Things to Come, is an introspective exploration of a woman losing her moorings and facing up to old age. Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie, a high school philosophy teacher. When Heinz (André Marcon), her husband of twenty-five years, also a philosophy lecturer, admits he has met Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ It’s incredible to think that Absolutely Fabulous, the popular sitcom starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, ran from 1992-2012. Some twenty-five years after the TV pilot, the pair are back, this time on the big screen; older but no wiser. Given the current malaise settling on Britain, the timing Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Although Lorene Scafaria’s tender, bittersweet comedy The Meddler, starring Susan Sarandon and J.K. Simmons, is marred by the occasional cliché, it’s also an unexpectedly perceptive film about loneliness, grief and mother-daughter relationships. After the death of her beloved husband, Joe, Marnie Minervini (Sarandon) moves to Los Angeles to be Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Jonas Carpignano’s debut feature Mediterranea follows the fortunes of two African migrants, Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), friends from Burkina Faso in search of a better life on the European continent. They endure a hazardous journey through Algeria and survive a run in with violent bandits. Once Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Hooligan Sparrow, Nanfu Wang’s astonishing documentary about corruption in China, opened this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Many Chinese dissidents take on a pseudonym in order to protect their identity. Artist and activist Ye Haiyan, aka Hooligan Sparrow, does not attempt to hide herself – in fact she Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Aptly, migration is one of the major themes explored at the 20th Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London. Photojournalist and filmmaker George Kurian’s absorbing documentary The Crossing follows the fortunes of a small group of Syrian refugees who leave Egypt for Europe in an old fishing boat. They are Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Michel Franco’s assured English-language debut Chronic follows hospice nurse David (Tim Roth) and his care of terminally-ill patients. Initially, David appears efficient and compassionate and has an easy going rapport with his charges. He forges closes links with many of them and assiduously performs duties that family members cannot Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams is an affecting feature about sheep which also speaks reams about the human condition. Hákonarson focuses on two estranged brothers who share a passion for sheep farming. Set in a remote part of Iceland, Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) own adjacent land but have Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Swedish writer-director Sanna Lenken’s notable debut My Skinny Sister (2015) about a young teenager’s eating disorder is a simple tale given added poignancy by powerful performances from the two leads. Katja (Amy Deasismont) is a promising young figure skater envied and admired by her younger sister Stella (Rebecka Josephson). Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Saeed Taji Farouky has carved out something of a reputation for directing and producing documentaries that are visually arresting and pack a punch. Tunnel Trade (2007), about Gaza’s illegal underground smuggling economy, was nominated for a Rory Peck Award, while The Runner (2013), about an activist and athlete from Continue Reading
