★★★☆☆ Censorship of the free press isn’t an invention of the Trump administration. In spite of the plumes of cigarette smoke, angry chattering of typewriter keys and now antiquated passage of information, which ground The Post in its milieu of early 1970s Washington DC, there are significant parallels to our Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Much like the serene community of Zen Buddhists who have committed to a life of tranquility and inner calm under the tutelage of mindfulness guru Thich Nhat Hanh, enjoyment of meditative documentary Walk with Me depends largely on whether or not a viewer is prepared to sign up to Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Venturing into its blood-soaked history and the atrocities which shaped American society, Scott Cooper’s Hostiles is an unflinching exploration of the unspeakable cruelty of which human kind is capable, and culpable. However, in contrast to the pessimism of a D. H. Lawrence quote which prefaces a truly galling opening Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ The phrase “Do you know who I am?” takes on a new meaning in Sonia Kronlund’s The Prince of Nothingwood, an idiosyncratic documentary revealing an unseen side to Afghan life and culture. For though a global audience may have little prior knowledge of prolific B-movie filmmaker Salim Shaheen, every Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Alex Gibney’s latest project, No Stone Unturned, is a mysterious, gripping re-opening of the unsolved 1994 Loughinisland massacre investigation. It is told with characteristic precision, compassion and determination by its prolific director. Searching for needles in haystacks has long been Gibney’s metier but here the smoke and mirrors of Continue Reading
★★★★★ Trouble lurks around every corner in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest. Sinister motives, international espionage and a captivating beauty have ad exec Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) on the run from the law across the USA.Throughout his career the Master of Suspense frequently pushed innocent, unsuspecting men into Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Meticulously crafted over a seven-year period, Loving Vincent is a visually wondrous biographical ode to the great impressionist and an animation like no other, comprised of 65,000 frames individually hand-painted by over one hundred artists. The sheer ambition and scope of this labour of love is an astonishing achievement. Continue Reading
★★★★★ Based on Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 novel, Lucrecia Martel’s Zama is a beguiling, haunting, comic indictment of the ills of colonialism. Centred on the existential woes of a lowly magistrate, it examines the crushing stasis and ultimate evil of empire. An allegorical reckoning of perpetual struggle, recounted to the Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Pulling no punches in telling the true story of Scouse ne’er-do-well Billy Moore’s three years in Bangkok’s infamous Klong Prem Prison, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s A Prayer Before Dawn wins points for its unerring depiction of the brutality of incarceration in Thailand. The film is an unflinching, punishing spectacle which drops Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Few British actors can lay claim to the kind of performance which we have come to expect and appreciate from Paddy Considine. Journeyman, which Considine writes, directs and stars in as champion boxer Matty Burton, is further proof of his impressive versatility.Six years on from the near unanimous praise Continue Reading
★★★★★ Billed as the coming-of-age story of an adolescent American teenage girl, Princess Cyd is so much more. Told with tenderness and a perceptive humanist eye by writer-director Stephen Cone, his latest film is an affecting exploration of loss, love and trauma.Disproving any kind of ludicrous notion that a male Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Inexpressibly beautiful, breathtaking yet terrifying images from snow-capped peaks and vertical cliff faces dominate Jennifer Peedom’s latest documentary Mountain, which explores the magnetic pull exercised by these perilously dangerous summits. A meditation on the potential held, respect demanded and inherent risks in scaling such heights is coupled with a Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A common question to pose to a group of teens approaching the end of high school. But in Marc Meyers’ My Friend Dahmer, the words reverberate chillingly thanks to its now notorious principal subject. Sitting uncomfortably with the knowledge Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Chronicling the last twelve months of Barack Obama’s tenure, Greg Barker’s The Final Year is an intimate, earnest and insightful expose of the key players of his departing administration and the legacy left in his wake as the world enters the Trump era.From charting the day-to-day workings of Obama’s Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Delighting in the ancient tradition of storytelling as a means of education and understanding as well as entertainment, Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner is a richly animated jewel set in the desolate, Taliban-ruled Kabul of 2001 in the run-up to war. Parvana, voiced with maturity and conviction by Canadian newcomer Continue Reading
