Matthew Anderson

★★★★☆ When a theatre actor bumps into old acquaintances at a restaurant and says “my run’s almost over” it usually means he is to move onto another play, another role. For Julián (Ricardo Darin), who has made the decision to discontinue his cancer treatment, the expression has a tongue-in-cheek, tragicomic finality. Truman, from Barcelona native…

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★★★★☆ All good things must come to an end. The Enchanted One is the last piece in the puzzle of Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights, a rambling odyssey through austerity-hit Portugal via Baghdad in the age of antiquity. Just as enigmatic and eclectic in terms of style, construct and tone as its preceding volumes, the finale…

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★★★★☆ Sifting through scrubland near an abandoned warehouse a man cradles the burnt remains of celluloid film stock and speaks of their destruction by the Taliban: “They burned the films. They killed them. They bled into the ground.” Like the lament of this eloquent subject, A Flickering Truth tells of the destruction of Afghan cinematic…

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★★★☆☆ If there’s one thing to be learned from the Hatton Garden robbery, it’s that OAPs are not to be underestimated when it comes to audacious heists. Golden Years is a light-hearted, entertaining crime romp that bounces around the high street banks of middle England at a geriatric shuffle. There are plenty of laughs and…

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★★★★☆ The second part in the Arabian Nights saga slowly but surely raises a middle finger to the Portuguese establishment. As its subtitle suggests the mood moves toward the disconsolate, the desperate and the disenfranchised. There’s a weary helplessness to The Desolate One which makes its overall tone far more sombre than the amusing oddity…

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★★★★☆ More often than not, men fall somewhere between ill-equipped and completely inept when it comes to sharing, processing and discussing their emotions. This is duly amplified when it involves coping with the unexpected loss of a loved one under traumatic circumstances. Louder Than Bombs, Joachim Trier’s first foray into English-language filmmaking, demonstrates a similar…

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★★★☆☆ It’s safe to say that Katharine Round and Gordon Gekko would not see eye to eye if asked whether greed was good. The British filmmaker’s subtly profound documentary, The Divide, laments the growing inequality between the super rich and all us plebs below them. Round’s film is yet another rallying cry for the masses…

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★★☆☆☆ It’s all the more disappointing for a cinemagoer when a film meant to delight in a fellow performance art falls limply flat on its face. Paired with a weakly executed, western-articulated perspective on the constraints of Iranian society, Richard Raymond’s debut feature Desert Dancer is a lifeless, contrived and remarkably unengaging rallying cry for…

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★★☆☆☆ British director James Watkins has labelled his latest big screen effort a fun, Friday night cinematic ride. Aspiring to Walter Hill’s 1982 unorthodox buddy movie 48 Hrs, which starred Nick Nolte and a baby-faced Eddie Murphy as cop and con respectively, Bastille Day represents a marked change in direction after acclaimed horror-chillers Eden Lake…

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