Patrick Gamble

★★★☆☆ One of eight Italian films to screen at this year’s London Film Festival, director Leonardo di Costanzo’s The Interval (L’intervallo, 2012) boasts Gomorrah (2008) screenwriter Maurizio Braucci as one of its co-writers – predictably presenting an exceedingly unfavourable depiction of Naples. Salvatore (Alessio Gallo), 17, is ripped away from the Lemon Ice stand he…

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★★★☆☆ American director Jeremy Teicher’s Tall as the Baobab Tree (Grand comme le Baobab, 2012) serves as a debut narrative follow up to a previous series of documentaries focusing on rural Senegalese communities, primarily concerned with the importance of tradition that can often come into conflict with the contemporary ideals which accompany education. Set amongst the rolling,…

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★★★★☆ François Ozon follows up the camp charm of Potiche (2010) with In the House (2012) – a delightfully droll tale of suburban voyeurism with a dark comic twist. Germain (Fabrice Luchini in impeccable comic form) is a childless English teacher who has grown increasingly disenfranchised at the appalling literary skills of his students. That…

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★★★★☆ One of the most unique and inimitable inclusions at this year’s London Film Festival, Jaime Rosales’ The Dream and the Silence (Sueño y Silencio, 2012) is a fascinatingly opaque examination of grief on a tight knit family dynamic. A teacher and her architect husband live a serene life with their two young daughters. However,…

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★★★★☆ From Radu Jude, the director of The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), comes London Film Festival entry Everybody in Our Family (2012). An almost unequivocal critical hit at this year’s Berlinale, this exhilarating Romanian comedy is one of this year’s most enjoyable and perfectly executed inclusions at the LFF. Jude’s film focuses on…

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★★★☆☆ The lifeblood of any great band is its drummer, with their percussive pulse acting as the beating heart behind a song’s memorable melody. Perhaps one of the greatest drummers to ever grace the stage was Cream’s Ginger Baker – the subject of Jay Bulgar’s award winning documentary Beware of Mr. Baker (2012) and one…

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★★★★☆ After premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard’s elegant yet muscular Rust and Bone (2012) was met with assorted feelings, with the film’s heightened melodrama and contrasting aesthetics appearing somewhat jarring in comparison with the director’s previous work. Thankfully away form the harsh judicious glare of the Croisette, Audiard’s latest study of…

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★★★★☆ Starring Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo, Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Francine (2012) is a surprisingly provocative piece of stripped-down social realism that’s subtle approach belies its powerful core themes. After serving time in prison for an undisclosed crime, Francine (Leo) begins to rebuild her life in a small American town. Her new…

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★★★☆☆ Brandon Cronenberg displays the creative genes he was born to engage with Antiviral (2012), a fittingly abstract body horror that whilst clearly influenced by his father’s distinctive style, ultimately culminates in an impressive debut. Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is an employee at the Lucas Clinic, where celebrity viruses are sold to ‘true connoisseurs’.…

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