Film reviews and more
★★★☆☆ The Ides of March (2011) – directed by and starring George Clooney – takes a swipe at the ruthless back-room deals and media hype that lie at the heart of American politics. Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) is running against […]
Not My Life (2011) – written, directed and produced by Robert Bilheimer and narrated by Glenn Close – is a documentary focusing on the brutal world of human trafficking and modern slavery. Filmed on five continents over a period of […]
★★★★☆ Martin Scorsese’s moving documentary on The Beatles guitarist, George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), succeeds on a number of levels. Combining interviews with archive footage, snapshots of George and his music, Scorsese creates a portrait of a […]
★★★★☆ “The circus is tough and beautiful” says Tino, the ringmaster and central character of Aaron Schock’s documentary Circo (2010), charting the ups and downs of a Mexican troupe. One could say the same of Schock’s film. The film follows […]
★★★★★ Cary Fukunaga’s invigorating new version of Jane Eyre (2011), starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, should appeal to Charlotte Brontë purists as well as attracting new fans. The film couldn’t be more different than Fukunaga’s award-winning debut Sin Nombre […]
★★☆☆☆ The Taqwacores (2010), adapted from the cult novel by Michael Muhammad Knight and directed by Eyad Zahra, is a quirky Indie film about young American Muslims determined to rebel against convention.Set in Buffalo, New York, Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a […]
★★★★☆ Lou (2010), directed and written by Belinda Chayko (Bored Olives [2000]) and starring legendary British actor John Hurt, is a tender, heartfelt film about one girl’s rite of passage. Set against the dramatic landscape of rural New South Wales, […]
★★★★☆ Cherien Dabis’ bitter-sweet Amreeka (2009) (Arabic for ‘America’) follows the fortunes of Muna (Nisreen Faour), a single, divorced mother, who lives in the West Bank with her teenage son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem). The opening scenes show Muna and her […]
★★★★☆ Life, Above All (2010) is a moving drama about a 12-year old girl (a stunning debut from Khomotso Manyaka) who fights the prejudices and superstitions of her neighbours in a South African village. Lillian has lost her newborn baby, […]
★★★☆☆ Ballast opens with a wide panoramic view of a bleak, waterlogged, windswept landscape; birds taking off in the grey distance. But for the three lonely individuals at the heart of Lance Hammer’s astonishing debut film, escape is not an […]
Disappointment and regret loom large in Mike Leigh’s latest film, Another Year (2010). From the opening shots of Janet’s (Imelda Staunton) pained expression as she desperately tries to recall a happy moment from her past, you know Leigh will be […]
★★★★★ Son of Babylon (2009) is set in 2003, in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s fall, and tells the story of a Kurdish grandmother and the search for her son, Ibrahim, a soldier missing since the Gulf War in […]