I Wish
By . Published 22 May 2013
Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows (2004) is one of the saddest films ever made about childhood, but his latest, I Wish, feels like the optimistic flipside to that picture. The Japanese director is...
Film > Reviews
Epic
By . Published 21 May 2013Epic feels like a deliberate throwback to children’s adventure films of the 80s and 90s. And not necessarily the good ones – it’s plagued by a lot of similarities to...
Byzantium
By . Published 20 May 2013Neil Jordan loves a myth. His best movies (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, The Company of Wolves) are dreamy fairy tales with one toe in reality. The sensual and stunningly...
Gangster Squad
By . Published 20 May 2013Not much liked by the critics on its theatrical release, Gangster Squad's account of the creation of an extra-legal LAPD team to take down mob boss Mickey Cohen in postwar...
The Last Stand
By . Published 20 May 2013"I'll give the sheriff a call to tell him to get out of the way." When a psychopathic cartel boss is sprung from custody in Las Vegas and races towards...
Sacrifice
By . Published 20 May 2013If there's one thing that we learn from this historical epic from director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine), it is that if revenge is a dish best served cold (15-years...
The Unbelievable Truth
By . Published 17 May 2013Audry feels, and looks, like the heroine of a Nouvelle Vague film who is trapped in the very ordinary surroundings of a Long Island suburb in the late 1980s. She...
Something in the Air (Après mai)
By . Published 17 May 2013Set in 1971, Something in the Air is French filmmaker Olivier Assayas’s ebullient tribute to the kids who had to follow in the footsteps of those student firebrands who helped bring his country...
Fast & Furious 6
By . Published 16 May 2013Fast & Furious 5 (aka Fast Five) abandoned virtually any semblance of its series’ street racing routes, retooling the blockbuster franchise into an ensemble vehicular heist thriller; a brawny blend...
The Liability
By . Published 16 May 2013The Liability, Craig Vivieros’ second feature following prison drama debut Ghosted, offers enough surprises to raise it above the mire of recent dopey British gangster fare. Also elevated by great...
The Great Gatsby
By . Published 15 May 2013Baz Luhrmann's latest foray into vintage decadence delivers the director's characteristic flamboyance and romance, and serves as a perfect companion to both Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. The Great...
Star Trek Into Darkness
By . Published 09 May 2013J.J. Abrams’ latest instalment of his rebooted Star Trek franchise has the potential to divide audiences because of certain narrative decisions that, due to their spoiler nature, cannot really be...
Our Children
By . Published 09 May 2013After screenings of Our Children, most discussions will surely centre on Joachim Lafosse's choice of framing device. The film begins with a scene informing us that Murielle (Émilie Dequenne) and...
Mud
By . Published 09 May 2013Jeff Nichols’ strong follow-up to 2011’s Take Shelter is another examination of male conflict; this time in the form of a coming-of-age adventure tale. Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland) are...
Hors Satan
By . Published 06 May 2013No one goes to French filmmaker Bruno Dumont for easy answers or anything approaching ‘fun.’ His oeuvre is marked by an ascetic aesthetic, employed to serve sober themes – and...
A Hijacking
By . Published 06 May 2013The understated manner in which the taking of a cargo ship occurs in A Hijacking is indicative of Tobias Lindholm's approach to the subject. He avoids the scenes you’d expect...
Village at the End of the World
By . Published 03 May 2013Many small-town teens dream of moving to the big city, but few experience as profound an isolation as 16-year-old Lars. Living in the remote Inuit settlement of Niaqornat in northern...
The Lords of Salem
By . Published 29 April 2013Rob Zombie’s love of 70s grindhouse has been apparent throughout his often crass, brutal filmmaking career. With The Lords of Salem, however, the headbanger-cum-helmer seems keen to develop, drawing instead...
Quartet
By . Published 29 April 2013Dustin Hoffman's shameless Bafta-bait arrives on DVD and is a pleasant diversion, if ultimately lacking in substance. Maggie Smith leads an all-star cast as a retired opera singer struggling to...
I'm So Excited!
By . Published 29 April 2013After making an unsettling and memorable foray into thriller territory with The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodóvar’s new film feels like a conscious attempt to recapture the spirit of...
