Reviews

The Giant is an imaginative "human interest" story, something expected to feature in a local newscast's warm and fuzzy "and finally..." section. It is also a well-trodden - and sweetly simple - underdog...

Documentary director Stephen Kijak is clearly fascinated by band and "visual kei" pioneers X Japan and, although informative, the opening segment of We Are X teeters on the edge of pandering to founder Yoshiki...

This hypnotic documentary by cinephile par excellence Mark Cousins takes a brave - but increasingly rewarding - abstract angle by seeking through aesthetic rather than conventional exposition to capture the...

Despite an intriguing historical setup, ‘76 struggles to tell a cohesive political story, and loses its thread as the personal subplots overshadow the events of the coup. Ramsey Nouah does a fine job as...

Don’t come into Don’t Think Twice expecting a barrel of laughs - this isn’t that kinda rodeo. Nor is this really a conversation about comedy, as beyond a documentary-style opening and a slew of Del Close...

Dan Brown is something of a miracle writer. His books, worldwide bestsellers one and all, are simultaneously light, page-turning romps and heavy art-history swamps. True to form, David Koepp has kept both of...

Porto opens with the unmistakable sound of Anton Yelchin’s gravelly voice in monologue. In light of the actor’s recent death this has an amplified power and is instantly attention-grabbing and emotive....

As far as the funnies go, Storks doesn’t have the consistency and sheer breathlessness of something like The Lego Movie (what does?), but it gets the laughs in thanks to a delightfully weird streak - all...

The synopsis of 13TH almost implied a filmed immersion into correctional facilities, but Ava DuVernay, thank goodness, isn’t interested in a small cast of subjective case files; what we have here is an...

Ivan Sen’s directorial talent is certainly noticeable in Goldstone. Sen revels in the Western genre, milking the dusty Australian landscape for all he can, and cinematography buffs will get a kick out of a...

Any film named after the protagonist just isn’t gonna work without a home-run performance, and Nora El Koussour certainly lives up to the challenge in her big-screen debut. As Layla, she handles outrage,...

Paul Schrader’s new film Dog Eat Dog begins as it means to go on for the proceeding 90 minutes: a coked-up Willem Dafoe terrorises a woman and her daughter in a scene that has pretty much zero relevance to...

You know a film has really got under your skin when halfway through you notice one hand is numb from being clenched so tightly. You know it’s pushing you to the edge when you consider breaking your own rule...

After a disorienting burst of intensity to kick things off, Chameleon slows down and takes its time to set up some dominoes. Jorge Riquelme Serrano’s direction doesn’t waste time on the serenity of the...

When reading about Clash, an account of the 2013 Egyptian riots all filmed from inside a police van, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a gimmick film that will run out of steam quickly. But...