article placeholder

Sailing To Paradise – RDFF review

Uplifting and life affirming, Sailing To Paradise allows us inside every inch of two characters and their friendship. This is a funny and touching tale of how much we need other people to help us through...
article placeholder

Our Everyday Life – RDFF review

A Bosnian drama following a father losing his job, a son restarting his life after war and a mother battling serious illness doesn’t sound like much fun. But Our Everyday Life has touches of humour mixed in...
article placeholder

El Ganzo – RDFF review

The Mexican setting of heat and sand only increases the feeling that Ganzo is like a hazy memory. The film is perturbing not only due to the strange manner of conversation, but also because of the...
article placeholder

Kicking Off – RDFF review

Making a funny film isn’t just about script – something which is often forgotten. But Kicking Off cleverly uses all of the cinematic elements at its disposal to keep its audience laughing right to the...
article placeholder

Driving With Selvi – RDFF review

Films should show us the wonder of human life, and Driving With Selvi certainly manages this. Following the life of one unconventional Indian woman, and her desire to do what she loves, the film is like a...
article placeholder

That’s Not Us – RDFF review

A largely improvised script allows the dialogue to ebb and flow throughout the film like natural conversation. Although this is a credit to the actors, watching couples have arguments does tire after a while....
article placeholder

Blood of My Blood – LFF Review

Blood of My Blood tries to link too many genres, styles and time periods, without much of a story to hold them together. The script may be poor, but Bellocchio keeps your attention with teasing direction,...
article placeholder

The Martian – Review

As with Andy Weir’s novel, the reason that The Martian works so brilliantly as a film is that it’s a one-man show that’s much bigger than just one person. Matt Damon shines as the lovechild of Neil...
article placeholder

Roger Waters The Wall – Review

As you might expect from the title, Roger Waters inhabits virtually every fibre of this film with his grizzled charisma. Flitting between concert footage and somewhat contrived sequences in which Waters...
article placeholder

Miss You Already – Review

Despite the passion of its leads, Miss You Already is disappointingly formulaic. The establishing whistlestop tour of their friendship is derivative, and the too-good-to-be-true lives are predictably countered...
article placeholder

Beasts of No Nation – LFF Review

Despite a light, almost joyful opening, Beasts of No Nation is, unsurprisingly, no easy watch. It charts a descent into further – and constant – brutality. Once bright but traumatised youngster Agu (a...
article placeholder

Beeba Boys – LFF Review

Beeba Boys offers plenty that’s new to one of the oldest genres in cinema: the gangster film. The location: Vancouver, and the cast – flamboyantly dressed Indo-Canadian Sikhs – are all refreshing...
article placeholder

Mountains May Depart – LFF Review

Jia Zhangke continues to chronicle contemporary Chinese society, but this time he looks to the future in a story stretching from 1999 to 2025. Zhangke offers wry humour and class pressures in the...
article placeholder

Lessons In Love – Review

Lessons in Love is not just boring, it's not just crude, it's hopelessly pointless. The film is horribly alienating – equating Lord Byron's romantic rule breaking with a privileged professor who sleeps...