Film Reviews

Silent Sonata

Tom Birchenough Monday, 05 May 2014

The forces of death and life come up against each other in the strange, somehow impressive Slovenian war drama Silent Sonata. I say “Slovenian” only because director Janez Burger hails from there, and that’s where some of the filming took place (the rest was in Ireland, which was the major, but not the only European co-producer of the film), but the cast and crew are markedly international.

Bad Neighbours

Veronica Lee Friday, 02 May 2014

Zac Efron has well and truly left behind his cute High School Musical persona. First he bared all in That Awkward Moment and now in Bad Neighbours he plays his first unsympathetic role – but his fans will be delighted to know that he gets lots of opportunities to show off his six-pack again in Nicholas Stoller's winning comedy.

Willow Creek

Nick Hasted Thursday, 01 May 2014

The Bigfoot legend rests on something close to found-footage: 1967’s grainy film of a large ape-like creature loping through the remote American North-west. The Patterson-Gimlin expedition’s reels are the Sasquatch conspiracy theorists version of the Zapruder footage.

Pompeii

Karen Krizanovich Thursday, 01 May 2014

Best known for the Mortal Kombat twosome, the Resident Evil franchise (one of the DVD extras noted how the zombie dogs constantly ate off their zombie makeup) and big, bulging swipes at other genres with Event Horizon, AVP: Alien vs Predator and The Three Musketeers, director Paul W S Anderson’s Pompeii has been neither a critical nor box office hit in America. It is not, however, without charm.

A Thousand Times Good Night

Demetrios Matheou Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Juliette Binoche gives a powerful performance at the heart of a thought-provoking, very topical drama, whose flaws reflect its difficult subject matter.

The Frenchwoman plays Rebecca, a highly-rated war photographer, whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect shot and the game-changing scoop has compromised both her attitude to family life and her professional ethics. When she nearly dies on an assignment, she is forced to take stock.

Blue Ruin

Emma Simmonds Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Ah, revenge. Why does something so bad sometimes feel so necessary? Particularly in its most bloodthirsty form, it's a concept well explored onscreen, from almost every western and martial arts film to the final act of so many horrors – and the entirety of the spectacularly absurd TV series currently showing on E4, which is so obsessed with the idea it couldn't be called anything other than Revenge.

In Bloom

Tom Birchenough Tuesday, 29 April 2014

The teenage heroines of In Bloom may be only 14, but in the world in which they live – the film is set in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 1992 – they are forced to act much older, to take on responsibilities beyond their ages.

Sundance London 2014: They Came Together

Emma Simmonds Monday, 28 April 2014

It might be putting it bluntly, but hell - American rom-coms didn't always suck. The screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s made bickering artful and aspirational and Woody Allen added his own neurotic spin in the 70s. Now the commercial end of the genre makes fools of us all with its desperate women, bland men and rigid, asinine formula. These films are an insult to the intelligent, ambitious or independent, and are at best a guilty pleasure.

Comment

Sundance London 2014: Obvious Child

Katherine McLaughlin Sunday, 27 April 2014

Debut writer-director Gillian Robespierre strikes the perfect balance between humour and humanism in this New York set comedy about unplanned pregnancy and abortion which sees stand-up comedian Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) get dumped and fired from her job at Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books in quick succession.

Sundance London 2014: Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Emma Simmonds Saturday, 26 April 2014

A fresh take on the fish-out-of-water story, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter finds a lonely Japanese woman reimagining herself as an adventuress and travelling to America in pursuit of a fictional fortune.

Sundance London 2014: The Voices

Emma Simmonds Friday, 25 April 2014

It's been four years since Ryan Reynolds' one-man-show Buried, which saw the thesp prove his acting chops while six foot under in a box. The Voices gifts him a full and talented supporting cast but it's a film that he also shoulders, cast in a role which requires him to be both the good guy and the very, very bad guy - and the source of the titular voices - despite ostensibly playing just one part.

Sundance London 2014: The One I Love

Katherine McLaughlin Thursday, 24 April 2014

The bitterness and jealousy of a relationship on the rocks is superbly handled in this disconcerting, witty and sharp indie which poses moral quandaries galore. Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are the couple at odds with one another. The abrasions caused by their long-term relationship have led them to therapy and as a last resort their therapist (Ted Danson) sends them off on a break guaranteed to cement their love and rekindle their passion.

Transcendence

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 24 April 2014

A quick scan of the credits gives grounds for optimism about Transcendence, with Johnny Depp leading a copper-bottomed supporting cast which includes Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany and Cillian Murphy. Director Wally Pfister may be a first-timer, but since he's been Christopher Nolan's cinematographer since 1999's Memento and won an Oscar for his work on Inception, you might give him the benefit of the doubt.

Cupcakes

Tom Birchenough Wednesday, 23 April 2014

There might seem to be a world of difference between Israeli director Eytan Fox’s last film, the coming-out-of-grief, intimate drama Yossi, and his new movie, the delicious, prove-what-you-can-do comedy musical Cupcakes. But both are about moving towards a better place, and overcoming the obstacles encountered along the way, with a little help from your friends.

Exhibition

Emma Simmonds Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Home is truly where the heart is in writer-director Joanna Hogg's extraordinarily astute and artistically alive third film, which takes in the minutiae of a marriage. Exhibition is the story of two artists as they prepare to move out of the beloved home they have lived in for the best part of two decades and it imaginatively illustrates how where we live can challenge and define us.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker

Tom Birchenough Monday, 21 April 2014

We see the harshness of everyday life in Danis Tanović’s An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker first in its snowy, subsistence landscapes, as hero Nazif goes out to the forest to bring in whatever wood he can find to keep the family home warm. But by the end of the film, which took the Jury Grand Prix at last year’s Berlinale, we have seen, much more chillingly, the harshness of human behaviour.