Lebanon - Movie Poster

Lebanon

4.0 Andrew O'Dea

June, 1982 - The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare...

"Lebanon" is a gripping ride. Shot almost exclusively from the tight confines of a rumbling tank, this movie is a superb example of minimalist filmmaking. The tension and intensity is palpable, as the film bears witness to the horrors of war, and we're left gasping for breath from the grimy, claustrophobic atmosphere. The antiwar sentiment is clear, with enough gritty action to match its political, religious and philosophical messages. Shell-shockingly good.


Potiche - Movie Poster

Potiche

4.0 Anne Murphy

When her husband is taken hostage by his striking employees, a trophy wife takes the reins of the family business and proves to be a remarkably effective leader.

The 70's are perfectly recreated with all of the colour and fashion to bring on pangs of nostalgia. The social attitudes are missed less. "Potiche" is a light-hearted movie loaded with social comment, looking at the role of women in the workplace, and the incumbent responsibilities of fatherhood. Focused on individual choices and growth, there's no haranguing, and the delivery is affable, warm, and comic. A gold medal for the trophy wife.


Two Lovers - Movie Poster

Two Lovers

4.0 Anne Murphy

A Brooklyn-set romantic drama about a bachelor torn between the family friend his parents wish he would marry and his beautiful but volatile new neighbour.

This is an impressive movie, with compelling portrayals of fragile, damaged personalities that draw the viewer into the vortex of their various relationship complexities. The film maker is a deft story teller, balancing hope with hopelessness while casting a compassionate eye over the foibles, the addictions and the all too human yearnings of the characters. Moody night time NYC landscapes are traversed as assuredly as the turmoils of the lovers. Love to love.


Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Movie Poster

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

4.0 Anthony Macali

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France.

Enter the "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams" and your world will be shaken. The walls are lined with stirring visuals, from bison and leopards to horses as clear as the day they were born. The fact these paintings are over 30,000 years old simply defies belief, marking a passage of time that pales our existence. There are a number of questionable guests filling the running time, but it's a joy to share in their wonder and commentary of such a dazzling discovery. This historical documentary is haunting and undeniably breathtaking.


Let the Right One In - Movie Poster

Let the Right One In

4.0 Wendy Slevison

Oscar, a young bullied boy, meets Eli, a beautiful girl who turns out to be a vampire.

If you thought all the original ideas for vampire movies had been used up, think again. Set in Sweden, this film uses the icy, austere conditions to illustrate and emphasise the lonely isolation of its young protagonists. This film holds nothing back as it deals with issues of first love and bullying, contrasted against the violent world of the vampire. The young stars are astonishingly good, and this innovative movie rates highly among the alumni of its genre.


Ten Winters - Movie Poster

Ten Winters

4.0 Anne Murphy

Timing is everything as friends who are drawn to each other miss opportunities to become a couple but keep connecting by chance during a decade.

Winter in Venice looks cold, the back drops are frosty, a stark contrast to the central characters who are warm and real. There is a good deal of restraint exercised, and love-lorn resignation experienced, by the friends as they fail to connect romantically over the ten year period covered by the movie. The unrequited attraction of the couple is understated and compelling to watch as each year passes and fate conspires to keep them apart. "Ten Winters" is one great story.


The Red Chapel - Movie Poster

The Red Chapel

4.0 Anthony Macali

Two Danish comics, one of them a spastic and both born in Korea, join the director on a trip to North Korea, where they have been allowed access under the pretext of wanting to perform an act.

"The Red Chapel" provides a rare glimpse into a hellish world. The hosts, who happen to police the crew on their visit, appear dutifully polite, but it becomes apparent their overstated hospitality is a mask of fearful obedience to the dictatorship. Our protagonists walk a fine line between injecting their comedy into the regime and heeding to the Great Leader, apprehensive in their attempts to salvage their show overtaken by propaganda. An eye-opening insight into a country of no humour.


My Week with Marilyn - Movie Poster

My Week with Marilyn

4.0 Anne Murphy

Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl.

There's not a lot of plot to get lost in just an intimate week with the movie star we remember for her reputation for being as fragile as she was glamorous. "My Week with Marilyn" is an engaging in-depth character study. The lead actor delivers a spell-binding and authentic portrait of the screen legend as complex woman who shone in front of the camera and struggled with insecurity behind the scenes. Not only gentlemen will prefer this blonde.


Rescue Dawn - Movie Poster

Rescue Dawn

4.0 Anthony Macali

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission during the Vietnam War.

This film combines two of my favourite things: jungle and escaping prison. The jungle is captured beautifully: green, luscious and dense, impossible to penetrate without a machete. Escaping prison is slow, and painful. But this movie goes as far as showing many negligible details, from a crash-course in picking locks to converging the guards. The prisoners are a colourful bunch, the interplay in their state of delirium is very amusing. This is an exceptional war movie of survival and the jungle.


The Day I Was Not Born - Movie Poster

The Day I Was Not Born

4.0 Anne Murphy

During a stopover in Buenos Aires, Maria recognises a nursery rhyme being sung in Spanish.

The storyline of "The Day I Was Not Born" is original and disquieting. Hefty political themes are narrated through a personal lens of family and identity, and the Buenos Aries setting is perfect in capturing a city with an atmospheric sense of the recent past - it looks both foreign and familiar, balancing the disoriented characters. Sensitively told with an assured minimalism, the movie is understated and the acting is restrained, creating compelling viewing. A tale of dislocation that carries both wounds and warmth.


Fish Tank - Movie Poster

Fish Tank

4.0 Anne Murphy

Everything changes for 15 year old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.

"Fish Tank" is a coming of age movie set on a rundown English council estate. The characters are filled with equal measures of frustration, anger, longing and alcohol, without means to release the pressure. The decaying situation is played out with a credibility that leaves the audience unsurprised at the outcomes but gripped by the tension. With nowhere to go but down, the mood is deliberately oppressive. The tank is grimy, and breathing underwater almost impossible, but even so we glimpse gold on the scales of these fish.


Frost/Nixon - Movie Poster

Frost/Nixon

4.0 Andrew O'Dea

A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.

"Frost/Nixon" is an intelligent and provocative political drama. The film's strength lies in dialogue that is witty and engaging, delivered by superlative performances from the two leads. Frost and Nixon are combatants slugging out a verbal war, gaining ascendancy only to be countered. Their battle of wills generates cinema that is completely engrossing. Who'd have thought that two men sitting down and talking to each other could be so entertaining?


Beginners - Movie Poster

Beginners

4.0 Wendy Slevison

A man receives revelations from his elderly father: he has terminal cancer, and a young male lover.

"Beginners" is a poignant, tenderly-crafted portrait of a man's evolving relationship with his father, and the impact it has on other relationships in his life. The writer/director has told his unusual, autobiographical tale in a warm, quirky and original style, skilfully mixing the joys and sorrows in a way that is never over-sentimental or clichéd. The film is ultimately a celebration of life, love and hope. It shows us that in our experiences of love - finding it, and then holding on to it - we are all, at times, beginners.


Enter the Void - Movie Poster

Enter the Void

4.0 Stefan Bugryn

A drug dealing youth is killed in Tokyo, and drifts through the city in death watching over his sister.

"Enter the Void" is an experimental film that literally takes you on a beautiful journey through life and death. It's very dreamy and trippy, delving into a kaleidoscope of colours and pictures that can often be mistaken for an exploration of space. The narrative is powerful, often intensely emotional, and is shot almost entirely from the protagonist's view, which makes it all the more engaging. The dark themes and visual onslaught will make it hard viewing for the faint hearted, but all others will love entering the void.


In Bruges - Movie Poster

In Bruges

4.0 Andrew O'Dea

Two hit men are sent to hide out in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job goes wrong in London.

This film is essentially a black comedy that juxtaposes humour with tragedy. Set amongst the churches, canals, and cobbled streets of the titular Bruges, it uses this very setting to accentuate the polar natures of our two leading characters. The highly strung Ray struggles to cope with the lack of excitement, while the older, more refined Ken immerses himself in the history of the town. Amidst the dry humour created by their interaction is woven a very clever story that presents an undercurrent of morality.