BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER rarely fails to be entertaining, with the visuals and performances taking the film a long way. However, they are fleeting thrills in the service of an unmemorable story. Edward Berger’s film looks like a high roller, but it’s playing with buttons and matchsticks.
Though at first THE END seems like a strange direction for Joshua Oppenheimer, the themes of repression, denial, and delusion soon make a clear connection between this and his documentary work.
WOMEN MAKE FILM from Mark Cousins acts as a rallying cry to acknowledge and celebrate female filmmakers all around the globe. Chris Dobson reviews.
Marc Nelson discusses THE SOUVENIR after its EIFF 2019 showings, where director Joanna Hogg casts her critical-yet-compassionate eye toward a stand-in for her younger self.
THE DEAD DON’T DIE is not groundbreaking, but Jim Jarmusch manages to breathe some new life into the (un)dead genre. Joe McLauchlan reviews from Cannes 2019.
Mark Liversidge takes a look at the documentary which looks at the life of unsung political figure Gertrude Bell.
With HAIL, CAESAR! the Coen Brothers have managed to produce their funniest film to date, writes Jack Toye at the Berlinale Festival.
Tilda Swinton is a joy to hate but Bong Joon-Ho’s editing lets down the weird and wonderful SNOWPIERCER, screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Another year, another Terry Gilliam slice of imaginative dystopian hell: THE ZERO THEOREM still feels a bit humdrum for a director who is a visionary at his best.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is a delightful chocolate box of a film, with Wes Anderson beginning to show his artistic soul, writes Jim Ross
