Director – Yonfan – 2019 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12A – 125m ***** The tutor of an 18-year-old girl falls for her mother who hired him against the background of the 1967 protest marches in Hong Kong – plays in the Annecy Animation Festival 2022 which is taking place in a 100% on-site edition […]
Director – S.Craig Zahler – 2015 – US – 18 – 132m ***** Western with cannibals substituted for Red Indians proves hugely entertaining – on BFI Player from Monday, December 14th Watching Bone Tomahawk is to watch a series of Wild West vignettes with a small number of characters in different locations – a primitive […]
Director – Derek Tsang – 2019 – China – 12A – 135m ***1/2 A bullied exam student is protected from her tormentors by and seeks solace in the company of a small time street criminal – from the London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF), on now, and Hong Kong’s entry for the 2020/2021 Oscars The […]
Director – John Hsu – 2019 – Taiwan – 12A – 103m **** Two Taiwanese students find themselves trapped in their school overnight under that country’s White Terror regime in 1962 – on Shudder (US, Canada) from Monday, February 21st This is a real oddity: an adaptation of a video game set in a specific […]
Director – Fabrice du Welz – 2019 – Belgium – 107m ***** Boy meets girl. Alas, girl is in a psychiatric hospital convinced that the world is out to get her… in this filthy genius Belgian movie – from the BFI London Film Festival and available on BFI Player from Friday, December 11th Twelve-year-old Paul […]
Director – Kim Yong-hoon – 2020 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 108m **** A number of individuals in dire financial straits do whatever they can to get hold of a bag of money – on Arrow Channel from Friday, March 7th 2025 Seemingly disparate plot strands suggest a group of separate stories about […]
Director – Hong Sang Soo – 2020 – South Korea – Cert. 12A – 77m ***** Three women – plus one. An urban woman’s visits to three out-of-town friends gently calls into question both their and her everyday lives – at Curzon Bloomsbury and on Curzon Home Cinema from Friday, December 11th, then on MUBI […]
Director – Gerard Johnson – 2019 – UK – Cert. 18 – 110m **** Pump it up! A man dissatisfied with his life comes under the influence of a manipulative bodybuilding trainer – on Sky and NOW from Tuesday, June 1st Newcastle, UK. Simon (Cavan Clerkin) is at a dead end working days in a […]
Gang life County LinesDirected by Henry BlakeCertificate 15, 90 minutesReleased 4 December ***** ‘Do you know what an acceptable loss is?’, a voice asks a teenage boy. ‘In your business, you’re the acceptable loss.’ County Lines may be this year’s hardest hitting movie, a British drama about a vulnerable boy groomed into working for county […]