It’s the mass of minor incidents along the way which give it power, and it’s Charbonneau’s commitment to presenting them in this way that makes this an important work.
Officer Sandra Perron resigns from the Canadian military after a controversial photo surfaces. Adapting to civilian life amidst an investigation, she denies abuse allegations despite evidence suggesting mistreatment within her unit.
In one remarkably intimate scene we watch a woman saying goodbye to a sleeping child so tiny that he won’t really understand what has happened when he wakes up and Mummy isn’t there.
A documentary about a learning centre where women hoping to find domestic work abroad prepare themselves what for what lies ahead - including homesickness and potential abuse.
A cheeky, irrepressible 11-year-old racing through life with boundless energy is confronted by the harsh realities of the adult world and the tragedies that lie locked in his family history.
It's almost the equivalent of pantomime, an established genre style in which we all all know that certain things are going to happen at certain times - some of them grisly - with the surprise lying in the (ahem) execution.
One night in Nineties rural England, a retired couple finds their isolated house besieged by a gang of young criminals. The thieves think it will be easy to make them give up the secret of their safe. But they have no idea what nightmare they’ve gotten themselves into as they fight to escape the house alive.
Jimenez has a playful attitude to these characters, although there are serious underlying issues concerning self-esteem and, more politically, the state of the Chilean healthcare system and notions of surveillance.
The lives of a group of Chileans interconnect with absurdly comic consequences.
In taking on such a huge subject, Oranges And Sunshine acquits itself well.
A social worker struggles to reunite families after discovering the (real life) scandalous deportation of British children to other Commonwealth countries, which often resulted in abuse.
Black is back to his High Fidelity form - this comedy is dangerous - and both O'Hara and Lithgow give lessons in middle-aged angst, with hilarious effect.
Would-be college student battles entry problems and his dysfunctional family to get in to Stanford.
There's relatively little to mitigate the downcast moments, but Rehman's passion for his work and the vast amount he has learned along the way come through clearly.
A documentary tribute to the dying art of Indian cinema posters, with each cinema once
employing a dedicated artist to paint a massive original mural for that week’s Bollywood blockbuster.
A visual treat which at times will take your breath away.
In a future world where the remnants of humanity are threatened by a sentient forest, a youth must reinvent himself in order to prevent people from the past destroying all that he holds dear.
In keeping with the hagiographic tradition, Hamy keeps his performance rather flat, but this is problematic for The Ornothologist as a film; its success as a piece of art is somewhat at odds with audience appeal.
An ornithologist searching for black storks is swept away by rapids and awakens in a mysterious, dark forest.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra proves a master of pace, beginning slowly and ratcheting up the tension, rendering any part of the cinema seat other than the edge irrelevant.
She was meant to complete their family; she may destroy it.
This film, like it's central character is wilfully complex and surprisingly fluid, wrong-footing us as we try to fill in the spaces between each vignette at the same time as drawing us to its thriller component.
Four incarnations of a character who is a mistress of reinvention.
This is Catholic working class life beyond the limits of restraint where the concept of social order collapses and acts of individual kindness come as a surprise.
Jet black comedy about family tribulations in the run up to a funeral.
It disappoints on two fronts. The directors, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, love vulgar so much they can't be anything else and the complexity of the human body is too wondrous for a bunch of animators to figure out.
Part animation/part live action story of junk food slob, played by Bill Murray, who contracts deadly virus.
This may well be the best avant-garde gay-zombie porn film I have ever seen – although, I admit, it is also the only avant-garde gay-zombie porn film I have ever seen.
The characters almost seem aware that they're performing.
A man with spiritualist powers is told by his mentor that a demonic entity is returning to destroy his daughter's soul and that he should take drastic measures to prevent this from happening.
You have to know your enemy. If everyone is an enemy, where's the tension?
Caught between the British Secret Service and the Russian mafia, an oligarch with nefarious secrets uses an English teacher on holiday in Morocco to help secure political asylum.
