Belfast Film Festival — A–Z of films

Hamaguchi’s most pointed provocation is not that the nursing home becomes excessive in its care, but that ordinary neglect has trained us to see basic tenderness as excess.

The blurry, hazy images recorded entirely on a discontinued Sony Ericsson cellphone – frequently in long takes – make it a hardly digestible slow cinema challenge, yet rewarding as an aesthetic experience.

The film is competently shot, with some nicely directed chases and a central action scene in the dark that stands out.

Comes at you like a pint of lager with a Jäger bomb chaser and a packet of crisps – strong, energising, salty and sharp, you feel the headiness and the kick.

Having set the stage in the first half, Murray spends the latter part of the film telling personal stories.

It’s a daring approach for a first feature.

Shot in vivid colour and interspersed with some terrific songs, this is a formulaic story but a hell of a ride.

Worse than incomplete, Haigh's film lacks a fully developed soul. This is in spite of striking aesthetic moments and sharply written scenes complemented by strong performances from the cast.

Maddie’s Secret is indeed a three-course meal, but it’s being served all at once on one plate

There exists no safe ground when you are part of a regime that uses fear and threats as casual tools.

Zvyagintsev handles this material with his familiar control: psychological realism, cold visual restraint and an aversion to overt flourish.

Joseph Field Eccles and Nick Smyth’s sound design...is magnificent from start to finish, and full of playful touches.

Apart from setting the tone and maintaining it, the strongest point of Schleinzer’s filmmaking is casting and directing the actors' interactions between one another and the environment.

The film accurately portrays a generation in the crossfire which hasn’t been seen before.

Malkovich and Rockwell are magnetic.