Deauville Festival of American Cinema — A–Z of films

The narrative is paced with the urgency of a thriller.

Cummings and McCabe want to have it all - and go a fairly long way towards getting it.

The script is well layered and clearly is designed to secure repeat viewings.

Tightly wrapped doesn't begin to cover it.

It’s astonishing to realise that this is Reis’ first screen role.

The everyday feel is acute – you can virtually smell the pickle jar vinegar and raw spirit and imagine a slight stickiness on the seats as Jani-Petteri Passi’s camera captures the scene with a looseness that rocks along with the rhythm of the train.

Corsini agilely combines elements of cinéma verité and farce.

It is pretty.

Dangerously thin on purpose

As a snapshot of the influence parents bring to bear on their offspring it lacks engagement for the audience and takes the attitude that everyone watching should be enrapt by the self-importance Penn brings to bear.

Beautifully photographed as always, with a colour palette whose soft, shifting hues reflect its moral and narrative ambiguity, A Hero is one of Farhadi’s finest works.

It's not an easy watch, but it is a good one.

It's not the cliches that are its main problem, although the setting and set-up are straight down the line.

The closer and more personal this documentary gets, the more it opens up to the largest of issues.

It’s quite a maze to pick your way through as a viewer and Stone does his best ease the path.

Perhaps everything doesn't quite stack up into a neat narrative but as a film that explores the frosty hinterland between sociopathy and more simple teenage boredom it follows through.

As a whodunit, the film is fun and forgettable.

Ambiguity lurks in the shadows and there's a doubling up and a doubling down.

This is a stunning first feature.

This is a study of bitter, sorry people hurting each other using ancient memories, propelled like bullets via the power of fiction.

Cage fills the screen even when he does not.

Everything has been meticulously researched from the garish costumes and outlandish make-up to the mechanics of the business.

Quirky and a little uneven but appealingly sweet.

The grooming of Strawberry may have some moments of levity but that, in many ways, makes it all the more uncomfortable.

Hawkins has waited decades for a role like this, in which she can fully exercise her talents.

It progresses in the same sort of manner as leading man Damon in that it's big and bulky, slow and purposeful but somehow, despite this, quite compelling.

An astounding film.

The film begins in a landscape of urban decay and it’s a long time before we see a horizon.

There is a lingering, half blossomed melancholy that lies underneath the often very funny, fast-paced moments of quotidian chaos.