Edinburgh International Film Festival — A–Z of films

Directed by Olivier Marchal, an ex-cop himself, the film looks terrific.

It's a far more interesting movie to think about than to watch.

The Maysles brothers cleverly capture the vacuousness of the interviewers, clearly chosen more for their looks than their incisive questioning skills.

Antares is another nail in the coffin of brevity.

A technically assured, well acted and, above all, thought-provoking piece of crossover cinema

Never could the warning, 'Stay away if you're easily offended,' be more appropriate.

Slickly orchestrated by director Sergio Cabrera with good performances.

Astronauts is a fast, fun film.

So studiously edgy are the performances that one is never quite sure who harbours the darkest pathology.

Jacques Audiard's film isn't intended as a replacement for Toback's wild-eyed and masterly [Fingers], but rather a deliberately assured take on the same material.

Perfectly controlled lighting simulates the thin air that exhausts the once disciplined sisters.

Like the world it portrays, The Business can be criticised as superficial and derivative, but it accurately depicts the headstrong, cheesy glamour of the period.

All it does is liberally steal pieces from superior films and cobble them together without realising just why those movies worked.

Beautifully captures the kaleidoscopic element of family life.

Too cold and distanced.

Unfortunately, it becomes clear that the filmmakers have bitten off more than they can chew.

A beautiful film, full of courage, determination and optimism.

Daniel's music is heard throughout, adding immeasurable depth to his story.

Long-winded, overwrought and totally without a climax.

Fourteen Sucks may be a provocative title, but it's a solid and promising debut.

Fabienne Berthaud's film meanders between dissonant, ethereal scenes in the sanatorium and the frenetic action of a photographer's studios... the contrast between these two worlds is absolute.

There isn't a whiff of falsehood, or evidence of a set designer's duster.

Appallingly developed characters and situations decay and rot onscreen.

With dialogue like this, you don't need a scene at the village fair to reinforce olde worlde cliches of English rural life, but you get it, anyway.

Anyone who has seen Herzog's Fitzcarraldo will know of the director's fascination with doomed quests and magnificent obsessions, and in Treadwell he has found his dream subject.

The plot strands are abandoned after the intro, the characters never encouraged to rise above their cardboard.

Too enigmatic and slow burning for its own good.

I’m at a loss to see what Thomas Clay’s point is.

Although there's mercifully little football in this, there's also minimal emotional depth.

Ultimately, the film fails to show the deeper ways these youngsters will have been affected.

The film connected with me in a way that went beyond suspension of disbelief.

A superbly constructed and solid amalgamation of evidence and opinion

Creates hauntingly evocative, empty spaces that bleed history.

Art, or arse? Well, we certainly see plenty of Toth's behind as she orgasms elderly blokes back to health.

This is a film that you respect, rather than enjoy.

It's the same old sentimental tripe that gets rolled out again and again.

A classic three-tissue melodrama.

The central performances from Luigi Lo Cascio and Sandra Ceccarelli are sublime, free from the usual heavy handedness used to indicate acting within a film.

No plot, no point, except L'Intrus is consistently exciting to look at.

The film goes a long way on charm alone.

What should be a romantic mush cake, with lemon icing and a cherry on top, is treacle pud, with hot fudge and molasses.

A longer review than I planned, but that's only because there is simply so much good stuff in this collection of animated shorts that anything less wouldn't have done it justice.

A fantastic nostalgic trip.

This latest season of Fresh Tracks sometimes seems a little stale.

Memorable videos include Evan Bernard's inspired A-Z of drugs stereotypes promo for Soulwax - it's an alphabetic cornucopia of narcotics and their effects.

McKean's vision has a truly dreamlike quality.

For a film shot in 10 days on a budget of around $3000, it's quite an achievement.

Undoubtedly one of the best films ever made.

A good 25 minutes could have been trimmed off the length without anyone noticing.

Heredia is fresh and perfectly cast as the hyperactive rent boy and his vital energy really pushes the film along, making up for the fairly ordinary cinematography and shaky camera work.

A startling work that teaches the redemptive power of self-forgiveness

While handling the action with aplomb - the violence is low-key but high-impact.

Mullan brings a gruff, no-nonsense persona to his role, making Frank's emotional journey well worth taking.

The combination of a hard-hitting expose of Thai prostitution with genre horror may sound intriguing on paper, but the result emerges as an oil and water mix.

Police Beat is a strange little film. Niang is stiff and wooden at times, but, at others, the flow is perfect.

The film feels fractured, with bizarre transitions and editing, which often leave you wondering quite what's going on.

Peeping Tom is a film all about watching and identification, a film whose real horror hinges on the way it implicates the audience in its dark voyeurism.

Hard to recommend, really, unless you enjoy hearing classics, such as Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo, being murdered.

Realistic and deeply heartfelt.

The film is so preposterously overwrought and mundane that it's hard to imagine that writer/director Steve Mahone could overlook such obvious dullness.

After 15 minutes of fast zooms, sliced cuts, topsy pans and turvy close ups you want to be sick... after 40 minutes, you have eaten your words and are beginning to think this is original and thrilling.

The dance sequences are brilliantly performed and well worth watching the film for in their own right.

These are all good films - some traditional, some genuinely different and new.

A slick, professional and worthwhile piece of work.

Saraband, in true Bergman tradition, wrestles with human relationships, using a slow pace, pointed dialogue, and heavy symbolism to explore the psychological states of the characters.

Elegiacally epic camerawork sweeps over the snow-kissed landscape as lovingly as the man in a funny woolly hat plays Viking songs about Odin on his xylophone.

If this is what his 'film is dead, long live cinema' manifesto comes down to, then stop the future I want off...

A challenging, powerful and thought-provoking piece of cinema.

Knowing, loving, kidding and one of the year's best films.

Stirring and creatively wrought

Despite good performances all round (Gregory is very sympathetic), it does get boring.

As a surreal piece, it feels too much like a horror film, and viewed as a horror film, it lacks direction.

A fascinating film, rich in unspoken detail.

While a sense of place is important, lingering (and not very good) shots of the local wildlife are really superfluous.

The passage of time - and a beautiful 4k restoration - have been kind to this reimagining of Jacques Offenbach's opera, with its deliberately operatic gestures and colours and stylised production design feeling sharply avant garde even today.

Overall, I am not highly impressed.

The setting may be small-town, but this is a vision in microcosm of a whole nation that has been driven inevitably towards anxiety and unease by self-imposed pressures and impossible aspirations.

The trans-European train on which the film's sections unfold is the perfect setting for such a synergistic venture.

Lacking both gravitas and focus.

There is not a hint of artificiality, studio mock-ups, or designer poverty here.

An ambitious premise that only just falls short of genius.

The documentary fills a necessary gap in our understanding as long as it is not viewed unquestioningly.

A delight from beginning to end.

The Wedding is a delightful satire on Polish marriage traditions but much of what it features is so universal that people all over the world will be able to identify with it.

The dialogue is sparse and when the characters do speak, it's clunkily written, laden with insipid profundities, and often badly delivered.

Boutefeu's wonderful acting paints a vivid portrait.