Edinburgh International Film Festival — A–Z of films

The film has a magnetic quality - it is allegedly based on a true story, but its whimsy and execution put it in the realms of 'man in the pub' and 'shaggy dog'.

The seven stories knit together well, and provide an engrossing and alternative view of a city whose image has long been absorbed into popular culture

While it's got culture (or at least poetry and sculpture), it's not long on meaning.

The 99 Unbound might just about cut the mustard after school on CBeebies but its low budget and rudimentary design are cinematically embarrassing.

Subversive and incendiary.

The characters are vivid and full of life in a way that a traditional script might not convey.

Farjado's style is immersive, capturing both the sense of chaos in the district but also finding time to linger on fine details, giving a vibrant sense of place.

This is what used to be known in the sixth form lavs as bike shed humour - infantile male gags about the female anatomy, genitalia, show-off swaggering and sexual innuendos, so broad they flatten subtlety and boil boob gags until they pop.

Every time the film brings out [...] his photographs, I found myself leaning forward - drinking in their beautiful details.

Emotionally charged food for thought.

The music is striking, the aesthetic impact more dependent on sound than vision.

One of the most deservedly popular movies in cinema history.

If you're a fan of gialli and horror all'italiana you'll enjoy playing spot the homage. If you're not a lot of the imagery and dialogue will simply go past you.

This is a challenging and rewarding piece that reflects your own thoughts as much as those of the filmmaker.

One of the most affecting films of the year.

While Brave may occasionally shy away from darker territory in order to retain its appeal for even the youngest of audiences, there are still plenty of 'big' ideas here for small minds to think about.

A film that is in step with its contemporary Hollywood background, for better and for worse.

This is genuinely funny, full of subtle characterisation and humorous moments.

More like a tragicomic fairytale than a social-realist examination of inner-city problems.

Brake is an undying sequence of storytelling gimmicks.

Screenings of Buenas Noches Espana should come with a free dose of ibruprofen because there's a good chance you'll leave with a headache.

It's compelling, haunting, meaningless - it's all projection, these juxtapositions, it's a kaleidoscope of noise and image, and yet, within it, pattern.

Lydia Adetunji's script is neatly structured, not only managing to imply that answers we're given aren't entirely the truth in both directions, but also creating an air of creeping fear.

Lewy avoids the trite path to redemption, choosing instead to keep this a study of man in midlife crisis, understated and realistic.

A kind of narrative pareidola.

That the film tests our patience due to the wearily extroverted characters and a distinct lack of laughter is undoubtedly more frustrating than the numb limbs arising from such an intimidating run-time.

Colour is fast, eye-catching, brilliant.

A work as oft-filmed as Alice asks for something new, but it is not here.

This is an entertaining if occasionally anachronistic slice of silliness.

Always charmingly frothy, even when the narrative threatens to salsa off with the fairies.

This is polyglot internationalism, verging on magical realism.

Stunning to look at.

A film of extraordinary complexity and fascination.

Possessed of a compelling, folkloric intensity, Tom Chick's film is a morbid gem.

It is in places red, but it is nowhere deep.

We never fully empathise or understand Delmira's plight, or feel completely drawn into her world. However, that may just be the point.

Swayze toned down his abilities as a dancer to play Castle, but still looks riveting.

Offers us an important last look at the man Jean-Luc Godard held personally responsible for cinema.

This is dark, and sweet, and repeatedly inventive, but doesn't always feel coherent.

For all the 3D eyeball-poking efforts, barbershop-quartet singing fish and more colours than an explosion in a paintbox, the thin story never rises beyond merely okay.

Not without drama, not without charm, this is a touching little piece of rebellion and acceptance.

A gentle, enjoyable little drama - a very comfortable and concise 80 minutes.

The film observes various individual slices of their lives, some of which are adorable, many dull.

The sound is amazing.

Ocampo's decision to keep things gritty without being exploitative is a good one.

It is the balancing of a social awkwardness - which provokes comedy and terror at the same time - that makes Exit Elena such a pleasant success.

At the end of it one sits, dumbfounded.

While technically accomplished, it's well-trodden territory, and there's a certain familiarity to it all.

An immensely involving and engaging experience.

A funny, original and often tender début feature from the talented Mr Eklund.

Flying Blind takes its time, but it knows where it's going, and it's very good.

Forever Loved is at its best when it avoids embellishment.

Fawns completes the troika with a ringing emotional pop.

I found myself forgetting about actors acting, and saw a cruel divine joke played upon mostly decent, interesting people. It's achingly sad.

Gate #5 is a passive observer, perhaps too passive.

Grabbers is a thoroughly charming and welcome blend of terror and blarney.

This is a thing that is beautifully composed.

God Bless America is an uneven series of sketches.

There are lines, but they are blurry, hypnotically so.

For all the quality of the performances, it's the story that lets it down.

There is an extant sense of mystery, perhaps trending to dread, but here it is not enough.

Hail essentially tells the story of going straight, and is filled with knowing details, acidic and authentic writing.

The sound is enveloping, excellent, a submarine hunting for its missing guitar, a synthetic-aperture-radar love-song, ambience built steadily from Jurgen Gruber's audio samples.

An interminable, frustrating film

Beautiful in scale, in scope, each of our three major locations is lovingly rendered.

A haunting, well-directed piece of cinema.

Hospitalité begins with a promising and intriguing set-up before falling to pieces over the last half hour.

In this small and human drama there are the shadows of the idealism and tyranny of the assembly-line.

This is a strong film, an indicator of the talent of both writer and director.

A film and a story where you can't afford to be out of the conversation.

Sawadogo gives a potent, revealing performance which is sadly wasted in a story without impulse or direction.

A jealous castle in time, falsity piled upon artifice, circular and fleeting.

A conflicting and frustrating experience, enlivened by enthusiastic performances and some delightfully deadpan moments of tragic hilarity.

What emerges is a picture of a place where much history has been lost, often deliberately, but where the residents, though mindful of their past are always looking to the future.

Grim and unremitting, it's hard to go the distance.

The only thing Martens takes seriously is his humour - and it pays off handsomely.

This is an autobiographical film about someone's love, and love is the right word, a love of film.

Friedkin has fun seeing how far he can push the envelope with swift, bloody violence and frequent full-frontal female nudity.

This film efficiently uses animation to produce genuine moments of horror.

Kid-Thing is all about kid-think, with David Zellner keeping his main character's child perspective front and centre at all times.

Even a failed experiment tells us something, and here what we are told is that it's not as entertaining as one would hope to watch people one doesn't know filming their travels in a vague and context free way.

This is a difficult film, full of abhorrent behaviours and unbearable tensions – but at the same time it shows a profound respect towards its troubled subject, and therefore towards its viewers as well.

A lovely piece of animated documentary, a touching portrait of a small moment in a family's formation.

Goes to show that life is often more fascinating than fiction.

Offering a British twist on the mumblecore genre, writer/director Alex Barrett's debut feature doesn't lack bravery.

A woolly-hatted wandering wonderment.

The widely differentiated effects on individual frames leaves great gulfs between them - startling when presented in succession.

What remains true now, as it was then, is the scale and scope of the thing.

Enjoyable to a point but frustratingly convoluted at times

Half-formed ideas about the nature of family and responsibility can be glimpsed but the action ends with a whimper rather than a bang.

When it becomes a horror movie it is a good one, but when it is not a horror movie it is a great one.

Debates play out over the relevant types of grainy CCTV footage but although branded an "experimental" film, the argument is robust and coherent.

The footage itself is of some interest but Py's narrative grates over the top.

The Metamorphosis is brilliant, stunning, breath-taking.

This immersive film from the Wakatobi islands in Indonesia is a fascinating snapshot of the lives of the Bajo tribe and a sweetly worked narrative about family and friendship that also offers powerful commentary about the state of our seas.

It starts odd, and it gets weirder.

It's a thin and sketchy experience.

Khavn always remembers to lace his anarchic jamboree with socio-political concern as well as a vibrant affection for his subjects.

A fairly standard fish-out-of-water, culture-clash story, albeit with a mumblecore vibe, that has the unfortunate problem of peaking in the middle before gradually losing steam.

Despite its more heavy-handed aspects, Fluk shows potential behind the camera, with a good eye for framing and patience when it comes to giving the mood of a scene time to develop.

Not just a little tragic, not just a little life-affirming, but touching, moving.

License is taken in terms of the narrative but for those prepared to accept the plot and character contrivances, there's much to enjoy in Patrick Baladi's central performance.

No Man's Zone is a crushingly dull documentary, at least twice as long as the selected material warrants.

They're interesting people, all with interesting and evolving stories to tell.

A tight script and convincing performances.

Almost certainly one of the year's best films.

The use of humor becomes poignant given how impoverished these kids are, their indomitable spirit shining through even when the world deals them a bum hand.

There are some tremendous bits of effects work, but the olláparo is mostly contrived of suggestion.

Although never less than immersive, the documentary suffers from Solnicki's freeform approach, which has a tendency to lack context

In Pilgrimage there is a journey, but one is not certain if it is intentional that there is nothing at the end.

The picture Edwin paints recalls the postcards of the title, both for good and ill.

There's a suggestion that this is out of time, a zephyr inconstant, a mystery of the air and the shifting sands.

An intriguing piece.

This isn't a conventional life-affirming cancer narrative, this is angrier, more personal.

Richard Coyle is decent in the title role, his engaging lead performance is a solid, if not star making turn.

The characters' interplay, mutual respect and overwhelming joy at being accepted made my heart swell in delighted awe.

Director Damien Odoul successfully blends a mixture of naturalistic and unobtrusive camerawork with occasional bursts of surreal imagery.

Impenetrable, muddied, slipshod, and most disappointingly boring.

Beginning with acts of rape and murder, Wojtek Smarzowski immediately sets the tone for his hard-hitting period drama which although containing a carefully wrought love story, never romanticises the past.

A simple tale, beautifully told.

It is rare to be grateful that something so fleeting has passed.

It soon becomes clear that it isn’t the destination, and the discovery of Emak Bakia, that is the most interesting thing about the film, but the journey itself.

The film will resonate with some because of the believable sense of frustration and helplessness that the narrating Romain conveys.

Siblings: For Better Or Worse comprises a collection of four short documentary features - each dealing with a different set of circumstances. They're all well-made.

It's beautifully executed but in places the act of repetition seems to work against it.

For all the postmodern presentation, every emotion here ultimately rings true, and there are enough great ideas, oddball characters, amiable performances and big laughs to ensure that this remains a cult favourite.

Marsh takes no prisoners, makes no apologies and kicks you when you're down, all of which makes his films dangerous, inifinitely watchable and almost unbearably surprising.

The weight of history lies heavy on the shoulders of these filmmakers.

Stacey Gregg has crafted a script that neatly gives us characters and then exposes their flaws.

Three short films about suburban life.

It's uncomfortable viewing, sometimes literally so, as pictures flash by with stroboscopic intensity, but more often than not the discomfiture is emotional.

Those looking for drama might be advised to steer clear, but for anyone willing to fall into the film's gentle ruminatory rhythm, it is a visual treat

Sheil is mesmerising.

Director Gomes pays homage to the fantasy of colonial history while subverting it at the same time.

Director Stefano Savona very simply invites us to stand witness.

Tsukamoto's preoccupations with meta(l)morphosis, body horror and unchecked masculinity remain firmly in place, as does the writer/director's way with outrageous images and ideas.

Endured rather than enjoyed.

Kenta Maeno is the man, Tetsuaki Matsue the director who follows him, 16 are the songs that he sings as he goes. You shouldn't.

The single most striking thing about this film is the soundscape.

It's an inkblot, almost literally, and wallowing in the speculation its randomness generates is diverting.

The film's vision of creation and destruction as coexisting drives within the steely heart of man has lost none of its arresting force over the years – or been outdone by Tsukamoto's two sequels.

Supported by only the most rudimentary of plot structures that is crumbling from the outset and a Funny or Die backbone of comic acting talent who really should have stayed on higher ground.

A dazzlingly confident and magical picture.

Higgins film is at its best in the early stages, when brooding threat is mixed with Owen's general sense of confusion.

Sallitt brings an unusually stringent intellectual level to proceedings that marks his film out from the largely immature field of its peers.

Consider it an 'amuse oeil', an appetiser for a sense not traditionally courted in this way.

Kossakovsky takes his time to drink in the visuals and uses his camera creatively to transport us from place to place.

The movie hits some nasty sweet spots but also falls foul of numerous genre cliches, both old and new.

Truth be told, it is annoying as hell and becomes very tired, very quickly.

Like the pop-science writer Jonah Lehrer (who Cousins speaks of almost as if he were a guru), Cousins can be inspiring, his enthusiasm contagious; even if some of his details don’t seem to stand up well to scrutiny.