London Film Festival — A–Z of films

Takes hold of the audience and never lets go.

Lucy Russell in particular puts in a fascinating and nuanced performance.

It is a character piece, an actor’s picture, supremely atmospheric and secure in its knowledge of place and time.

Ponderings on the effects of war become distinctly ponderous.

If Back To Normandy might have had difficulty living up to the legacy of its subject, it is aided by some extraordinary visual images of its own.

The simplicity at the heart of The Band's Visit is charming.

There is genuine grief, genuine rage, remembered and brought to the screen.

There's plenty in Bee Movie for people of all ages.

The Master of Suspense's first talking picture is the template for many of his later masterpieces.

Before I Forget is a study not only of one man's journey but also of a way of life which, in brittle contact with the modern world, is fast disappearing.

Breath is an icy, chilling love story. It looks at a bond that goes beyond the simplicities of life and death.

A sensitive and beautifully acted tale.

The single greatest problem with California Dreamin', is that it has been released in an unfinished two hour 20 minute assembly - due to the director Cristian Nemescu's untimely death.

Viewer expectations, like that of the immigrants, are confounded as the hard-hitting consequences of this bleak act of humanity play out.

The story of five women working in and around a Beirut beauty salon may not, at first glance, seem especially intriguing, but Caramel is something special.

Kubrick's canvas is best enjoyed large, right at the front.

A glossy, superficial affair, leading up to a climactic sequence too laughable to impress in any way.

Closing The Ring delivers romance on an epic scale and seems destined to be the pride of some people's DVD collections, but beneath the gloss and the carefully crafted performances, it's lacking something.

Aside from a slight flabbiness in some areas, Kechiche is to be praised for exploring the nature of change on a personal and a community level - and packing the result with some emotional wallop.

Chaotic, funny, beautifully shot and performed with a childlike deadpan.

Truly cutting-edge cinema, daring and imaginative, quite unlike anything else you'll see this year.

Mullan, as usual, blends his trademark emotional rawness and understatement of gesture to powerful effect.

Anyone with a decent education in literature and art will find a great deal in this film which can be treasured, but for the general viewer it is likely to be an exercise in frustration.

Akin’s screenplay is intricate and original, and his story is ultimately an affirmation of the strength of personal bonds over the political.

With its underworld themes and ambiguous protagonist, Eastern Promises plays like a companion to A History of Violence.

A simple idea delivered so cleverly that it holds your attention from the opening of the storybook right up to its fairytale ending.

There is an energy to this low-budget film

An absorbing, disturbing and exceptionally composed filmic fable.

A contemplative and visually dulcet experience.

Haneke once again delivers intellectual, challenging and bravura filmmaking.

Garage is one of the most depressing films I have seen in a long time, a scathing indictment of the way we treat the mentally subnormal, but it's enlivened by its own brand of dark humour.

A simple, moving documentary.

Although Danny Glover gets first billing and delivers a complex, compelling performance, this is really an ensemble piece, with great work all round.

A beautifully shot, brilliantly acted incoherent mess, ranking up there with David Lynch’s Inland Empire as one of the most inscrutable films of the year.

Penn’s camera loves the landscape and captures its immensity.

One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.

Not nearly as gruelling as it sounds, this is eventually a glass-is-half full film, as long as you seek out a positive way of looking at it.

Enthralling, mesmeric, austerely picturesque and approachably profound filmmaking.

While some of the testimony, from the likes of Steve Earle and Mos Def is powerful, many of the parallels Francome and Evans attempt to draw feel slightly spurious and their conclusions lack sufficient back up.

A well-polished calling card for writer/director Simon Welsford.

The proverbial buzz surrounding Juno is, like, totally justified.

A profound, lyrical and moving film that paints a vivid picture of another world without ever resorting to cliché.

Quirky directorial touches – such as Vellini’s blowing of smoke rings, or a dimming of sound at key moments - put the audience into the head of the protagonist and help us connect us fully with the characters.

Worthy, without being worth watching.

The sex... has all the choreography of Strictly Come Shagging rather than being the exploration of lust the title suggests.

A Man's Job uses its simple story to probe a number of prevalent but subdued contemporary issues.

The glorious sight of a flying nun, an image Korine has said was one of his inspirations for the film, is both a moving and a joyous one.

A tough, compelling tale of just how unhappy families can get, given the wrong circumstances.

Like all good art, this raises difficult questions.

Against the whisper of wind and buzz of flies, the Coens manage to find tension in the subtlest of movements and cut the dialogue through with humour as arid as the landscape.

Glorious, a hilariously stupid zombie fest that spoofs and honours grindhouse so much better than the tenuously related Death Proof.

Seen purely in aesthetic terms, Persepolis is an object of rare beauty, with no obvious precedents or parallels in the history of anime.

Unlike most of the films about Iraq, Redacted portrays a military that’s a catchall for the uneducated and unsocialised; and while many may find this offensive, it’s perfectly in line with the draft-deferring lowering of recruitment standards.

Reservation Road is really only ever going from A to B and, despite the offer of some intriguing ideas, never moves far from its initial premise.

Beneath the cover of portraying the generalised horrors of war, the film is more subtly critical of America's conduct in both the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq.

The “so what” factor doesn’t go away, because it is difficult to care about these people.

A disturbingly accurate portrayal of the New York intelligentsia.

Always engrossing, at times decidedly uncomfortable viewing, Savage Grace is accomplished cinematic storytelling that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.

It is unlikely you are going to see a more palpable portrayal of grief this year than Jeon Do-yeon's magnificent perfomance as Shin-ae in this Korean drama of the heart.

Moore’s sense of outrage is as keen as ever, as is his showman’s instinct for what makes good documentary cinema.

The slow-burning Arkansas vista is beautiful and harrowing at the same time, a panorama interrupted only by tractors dotting the horizon, but one where a car parked in the wrong place can attract a mob of pitch fork bearing men.

The script sizzles with humour, but more importantly, like Danny Boyle's Millions, it carries an emotional weight.

The substitute of the title is a delirious, rictus-grinning comic creation.

Schroeder balances the film with a considerable amount of material from other sources. From ex-girlfriends to surviving members of the Khmer Rouge, they all have interesting contributions to make.

Thieves suffers from a story which is really too slight for its length, but explores its metaphorical aspects in some depth.

A manipulative weepie positioned for Oscar consideration.

Tuya is joins the ranks of other strong, female characters created by Chinese directors and writers, in this case battling against the odds to keep her family together.

An object lesson in less is more, it makes an absolute virtue of its small cast and diminutive budget.

This might be familiar fare, but Fumihiko Sori and his team pull it off with sufficient visual aplomb to keep things highly entertaining.

Brave new territory and worth a watch.

This is focused filmmaking, not so much elegiac as lyric.

If Andersson is good at using the visual to create links, then he accompanies this with a strong aural sense.

At once a noirish thriller, a social drama, a morality tale, a coming-of-age story and a compelling allegory of 'fortress' USA.

Zoo ought to present insurmountable problems to any artist working in a visual medium – but Devor turns every obstacle into a virtue.