London Film Festival — A–Z of films

The young cast has a natural air that complements the unforced scripting, which brims with an enviable amount of casual humour.

This blending of the truth and invention is a key plank of Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke's work, which skates so close to documentary it is hard to spot the join.

The voyeuristic experience of watching their unpleasant exhibitionism becomes a very alienating experience and as a result it is increasingly difficult to engage with, or indeed care about, any of the characters.

Like vintage Egoyan, and the better for it.

It is impossible not to be charmed.

While it's enjoyable, even affecting in places, it's heavy handed and clumsy in others.

'An effective and realistic examination of a world where intelligent and privileged characters have reached near-adulthood without having any real understanding of basic morality.'

While the pace may seem slow at times, the deliberate and considered consumption of all the little details that make up the couple’s life results in a more than satisfying pay-off towards the end.

Like a succubus, Burstein simply attaches herself to the teens’ volatile emotions; it never seems to occur to her to pull back and examine a larger, more nuanced canvas.

Further evidence of German filmmakers’ willingness to confront the darker episodes of their recent past – and spark a controversy in the process.

Ballast is absorbing because it bravely avoids dramatic cliches to deliver a more positive experience than might be expected.

Hopkins marks himself out as a man of unique vision who isn't afraid to try something different to encourage an audience to think.

Tom Hardy makes other movie hardmen look like they belong on the Muppet Show.

Habchi orchestrates the seemingly disparate plot strands with considerable skill, building a sense of disorientation and withheld information that reinforces his main themes.

This is a very moving story, and I wish I could give the film more praise.

Juraj Lehotský's Blind Loves not only succeeds in describing the world as blind people really experience it but, in so doing, presents the sighted viewer with a fascinating insight into a different way of living.

For some viewers the build up of devious plot twists may be a little overwrought but it is nevertheless an effective way of skewering the cynical viewer.

What would have made an entertaining, if experimental, 20-minute short film has here been extended beyond sanity.

Uchitel shows enough directorial flourishes to make me think he could certainly handle a broader cinematic canvas.

Certainly Soderbergh gives you a sense of the boredom of war - as the days tick by on the screen, you feel your own will to live begin to falter.

All the excitement of a wet weekend in Bognor.

Teachers everywhere will give a smile of recognition as an experienced teacher takes a new colleague through his class list – “nice, nice, not nice, not nice at all…”

A truly innovative piece of filmmaking which mixes cinema-verité style documentary with a knowing postmodern self-consciousness.

This is a U-rated family film with more tasty stuffing in it than most of the dressed Christmas turkeys that get released at this time of year.

The film is rich with the distinct mood of each setting and the intense emotional currents generated by each character.

This 1920s play by Noel Coward still dances along like a sprightly flapper, defying the passage of the years, thanks to Stephen Elliott’s energetic direction.

Lanners' script is witty and moves at a steady pace.

It’s Frank Langella’s towering interpretation of Nixon that eventually makes every other character real.

Both the style and the quality of the acting are somewhat uneven, giving the impression that more time and care was taken with some story strands than others.

Gerald McMorrow has conjured up a film that spans many genres, coupling inventive storytelling with a strong visual aesthetic.

Although it is an actual river which divides the two countries, Hunt aims to explore societal divisions that run much deeper than that.

Colin Firth gives possibly his best performance yet.

Gibney portrays the man’s excesses in a way that is not excessive and wisely lets the writing speak for itself.

A deeply affecting portrait of the way that we are all changed in small but significant ways by our encounters with others.

Despite its lengthy duration, this film gallops along.

The film resembles a portrait in stillness, as the fate of the alleged victim is replaced in the mind of the audience by the reality of this other girl’s life.

Despite the filth, the violence and the desolation, McQueen’s portrait is a thing of brutal beauty in terms of its composition.

This enticing tale of spiralling humour and darkness is an accomplished debut.

With wit dry as bone and satire that cuts down to it Östlund builds a picture of morality in shades of grey.

Breathing life and spirit into the undead.

Though the film is slow in places and Andreotti's ambiguity can sometimes leave the viewer feeling too disconnected, there are moments of real brilliance.

If a member of cast could save a film, Michelle Williams would be the person to hire, since her central performance in this muddle of a movie is the only thing that stops it being unwatchable.

The film is, if nothing else, an intriguing snapshot of modern industrial Italy, a world away from the travel guide clichés of Rome or Tuscany.

Sometimes funny, sometimes very tense, and ultimately poignant too.

The film is a heartfelt cry for someone to stop these children being exploited so cruelly, but offers no easy answers.

Opening as it does the day after a rigged election, this film couldn't be more timely.

Utterly bonkers but brimming with ingenuity.

The humour, while liberally spread, is always tempered with more sombre notes.

Penfold and Hearn keep their camera close, hugging tight to the emotional depth provided by Harris and Wareing.

Brimming with charm.

The strength of Pablo Trapero's sumptuous film, Argentina's Palme D'Or nominee, is the depth and breadth of its considerations.

Figgis plays with colour, angles, split screens, and frames his film as artfully as possible.

A moment perfectly captured.

Like any bazaar, The Market has something for everybody.

Does an impressive job of understanding and illustrating the stresses and strains of being a full time carer.

My patience with the central character expired long before the film eventually dragged itself towards the end of its running time.

If you are sick to the teeth of cutesy little ‘horror’ films, pine in your deserted dumptruck of a rat-infested geek-room no longer.

Daniel Robin demonstrates how bare images can conceal all manner of secrets about the past and lessons for the future.

Jobson uses the inherent thrill of the hunt to pursue his concerns about the vast gulf between the haves and the have-nots, and the arrogant disconnect of those who view life as mere data on a screen.

Lorene Scafaria's script sparkles with breezy wit.

This film really touches you, in a way that isn't anywhere near as mawkish as that may sound.

A good story that is well-scripted and solidly told and acted.

If you're a fan of B-movies - of nudity, gore, monsters, car chases, kung fu action and ultra-low-budget fun - then Not Quite Hollywood is a treat you can't afford to miss.

Brims with charming performances and nuanced observations, but these alone are not enough to prevent it from seeming to last an epoch.

When Davies says “The world was young and oh, how we laughed,” he sounds like Death waiting to take it all away.

The intensity of director Brady Corbet's debut feature The Childhood Of A Leader is present in this short film

Quantum of Solace is lacking the unique 007 vibe.

With its simple plot and gentle pacing, Quiet Chaos relies on character and performance to keep viewers interested, and for the most part it pulls it off well.

Rachel Getting Married wants to boldly explore unknown territory and should be praised for it.

A scabrous, at times shocking assault on the more idiotic aspects of religion, and the dangers that they pose in a society capable for the first time of bringing about its own destructive Apocalypse.

Here justice moves slowly, and in mysterious ways.

Director Joko Anwar’s sophomore effort is a masterful noir thriller which showcases his versatility.

This is not at first glance a very engaging film, but it has a lot more going on beneath the surface.

It’s all very Oprah chick flick, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a real soul.

This is brilliant work.

Races furiously along, capturing perfectly the sense of a life fast spinning out of control.

An unabashed crowdpleaser.

Mainstream audiences may hate and critics may debate, but Synecdoche is a work of unmitigated, undisciplined genius.

This is not, like so many films with Iraq as plot element, about the military’s inhumanity to others, but its careless disregard for the wellbeing of its own.

The nature of delusion and fixation has been explored many times in cinema, but rarely with such grim and gripping intensity.

Tricks is a film that will draw you in and gradually ensnare you with its magic.

An excellent combination of charming pop-culture parodies and subtle mockery of the stiff upper lip of the central characters.

There's much that’s enjoyable and enchanting.

Dvortsevoy shows us the fragility of life, through the birth and death of lambs, while also touching on the innate stoicism of families who live in this toughest of environments.

Joaquin Phoenix is utterly convincing in this role, conveying the longing and confusion with glimpses of the happier guy he could be.

Like the heavyweight prize-fighter in his prime, this is documentary stripped back to its leanest form.

Fragmentary, allusive in style, and slipping fluidly from impressionistic flashbacks to scrambled dreams, Uprise is not so much a narrative as a series of suggestions for a number of possible narratives.

The best movie this wonderful writer/director has made in a long time; funny, sharp, perfectly paced and rather gorgeously shot, with a quartet of cracking parts for excellent actors placed firmly at its centre.

Although far too narratively dense to become the international crossover hit this is nevertheless a fairly engaging, visually sumptuous film.

The script by Ferguson and Luke Clancy moves with a spring in its step.

This quiet, unfussy film feels more important than a whole host of glossy blockbusters.

An assured debut feature.

Folman's use of animation permits an audience to engage with the events, such as they are recalled, in a way that the simple testimony of those involved could not achieve.

It ends up packaging human existence as a photo album of tenuous associations and treacly banalities.