London Film Festival — A–Z of films

Where the film succeeds is in the visual design of its world.

Guadagnino is tilting at windmills and there isn’t even any wind.

Alpha exists in the intersection of the probable and the parable.

Day-Lewis Jr pays attention to his actors and frames them in ways that make monologues count but there’s a lot of unnecessary brooding about in between times.

Like a palimpsest, layers of history shine through the sunlight on the garden and lurk in the shadows of the parlour.

There is talk of “hungry ghosts” and shadows but little of substance to show as the gambling cliches stack up like bad debts and the plot twists are signposted as brightly as the casinos.

Rosi expertly paints a picture of a community with all its widely varied facets.

As Blue Moon progresses it becomes clear that the one thing Hart really wants is to be wanted.

When you get old, hope you find someone who looks at you the way Mascaro looks at Tereza and Roberta.

While some directors spend their lives crafting love letters to the worlds they create, Yorgos Lanthimos has developed a fine line in cinematic hate mail to humanity.

This isn’t a fuzzy celebration of making do with what you have as you get older but of embracing the passions that endure.

The power of The Choral is that it evokes smiles and laughter in opposition to the oppressive reality of these war years.

The performance [Sweeney] gives here, slipping easily into Christy’s skin, is going to knock some people for six.

While tolerance levels for this kind of self-consciously arty style will vary, it is hard to fault the fizzing ambition and high-voltage energy that K-Stew and her team bring to the party.

Ramsay's style takes no prisoners.

The artifice takes over, making the desired authenticity completely fake.

The blurry, hazy images recorded entirely on a discontinued Sony Ericsson cellphone – frequently in long takes – make it a hardly digestible slow cinema challenge, yet rewarding as an aesthetic experience.

Duse is as much about the rise of fascism as it is about the decision making of an artist at a precarious time in her life.

Endless Cookie is not like anything else and yet it is very much like life.

Yet Pohu’s performance sums up all the conflicted feelings, desires and anxieties of someone at the crossroads of entering adulthood.

There is a magnetism to it all.

Any number of films try to sell themselves on inviting us to ogle outsiders like these. The difference with Fucktoys is that it’s made by people who actually get it.

The plot may be straightforward but the characters are offbeat.

The adaptation feels oddly timid and selective.

DaCosta has managed to create something which feels acutely contemporary and fresh.

Most of the filmmaker’s passion, wisdom and wits is packed in the first half, while the second half represents pure “production” of content.

Likely to put a smile on the faces of horror fans who favour the dissection of ideas over dismemberment.

There’s a genuine unpredictability to Honey Bunch, both structurally and thematically.

An early piece of Levienaise-Farrouch's score profoundly conveys the dance between beauty and sadness or beauty and pain.

Cotillard is at her very best as a character we see only from the sidelines – earthy and opinionated in flashes, yet frozen by her art.

Rose Byrne anchors the whole damn thing with a performance that gives the sense of wobbling for eternity on a tightrope without ever quite falling off.

The takes are usually long and static, but every cut and move is justified for the purpose of dramaturgy.

It cannot be denied that Jay Kelly is interested in exploring the human condition through the lens of fame and fatherhood, but the romantic, sentimental, and saccharine tones come with a risk.

Throughout you can see the ways in which the filmmakers are going the extra mile to empower their subjects.

She clicks with Philippe, and there’s a wonderful openness about the film as she finds joy in being able to talk about everything with no fear anymore.

The title stops being metaphor and becomes a wound you can watch forming in real time.

Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

Krieps operates at her usual level of greatness, and Anna Cazenave Cambet does her a favour by putting her in the spotlight.

In line with his economic storytelling, Russell has a gift for conveying little details through subtle performance notes where other filmmakers might telegraph intent.

Rivers' dreamlike approach has the quality of memory in places, full of figments and fragments, although that inevitably means some episodes are more engaging than others.

Arregi and Goenaga are at pains to suggest that no matter what your political or sexual stance, we’re all human underneath.

Reichardt’s attention to detail is visible in every aspect, and the perfect casting is no exception.

As is true of many a tale, not all motivations are on the table right away, and finding rescue and respite with strangers can only last a mere while.

This is such a buttoned up character study that it feels more like a riff than an exploration.

This is a solid piece of craft, simple in its intent and payoff but as with furniture the cleaner the lines the more work that's hidden.

Guillaume Marbeck as Godard is pitch perfect, trademark dark glasses and tobacco smoke his indispensable props with even the voice uncannily resonant of the man himself.

Park keeps inviting us to laugh, then forcing us to confront what, exactly, we’re laughing at.

Offers food for thought in the realm of a slightly ungainly and sprawling all-you-can-eat buffet rather than a satisfying sit-down feast.

All of this fine work has potential, but too often the deeper ideas in the book are teased only to be abandoned.

Wishaw is an absolute wonder, delivering the conversational, sometimes stream-of-consciousness dialogue with a constantly engaging, almost hypnotic cadence.

The constant contrast is the trick, which later extends to the emotional stakes.

Nayyef and Qasem are marvellous, completely natural and without a hint of self-consciousness.

The athleticism on display is often awesome to watch and crisp photography gives the landscape a haunting beauty enhanced by Jonathan Bepler's score.

The production design of Redoubt is nothing short of a triumph.

For something so lovely, it is hard-edged, and it sparkles with visual wit.

It’s not a showy performance, but it’s a standout.

Combining slick digital look with the look of various antique formats, from DV to super-8, Simón creates her very own smooth blend.

Jenkin’s style, impressionistic when it comes to places, is particular in regard to objects, the real anchors of our lives.

Marcelo is at home in the fine tradition of flicks where the fact that they are an agent is mainly a secret to them.

What marks Trier out is his ability to take on intellectual ideas like this but make them play out in ways that don’t feel forced or overly constructed.

Director Siobhan McCarthy is adept at using the long-established visual language of the high school movie both to entertain and to show us the world from a perspective that’s relatively new to cinema.

Just as the sun dapples down through the trees, so the shadows of war creep in at the margins.

The film looks amazing, but it sounds even more incredible.

There are no weak links in the top-notch cast.

The lives mirror each other, build on each other, contradict each other, haunt each other.

Ozon remains faithful to the source and keeps its sense of mystery but has strengthened the female characters

Made with consummate care, the film stands out for its exquisite cinematography.

A sometimes compelling, often baffling work that doesn’t really solve the inherent problem of its subject matter, but swings for the fences trying.

There are no doubt those who would argue this magic-hour drenched vision of America through the 1900s is a bit too chocolate-boxy for their liking but the weight of tradition can exert an impressive pull and does so here.

Perhaps what makes Twinless so memorable is its ability to generate empathy for characters even as they set themselves up for disaster.

Chillingly restrained and quietly devastating

Not only ambitious – a term often used to damn films with faint praise – but successfully so.

Heavy layered with meaning, the film shifts uncertainly underfoot, deliberately discomfiting viewers.

There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

Never makes light of Lea’s desires while at the same time showing us in real time how reality competes with imagination, fear with excitement.

The intriguing concept plays out from initial parental disbelief and denial to unexpected changes in behaviour and attitudes.