London Film Festival — A–Z of films

Hamaguchi’s most pointed provocation is not that the nursing home becomes excessive in its care, but that ordinary neglect has trained us to see basic tenderness as excess.

La Bola Negra was an unfinished work in a life cut short but the film named (variously) for it is extension and tribute and triumph.

Eisenberg’s obvious love of amateur dramatics provides The Debut with a foundation that feels akin to a warm hug.

It’s a frenetic ride, but one that builds to a sombre climax.

Hossain keeps the mood claustrophobic.

Scott’s beacon of light is swallowed up by Stone and Beresford’s heavy-handedness.

While there are undeniably parts built for the big screen spectacle, which are juxtaposed with an emotional weight, the film's rudimentary form is the enemy within.

The way Zischler and Hüller play their relationship is so wonderfully real and subtle and appropriately opaque for all us non-Mann family members, that it at times brought tears to my eyes.

Sociopolitics spritzes delicately, like the water from the club's sprinklers, over the whole affair.

Mungiu’s eye moves between the juggernaut and the barely visible.

Clear-sighted perspective, coupled with carefully calibrated sound design from Dario Swade, doesn’t make light of what Jamal experiences, but nor does it sensationalise them.

Men are infrequently seen in Fruit Gathering, which is more interested in women’s status and struggle.

Seydoux takes us into the maelstrom with Lucy, determined and doubtful, angry and grief-stricken, fearful and belligerent all at the same time.

The first Japanese production to be shot specifically for IMAX, there's plenty big on that big big screen.

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.

Pompeii becomes a place where fantasy is tested against historical violence, and where looking too closely can break the story one came to preserve.

The story sometimes lacks thrust, but when it isn’t working, something new will be on screen soon enough.

It’s not that the journey is unpleasant but the stakes are very low and the lack of tension leads it to feel overstretched as a result.

Ultimately, it is the universality of a diasporic child judging an older parent’s decisions through the distorting lens of distance, age and solitude that will resonate with many.

Danny Boyle brings his customary energy to James Graham’s adaptation of his own stage play, which flies along quicker than paper through a printing press.

What follows is not a simple coming-out narrative and not a whodunit either, but an internal struggle constantly externalised through ritual and space.

Iván & Hadoum announces de la Rosa as a filmmaker with uncommon emotional precision.

I suspected there'd be ideas introduced that lesser films would attempt to spin out while this grabbed another and another and another, and so it came to pass.

The docufictional construction can become meditative to the point of meandering, a tug-of-war between autobiography and fiction that sometimes weighs down the story.

Anchored by Anthony Ippolito’s performance – he not only bears a striking resemblance to Stallone, but his physical and verbal mimicry is uncanny.

Comes at you like a pint of lager with a Jäger bomb chaser and a packet of crisps – strong, energising, salty and sharp, you feel the headiness and the kick.

De Araújo is particularly good at evoking the emotional turmoil Jo feels.

Rarely does a character jump off the screen in the way Klara does. Ortega is luminous in the role.

While the film has political and sociological themes, it ultimately succeeds because it’s about the true spirit of the people.

Lali brings a breath of fresh air by flipping the tired “monster-in-law” trope on its head

Worse than incomplete, Haigh's film lacks a fully developed soul. This is in spite of striking aesthetic moments and sharply written scenes complemented by strong performances from the cast.

An in-depth portrait of the production, a rare opportunity to see how a film on that scale is put together.

There exists no safe ground when you are part of a regime that uses fear and threats as casual tools.

Its jagged edges serve to illustrate the unpredictability of living – and in his case, working – in a warzone.

Zvyagintsev handles this material with his familiar control: psychological realism, cold visual restraint and an aversion to overt flourish.

In endeavouring to provide real insights about the man, Gibney has to dig through a weight of illusion and affectation

Writer/director Hanna Bergholm walks the line with skill.

The issue is that if you strip out the elevated craft and A-list performances, what is left is the sort of bread-and-butter plot arc Cagney & Lacey used to rely on back in the day.

Apart from setting the tone and maintaining it, the strongest point of Schleinzer’s filmmaking is casting and directing the actors' interactions between one another and the environment.

Tender Loving Care is all about the little bits of conversation that make the world a bit more comfy for others.

Filmed over seven seasons, the co-directors make time tactile.

Malkovich and Rockwell are magnetic.