New York Film Festival — A–Z of films

The difficult reality of life in Senegal dances with something much more otherworldly in Mati Diop's debut film.

Creates a unique and eerily grounded suspense that transcends genre.

The evocation of 1945 Leningrad is brilliantly captured with crumbling buildings and over-crowed trams but too often the dramatic set pieces fail to register

This is a bald recording of the lives being lived and the stoicism needed to keep going even in these most grim of circumstances.

This is an immersive tour of bookselling and collecting that breezes along as pleasantly as a beach read, while still carrying with it chapter and verse.

Born To Be is an important contribution to public understanding.

With searing use of colour and that sense of joy in physicality that was key to the master's work, this is a film that you will find it very hard to look away from.

In terms of basic plotting, there might not seem to be much here, but emotions crackle beneath the surface and the mood burns deep.

The simplest of pleasures bring the greatest moments of joy in Reichardt’s latest film.

Fukada, who trusts in our ability to figure things out eventually...sprinkles clues and riddles throughout his account of the human condition in the 21st century.

Scorsese shoots at what is truly important in life and does so, miraculously, by putting the spotlight on organised crime

Phoenix strips the skin off your eyeballs. What happens next is a gasp away from easy.

Serra turns to period pieces not out of nostalgia, but quite the contrary, to provoke and dismantle - a grotesque imagery looking to alter the often sublime portrayal of such figures.

The film is at its best when it is portraying conflicted emotions - as old love underlies fresh acrimony.

Luca Marinelli is excellent in the lead, balancing intensity with intelligence, convincing at every stage of Martin's journey.

Looking at the colours, the entire film could be taking place inside a mushroom. Cigarette smoke penetrates almost every scene.

Edward Norton has taken risks all down the line and proves himself capable of unquestionable courage in storytelling.

An anthropological honesty and something that is a catalogue of intimacies.

An intimate story of a relationship between a son and his father, a personal documentary, therapeutic session and a memento for British history.

Based on Mosco Boucault’s documentary Roubaix, Commissariat Central, and using the actual interrogation transcripts, Desplechin shoots for a different tone.

This documentary is a treasure trove full of interesting bits and pieces many of which could easily provide enough material for a film in their own right.

The tone is both bitter and sweet.

Bong Joon Ho's tale of two families explores the wealth gap in South Korean society with wit, insight and a pitch black sense of humour.

while the scripting feels naturalistic, the decision to infer almost everything about Mena's, without being specific, feels frustratingly oblique in places.

He shows almost as much affection for body horror as his father David, and uses food to deliberately disgusting effect.

What could have been a traditionally lavish costume drama has been pared down to highlight the erotic tension and sensuality

What the cumulative effect of masterfully restored newsreel may lack in action, it more than makes up for with the numbing, slow-burn sensation of being drawn under the spell of state-orchestrated mass mourning.

The film is held together less by the tale than by tensions.

Former pop star Atsuko Maeda is wonderful in the lead, the perfect match for Kurosawa's style, communicating volumes with the most delicate of expressions.

A charming and playful consideration of her career.

The whistling language is fun - and, if anything, disappointingly underused - but it's the language of cinema that Porumboiu is really interested in.

Their provision of few motivational details makes for an unsatisfactory narrative.