Raindance Film Festival — A–Z of films

With such powerful subject matter it would be difficult to make a film that didn't leave an impression.

Director Patxi Amézcua sets the pace carefully – it’s fast enough to keep your heart-rate up but not in that forced, dizzying, blink-and-you’ll miss it style with which Hollywood is so enamoured.

The narration by Nick Cave lends this film a creepiness that goes way beyond the scope of its central poem.

This is an intelligent, moving depiction of a world gone to hell, dripping with the melancholy of a ‘hero’ still driven by a yearning from his past that he is incapable any longer of understanding.

Much of the plot reads as a barely tempered collection of cliches, but in the hands of writer/director Justin Molotnikov, and McCole's runaway success, becomes a highly effective character study and a well-constructed psychological thriller.

By mixing the situations of a crime drama with dysfunctional family dynamics, the everyday becomes accentuated, meaning that outbreaks of violence are absurdly comic but still retain a nasty edge.

The film deserves praise for its maturity around sexuality.

Exam drifts from being genuinely enigmatic and moody to derivative, disappointing, even ridiculous.

There’s nothing particularly radical about what Soderbergh is doing here.

A mumblecore masterpiece.

The real charm and humour comes from the characters’ feisty interplay.

The lesbian tag need not restrict heterosexual aficionados of human relationships.

The real star here is creator Eromose.

Kleinert pushes beyond the structural stuff, creating subtle and shifting dynamics between the characters, and introducing a supernatural threat lurking in the woods.

Mime-Mime’s frustrations eventually outweigh its rewards.

Modern Love Is Automatic has so much fun stuff going for it I was really willing it to be a better movie.

A strangely compelling and, at times, disturbing watch.

Every geeky sphere has its own nutters, and pinball is no exception, but Special When Lit treats them kindly, respectfully, and leaves any slightly mean sniggering up to the audience.

It's a quirky calling card but it's difficult to say how well this style would work if applied to a longer project.

The film's scope is quite narrow but what it does, it does well.