Sundance Film Festival — A–Z of films

Pollard and Forsyth, who have previously worked with Cave on Bad Seeds videos, turn inner states into inhabitable rooms. What is real and what is unreal is not for the audience to guess.

There is no effort to sanitise characters' lives in order to get a message across, and as a result the film never feels preachy.

A solid, grounded piece of work that approaches its subject with a maturity remarkable for a first feature from a young director.

Jennifer Kent's film creates something original, even frightening

Visually arresting, impressively taut and enjoyably idiosyncratic.

Although displaying much of the barbed wit of his first film, this is a more measured and moving work.

An intelligent film that communicates complex legal issues effectively without becoming boring, The Case Against 8 has a lot to recommend it.

Be prepared for scenes you finish in your own head to haunt you.

A collage of archival footage, carefully curated to create a provocative think piece.

Strong on style and remarkably assured.

What Miller’s film conveys is how fierce the battle became for Larson as he and his team fought to keep the dinosaur bones.

I wished for Billy Wilder's spirit from The Apartment to take over the tone just a little bit.

Small-town prejudice and the fear of otherness are roundly exposed for their absurdity, but the sensitivity of the artistic disposition and even the importance of good dental care are also sensibly celebrated.

Directors Martin Clark and Cara Connolly have an eye for detail.

Fed Up asks the questions the food industry "at the heart of the problem" does not want looked into.

Though Gibney’s film has an interesting figure at its heart, the film never really feels like it is giving either strand of Kuti’s life: the music and the politics, enough attention.

His attempt at satire digs too deep into the muddy waters of exaggeration

The film takes an even-handed view of its main protagonist, illustrating faults on both sides of the divide.

An astonishing début that marks out Ana Lily Amirpour as an extraordinary directorial talent.

It struck me how well Slattery handles the shifts in tone from hard boiled to hilarious throughout.

The film staggers from one embarrassment to the next.

Arguably, the story would benefit from the inclusion of other voices, to verify or expand upon what we're told, but despite this there is no shortage of excitement in the tale.

Slick, tense, darkly funny and very genre-aware.

Chandler's excellent script allows the raw drama to take centre stage.

A still, painterly vision in silvery monochrome - capturing the quiet contemplation of the two women and simultaneously encouraging the same on the part of the viewer.

Ruffalo is astonishing. He makes Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook look easy.

Its shock tactics never feel cheap and its cerebral bent should see it transcend the torture porn ghetto.

As Kumiko’s journey takes her deeper into Minnesota, the breathtaking ‘Americana’ landscapes and intriguingly surreal score work together to suggest a heightened state, or a fable.

The contrast between the characters and the actors sparky chemistry means the laughs have a head start, but there is also a considerable amount of psychological terrain being covered.

Thapa, Siddiqui and Gupta - not to mention the goat - are all eminently watchable but Mohandas' pacing leaves much to be desired.

Feels less experimental and alternative than, well, the zombie genre demands.

Although the pacing is sometimes poor, the sentiment - while occasionally straying towards the sentimental - is heartfelt and sweet spirited.

The moments of distinctly sub-Woody Allenesque humour make you dream of what might have been.

It's a simple concept brilliantly realised and viewers may find that they've never had this much fun in a cinema before.

It's like a suicide. And there's nothing to look at

Courageous and uncompromising

Sheer unadulterated pleasure often comes from the most unexpected quarters.

It's always difficult to tell a story about nothing happening, and director Tim Sutton is not entirely successful in doing so here.

A complex thriller, deftly handled.

The end result may look good but it never feels distinctive despite the wealth of talent involved in front of and behind the camera.

Hull's reflections touch on areas the sighted rarely stop to consider, such as the way that still photos are easier to remember than actual physical moments with loved ones.

This is really a film that rests on Slate’s charm, which fortunately she delivers in spades.

What is so disarming about Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is a scarce sense of appreciation - of the vampire couple for each other and the appreciation by both of them for what is great in the world.

The biggest kick up the cinematic arse you're likely to get this year.

The film has been impressively edited by Anne Fabini, so that despite the inevitable rough and ready nature of some of the footage captured under fire, the end result feels taut and cohesive.

Tarantino's talent for dialogue is what catapults Dogs into instant-classic status.

Rom coms can damage your health

The film gaily sets about asking a number of questions it has no intention of answering.

The end product of a long and dismal trend in American indies, where the effort to create art just like the art one saw last week has produced a formula that is exponentially recursive.

The investigation has a surreal aspect to it that stretches credulity while the final resolution seems unsatisfactorily far-fetched.

The act of revenge here is presented not as an outlet for anger but as one of desperation, an emotion that runs through the film.

When the freshest food is eaten by rotting mortals and family is little more than a fragile crutch above the abyss, funny jokes can no longer hide the tragedy.

For a while, at least, The Voices rattles along like a charming slasher comedy of errors.

There is quite a lot of onscreen reading to be done as well as watching but the passages of Lemkin that Belzberg chooses are always well-illustrated either by the animation or archival footage.

In this fish-out-of-water comedy, mundanity is key.

Araki never digs deep enough, wasting the opportunity to expose her resentments.

An unrelenting, yet utterly mesmerising cinematic vision.

The title is baffling, the film self indulgent, the message confusing and the raison d'etre dubious

The film takes on a masterful intesity as mental health as well as music begins to be at stake.

It's a well constructed, well paced, well made film, but it's poised and polished and professional where one might hope for something a bit more ramshackle, a mite more rebellious.