Reviews by Amber Wilkinson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Whina (2022)

  Review preview for Whina

  Whina is given very well-appointed and loving treatment in a story that’s so powerful it rises above the filmmakers’ more sentimental tendencies.

  The life story of Dame Whina Cooper, who in 1975 united her people to lead an epic march across Aotearoa (New Zealand) for Māori land rights.
• 
  Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (2021)

  Review preview for Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song

  The end result could do with less tangent and more of the gent himself.

  Exploration of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn, Hallelujah.
• 
  Dos Estaciones (2022)

  Review preview for Dos Estaciones

  While the framing of cinematographer Gerardo Guerra has a steady calm, González uses every inch of it from side to side and top to bottom to such a consummate degree that even the subtitles have to make way at one point.

  In the bucolic hills of Mexico's Jalisco highlands, iron-willed businesswoman Maria Garcia fights the impending collapse of her tequila factory.
• 
  Official Competition (2021)

  Review preview for Official Competition

  These are easy targets although there’s a lot of enjoyment to be hand in seeing them hit so accurately.

  In search of significance and social prestige, a billionaire businessman decides to make a film to leave his mark. To do it, he hires the best: a stellar team... but they have egos to match.
• 
  Flux Gourmet (2022)

  Review preview for Flux Gourmet

  Feels more like an amuse bouche than a full meal, while at the same time all proving a bit too much.

  A flatulence-plagued narrator guides us through the closed space of a manor house where an arts patron and director of the Sonic Catering Institute uses various forms of manipulation in order to get a trio of performance artists to provide ever better results.
• 
  Leonor Will Never Die (2022)

  Review preview for Leonor Will Never Die

  Shows that escapist films can serve every bit as valid a purpose as anything else when it comes to uniting people.

  Fiction and reality blur when Leonor, a retired filmmaker, falls into a coma after a television lands on her head, compelling her to become the action hero of her unfinished screenplay.
• 
  Sharp Stick (2022)

  Review preview for Sharp Stick

  Dunham is constantly looking for laughs and does deliver quite a few, but you never fully believe these people are living in the real world.

  A naive 26-year-old finds herself on a sexual odyssey.
• 
  Hit The Road (2021)

  Review preview for Hit The Road

  Panahi and his actors shift through emotions so smoothly, you barely notice them until they have immersed you.

  Drama based around a road trip in a borrowed car.
• 
  Joyride (2022)

  Review preview for Joyride

  The director does achieve some quiet drama - a kiss on a cheek, an attempt at breast feeding - but elsewhere, it feels as though a committee was insisting on moments of 'quirky humour'.

  A woman planning to give up her baby finds herself on an oddball roadtrip with a 12-year-old.
• 
  DC League Of Super-Pets (2022)

  Review preview for DC League Of Super-Pets

  The themes of friendship and teamwork are targeted at young audiences but it zips along at pace - a reminder that you don't need super-complex plotting, so long as you deliver on laughs.

  When Krypto the dog loses his super-powers and his owner Superman is captured, he must team up with a team of shelter pets who have accidentally acquired special abilities.
• 
  We Met In Virtual Reality (2022)

  Review preview for We Met In Virtual Reality

  We quickly see the more poignant emotional landscape is every bit as important as that manufactured by pixels and bytes.

  Filmed entirely inside the world of VR, this vérité documentary captures the excitement and surprising intimacy of a burgeoning cultural movement, demonstrating the power of online connection in an isolated world.
• 
  Anonymous Club (2021)

  Review preview for Anonymous Club

  An emotionally honest if slight documentary that is most likely to appeal to existing fans of Barnett's work.

  'Anti-rock doc’ captures the sights, sounds and insecurities of Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett.
• 
  All Man: The International Male Story (2022)

  Review preview for All Man: The International Male Story

  There are a lot of interesting ideas swirling around in this film.

  A peek behind the pages and personalities of International Male, one of the most ubiquitous and sought-after US mail-order catalogues of the Eighties and Nineties.
• 
  Nelly & Nadine (2022)

  Review preview for Nelly & Nadine

  The love story is remarkable in its own right but the film also shows the way these sorts of histories could be hidden in plain sight.

  The story of two women who fell in love whilst imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp.
• 
  Ithaka (2021)

  Review preview for Ithaka

  Lawrence knows his film’s real strength lies in simply putting the man and his relatives fully back into the heart of this equation.

  Julian Assange’s wife and father battle the British establishment on behalf of the WikiLeaks founder, who faces a 175-year prison sentence if extradited to the US.
• 
  88 (2022)

  Review preview for 88

  The thriller element of all is slickly written and the tension well generated, but sometimes it struggles for air amid the film’s more soapy subplots.

  The Financial Director for a democratic super PAC behind a frontrunner presidential candidate investigates donations uncovering a conspiracy.
• 
  Sansón And Me (2022)

  Review preview for Sansón And Me

  There’s an inherent sadness to this, not least because this film is taking a much more sobering sweep than more frequently made films about jail time, which tend to end with exoneration or freedom, which Reyes notes from the start is not within this documentary’s gift.

  Documentary tracing a young immigrant’s path from coastal Mexico to a life sentence for murder in California.
• 
  Off The Rails (2022)

  Review preview for Off The Rails

  Even if you've never given parkour a second thought, Day will help you to see it through fresh eyes but, more importantly, to see the boys behind the bravado and the stunts, trying to make their way in the world just like everybody else.

  Two urbex and parkour-obsessed teenagers face-up to reality following the death of their friend.
• 
  Beba (2021)

  Review preview for Beba

  Like the best of these sorts of essay films, Huntt is intimate without being unnecessarily introspective.

  We follow Afro-Latina filmmaker Rebeca Huntt, the titular Beba, as she takes us on the journey through her experience growing up.
• 
  Lightyear (2022)

  Review preview for Lightyear

  Essentially, what we're getting here is Buzz's origin story, which is all well and good but episodic.

  The film that spawned Andy's 'favourite' toy.
• 
  The Last Metro (1980)

  Review preview for The Last Metro

  Depardieu's role feels underwritten, although you can't fault Truffaut for an accurate assessment of not just his character but the star when someone describes Bernard as being "a little like Jean Gabin, physical yet gentle".

  The wife of a Jewish theatre director forced into hiding tries to keep a production afloat in occupied Paris.
• 
  The Duke (2020)

  Review preview for The Duke

  There's some lovely family-driven humour in the script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman delivered with great comic timing by the veteran leads.

  The story of a taxi driver who stole a Goya from London's National Gallery and began to send ransom notes.
• 
  Leave No Traces (2021)

  Review preview for Leave No Traces

  If Matuszyński’s film tends towards soap opera in places and could definitely do with a trim here and there, its long running time does allow the grind of what happens to play out in ways that emphasise the sheer slog of it.

  Poland, 1983. The country is shaken by the case of Grzegorz Przemyk - a high school student beaten to death by militia. Based on true events, the film follows the story of Jurek - the only witness of the beating, who overnight became the number one enemy of the state.
• 
  Both Sides Of The Blade (2021)

  Review preview for Both Sides Of The Blade

  Although this film has no body count, it carries with it all the danger of an erotic thriller.

  Sara has been in a stable, loving relationship with Jean for years. But then a man from their past reappears and, without warning, an old passion reignites.
• 
  1976 (2022)

  Review preview for 1976

  Martelli carefully crafts an air of almost casual dread.

  A woman finds herself dicing with danger after she is asked for help.
• 
  Metronom (2022)

  Review preview for Metronom

  Belcu doesn’t need to show us much violence in order to indicate how the mere threat of it can become an effective tool of oppression.

  A teenager finds herself grappling with love and the authorities during the rule of Ceaucescu.
• 
  The Burning Sea (2021)

  Review preview for The Burning Sea

  By zeroing in on Sofia and Stian and their immediate friend circle, the disaster element remains taut.

  A submarine operator finds herself on a rescue mission after a disaster in the North Sea.
• 
  Butterfly Vision (2022)

  Review preview for Butterfly Vision

  Lilya’s treatment while captive is only glimpsed in brief flashbacks, which avoid voyeurism and suddenly occur like glitches in the film, the image pixellating as though it is buffering, to reveal a scrap of memory.

  Drama about a former prisoner of war, who struggles to resume her life in Ukraine.
• 
  The Green Perfume (2022)

  Review preview for The Green Perfume

  What, you might ask, is at the heart of the mystery? It's a good question and one that Pariser barely articulates.

  Crime caper sees an actor caught up in international intrigue after the death of a member of his troupe.
• 
  Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be (2022)

  Review preview for Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be

  Everything flows with the flourish of an expensive ink pen on paper, as sketches are made to bloom with colour or a bicycle ride turns into a mini adventure, all given additional life by the zippy score from Ludovic Bource.

  The French schoolboy's adventures mix with the biography of his creators.
• 
  The Worst Ones (2022)

  Review preview for The Worst Ones

  Better in its subtler moments, when it explores not just the difference between what is being filmed and reality by the fictions the characters are also inventing for themselves, the film is made compelling by its own immaculate casting.

  Film within a film about a group of youngsters who are street cast and how it changes their lives.
• 
  The Water (2022)

  Review preview for The Water

  Although the drama itself has a generally naturalistic feel, striking visuals embellish the spirit of all those things that are just beyond that realm.

  First love plays out against a backdrop of a hot summer and local myth.
• 
  The Innocents (2021)

  Review preview for The Innocents

  The subtlety Vogt employs as a director pays off in spades as he gets as much creepy mileage from the disturbance of soil and water as any amount of CGI could muster.

  During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren't looking.
• 
  Blinkity Blank (1955)

  Review preview for Blinkity Blank

  Every second of this is a delightful surprise.

  Experimental abstract animation about a bird.
• 
  Huda's Salon (2021)

  Review preview for Huda's Salon

  Writer/director Hany Abu-Assad emphasises the menace in the mundane.

  A young mum tries to navigate her way out of a blackmail situation, while her attacker also finds herself under unexpected interrogation.
• 
  Silent Beauty (2022)

  Review preview for Silent Beauty

  Whatever the criticisms of the film itself are, Jasmín Mara López's bravery in tackling the subject of child abuse within her own family is never in doubt.

  The director considers her grandfather's abuse of her as a child and breaking the silence around that abuse.
• 
  Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

  Review preview for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

  It might not leave you spellbound but you're likely to be charmed.

  Dr Strange tries to protect a girl who can jump between points in the multiverse.
• 
  A Tale Of Love And Desire (2021)

  Review preview for A Tale Of Love And Desire

  A film that celebrates the joy and fears associated with youthful lust, while exploring ideas of internal cultural conflict, without making it feel tacky or like a diatribe.

  Ahmed’s world is thrown off-balance when he encounters Farah, newly-arrived from Tunis, who challenges everything he thought he knew.
• 
  Little Palestine (Diary Of A Siege) (2021)

  Review preview for Little Palestine (Diary Of A Siege)

  Despite its bleakness, Al-Khatib also captures the spirit of the older Palestinians - already exiled once and refusing to simply move on again - and the resourcefulness of the children.

  Documentary about the siege at Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria.
• 
  A Thousand Fires (2021)

  Review preview for A Thousand Fires

  The filmmaker is alive to the toil of the family but also their simple pleasures in a way that makes us feel as though we're sitting down for a natter with them, rather than peering in at them from a point of aloofness.

  Portrait of a family in Myanmar, who are dreaming of a better future.
• 
  A Brighter Tomorrow (2021)

  Review preview for A Brighter Tomorrow

  While there's plenty to be said for a subtle approach, Qnia is too laidback for his own good.

  A thief tries to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend and child.
• 
  The Silent Enemy (1958)

  Review preview for The Silent Enemy

  The drama itself is a bit on the wayward side... with the underwater stealth scenes adding some much needed propulsion

  Explosives exert Lionel Crabb joins frogmen to root out an Italian wartime secret base.
• 
  Gift Horse (1952)

  Review preview for Gift Horse

  The domestic detailing, while interesting, does affect the pace and structure of the film, as for a while the story arc seems rather unclear, before things rev up in the final third.

  A British crew man a US destroyer that has been brought out of retirement to help the war effort - and head on a dangerous mission.
• 
  As I Want (2021)

  Review preview for As I Want

  The personal emotion of its director Samaher Alqadi punches through the centre of it hard - which gives her film a searing edge even if much of it feels scrappy and politically muddied.

  A consideration of violence against women in Egypt in the wake of Morsi's rise to power.
• 
  Trapped (2021)

  Review preview for Trapped

  The stories offer a multifaceted look at women from different backgrounds, although each is quite slight and tends towards the soapy.

  Women find themselves stuck in various places against the backdrop of the 2011 Egyptian revolution
• 
  The Northman (2022)

  Review preview for The Northman

  You genuinely feel how much his characters have faith in their gods and their folk tales as an extension of their everyday lives

  The son of a Viking king is out for vegeance.
• 
  Operation Mincemeat (2021)

  Review preview for Operation Mincemeat

  Elegant and gripping but perhaps just a little genteel.

  Drama based on the true story of how the British intelligence services fooled the Nazis.
• 
  The Lost City (2022)

  Review preview for The Lost City

  The Lost City proves just how much extra mileage you can get from a well-worn premise if you get the casting right.

  A romance novelist is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes that she can lead him to the lost city’s treasure from her story.
• 
  The Good Boss (2021)

  Review preview for The Good Boss

  The balance of Javier Bardem's central performance as the CEO of the title is what elevates this from being another run-of-the-mill satire.

  Trouble brews at a factory after a boss finds himself in line for an award for excellence.
• 
  Songs For A Fox (2021)

  Review preview for Songs For A Fox

  Vildziunas' film never slackens in its imagination but it becomes increasingly self-indulgent as things progress.

  After his lover's death, a rock singer studies the art of lucid dreaming and descends into a netherworld in hopes of being together again.