Reviews by Amber Wilkinson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Taste Of Things (2023)

  Review preview for The Taste Of Things

  While the end result is important, Hùng’s film is all about savouring the moment, something that becomes more urgent as it progresses - although talk of speed has little place in a film that unfolds with the pace and beauty of a flower.

  The story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet she has been working for over the last 20 years.
• 
  Kalak (2023)

  Review preview for Kalak

  Eklöf also doesn’t deal in absolutes, allowing us to see that Jan is both damaged and damaging, not just to himself but others - a hot mess in a cold climate.

  A nurse who was abused by his father finds his trauma is increasingly damaging to himself and those around him.
• 
  Gamma Rays (2023)

  Review preview for Gamma Rays

  Loosely structured, although maintaining an impressive balance between its stories.

  Summer unfolds in a triptych of stories about teenagers in Montreal.
• 
  Ex-Husbands (2023)

  Review preview for Ex-Husbands

  There’s a sweet-hearted but dated dad rock quality to this tale.

  Peter’s parents divorced after 65 years, his wife left him after 35, and his sons, Nick and Mickey, are off leading their own lives. When Peter flies to Tulum, crashing Nick's bachelor party hosted by Mickey, he realises he's not the only one in crisis.
• 
  The Royal Hotel (2023)

  Review preview for The Royal Hotel

  The feeling that something bad could happen at any moment permeates the mood.

  US backpackers Hanna and Liv take a job in a remote Australian pub for some extra cash and are confronted with a bunch of unruly locals and a situation that grows rapidly out of their control.
• 
  Dance First (2023)

  Review preview for Dance First

  While offering some notion of Beckett’s feelings towards key people in his life, his works feel very underrepresented.

  Biopic of author and playwright Samuel Beckett.
• 
  Dumb Money (2023)

  Review preview for Dumb Money

  The writers care about even their smallest characters.

  Based on a true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop into the world's hottest company.
• 
  A Silence (2023)

  Review preview for A Silence

  The film hovers in the grey area of Astrid's psyche, with long takes, often focused on Devos' features.

  Astrid is the wife of an acclaimed lawyer. Silenced for 25 years, her family balance suddenly collapses when her children initiate their search for justice.
• 
  Society Of The Snow (2023)

  Review preview for Society Of The Snow

  The impact of the plane crash near the start of this retelling of the remarkable true survival story is shown in visceral detail with a sound design that slams right through you.

  Survival thriller taking place in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Andes.
• 
  Fingernails (2023)

  Review preview for Fingernails

  There’s something inherently endearing about the way that Nikou always managed to conjure timelessness in his worlds. They’re more analogue than futuristic but ultimately hang in a sort of limbo of ‘here but not quite now’.

  A woman who is increasingly unsure about her relationship secretly embarks on a new assignment working at a mysterious institute designed to incite and test the presence of romantic love in increasingly desperate couples.
• 
  Fallen Leaves (2023)

  Review preview for Fallen Leaves

  An amuse-bouche of a film, Aki Kaurismäki’s latest comedy romance may leave you wanting more but it’s also a fully rounded, good looking experience packed with all the flavours we’ve come to expect from the master of deadpan down the years.

  The course of potential love does not run smooth for a shelf-stacker and a metal worker.
• 
  Through The Night (2023)

  Review preview for Through The Night

  It’s not the first time a film has scrutinised what it means to be “a good victim” but Girard’s general restraint, coupled with a controlled central performance from Alaoui bring it home.

  The lives of three people are explored after a rape.
• 
  Chuck Chuck Baby (2023)

  Review preview for Chuck Chuck Baby

  Janis Pugh’s ability to blend crowdpleasing comedy and emotional poignancy should not be underestimated.

  Romance unfolds at a chicken packing factory.
• 
  Flipside (2023)

  Review preview for Flipside

  This film strikes one of those wonderful paradoxes, being simultaneously about holding on and letting go.

  A comical attempt to save a New Jersey record store and confront a mid-life crisis
• 
  Defiant (2023)

  Review preview for Defiant

  A film that lives in the moment.

  This documentary offers unique access to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and other key figures in the administration who are fighting to save their country against Russia's invasion by combatting disinformation.
• 
  Fremont (2023)

  Review preview for Fremont

  In many ways Fremont is advocating the importance of accepting that a life can be both average and fulfilling.

  Donya works for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to put her life back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie.
• 
  Past Lives (2022)

  Review preview for Past Lives

  To say too much about what happens in each episode would be to spoil the joy of encountering Song’s finely worked screenplay, which lets its characters' emotions glitter in the light.

  Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends, are separated from each other when Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York where Nora now lives with her American husband.
• 
  Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

  Review preview for Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

  While Louis-Seize’s treatment of the night is atmospheric, the emphasis here is firmly on comedy rather on gore.

  Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill. When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest.
• 
  Copa 71 (2023)

  Review preview for Copa 71

  As Copa 71 goes on to show, it’s not the players that are the problem but the lack of a level playing field.

  Told by the pioneering women who participated, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women's Soccer World Cup, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of sporting history - until now.
• 
  The Year Of The Egg (2023)

  Review preview for The Year Of The Egg

  If some of the story is predictable that is mainly down to the tight focus of the script from Casale, which means narrative has a tendency to play second fiddle to atmosphere.

  A couple join a closed spiritual community as they prepare for the birth of their first child.
• 
  City Of Wind (2023)

  Review preview for City Of Wind

  Purev-Ochir gives a sense of the pressures the younger generation are under through their experience in the classroom, with a tacit implication that Ze’s struggles are reflecting a spirit of a nation.

  A teenage shaman finds his life shifting after he meets a girl.
• 
  Stolen (2023)

  Review preview for Stolen

  Tejpal’s debut may be uneven but it's certainly not short of momentum.

  Two brothers try to rescue a baby that has been stolen from its mother.
• 
  God Is A Woman (2023)

  Review preview for God Is A Woman

  Peyrot’s documentary becomes increasingly absorbing - so that we want to see this original film as much as they do.

  Documentary about the Kuna people focusing on a film that was supposed to be made about them in the Seventies.
• 
  Oceans Are The Real Continents (2019)

  Review preview for Oceans Are The Real Continents

  There’s a still photographic quality to the cinematography from Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci, with the studious, fixed framing matching the meter of the film and allowing time for us to appreciate the texture, not just of the lives of these characters but the spaces they inhabit.

  A trio of stories unfold against a backdrop of Cuba.
• 
  The Dive (2023)

  Review preview for The Dive

  Erlenwein deserves praise for his lean and lithe set-up that keeps delivering surprises.

  Experienced scuba divers May and Drew are two sisters with a close but complex bond who go on a deep sea diving trip to a beautiful but remote beauty spot. During their dive, May is struck by a rock from a landslide above the water, leaving her trapped on the seabed 28 meters below the surface.
• 
  Passages (2023)

  Review preview for Passages

  There is complexity at work, however, as Sachs and Zacharias hold these toxic associations up to the light.

  A married man cheats on his husband with a woman... then tells him about it.
• 
  Critical Zone (2023)

  Review preview for Critical Zone

  There's a deep irony in Amir being constantly told what to do by the quasi-authority figure of the sat nav while offering up a means of escape to the city's youth that doesn't rely on roads to take them there.

  Guided by the voice of his GPS, Amir navigates the underworld districts of Tehran to comfort the troubled souls of the night.
• 
  Haunted Mansion (2023)

  Review preview for Haunted Mansion

  While the chase scenes are effective, the jokes feel like the ghost of much better one-liners.

  A mum and son enlist the help of a priest, a psychic and a scientist in a bid to rid their new home of ghosts.
• 
  Gran Turismo (2023)

  Review preview for Gran Turismo

  The performances are generally fine if unremarkable - although it's bizarre that despite Mardenborough’s hometown being in Wales, not a single actor here has a Welsh accent.

  The story of how Jann Mardenborough went from being a gamer to a professional motor racer.
• 
  The Beautiful Summer (2023)

  Review preview for The Beautiful Summer

  In general, the film is better in terms of its physical surfaces than its emotional depths.

  1938. A young woman yields to her first great love, celebrating the courage to be truly herself.
• 
  Nocturne For A Forest (2023)

  Review preview for Nocturne For A Forest

  There are extreme and moderate views here, which recall many a social media debate about everything from slavery street names to flags.

  The souls of women forbidden from entering a monastery debate the destiny of a painting inside it.
• 
  Animal (2023)

  Review preview for Animal

  Vlagopoulou’s performance has a raw intensity that you don’t dare question, less still look away from.

  Pressures mount as summer intensifies for a group of entertainers at an all-inclusive resort.
• 
  Kurayukaba (2023)

  Review preview for Kurayukaba

  Tsukahara creates an immersive and vivid world both in the present and the past.

  A detective heads into a city's maze-like underbelly on a case.
• 
  Empty Nets (2023)

  Review preview for Empty Nets

  Karamizade is deft at capturing shifting moods.

  A man and a woman from two different social classes keep their relationship a secret as the man struggles to raise a dowry.
• 
  Imago (2023)

  Review preview for Imago

  The band’s music, written by rock star Andrzej Smolik is well-realised by the cast and generates a combative emotional undercurrent although whether quite so much of it is needed is debatable.

  Portrait of a woman living in late-Eighties Poland.
• 
  The Secret Kingdom (2023)

  Review preview for The Secret Kingdom

  The feel is reminiscent of Sixties and Seventies Children’s Film Foundation output - though a lot more polished.

  A young boy and his sister are transported to a magical realm where they go on a quest to save it.
• 
  While We Watched (2022)

  Review preview for While We Watched

  In addition to attacks from the outside, Shukla shows the erosion from within.

  A turbulent newsroom drama which intimately chronicles the working days of broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar as he navigates a spiralling world of truth and disinformation.
• 
  Black Slide (2021)

  Review preview for Black Slide

  Each character feels carefully drawn, even the slide attendant, whose body language suggests a sort of cool and studied boredom.

  A boy confronts his fears at a water park.
• 
  Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

  Review preview for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

  If anything the potential dangers of AI are even more in the news now than when the film was shot, making it feel bang up to date.

  Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.
• 
  The Damned Don't Cry (2022)

  Review preview for The Damned Don't Cry

  As with Boulifa’s first film, much here is built not upon what a specific character does but on another character’s reaction to that.

  Selim follows his mother from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she's been caught up in. When they arrive in Tangier, new opportunities will give them a shot at the legitimacy they each crave – but not without threatening their fragile love for one another.
• 
  Wham! (2023)

  Review preview for Wham!

  We’re so used to the flotsam and jetsum of angst, bad blood and rancour in the ocean of pop history, that the positive energy of the Wham! documentary feels as welcome as a summer breeze.

  A consideration of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s friendship and career.
• 
  Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)

  Review preview for Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

  Things happen rather than develop.

  A teenager discovers her family secret.
• 
  In Camera (2022)

  Review preview for In Camera

  By the end you might not only ask yourself if someone is losing their marbles but whose marbles, in fact, are the ones that are being lost.

  An actor struggles with the various roles he is juggling in life.
• 
  Mother And Son (2022)

  Review preview for Mother And Son

  Filled with strong sentiment but without sentimentality.

  In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
• 
  Between The Rains (2023)

  Review preview for Between The Rains

  There’s a lack of depth in general.

  A coming-of-age documentary following a young member of a formerly nomadic northern Kenyan community as they deal with the environmental and psychological effects of climate change.
• 
  Tish (2023)

  Review preview for Tish

  Details leap out from the photographs, not just the faces of those she captured, but the twist of cigarette smoke, metal ashtrays recalling the tang of wet ash, plasters on scrubbed knees.

  A working-class photographer captures the impact of Thatcherism on the north of England but is unable to escape the poverty and inequality she exposed.
• 
  The Last Rider (2022)

  Review preview for The Last Rider

  The structure of the documentary itself is formulaic but well executed.

  The incredible story of the greatest cycling race in history, the 1989 Tour De France, and how American Greg LeMond faced down betrayal, childhood sexual abuse and death, completing one of the most inspiring comebacks in history.
• 
  On The Line: The Richard Williams Story (2022)

  Review preview for On The Line: The Richard Williams Story

  Something is most certainly gained from the presence of Richard himself, who has a vulnerability about him that you might not expect from a man who refused to be cowed by a largely middle-class, white establishment that stood in the way of his girls’ rise to fame.

  This film follows the outspoken patriarch of the Williams family who beat impossible odds to help daughters Venus and Serena become two of the greatest athletes of our time.
• 
  The Deepest Breath (2023)

  Review preview for The Deepest Breath

  McGann poises her film between Stephen and Alessia’s story, rounding out the background with those who know them both and, in a nice bit of balance, both of their fathers.

  A champion freediver and expert safety diver seemed destined for one another despite the different paths they took to meet at the pinnacle of the freediving world. A look at the thrilling rewards — and inescapable risks — of chasing dreams through the depths of the ocean.
• 
  Dalton's Dream (2023)

  Review preview for Dalton's Dream

  It’s tribute to the collaborative feel of this film that the documentary continually takes its lead from what Harris is saying rather than pushing him this way and that.

  The story of Dalton Harris' rise to X Factor fame and what happened next.