Reviews by Amber Wilkinson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Cat Person (2023)

  Review preview for Cat Person

  The central portion of the film is delciously discomfiting.

  College student Margot meets 33-year-old Robert at the cinema where she works. After a casual flirtation at the concession stand, they carry on conversations through texts. As their perceptions of each other collide, events spiral out of control. Based on The New Yorker short story by Kristen Roupenian.
• 
  Caught In The Net (2020)

  Review preview for Caught In The Net

  Horrifying and the pure stuff of nightmares for any parent.

  Joined on the soundstage by psychological and legal experts, the film crew unpacks the manipulative tactics that these child predators employ online, and illustrates how quickly such interactions often escalate to threats and blackmail.
• 
  Celtic Utopia (2025)

  Review preview for Celtic Utopia

  Doesn’t just reflect the reality of modern Ireland but actively embraces it when it makes its presence felt.

  Documentary considering Ireland's contemporary music scene, but also that of a postcolonial society wrestling with its heritage.
• 
  Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

  Review preview for Le Cercle Rouge

  Thanks to Melville's spare approach, the film feels cool in both senses of the phrase and there's time to really focus on the look.

  After leaving prison, a thief crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot a heist.
• 
  Certified Mail (2019)

  Review preview for Certified Mail

  Saqr establishes the characters with some skill, allowing his protagonist to remain 'difficult' rather than settling into a groove.

  A woman suffering depression has to cope with her baby alone after her husband is arrested.
• 
  C'est La Vie! (2017)

  Review preview for C'est La Vie!

  So much is going on that Nakache and Toledano are able to slyly set-up jokes in such a way that we barely notice them, so that when they pay off their impact is greater.

  A night of surprises unfolds at a wedding party in a chateau.
• 
  The Chambermaid (2018)

  Review preview for The Chambermaid

  This is a quiet movie, which never loses its focus on its central character study, while allowing points about economic and social inequalities to sound out loud and clear.

  Character study of a maid in a Mexican hotel.
• 
  The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)

  Review preview for The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith

  When the moment of violence arrives, abruptly, at the half-way point, it does so in flurry of handheld camerawork, striking sound design and stark symbolism.

  The son of a white man and an Aboriginal woman is pushed to the limit by racism and spirals into violence.
• 
  Chaos Walking (2021)

  Review preview for Chaos Walking

  The high concept - that the thoughts of everyone on the dystopian New World appear as a cloud of "noise" about their head - does, ironically, take some getting your head around.

  On a dystopian futuristic planet, all men's thoughts appear as "noise" around their heads... a problem for young Todd when he runs across a space girl.
• 
  Charlatan (2020)

  Review preview for Charlatan

  Though the director and stars bring a frisson to the relationship between Palko and his boss - the most fictive element of the plot - the script falls short in terms of fleshing out what lies beneath.

  Drama based on the life of herbalist Jan Mikolášek
• 
  Charm Circle (2021)

  Review preview for Charm Circle

  There's a winning combination of warmth and honesty to the way that she and her family share their lives that opens the door to viewers and asks them to shift their perspective.

  After uncovering a treasure trove of home videos documenting the moments of love, laughter, and musical expression that punctuated an otherwise tumultuous upbringing, filmmaker Nira Burstein returns to her childhood home – now crumbling from the inside out – to explore whether she and her two sisters can reconnect with her parents.
• 
  Chasing Time (2024)

  Review preview for Chasing Time

  This film, like its longer predecessor, brings home the alarming rate at which this is happening.

  After bringing some of the first and most striking visual evidence of our changing planet to the fore through the groundbreaking study of melting glaciers, photographer James Balog returns to Iceland to close the last chapter of his life’s work.
• 
  Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)

  Review preview for Cha Cha Real Smooth

  The reason all this earnestness works is because Raiff really cares about all his characters, taking time to consider each in their own right.

  A directionless college graduate embarks on a relationship with a young mum and her teenage daughter while learning the boundaries of his new bar mitzvah party-starting gig.
• 
  Che: Guerilla (2008)

  Review preview for Che: Guerilla

  Certainly Soderbergh gives you a sense of the boredom of war - as the days tick by on the screen, you feel your own will to live begin to falter.

  Second episode in Soderbergh's meditation on the Argentine-born revolutionary, focussing on his time in Bolivia.
• 
  Che: The Argentine (2008)

  Review preview for Che: The Argentine

  All the excitement of a wet weekend in Bognor.

  First part of Soderbergh's epic, sees the revolutionary take on Batista.
• 
  Chicken For Linda! (2023)

  Review preview for Chicken For Linda!

  The vibrancy of childhood skips from the screen.

  When a mum makes a promise to her daughter after unfairly punishing her, she finds herself having to go the extra mile to make it come true.
• 
  Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget (2023)

  Review preview for Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget

  The action element of the film has the enjoyable verve of the original, particularly when the mechanics of the nugget-maker are involved, but the lack of a tight focus on characters in one place makes the emotional heart of the matter more diffuse.

  The chickens are forced to leave their idyllic haven when one of their young runs off to a high-security chicken funland.
• 
  Chico & Rita (2010)

  Review preview for Chico & Rita

  The animation is highly stylised, with more emphasis on shadow and light and the movement and rhythm of the characters than on intimate detailing. However, this impressionistic style suits the ever-present, free-wheeling jazz soundtrack.

  The turbulent romance between a Cuban pianist and a singer in Forties and Fifties.
• 
  Chimney Town: Frozen In Time (2026)

  Review preview for Chimney Town: Frozen In Time

  The animation is a constant delight even if the balance between the stories is uneven.

  Young chimney sweep Lubicchi finds himself in a mysterious realm where he is drafted in to help restart a stuck clock in order to return home.
• 
  China Sea (2025)

  Review preview for China Sea

  Lithuanian director Jurgis Matulevičius, inspired by the true tragic story of an MMA fighter who was ‘cancelled... gives a tale of being washed-up a bleakly hard boiled and distinctive eastern European tang.

  A 'cancelled' MMA fighter finds refuge in a Taiwanese family’s restaurant but struggles to change his path.
• 
  Chloe (2009)

  Review preview for Chloe

  Once - and if - you accept that this is a B-movie plot, it is possible to find a level of enjoyment from its undeniably A-movie trappings.

  When a wife hires a prostitute to test her husband's fidelity, trouble isn't far behind.
• 
  Choke (2008)

  Review preview for Choke

  Despite the busy plotwork, surprisingly little actually happens.

  A sex-addicted med school dropout pays his mum's hopital bills by running a restaurant scam... but with her memory fading fast, will he ever find out the truth about his dad?
• 
  Christmas, Again (2014)

  Review preview for Christmas, Again

  Poekel keeps things natural, letting Noel's sadness slowly permeate the atmosphere along with the scent of pine needles rather than ringing it out at high volume.

  A heartbroken Christmas tree salesman returns to New York, hoping to put the past year behind him.
• 
  Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint (2023)

  Review preview for Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint

  Even if you might get a hint of the film’s final destination before it arrives, the way Bustillo achieves his aims will leave you with a warm glow.

  When a devout elderly woman finds a statue she think is long lost, what she decides to do next upends her life.
• 
  The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (2010)

  Review preview for The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

  It's true that Voyage Of The Dawn Treader - as with all CS Lewis books - lionises God in more ways than one, but Christians are not the sole proprietors of the moral lessons learned.

  The Pevensie children and their brattish cousin Eustace are whisked back to Narnia on a quest.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Ciambra (2017)

  Review preview for The Ciambra

  Carpignano is interested in the margins - and the fringes of those margins.

  A teenager faces choices as he comes of age.
• 
  Cielo (2017)

  Review preview for Cielo

  McAlpine is so eager that we experience the same sense of joy that she is that she over-editorialises, offering voice-over observations that are more distracting than deep.

  A documentary about the sky above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, and those who live under it.
• 
  Cinema Of The Era Of Change (2019)

  Review preview for Cinema Of The Era Of Change

  The writer/director is an engaging presence and a natural raconteur

  A quirky look back at the Nineties era of Russia's Sverdlovsk Film Studio.
• 
  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.
• 
  Close (2022)

  Review preview for Close

  Loose camerawork from Frank van den Eeden enhances the intimate, raw spirit.

  Two best friends find their bond upset by schoolmates.
• 
  Closeness (2017)

  Review preview for Closeness

  It is, presumably, his desire for realism that leads him to cross what will be a bridge too far for many audiences.

  A family struggle to raise the ransom after a kidnapping.
• 
  Close Your Eyes (2023)

  Review preview for Close Your Eyes

  A meditation on both memory and movies as well as ageing and a hankering for the past that is informed by the melancholic knowledge that nostalgia is inevitably rose-tinted.

  A TV show looking into the mysterious disappearance of an actor leads a director on a journey into his own past while making discoveries in the present.
• 
  Cold Cut (2024)

  Review preview for Cold Cut

  Mysterious in a manner that is thought-provoking rather than ostentatious

  Joy, a 19-year-old student, is about to compete at the local talent show. As she's about to enter the audition, a mysterious butcher takes her to unknown horizons.
• 
  Colette (2020)

  Review preview for Colette

  Giacchino makes all the right choices. He gives the women room physical and emotional space, pulling the camera back rather than crowding in.

  A former French resistance fighter visits the concentration camp where her brother died for the first time.
• 
  Collective (2019)

  Review preview for Collective

  Although he is dealing specifically with one instance in Romania, it's easy to see evidence of greater global malaise reflected here.

  Documentary considering the aftermath of a nightclub fire that exposed deep corruption in the Romanian healthcare system.
• 
  A Colombian Family (2020)

  Review preview for A Colombian Family

  The director's biography describes her as a "visual anthropologist" and her specific interest in people is perhaps why she is less successful at fleshing out the more general political situation in Columbia that provides the film's backdrop.

  A campaigning mother and her exiled daughter reconnect after a peace accord is struck.
• 
  Colors Of White Rock (2026)

  Review preview for Colors Of White Rock

  Choijoovanchig strikes a fine balance, using drone shots to illustrate the bigger picture while retaining the intimacy of the cab and home environment.

  Documentary following Maikhuu one of the country's only female truck drivers in Mongolia's Gobi Desert.
• 
  Color Film (2009)

  Review preview for Color Film

  A sensory treat for the eyes.

  Exploring the relationship between colours and the words we use to describe them.
• 
  Colours of Time (2025)

  Review preview for Colours of Time

  There’s a fairy-tale element to this – and once the famous names start to be introduced, including Sarah Bernhardt, it becomes obvious it’s no history lesson – but that suits the crowdpleasing material well.

  After a group of distant relatives inherit a house, they begin to investigate the life of their predecessor.
• 
  Columbus (2017)

  Review preview for Columbus

  The sense of poise created, as people move through spaces or talk back and forth, objects often leaving the frame in one direction as another enters from the opposite side, achieves a soothing rhythm.

  Two people meet by chance and forge a connection.
• 
  The Comet (2026)

  Review preview for The Comet

  The 2D artwork, which uses oil pastel, gives the animation a "shimmering" style that fills every frame with movement

  Eight-year-old Émile is enjoying the last of the warm summer evenings with his sister Françoise. While they are eagerly scanning the night sky for shooting stars, they are suddenly interrupted by a despicably cruel act.
• 
  Come Away (2020)

  Review preview for Come Away

  While the film's more nostalgic elements are likely to help to keep adults on board it is also invigorated, not only by Goodhill's unorthodox approach to the works but also by the diverse casting.

  Before Alice found Wonderland, and Peter became Pan, they were brother and sister. When their brother dies in an accident, they seek to save their parents from downward spirals until finally they're forced to choose between home and imagination, setting the stage for their iconic journeys into Wonderland and Neverland.
• 
  Comparsa (2025)

  Review preview for Comparsa

  The documentarians strike a careful balance themselves, channelling the joy and energy of the group as they come together to create puppets or work on raps and drum routines but never forgetting the difficult and melancholy backdrop they’re doing this against.

  From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion.
• 
  Compartment No 6 (2021)

  Review preview for Compartment No 6

  The everyday feel is acute – you can virtually smell the pickle jar vinegar and raw spirit and imagine a slight stickiness on the seats as Jani-Petteri Passi’s camera captures the scene with a looseness that rocks along with the rhythm of the train.

  A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk, but is forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a Russian miner.
• 
  A Complete Unknown (2024)

  Review preview for A Complete Unknown

  The world Dylan and the others inhabit...feels properly lived in.

  Biopic - following Bob Dylan from folk-singer to a worldwide sensation
• 
  A Concerto Is A Conversation (2021)

  Review preview for A Concerto Is A Conversation

  Beyond the immediate relationship between Kris and Horace, this is also a love letter to the importance of familial support and grandparents everywhere.

  Composer Kris Bowers talks to his grandfather Horace about his life.
• 
  Concrete Rodents (2024)

  Review preview for Concrete Rodents

  Working as his own cinematographer, Gkanatsios turns up the atmosphere with the inky blues, aquamarine greens and high neons of night.

  A group of friends embark on a risky plan.
• 
  The Conversation (1974)

  Review preview for The Conversation

  Coppola may have made films of a more spectacular nature but here he makes a virtue of a introversion - so that the film's horror moment is all the more vibrantly terrible when set in relief.

  A surveillance expert's conscience starts to trouble him after a particularly difficult job.
• 
  Con Artist (2009)

  Review preview for Con Artist

  This excellent documentary is almost as subversive as its subject.

  Profile of Eighties New York art scene enfant terrible, Mark Kostabi.