Reviews by Amber Wilkinson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  All We Imagine As Light (2024)

  Review preview for All We Imagine As Light

  It’s fitting for a film set in the “City of Dreams” and that is concerned with life’s illusions and how we navigate them as it is about the here and now.

  Triptych explores the lives of three women in Mumbai.
• 
  Alone (2017)

  Review preview for Alone

  Bradley has a feel for emotional moments, knowing when to push in close and when to step back.

  An investigation into the layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of the modern Black American family, seen through the eyes of a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 
  Alone At My Wedding (2018)

  Review preview for Alone At My Wedding

  Truth is found in detail and gesture.

  A Roma single mum hopes an internet love match will hold the key to a better life.
• 
  Alpha, The Right To Kill (2018)

  Review preview for Alpha, The Right To Kill

  Although strong in its documentary feel and scathing in its message, it otherwise runs through the Alpha to Omega of predictable thriller elements.

  Set against the background of the government's crackdown on illegal drugs, the SWAT-led police force launches an operation to arrest a drug dealer, with a detective and his informant Elijah providing the intelligence.
• 
  Always Together (2014)

  Review preview for Always Together

  Tomanová, making her debut here, shows rather than tells their story, leaving us to interpret.

  A family struggle with their patriarch's idea of an alternative lifestyle.
• 
  Al Baraneya (2026)

  Review preview for Al Baraneya

  Loose and responsive camerawork from cinematographer Douwe Hennink makes his camera feel as though it is part of the family.

  Drama focused on a pregnant young woman and her family in a village just outside Cairo.
• 
  Amal (2017)

  Review preview for Amal

  Siam gives his film a strong sense of place, marked by chaos and flux - a city where you can drive past a "Welcome to Egypt" sign and army tanks within two blocks and where revolution may lead you to come full circle.

  Documentary tracks the adolescence of a teenager in Cairo.
• 
  The Amazing Maurice (2022)

  Review preview for The Amazing Maurice

  Like the Cheshire cat, the last thing to fade will be your grin.

  A streetwise cat and his gang of rats with a money making scheme run into trouble.
• 
  The Ambassador (2012)

  Review preview for The Ambassador

  Subversive and incendiary.

  What happens when a very white European man buys his way into being a diplomat in one of Central Africa's most failed nations?
• 
  American Factory (2019)

  Review preview for American Factory

  This consideration of multiple lives, rather than one constructed arc serves to underline the sense that each person is only a small cog turning in the bigger wheel of the machine.

  In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring 2,000 blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
• 
  American Sikh (2023)

  Review preview for American Sikh

  The animation used, accompanied by a zippy score from River Nason, fittingly takes its inspiration from superhero comic books.

  Short documentary profiling cartoonist Vishavjit Singh and outlining his unique form of activism.
• 
  Amour (2012)

  Review preview for Amour

  Haneke goes far beyond pushing emotional buttons into territory where our most visceral fears lurk.

  An elderly couple deal with the ravages of old age.
• 
  Amsterdam (2022)

  Review preview for Amsterdam

  David O Russell's latest - a shaggy dog mystery with a deliberate air of penny dreadfuls - could do with more straightforward narrative and fewer screwball convolutions.

  A trio of unlikely friends get mixed up in a murder plot with much wider implications.
• 
  Amulet (2020)

  Review preview for Amulet

  Garai has plenty of ideas and a willingness to embrace both more intellectual horror ideas and gore.

  A homeless ex-soldier gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to help a young woman and her dying mother.
• 
  Anamocot (2025)

  Review preview for Anamocot

  The observational approach works against the director, slowing down proceedings and making it hard to see the wood for the trees

  After a 20-year long fruitless search in the Cameroonian forest, Frenchman Michel Ballot is on the verge of giving up his lifelong quest to find the mysterious creature known as the Mokélé-Mbembé. Turning to local initiates for help, and torn between ancestral wisdom and scientific evidence, he embarks on a final journey into powers, knowledge and the unseen.
• 
  Anastasia (2022)

  Review preview for Anastasia

  Although Denis Sinyakov’s camera takes an intimate position within the trip, there’s a constant sense of collaboration with all three generations that means although raw emotion is captured, the filmmaking never feels intrusive.

  A Russian activist and her family prepare to say a last goodbye.
• 
  Anatolian Leopard (2021)

  Review preview for Anatolian Leopard

  Kayis' film is quiet and measured, from the taciturn Fikret, played with a world weary gravitas by Polat, to the pace, which also occasionally threatens to die on the spot.

  A zoo director comes up with an idea to stop the establishment becoming a theme park.
• 
  Anatomy Of A Fall (2023)

  Review preview for Anatomy Of A Fall

  Hüller has always been an unfussy actress, who allows a character's flaws to shine out in interesting ways.

  A woman is accused of her husband's murder.
• 
  And She Didn't Die (2025)

  Review preview for And She Didn't Die

  As Kethiwe weaves together her mother’s story, she also considers her family’s part within it and the film is considerably richer for the documentarian’s decision to give her own doubts and thoughts some space.

  Lauretta Ncobo's daughter considers her author mother's exile from South Africa and subsequent life and work.
• 
  And Then There Were None (1974)

  Review preview for And Then There Were None

  There is no doubt this is kitschy... still, at least the book is treated seriously, some of Collinson's framing is memorable and the central 'who's-doing-it' conundrum holds firm

  Guests are invited to a remote hotel... and murdered one by one.
• 
  And Then We Danced (2019)

  Review preview for And Then We Danced

  A passionate energy courses beneath the surface of Levan Akin's tale of love and repression

  A dancer falls in love with his fiercest rival.
• 
  And The Birds Rained Down (2019)

  Review preview for And The Birds Rained Down

  Every time we are away from the older generation, they're sorely missed and the action drags without their presence.

  Three elderly hermits live deep in the woods, cut off from the rest of the world. While wildfires threaten the region, their quiet life is about to be shaken by the arrival of two women.
• 
  Anemone (2025)

  Review preview for Anemone

  Day-Lewis Jr pays attention to his actors and frames them in ways that make monologues count but there’s a lot of unnecessary brooding about in between times.

  Estranged brothers reunite in a remote cabin and are forced to confront their painful past.
• 
  Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison (2022)

  Review preview for Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison

  Although Northern shows the powerful nature of Peterson's play, he is less successful at illustrating its impact on the prison itself.

  The story of playwright Liza Jessie Peterson's performance of The Peculiar Patriot at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary and its impact.
• 
  The Angry Silence (1960)

  Review preview for The Angry Silence

  If the film takes a broad brush approach to its issues of individual rights versus the collective - and dips into melodrama in terms of the violence portrayed - Attenborough is a master of subtle emotional shift.

  A factory worker is ostracised after refusing to join a wildcat strike.
• 
  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.
• 
  Anna's War (2018)

  Review preview for Anna's War

  Aleksey Fedorchenko isn't the first to try to come at the horrors of the Holocaust from a fresh perspective - although the narrow outlook he adopts here also ends up limiting how much he is able to say.

  A little girl survives a Nazi mass execution and hides in the disused chimney and struggles to survive.
• 
  Anna Karenina (2012)

  Review preview for Anna Karenina

  Like its central character, then, this is beautiful and brave even if it fails to fully realise its potential.

  A married aristocrat embarks on a tragic affair.
• 
  The Announcement (2018)

  Review preview for The Announcement

  Recalling the bone-dry wit of the likes of Pablo Larrain mixed with a dash of the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, this is as much a waiting game as an action plan.

  Soldiers involved in a 1963 coup underestimate the invisible power of civilian life.
• 
  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.
• 
  Another Day Of Life (2018)

  Review preview for Another Day Of Life

  Measured but naturally emotional recollections dovetail with the more impressionistic animated segments to scrutinise the psyche of war.

  True story of a reporter who took a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the civil war in Angola in the 70s.
• 
  Another Round (2020)

  Review preview for Another Round

  Shot with a loose but observant style that captures energy and thoughtfulness in all the right places.

  Martin and three of his friends, all weary high school teachers, embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday.
• 
  Anything And All (2018)

  Review preview for Anything And All

  Pestana is brave, both unafraid of filming moments of intimacy when others might have set the camera aside - and of then presenting those moments to us in retrospect.

  Poetic essay on the documentarian's memories.
• 
  An American Prayer (2021)

  Review preview for An American Prayer

  Durrani covers a lot of ground with determination.

  Documentary considering the truth and fiction about the American dream and hopes for future equality.
• 
  An Education (2009)

  Review preview for An Education

  Although we are talking age old themes here – first love, dodgy geezers, questions of class – the material is spectacularly well handled.

  A 16-year-old - and her family - are swept off their feet by a debonair older man.
• 
  An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)

  Review preview for An Elephant Sitting Still

  Despite its grey, flat light and general melancholy punctured by menace, An Elephant Sitting Still is, by the end considerably more optimistic than it first appears about humanity.

  The lives of four people cross over the course of a day in China.
• 
  An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1982)

  Review preview for An Exercise in Discipline: Peel

  Jane Campion’s debut short thrives on unpredictable rhythms.

  A battle of wills breaks out on a car journey.
• 
  Apples (2020)

  Review preview for Apples

  There’s sadness here for isolation and a grief that goes beyond the loss of a single life once lived. There’s also a heightened sense of the smaller absurdities of existence.

  A man caught up in an amnesia pandemic tries to construct a new life for himself.
• 
  April (2024)

  Review preview for April

  It’s not unusual to say that something cuts through the silence but in Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April it’s the silence that cuts through us.

  After a newborn dies during delivery, the morals and professionalism of an ob-gyn, Nina, come under scrutiny amid rumors that she performs illegal abortions for those in need.
• 
  Arab Blues (2019)

  Review preview for Arab Blues

  The story develops episodically, with each client given their bit of patter, some of which work better than others.

  A Parisian psychoanalyst tries to set up a practice in a post-Arab Spring Tunis.
• 
  Arbitrage (2012)

  Review preview for Arbitrage

  Richard Gere is getting better with age. The lived-in look suits him and he holds this film tight.

  A hedge-fund magnate is in over his head, desperately trying to complete the sale of his trading empire before the depths of his fraud are revealed. An unexpected, bloody error forces him to turn to the most unlikely corner for help.
• 
  The Arbor (2010)

  Review preview for The Arbor

  Memory, reality, fact and fiction blend to give you a vivid 'feel' for the interviewees' recollections while being acutely aware that this remains a remembered reconstruction of the past.

  Avant-garde documentary exploring the life and legacy of Rita, Sue And Bob Too! playwright Andrea Dunbar.
• 
  Armand (2024)

  Review preview for Armand

  Less concerned with scrutinising the playground than the dangerous games adults can play with one another.

  A mother is called into her child's infant school after he faces an accusation.
• 
  Armugan (2020)

  Review preview for Armugan

  The dialogue may be spare but Sol never lets the mood slip for the moment, ratcheting the tension even as he opens up philosophical avenues about eugenics and euthanasia for consideration.

  A man who lives in the mountains is a "finisher", who helps others to die.
• 
  Around Paradise (2026)

  Review preview for Around Paradise

  The observational style means the film stops short of being truly illuminating.

  In Caazapá, the “city of magic and legends”, two Paraguayan students are searching for happiness, gold and a magic bird. Their European dropout neighbours are hoping for freedom, healing and salvation from Armageddon. Everything has its price.
• 
  Arracht (2019)

  Review preview for Arracht

  This is chiefly a character study of one man's humanity in the face of grief but it echoes the wider trauma of a nation that was decimated by hunger.

  In 1845, a fisherman ends up on the run for crimes he didn't commit.
• 
  Arrhythmia (2017)

  Review preview for Arrhythmia

  Khlebnikov and Meschchaninova capture the essence of long-term relationships at the point when the firework bursts of highs and lows have been replaced by the dripping tap of minor annoyances that are becoming harder to ignore.

  A paramedic and a junior doctor find themselves on the verge of a break-up.
• 
  Arrival (2016)

  Review preview for Arrival

  Denis Villeneuve's latest film may be about aliens visiting Earth but it's the people who hold his interest.

  A linguist is given the task of helping to communicate with extra-terrestrial beings when they touch down around the globe.
• 
  Arthur Christmas (2011)

  Review preview for Arthur Christmas

  This simultaneously cool and cosy tale of families and Christmas spirit will have Aardman's pockets jingling all the way to the bank. And deservedly so.

  After a present is missed on Christmas Eve, Santa's son tries to deliver it.
• 
  Asia (2020)

  Review preview for Asia

  First-time feature director Ruthy Pribar takes a loose and intimate approach to the relationship, allowing it to unfold in moments.

  A mum tries to reconnect with her daughter as the younger woman struggles with a degenerative illness.