Reviews by Amber Wilkinson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  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.
• 
  Beyond Utopia (2023)

  Review preview for Beyond Utopia

  Beyond being nailbiting - a feeling driven by Hyun Seok Kim’s ‘heartbeat’ score that quickens our own - Gavin’s film is also an eye-opener.

  Charting the journey and experiences of North Korean defectors.
• 
  Be Good Or Be Gone (2020)

  Review preview for Be Good Or Be Gone

  Offers a winning mix of grit, heart and charm.

  A couple of cons find themselves in hot water on a four-day release from jail.
• 
  Big Fur (2019)

  Review preview for Big Fur

  There's so much fun stuff to include here that you sense Wayne couldn't bear to leave anything out.

  Consideration of the life, work and Big Foot obsession of world champion taxidermist Ken Walker.
• 
  The Big Hit (2020)

  Review preview for The Big Hit

  Less would be more, as Beckett knew all too well.

  Drama about a prison theatre workshop, who are staging Waiting For Godot.
• 
  Big Vs Small (2020)

  Review preview for Big Vs Small

  Where other films might emphasise skill and natural ability, it's patience and persistence that are shown to pay off here.

  Profile of big-wave surfer Joana Andrade.
• 
  Billy's Day Out (2003)

  Review preview for Billy's Day Out

  This film is as clever as spin doctor.

  A baby spends an unusual day out with his family.
• 
  Billy Liar (1963)

  Review preview for Billy Liar

  The fashions may have come and gone since John Schlesinger commited Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall's story of a young man torn between his family and the future to film but Billy Liar is still suprisingly light on his feet 50 years down the line.

  A young man who finds lies easier than the truth is torn between the present and a possible future.
• 
  Birds Of Passage (2018)

  Review preview for Birds Of Passage

  The rituals set in motion at the start, also tune us into the wavelength of portent, so that a heron's feet on a rug or the sound of locusts carry at least as much threat as the site of a loaded gun.

  Story of a family who become involved with the drugs trade.
• 
  Bird Island (2019)

  Review preview for Bird Island

  Some patience is required but the general calm and tranquillity of the film becomes part of its charm.

  After a long period of isolation, Antonin, a young man suffering from persisting exhaustion, rediscovers the world at a rehabilitation centre for birds.
• 
  Bits And Pieces (2009)

  Review preview for Bits And Pieces

  The key ingredients of good documentary are all present and correct – simplicity, depth and variety.

  A look at the mosaic of modern day Jordan.
• 
  Bitter Bread (2019)

  Review preview for Bitter Bread

  This is a bald recording of the lives being lived and the stoicism needed to keep going even in these most grim of circumstances.

  Documentary about a community of refugees living in a tent camp in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley.
• 
  Bittu (2020)

  Review preview for Bittu

  The inexhaustible energy of childhood skips and cartwheels through writer/director Karishma Dev Dube's dramatisation.

  The school of two young friends is hit by tragedy.
• 
  Black Box Diaries (2024)

  Review preview for Black Box Diaries

  Documentaries don’t get much more personal or intimate than this

  Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
• 
  Black Cop (2017)

  Review preview for Black Cop

  Anger is the film's dominant emotion

  A black police officer goes off the rails.
• 
  Black Dog (2024)

  Review preview for Black Dog

  Visually, Guan never puts a frame wrong, whether he’s setting up a physical comedy set-piece, idly incorporating a solar eclipse or letting the dogs steal a scene.

  A man forges a bond with a dog after returning to his hometown following a spell in prison.
• 
  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.
• 
  Black Snake Moan (2006)

  Review preview for Black Snake Moan

  Moan? You’re more likely to be groaning – or possibly hooting with laughter at the implausibility of this messy, misogynistic melodrama.

  Bluesman tries to 'cure' nymphomaniac in messy melodrama, with chains.
• 
  Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)

  Review preview for Blade Runner: The Final Cut

  Beg, borrow or steal a ticket to see it on the biggest screen you can find.

  The final cut is the deepest for Ridley Scott's remastered sci-fi epic.
• 
  Blaise (2026)

  Review preview for Blaise

  Planchon shows plenty of skill as he layers on the absurdity until several of the plotlines begin to coalesce.

  The Sauvage family just wants to be loved. Carole is trying to improve her poor reputation among her employees, while Jacques is trying to do the same with his friends. As for their son Blaise, politely, he's about to embark on a revolutionary, violent, and completely impromptu crusade for a girl.
• 
  Blancanieves (2012)

  Review preview for Blancanieves

  Although much of the action is played for dark comedy, Berger undercuts his pastiche with unexpected poignancy at key moments.

  1920s re-imagining of Snow White.
• 
  Blessed (2009)

  Review preview for Blessed

  A slow-burning, emotionally haunting film that thrusts the bond between mother and child under a microscope.

  Seven children wander the streets at night, before we see the odyssey from their mothers' perspective.
• 
  The Blessed (2017)

  Review preview for The Blessed

  Djama immediately captures the sense of old friendships and the way that 'jokes' can carry sentiment that's serious as a heart attack underneath.

  One night in Algiers shows how the shadow of war lingers over multiple generations.
• 
  Blindfold (2020)

  Review preview for Blindfold

  Koshkina gets to the bones of Yulia, whether it's the sinuous moves of a bout or the emotional chess she is playing elsewhere.

  An MMA fighter finds herself torn between a new love and her 'duty' to mourn her fiance, who is a missing, presumed dead, war hero.
• 
  Blindspotting (2018)

  Review preview for Blindspotting

  Has the high-energy crackle and syncopated rhythms of a rap battle.

  A buddy comedy in a world that won't let it be one.
• 
  The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic (2021)

  Review preview for The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic

  Nikki has a light touch with a script that is able to see the funny side of things but which doesn't make light of the medical and societal situations that Jaakko and Sirpa are facing.

  A blind man with MS encounters trouble on a day trip to visit a friend he has never met.
• 
  Blind Spot (2018)

  Review preview for Blind Spot

  The veneer of technical excellence never quite takes your mind off the lack of substance beneath.

  Real time drama about what happens when tragedy strikes a family.
• 
  Blind Spot (2025)

  Review preview for Blind Spot

  Blind Spot makes the point that witnessing something is not sufficient and can lead to passivity and problems if you don’t speak out.

  A day in the life of a woman working at the Fortaleza docks in Brazil.
• 
  B(l)ind The Sacrifice (2024)

  Review preview for B(l)ind The Sacrifice

  There's ambition here that suggests this is the fragment of a feature that Nakhane has in mind.

  A father's faith could fracture his nomadic family.
• 
  Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2022)

  Review preview for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

  The sense of flow extends to the narrative, which weaves together a series of stories, connected not so much by plot intersection as by existential questions of purpose and loss.

  A giant talkative frog, a lost cat, and a tsunami help a bank employee, his wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
• 
  Blinkity Blank (1955)

  Review preview for Blinkity Blank

  Every second of this is a delightful surprise.

  Experimental abstract animation about a bird.
• 
  Blocks (2020)

  Review preview for Blocks

  The film's weakness is that it nicely sets the scene for an existential crisis but treats it so lightly that we are not quite invested enough.

  A woman starts to throw up building bricks.``
• 
  Block Pass (2024)

  Review preview for Block Pass

  Chevrollier captures the amplified mood of teenagehood.

  Willy and Jojo are childhood friends who never leave each other's side. Training at the motocross track is their way to beat boredom. One evening, Willy discovers Jojo's secret.
• 
  Blue Bag Life (2022)

  Review preview for Blue Bag Life

  There's a poignant sense of poetry underlying some of her interactions, while at other times she simply conveys pure rawness of feeling.

  Documentary portrait of a life touched by addiction.
• 
  Blue Caprice (2013)

  Review preview for Blue Caprice

  When it comes to what ultimately drove these two men to kill, Porto and Moors are more interested in difficult questions than easy answers and their film hits its target hard.

  Psychological drama about the men responsible for the Beltway sniper attacks.
• 
  Blue Jean (2022)

  Review preview for Blue Jean

  Everything about McEwen’s performance sings with stress, from the way she reacts to casual comments to the manner in which she lights increasing numbers of cigarettes.

  A schoolteacher is forced to live a double life against the backdrop of Thatcher's Britain.
• 
  Blue Moon (2025)

  Review preview for Blue Moon

  As Blue Moon progresses it becomes clear that the one thing Hart really wants is to be wanted.

  On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical Oklahoma!.
• 
  The Blue Trail (2025)

  Review preview for The Blue Trail

  When you get old, hope you find someone who looks at you the way Mascaro looks at Tereza and Roberta.

  To maximise economic productivity, the government orders the elderly to relocate to distant housing colonies. Tereza, 77, refuses – and instead embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.
• 
  Boatbuilders (2026)

  Review preview for Boatbuilders

  Lorentzen is not looking to question the process but to admire it and, acting as his own cinematographer, he elegantly achieves that goal.

  Consideration of a community of boatbuilders in Maine.
• 
  Bogancloch (2024)

  Review preview for Bogancloch

  If it wasn’t for the excellent, immersive sound design from Chu-Li Shewring, you could easily believe you were watching a piece of silent movie found footage.

  Documentary sequel about a former sailor and his off-the-grid life.
• 
  Boiling Point (2020)

  Review preview for Boiling Point

  Given the state of the things, it's fair to say that some of the situations that will arise are telegraphed ahead of time, but that adds rather than detracts from the tension - after all, aren't all satisfying meals in some ways connected to anticipation?

  The shift has hardly begun for head chef Andy and he’s already behind with everything. His restaurant is overbooked, there’s a disgruntled inspector combing the kitchen and, if that weren’t enough, a culinary icon and a respected food critic have turned up for dinner.
• 
  Bombay Beach (2010)

  Review preview for Bombay Beach

  This is a tough but beautiful landscape and it has bred tough but beautiful people as director Alma Har'el's film goes on to elegantly illustrate.

  Experimental documentary about residents who live on the shores of the Salton Sea.
• 
  Boneshaker

  Review preview for Boneshaker

  This is a fluid film which, though impressionistic in terms of its narrative, carries a weight of emotion and the positive energy of childhood as well as a longing for fundamental connection.

  An African family lost in America travel to a Louisiana church to find a cure for a problem child.
• 
  Bonsái: A Story Of Love, Books And Plants (2011)

  Review preview for Bonsái: A Story Of Love, Books And Plants

  Cristián Jiménez likes quirkiness and his enthusiasm for it, evidenced in his first film Optical Illusions and again here, goes a good way to convincing you to take the ride.

  Tragic-comic love story between two youngsters amid books, literary quotes, coming-togethers and fall-outs.
• 
  The Booksellers (2019)

  Review preview for The Booksellers

  This is an immersive tour of bookselling and collecting that breezes along as pleasantly as a beach read, while still carrying with it chapter and verse.

  A tour of New York’s book world, past and present.
• 
  Booksmart (2019)

  Review preview for Booksmart

  Sure, the familiar kids are here - the athlete bro, the gay guys, the class clown - but the film holds up assumptions to the light, highlighting why it's dangerous to make them and showing empathy for all concerned.

  Two studious high school BFFs decide to seize a last chance to party before graduation.
• 
  Born In Evin (2019)

  Review preview for Born In Evin

  There's a simple and engaging directness to this documentary.

  The story of the family of director and actor Maryam Zaree, who sets out to investigate the circumstances of her birth in one of the world’s most notorious jails for political prisoners.
• 
  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.
• 
  Bouchra (2025)

  Review preview for Bouchra

  This isn’t about rejection but about navigating the difficulties full acceptance bring.

  A New York-based filmmaker writes an autobiographical script about a fictional double, while also appearing in animated form as a coyote moving through a city of furry creatures.
• 
  Boy (2010)

  Review preview for Boy

  This is an upbeat, often hilarious, but never mawkish, celebration of love.

  A Boy and his brother find their fantasy version of their dad is somewhat different to the real deal.