Reviews by Andrew Robertson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022)

  Review preview for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

  An entertaining slice of ludicrously over-powered martial action with some broad comedy too.

  Piccolo and his former student Gohan go on a mission to save the world.
• 
  Children Of The Mist (2021)

  Review preview for Children Of The Mist

  I have been discomfited watching films before but the anguish here is so genuinely and affectingly captured that it is almost unbearable.

  Documentary about the indigenous Hmong ethnic minority in Vietnam's northern mountainous region, focusing on a youngster who faces the prospect of an unsettling matrimonial custom.
• 
  Mediterranean Fever (2022)

  Review preview for Mediterranean Fever

  It might be that my empathy was miscalibrated that day, but I came out of Mediterranean Fever feeling worse than when I went in.

  Drama charts the unlikely bond between two very different Arab family men living in the Israeli port city of Haifa.
• 
  Clean (2022)

  Review preview for Clean

  There's so much here that, as with cleaning, it goes through the fabric, past the underling, to the structure, the joists, the soil.

  When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother.
• 
  Earwig (2021)

  Review preview for Earwig

  Earwig invites you to listen, to put out feelers, to scurry.

  Somewhere in Europe, mid-20th century. Albert is employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice. Mia never leaves their apartment, where the shutters are always closed. The telephone rings regularly and the Master enquires after Mia’s wellbeing. Until the day Albert is instructed that he must prepare the child to leave...
• 
  Rooted (2022)

  Review preview for Rooted

  Deep and fast and shocking is the film.

  A man gets his DNA test results in and is surprised to find a mysterious West African wood mask included in the box. One that give him nightmarish visions of his ancestors’ slave dungeon whenever worn.
• 
  Cruise (2021)

  Review preview for Cruise

  Sam Rudykoff's film adds to a canon of telephone terrors.

  With sweat-soaked skin, in a state of mortal fear, a man is forced to make lame telemarketing calls to strangers.
• 
  Scooter (2022)

  Review preview for Scooter

  Anita Abinezhad's central performance is compelling, bold and bargaining.

  Abandoned on the street by her boyfriend in the dead of night, a woman picks a scooter up off the sidewalk and rides towards her destiny.
• 
  Good Boy (2022)

  Review preview for Good Boy

  The spirit of the thing is fun and frightening in equal measures.

  Not everyone can be a dog sitter. A young woman learns this the hard way when the tiny Pomeranian she’s hired to watch reveals itself to be a deranged murder junkie.
• 
  Infectious Nihilism And Small Metallic Pieces Of Hope (2021)

  Review preview for Infectious Nihilism And Small Metallic Pieces Of Hope

  There's a whole set of semiotics, tracksuits and jackets, Berghaus and Buckfast.

  An impressionable youngster is thrust into a dangerous and adult world when he is initiated into a gang made up of older locals.
• 
  Bob's Burgers: The Movie (2022)

  Review preview for Bob's Burgers: The Movie

  Well executed and simply done is the essence of a good burger, and the movie manages it.

  The Belchers try to save the restaurant from closing as a sinkhole forms in front of it, while the kids try to solve a mystery that could save their family's restaurant.
• 
  Red Room (2021)

  Review preview for Red Room

  Another showcase for Ferguson's technique, his very distinctive eye.

  A relationship between three friends is fractured after a reality-destroying moment of possession.
• 
  Dreaming Walls (2022)

  Review preview for Dreaming Walls

  Dreaming Walls is less a documentary than an attempt at a sense memory.

  Documents a critical juncture in the Chelsea Hotel's history, as it prepares to evict longtime residents and transform into a luxury hotel.
• 
  Everything Everywhere All At Once (2021)

  Review preview for Everything Everywhere All At Once

  Everything Everywhere All At Once is bravura, high concept, unhinged and beautifully crafted.

  A science fiction action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman who can't seem to finish her taxes.
• 
  The Northman (2022)

  Review preview for The Northman

  This is a story informed by stories.

  The son of a Viking king is out for vegeance.
• 
  I Am Zlatan (2021)

  Review preview for I Am Zlatan

  Despite two strong central performances, this is a partial story, partially told.

  Son of Balkan immigrants Zlatan Ibrahimovic, born in Sweden, becomes, after a rough childhood, a Swedish football champion of several decades.
• 
  Diabolik (2021)

  Review preview for Diabolik

  Diabolik is a protagonist, but not a likeable one. Not only an antihero, a murderer. Luca Marinelli has charisma in spades, but not here.

  The story of the first meeting between master thief Diabolik and Eva Kant, set in the fictional state of Clerville in the late 1960s. Inspector Ginko is on the hunt for the criminal, trying to thwart his plans.
• 
  Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

  Review preview for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

  To consider it alone is to find oneself with antagonists whose motivation(s) seem lacking, protagonists whose character arcs may seem shallow, and to wonder what might have been.

  Dr Strange tries to protect a girl who can jump between points in the multiverse.
• 
  Blue Eyes (2021)

  Review preview for Blue Eyes

  At 86 minutes it absolutely whips along, but still finds time for dozens of moments of genuine beauty.

  A thief on a motorbike taunts the police in Rome.
• 
  Too Rough (2022)

  Review preview for Too Rough

  Ruaridh Mollica and Joshua Griffin produce astonishing performances.

  What can happen when the families we’re born into and the families we make for ourselves collide.
• 
  Lancaster (2022)

  Review preview for Lancaster

  There are interesting stories here, but in trying to span them all it doesn't quite succeed.

  A documentary about the Lancaster bomber, a plane synonymous with the Dambusters and night raids on Nazi Germany.
• 
  The Bayview (2021)

  Review preview for The Bayview

  It's one where the camera less becomes a fly on the wall than a sleeping dog in front of the fireplace, one where the comfort of the subjects gives us a better insight into them.

  A glimpse into the world of a family who have turned the previously derelict hotel into a place of respite for international fishermen when they come to land.
• 
  Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

  Review preview for Top Gun: Maverick

  Things going fast and blowing up is fun to watch.

  Maverick, now a trainer, encounters the son of his old friend Goose.
• 
  Idrish (2021)

  Review preview for Idrish

  An act of scholarship, contrast.

  Found footage and archival sound come together as an urgent and potent piece of anti-deportation activism.
• 
  Go Home (2021)

  Review preview for Go Home

  Razan Madhoon's film is a gut-punch, a wrenching.

  When a young Palestinian woman tries to claim asylum in the UK, she faces the indifference of British bureaucracy.
• 
  Under The Fig Trees (2021)

  Review preview for Under The Fig Trees

  The stories that bloom here are rooted in the real, jacketed in the bruised flesh of familiar harms.

  Among the trees, young women and men working the summer harvest develop new feelings, flirt, try to understand each other, find – and flee – deeper connections.
• 
  Born In Damascus (2021)

  Review preview for Born In Damascus

  This is meditative, melancholy, moving.

  After ten years apart, a Scottish filmmaker tries to reconnect with her closest cousin after their paths were separated by war.
• 
  Father Stu (2022)

  Review preview for Father Stu

  This is an oddity, a curiosity, a mystery not so much in the sense of a religious play but in its intent.

  The story of a boxer-turned-priest who inspired countless people during his journey from self-destruction to redemption.
• 
  Life Of Riley (2022)

  Review preview for Life Of Riley

  It is a film made hard to read, hard to endure.

  A headstrong homeless man must take responsibility for his own actions after his dog is hurt.
• 
  Kin (2021)

  Review preview for Kin

  A bewitching thing.

  The fractured relationship between a mother and daughter in crisis.
• 
  The Tyranny Of Petty Things (2021)

  Review preview for The Tyranny Of Petty Things

  This is a story that is at once deeply personal and indicative of changing attitudes.

  James Bushe's journey has been a turbulent one. Here we accompany James on a flight through personal and cultural memory.
• 
  We Know A Better Word Than Happy (2021)

  Review preview for We Know A Better Word Than Happy

  Weans in hi-viz and high excitement, running and playing and shouting and learning. It is a delight to watch them at play.

  Following lockdown, children from Maryhill in Glasgow express their rights to outdoor play and learning as they explore a green space that was established through 10 years of community activism.
• 
  Field Notes On Love (2020)

  Review preview for Field Notes On Love

  It's in the messy business of definition that the film starts to explore where things end and things begin.

  Essay about a filmmaker in a relationship with a woodland ecologist.
• 
  First Step Swim (2021)

  Review preview for First Step Swim

  Caitlin McMullan's film is a delight.

  Delving into deep water, a disabled woman finds a sense of wholeness.
• 
  Morbius (2022)

  Review preview for Morbius

  In any film franchise there's got to be one that's the least good, and this is it.

  Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.
• 
  Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)

  Review preview for Sonic The Hedgehog 2

  Mostly harmless.

  When the manic Dr Robotnik returns to Earth with a new ally, Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic and his new friend Tails are all that stands in their way.
• 
  Such Small Hands (2020)

  Review preview for Such Small Hands

  The transition from outsider to insider, the uneasy space between protagonist, antagonist, even the chemistry with the other girls singly and collectively all speak to a delicacy that reflects the script.

  ​At the girls' orphanage, the group’s unchecked pack mentality alienates a new arrival, who invents a new nighttime game.
• 
  There Is A Ghost Of Me (2021)

  Review preview for There Is A Ghost Of Me

  Everywhere ghosts, not just of motion, blur, of building, concrete carcass and serried stairs untroubled by the feet that no longer walk upon them.

  An attempt at mourning both personal and political futures that never arrived, organised around a broad interpretation of the trope of the ghost.
• 
  Visitors (2021)

  Review preview for Visitors

  The line between horror and humour is at least as thin as that veil between the worlds, and crossing it can bring all sorts of things back. This is one of them.

  Haruka, Nana, and Takanori visit the house of Souta, a band member who has lost contact with them. But when they arrive, they find Souta's behavior a little strange.
• 
  The Rhythm Section (2020)

  Review preview for The Rhythm Section

  That list of clichés includes not just crosses and double crosses, tradecraft and techniques, the whole business of business becoming personal. Among them though, some moments of invention.

  A woman seeks revenge against those who orchestrated a plane crash which killed her family.
• 
  Impossible Figures And Other Stories I (2021)

  Review preview for Impossible Figures And Other Stories I

  Pajek's animation is striking, pencilled lines and negative spaces creating something distinctive and delightful.

  Following an explosion, a mysterious and elegant elderly woman wanders deserted city streets, recalling what was and what could have been.
• 
  All Of Your Stars Are But Dust On My Shoes (2021)

  Review preview for All Of Your Stars Are But Dust On My Shoes

  From the colonial to the occupying, this is wide ranging as an exploration of something fundamental to cinema.

  A sensorial meditation on how the public administration of light and darkness became an essential policing tool.
• 
  Will My Parents Come To See Me (2022)

  Review preview for Will My Parents Come To See Me

  Mo Harawe's film is stunning.

  An experienced Somali prison officer accompanies a young inmate once again through the procedures of the Somali justice system.
• 
  I Gotta Look Good For The Apocalypse (2021)

  Review preview for I Gotta Look Good For The Apocalypse

  At under six minutes Kartal's piece can only gloss over what amount to highlights.

  Our world is being drained of its substance and digital life forms are multiplying, like these couples who meet in a virtual universe.
• 
  The Bad Guys (2022)

  Review preview for The Bad Guys

  A heist movie that should be given the chance to steal the attention of a variety of audiences.

  Several reformed yet misunderstood criminal animals attempt to become good, with some disastrous results along the way.
• 
  Naya (2021)

  Review preview for Naya

  Rooted in almost deliberately archaic choices like pixel fonts and static, Sebastian Mulder's film is a stunning piece of documentary.

  She-wolf Naya, monitored on her journey from her birthplace in Germany through the Netherlands to Belgium, becomes more and more famous and visible.
• 
  The Dinner After (2021)

  Review preview for The Dinner After

  This is a simple tale, simply done, but strong for it.

  A guilt-stricken Angela, visits her parents for what at first seems to be a routine family dinner, only for a painful truth to bubble to the surface, and the evening descends into a nightmare.
• 
  Displaced (2021)

  Review preview for Displaced

  It is a fascinating piece, beautifully constructed and observed.

  ​In post-war Kosovo, driven by the ambition of keeping their beloved sport alive, two local table tennis players wander from one obscure location to another.
• 
  Neon Phantom (2021)

  Review preview for Neon Phantom

  There are so many moments of beauty in this that it amounts to a gallery, a gathering.

  João works on the streets of Rio de Janeiro as a delivery driver in the so-called gig economy. He and his friend dream about buying a motorcycle, travelling the country, and transforming their lives into a musical.
• 
  Further And Further Away (2021)

  Review preview for Further And Further Away

  Vincent Villa's sound means we can hear the water even when we cannot see it, feel it when we can do both.

  A young Indigenous Bunong woman and her brother spend one last day in their village, before moving to the capital in search of a more prosperous life.