Reviews by Andrew Robertson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Immaculates (2013)

  Review preview for The Immaculates

  Strikingly presented.

  Tensions rise after a teenage Italian girl is apparently attacked by Roma boys.
• 
  Inertia (2008)

  Review preview for Inertia

  This is a tiny film at just two minutes in length, but it's a lot of fun.

  Exploration of the difficulties of running in a suit of armour.
• 
  Infini (2015)

  Review preview for Infini

  It doesn't so much feel old-fashioned as it does out of time.

  A futuristic search and rescue team try to rescue a soldier from an off-world mining facility.
• 
  The Infinite Man (2014)

  Review preview for The Infinite Man

  A beautiful piece of clockwork film-making, full of parts that rotate to change meaning.

  What would happen if you could rewrite the past - again?
• 
  Isabella (2015)

  Review preview for Isabella

  A technically accomplished portrait of aging and an individual.

  At 92, Isabella struggles to hold onto her memories and sense of identity.
• 
  It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012)

  Review preview for It's Such A Beautiful Day

  Hertzfeldt is inordinately talented. This is a beautiful film.

  Bill struggles to piece his life together.
• 
  I Am Tom Moody (2012)

  Review preview for I Am Tom Moody

  A confident and assured portrayal of a distinct lack of confidence and assurance.

  A peek inside the mind of a singer with musician's block.
• 
  Jack (2014)

  Review preview for Jack

  Ivo Pietzcker's performance is amazing.

  A boy and his younger brother go in search of their mum after she disappears.
• 
  Jack Strong (2014)

  Review preview for Jack Strong

  Bilov's turn is excellent, working well with the rest of the cast to create an air of menace around him that never disappates.

  A spy thriller about a man who rebels against the Soviet system in which he has grown up.
• 
  Jalainur (2008)

  Review preview for Jalainur

  That which is seen is beautiful, that which is unseen intriguing.

  An ageing train driver decides to visit his family and ends up on a road trip through China with his young apprentice.
• 
  Jar City (2006)

  Review preview for Jar City

  The cinematography is startling, beautiful, haunting.

  A trio of detectives investigate a murder in Iceland.
• 
  Jeffrey And The Dinosaurs (2008)

  Review preview for Jeffrey And The Dinosaurs

  There's something in the presentation of him that grates, that discomfits. It is on par with the exploitation of children, an unkindness.

  A short documentary about a man whose struggle to overcome daily obstacles has produced an astonishing universe of outsider science fiction.
• 
  Jerry And Me (2012)

  Review preview for Jerry And Me

  This is an autobiographical film about someone's love, and love is the right word, a love of film.

  Autobiographical musings on history, gender, ethnicity and cultural identity as understood through the director's connection with comedian Jerry Lewis.
• 
  Jimmy (2011)

  Review preview for Jimmy

  Smith's restraint and Jimmy's drive combine to make a powerful portrait of a man and his work.

  A documentary about a disability rights campaigner who suffers from cerebral palsy.
• 
  Jaén, Virgin And Extra (2018)

  Review preview for Jaén, Virgin And Extra

  Gentle, entertaining, functional.

  Documentary about the Jaén region and olive oil.
• 
  Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

  Review preview for Johnny Mnemonic

  The film still doesn't work, but not for lack of effort expended.

  A courier who transports data in his brain faces a race against time and those who want the information he is carrying.
• 
  John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

  Review preview for John Wick: Chapter 4

  I can't really fault the action sequences. I can take issue with just about everything else.

  Wick faces a new foe.
• 
  Journey (2021)

  Review preview for Journey

  Small touches like the shape of the buzzing of a phone give us room to reminisce.

  An animated journey by rail.
• 
  Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 3D (2008)

  Review preview for Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 3D

  Great fun.

  An expedition discovers another world hidden beneath the Earth's crust in this reimagining of the Jules Verne classic.
• 
  Jujuba (2018)

  Review preview for Jujuba

  The tale it tells is told well enough, but this is a film that has paid close attention to process.

  The shiny red skin of the jujube brings back vague memories of the director's stepmother, recreated on expired film.
• 
  Junk (2011)

  Review preview for Junk

  A vertiginous crane, the shadowy physicians, the Leviathan-punctuated roiling seascape all invite ever further attention.

  What happens when an obssession with junk food goes too far...
• 
  Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

  Review preview for Jurassic World: Rebirth

  That so much of the product placement is different kinds of candy is what's going on here: it's more of the same, maybe with one new ingredient, but familiar, safely packaged, brightly coloured, and quick.

  An expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
• 
  Juror #2 (2024)

  Review preview for Juror #2

  Both sides of the political spectrum have arguments about how the law and justice are not the same. While Callahan and his .44 were making that case one bullet at a time, Juror #2 is a lot slower, with plenty more sitting down.

  A family man, serving as a juror in a high profile murder trial, finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma when he realises that he could sway the jury verdict and potentially convict - or free - the wrong person.
• 
  Just Charlie (2017)

  Review preview for Just Charlie

  The heart of the film is a performance from Harry Gilby, in a feature debut - ably managing to convey not only the struggles but the strengths of young Charlie in the face of any number of vicissitudes.

  The life of a young football prodigy is turned upside down after they come out as transgender.
• 
  Jonathan's Chest (2014)

  Review preview for Jonathan's Chest

  With three strong performances, a great score, and a crisp eye, Jonathan's Chest conceals riches.

  Everything changes for Alex, a troubled teenage boy, when he is awoken one night by someone claiming to be his brother, who disappeared years earlier.
• 
  Journal And Remarks (2009)

  Review preview for Journal And Remarks

  What grates is that the film cannot stand alone, but more so that even with support it falters.

  Images from the Galapagos intermingle with pages from Darwin's book A Voyage Of The Beagle.
• 
  June 6th (2010)

  Review preview for June 6th

  Simply done, yet all the more powerful for it.

  Documenting the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
• 
  Just Before Dawn (2010)

  Review preview for Just Before Dawn

  There's certainly potential, and talent, but nothing comes of it.

  Two women try to rediscover their youth an an isolated countryside party.
• 
  Kadambari (2016)

  Review preview for Kadambari

  As a poem of tones and moods it jars and soothes in unequal measure.

  Kadambari drifts into her unconscious, lingering as a stranger to her latent anxieties that remain laced with the numbness of a riots-stricken homeland.
• 
  Kaiju Bunraku (2017)

  Review preview for Kaiju Bunraku

  A delight of hybrid vigour.

  Here's a day in the life of a husband and wife living in a world of giant monsters.
• 
  Kaleidoscope (2016)

  Review preview for Kaleidoscope

  Serious acting, but it becomes something other, something smaller than its stage.

  Psychological thriller sees an ex-con trying to adjust to freedom, whose life is challenged by his controlling mother.
• 
  Kamakshi (2015)

  Review preview for Kamakshi

  Executed crisply it raises more questions than it should consider answering.

  An elderly woman digs a well with the help of her horse.
• 
  Karama Has No Walls (2012)

  Review preview for Karama Has No Walls

  Sara Ishaq's film is unflinching.

  A look inside the 2011 Yemeni uprising.
• 
  Karmok (2012)

  Review preview for Karmok

  If prompting an audience to think of other things it's usually prudent to bring their attention back.

  A short film about movement.
• 
  Kin (2010)

  Review preview for Kin

  Beercan aeroplanes in stark-white skies, wire-wheeled wonders carrying characters and plot.

  Photography and recycling in Kinshasa.
• 
  The King Of Pigs (2011)

  Review preview for The King Of Pigs

  This film efficiently uses animation to produce genuine moments of horror.

  This animation portrays the brutal world of school bullying as the starting point for a lifelong perpetuation of the instinct for violent revenge.
• 
  Kirkcaldy Man (2011)

  Review preview for Kirkcaldy Man

  This is a film of limited scope and surprising vista.

  A documentary about Jocky Wilson, his home town of Kirkcaldy and the mystery of his disappearance.
• 
  Karmalink (2021)

  Review preview for Karmalink

  This film bears strange and delightful fruit without affecting its sweetness, its surprise.

  In a near-future world, a boy and his friend try to untangle the mystery of his past-life dreams.
• 
  The Killer (2023)

  Review preview for The Killer

  There's a disassociation between the original's ennui and what might be the consequences of sleep deprivation. There's also a rebalancing of its violence, and it might be that which most discomfits.

  After a fateful near miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.
• 
  Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023)

  Review preview for Killers Of The Flower Moon

  It is Scorsese at his, one hesitates to say peak, but absolute.

  Members of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major FBI investigation involving J Edgar Hoover.
• 
  Kin (2021)

  Review preview for Kin

  A bewitching thing.

  The fractured relationship between a mother and daughter in crisis.
• 
  The King And I (2017)

  Review preview for The King And I

  An astonishing piece of cinema.

  A fly-on-the-wall view of Graham's life and home.
• 
  The Kite Runner (2007)

  Review preview for The Kite Runner

  There's no denying the Taliban are and were horrible people, but here they are grotesque, even to the point of comedy.

  Epic tale of friendship and family, set in Afghanistan.
• 
  Kneecap (2024)

  Review preview for Kneecap

  It's got the musicality that proper swearing should.

  There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the North of Ireland. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This anarchic Belfast trio becomes the unlikely figurehead of a civil rights movement to save the mother tongue.
• 
  Knock At The Cabin (2023)

  Review preview for Knock At The Cabin

  While it's familiar enough to ring a bell, it struggles to straddle a line of uncertainty.

  While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.
• 
  Kraven The Hunter (2024)

  Review preview for Kraven The Hunter

  A film doesn't have to have a message, or a moral; indeed if its only motive is mercenary then that's fine, as long as it entertains. Kraven just doesn't.

  Kraven's complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
• 
  (k)now (t)here (2011)

  Review preview for (k)now (t)here

  Even a failed experiment tells us something, and here what we are told is that it's not as entertaining as one would hope to watch people one doesn't know filming their travels in a vague and context free way.

  A series of journeys breaks down into patterns of movement in this experimental short.
• 
  L'Assenza (2013)

  Review preview for L'Assenza

  A tale that's rich in allusion without its various acts of homage becoming too heavy-handed.

  A man becomes obsessed by the presence of his double in an old Italian film.
• 
  The Last House On The Left (2009)

  Review preview for The Last House On The Left

  The Last House On The Left is just not very good.

  A gang unwittingly take refuge in the house of the parents of a girl they have just raped.
• 
  The Last Station (2012)

  Review preview for The Last Station

  This is a film that is at times painfully beautiful, with some striking sequences that are painterly in their execution.

  A contemplative film about the elderly residents of a Chilean nursing home.