Reviews by Andrew Robertson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  A Late Quartet (2012)

  Review preview for A Late Quartet

  Once it has established itself it unfolds with an almost metronomic inevitability, but for all that, for all that, it still satisfies.

  When a cellist discovers that he has Parkinson's disease, the other members of his successful string quartet find their lives unravelling.
• 
  Launderette (2010)

  Review preview for Launderette

  A lovely little portrait of a nocturnal community.

  A look at the lives of those visiting a launderette.
• 
  Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

  Review preview for Law Abiding Citizen

  Flails about through a series of ostensible set-pieces until it reaches a conclusion that verges on the nonsensical.

  A man whose family has been murdered seeks revenge on the killers - and on the legal personnel who enabled them to escape justice.
• 
  Lessons From The Night (2009)

  Review preview for Lessons From The Night

  An odd but touching little short.

  A cleaner reflects on life.
• 
  Letters To Max (2014)

  Review preview for Letters To Max

  This is a film based upon letter carrying as an act of politics, a text where Mcluhan's "medium is the message" becomes circular.

  The story of the contested state of Abkhazia told though an exchange of letters between the filmmaker and its Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• 
  Letter Tape (2011)

  Review preview for Letter Tape

  A lovely piece of animated documentary, a touching portrait of a small moment in a family's formation.

  Old tape recorded messages of love are resurrected to provide a glimpse back in time.
• 
  Lifestyle (2014)

  Review preview for Lifestyle

  Henrik Anderson's film is a sunny slice of a particular mindset.

  In modern society, death is a scandal. We live in a time when various lifestyle images determine our ideals and our actions.
• 
  Life After Beth (2014)

  Review preview for Life After Beth

  Feels less experimental and alternative than, well, the zombie genre demands.

  Beth dying makes life hard. Beth coming back makes it harder.
• 
  Lin (2010)

  Review preview for Lin

  Lin Clifton carries the film. She is haunted, haunting.

  A mysterious woman arrives at dawn in an unknown country, fleeing some terrible secret in her past.
• 
  Little Men (2016)

  Review preview for Little Men

  The film could be called "old fashioned" but that is rarely a bad thing.

  Caught up in a family feud over rent, two boys respond with a vow of silence.
• 
  Labour (2010)

  Review preview for Labour

  Socha is excellent as always, but Alex Howson as the reappearing resident compels.

  Following an encounter with one of his former charges, Henry reconnects with himself and those who love him.
• 
  The Lady From 406 (2017)

  Review preview for The Lady From 406

  There's a moment where this might be epistolary horror.

  A woman tries to stop smoke from leaking into her home.
• 
  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.
• 
  Landfill (2011)

  Review preview for Landfill

  A woolly-hatted wandering wonderment.

  Something doesn't quite fit about an apparently idyllic landscape.
• 
  Landfill 16 (2011)

  Review preview for Landfill 16

  The widely differentiated effects on individual frames leaves great gulfs between them - startling when presented in succession.

  Old film that has been buried in the ground is resurrected for an exploration of decay.
• 
  Last Breath (2025)

  Review preview for Last Breath

  Establishing shots of boats and docks and archive footage are not only more genuine than the film's version of events but more convincing.

  A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.
• 
  The Last Duel (2021)

  Review preview for The Last Duel

  Everyone involved here has done better elsewhere.

  Based on actual events, this historic drama unravels long-held assumptions about France’s last sanctioned duel between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, two friends turned bitter rivals.
• 
  The Last Illusion (2020)

  Review preview for The Last Illusion

  Gorgeously shot, from from the candlelit parlours of the nouveau riche to the wet streets of a man on his differing uppers.

  Russia. 1910. A once-famous magician has been reduced to a wandering circus artist. He prepares himself for his final performance…
• 
  The Last Photograph (2017)

  Review preview for The Last Photograph

  Huston's performances are astounding.

  A man's life is thrown into turmoil when a vital photograph is stolen.
• 
  Laurent Garnier: Off The Record (2021)

  Review preview for Laurent Garnier: Off The Record

  There are scores of interviewed figures, all sorts of tall tales, but the line between biography and hagiography can be a slim one.

  Profile of the godfather of 1990s techno music.
• 
  Lebensader (2009)

  Review preview for Lebensader

  Angela Steffen's film is amazing, complete and satisfying, brilliant.

  An animation about a small girl who discovers a whole world inside a leaf.
• 
  The Lesson (2023)

  Review preview for The Lesson

  The Lesson is a treat. It's properly constructed, beautifully played. It might not quite cleave to classical unities but it knows enough to weave its course among them.

  A young novelist eager to make a name for himself begins tutoring the son of one of the most influential writers in the world. Good intentions soon give way to suspicion as darker motivations surface and the lines of master and protégé are blurred.
• 
  Lethal Weapon: Director's Cut (1987)

  Review preview for Lethal Weapon: Director's Cut

  A scene where Riggs challenges a school shooter is disturbingly relevant even with 40 years of distance.

  Two newly paired cops who are complete opposites must put aside their differences in order to catch a gang of drug smugglers.
• 
  Leto (2018)

  Review preview for Leto

  There's a good rule of thumb about the quality of a film being inversely proportionate to the number of writers, but Leto's five have summoned something darling and deep, complex and not confused.

  A love triangle emerges around a rock and roll musician, his protege and his wife in Eighties Russia.
• 
  Licht - Stockhausen's Legacy (2022)

  Review preview for Licht - Stockhausen's Legacy

  Licht is a document of brutal honesty.

  The story and work of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
• 
  Life After Flash (2017)

  Review preview for Life After Flash

  The presence of completists and super-fans is helpful, because you do not need to be either to enjoy Life After Flash.

  A look at the life of Sam J Jones, who played Flash Gordon in the 1980 version of the fantasy classic.
• 
  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.
• 
  Light Years (2017)

  Review preview for Light Years

  I'm not sure it constitutes scholarship in and of itself, but it is certainly (as with all good documentary) a satisfying look at something hereto unseen.

  A documentary portrait of Lucrecia Martel during the shooting of Zama.
• 
  Lihya (2010)

  Review preview for Lihya

  The real questions are about why it is that we are watching what we are watching, why it was that it was made.

  A documentary about a Damascan barbershop provides an opportunity for a haircut, a shave and an Arabic lesson.
• 
  Liminality And Communitas (2018)

  Review preview for Liminality And Communitas

  Laura Rantanen's film is sparse, even spare - a sense of space defined by human endeavours at various scales.

  After sundown, a man walks the motorway verges, gathering roadkill. An investigation of the border between life and death, and the edges of the manmade world.
• 
  The Little Mermaid (2023)

  Review preview for The Little Mermaid

  The presence of human faces in some places makes this no less an act of animation than anything made solely of ink on paper.

  A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.
• 
  Little One (2020)

  Review preview for Little One

  As pleasant as this is, their performances might have been better highlighted in a tighter run-time.

  A couple of sisters stick together.
• 
  Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023)

  Review preview for Little Richard: I Am Everything

  For all the debt owed to Sister Rosetta Tharpe the essence here is not translation uncovered but transgression buried. That makes the decision not to further explore these hidden histories all the more surprising.

  This celebration of Little Richard reveals the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, finally exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music.
• 
  The Lives Of Others (2006)

  Review preview for The Lives Of Others

  A chilling, but ultimately uplifting glimpse into the lives of those trapped within the repressive regime of East Germany.

  East German secret police spy on a playwright and follow the course of his life over a number of years.
• 
  Lonely In The Dusk (2018)

  Review preview for Lonely In The Dusk

  I'll give it some credit for looking quite as good as it does.

  Released from a psychiatric hospital where she was 'treated' for her homosexuality, a deaf mute young woman goes looking for her first love.
• 
  Longlegs (2024)

  Review preview for Longlegs

  What Longlegs has in mind worked better by implication.

  In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying spree.
• 
  The Long Walk (2025)

  Review preview for The Long Walk

  Even with the odd flashback it is relentlessly linear.

  A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as 'The Long Walk', in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
• 
  The Long Walk Of The Chameleon (2010)

  Review preview for The Long Walk Of The Chameleon

  It has good performances, especially from the chameleon.

  A journey is interrupted by the sighting of a chameleon, which presages ill fortune.
• 
  The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim (2024)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim

  To mix courtly and cavalry intrigue requires stable footing and the film is well poised.

  A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg.
• 
  Love, Dad (2021)

  Review preview for Love, Dad

  This is striking, innovative, affecting.

  An author rediscovers love letters her dad used to write to her from prison. That love seems to be gone now. She decides to write back in hope to find the connection again.
• 
  Love Forever (2022)

  Review preview for Love Forever

  Earle Dresner's camerawork is as confident and uncertain as adolescence.

  A girl from Canberra navigates the treacherous waters of first love with a boy from Sydney’s Northern beaches.
• 
  The Lucky Ones (2009)

  Review preview for The Lucky Ones

  In just under half an hour we get a glimpse into scores of lives, all just after major changes.

  The comings and goings at a Registry Office in Krakow.
• 
  Luk'Luk'I (2017)

  Review preview for Luk'Luk'I

  This is a film that will keep finding ways to make you feel sad.

  A group of marginalised Vancouverites try to tackle their troubled lives.
• 
  Lumphini 2552 (2009)

  Review preview for Lumphini 2552

  Three minutes that are thing and un-thing, a flicker of stillness.

  Avant garde film using still photography captured in Bangkok's Lumphini Park.
• 
  Luther: Never Too Much (2024)

  Review preview for Luther: Never Too Much

  It might be too much to expect a film to tell a bigger story, but that hope is borne in part because it doesn't really manage to tell a smaller one.

  Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and more. His undeniable talent earned platinum records and accolades, but he struggled to break out beyond the R&B charts. Intensely driven, he overcame personal and professional challenges to secure his place amongst the greatest vocalists in history.
• 
  London Symphony (2017)

  Review preview for London Symphony

  There are comparisons drawn that are powerful, political, provoking.

  A black and white journey through the city of London.
• 
  The Loop (2010)

  Review preview for The Loop

  Luca Cuiti's photography is good, strikingly so.

  In a nightmarish world Lox has to decide whether to abandon hope or face his harsh surroundings. Can Lox temper his defiance and escape the loop?
• 
  Lost In France (2016)

  Review preview for Lost In France

  This is like finding old photos in the cupboard, being prompted to remember.

  Story of a tour by musicians on the Chemikal Underground Records label.
• 
  Lovely Molly (2011)

  Review preview for Lovely Molly

  When it becomes a horror movie it is a good one, but when it is not a horror movie it is a great one.

  Alone in the house she grew up in, Molly uses a camera to try and capture the thing she thinks is stalking her.
• 
  Love Film Festival (2014)

  Review preview for Love Film Festival

  As a project, Love Film Festival is impressive - four directors, four countries, polylingual, starting in 2009 and finishing (by my arithmetic) in 2016. As a film, maybe less so.

  A love affair set against the backdrop of the short film festival circuit.