Reviews by Anne-Katrin Titze

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  20,000 Days On Earth (2014)

  Review preview for 20,000 Days On Earth

  Pollard and Forsyth, who have previously worked with Cave on Bad Seeds videos, turn inner states into inhabitable rooms. What is real and what is unreal is not for the audience to guess.

  An intimate portrait of Nick Cave.
• 
  20th Century Women (2016)

  Review preview for 20th Century Women

  Annette Bening gives a glorious, all-encompassing performance.

  The story of three women in 1979 southern California.
• 
  40-Love (2014)

  Review preview for 40-Love

  Gourmet is phenomenal as the shopping centre aficionado who makes us understand a little more why the world is in the state it is in today.

  When a man loses his job he is forced to become more involved with his tennis prodigy son.
• 
  Abuse Of Weakness (2013)

  Review preview for Abuse Of Weakness

  Breillat shows from her own experience with having suffered a stroke and the camera tells of the hospital and the patient's progress in a tone that is unsentimental, poignant, free.

  Film about Catherine Breillat’s 2004 stroke and subsequent self-destructive relationship with star swindler Christophe Rocancourt.
• 
  Adieu, Lacan (2022)

  Review preview for Adieu, Lacan

  Director Richard Ledes and cinematographer Valentina Caniglia use the camera in this black and white movie to explore, at times in amusing ways, the power dynamics at play.

  After two miscarriages and - in her own words - "losing" her husband - a Brazilian woman goes to Paris to see Jacques Lacan, reputedly "the most controversial psychoanalyst since Freud."
• 
  Afire (2023)

  Review preview for Afire

  Petzold’s most literary film to date.

  Tensions and desire bloom among five people at a holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
• 
  Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)

  Review preview for Ain't Them Bodies Saints

  Lowery's nostalgia works because it is so sincere and does not question America's fascination with Bonnie and Clyde as an excuse for bad deeds.

  Love story about an escaped outlaw and the wife who waits for him.
• 
  Aleph (2021)

  Review preview for Aleph

  Aleph shows how big our world is, how manifold, how beautiful, and how the really important riddles are the same for everybody.

  The director takes a puzzle-like approach, inspired by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges
• 
  Alex Wheatle (2020)

  Review preview for Alex Wheatle

  Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner miraculously positions us in the middle of the chaotic and dangerous atmosphere during the protest and is equally good at capturing intimate moments of anguish.

  The true story of the award-winning writer, from childhood in a mostly white institutional care home to his early adult years.
• 
  All To Play For (2023)

  Review preview for All To Play For

  All To Play For questions much and wagers on love and sunshine.

  A mum battles to get her child back after an injury while she was out sees him taken into care.
• 
  Amanda (2018)

  Review preview for Amanda

  We cry with Amanda and David and when the sun comes through again, their smiles are like a gift.

  A man assumes a new responsibility for his niece as a potential guardian.
• 
  American Hustle (2013)

  Review preview for American Hustle

  Bradley Cooper as Richie gives the finest madcap performance of his career.

  A con man is forced to work for a rogue FBI agent.
• 
  Anaïs In Love (2021)

  Review preview for Anaïs In Love

  The film’s fast flowing current carries a number of character messages we can fish out, as if they were polished by the stream, all shiny and specific.

  A woman in her early thirties goes full steam ahead in pursuit of experiences which come and go at a fast pace.
• 
  Annette (2021)

  Review preview for Annette

  I could not have wished for a more perfect first film to wean me back into the in-cinema press screening world I left behind in March 2020.

  A stand-up comedian and his opera singer wife have a daughter with a surprising gift.
• 
  Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (2017)

  Review preview for Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco

  Kindness and joy not always come to mind when one thinks of the fashion world. This is the rare portrait where they do. As the documentary unfolds, we marvel at the diversity, the celebratory mood.

  Documentary about the fashion illustrator.
• 
  Aquarius (2016)

  Review preview for Aquarius

  The closer the glance at the specifics, the more universal the plight becomes.

  A retired music critic is the last resident of a building targeted by developers - she becomes engaged in a cold war of sorts with the company.
• 
  The Artist (2011)

  Review preview for The Artist

  I cannot remember the last time a film made me cry and laugh out loud half a minute later, especially not in public. The Artist did that.

  A silent film star fears the advent of the 'talkies' will end his career.
• 
  The Assistant (2025)

  Review preview for The Assistant

  Like a palimpsest, layers of history shine through the sunlight on the garden and lurk in the shadows of the parlour.

  An engineer and inventor's live-in assistant finds himself trapped in a world that doesn't know what to do with him.
• 
  At Any Price (2012)

  Review preview for At Any Price

  Dennis Quaid plays Henry Whipple with so much tension in his face that you might expect a little alien to pop out of his temple at any given moment.

  A story of fathers and sons set against the backdrop of an Iowa farming community.
• 
  Augustine (2012)

  Review preview for Augustine

  Augustine belongs to a family of movies that scrutinise the social construct of illness, not with a lecture but with a wayward glance.

  A professor studying 'hysteria' in the 1890s finds himself attracted to one of his patients.
• 
  August: Osage County (2013)

  Review preview for August: Osage County

  We witness the best ensemble acting in a film with actresses in leading roles that Hollywood has produced this year.

  A dysfunctional family comes together to deal with a crisis.
• 
  Axiom (2022)

  Review preview for Axiom

  The way doubt starts to enter into everything we hear from any of the characters is subtly orchestrated.

  A well-liked young museum attendant invites his colleagues on a sailing trip on his aristocratic family’s boat, but all is not quite as it seems.
• 
  Azor (2021)

  Review preview for Azor

  Many doors are not very open, they give us merely a little glimpse into a strange world.

  Thriller set in the world of high finance.
• 
  All The Money In The World (2017)

  Review preview for All The Money In The World

  These are the pigments of luminous cinema.

  The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.
• 
  And While We Were Here (2012)

  Review preview for And While We Were Here

  Even a flawed film can sometimes produce that extra lightness in one's step.

  A couple head to Naples to try to revive their marriage.
• 
  Anthropoid (2016)

  Review preview for Anthropoid

  The final 20 minutes turn the screen into a video game.

  Based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the WWII mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution and the Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler.
• 
  Arthur Miller: Writer (2017)

  Review preview for Arthur Miller: Writer

  We get family background and find out why fathers are always mythological figures.

  A documentary exploring the life and work of Arthur Miller.
• 
  The Assassin (2015)

  Review preview for The Assassin

  The production and costume design by Huang Wen-ying combine historical accuracy with a revelation of detailed splendour.

  Action, drama and romance set during the Tang Dynasty.
• 
  Bastards (2013)

  Review preview for Bastards

  The precision of Claire Denis' perplexities, the ardent blows that fire at the heart and the head, are unequaled in her film Bastards (Les Salauds).

  A vengeful man sets out to find out about the businessman who caused his family's ruin.
• 
  Battle Of The Sexes (2017)

  Review preview for Battle Of The Sexes

  Everything feels alive and the production design by Judy Becker is impeccable.

  True story of the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
• 
  Babi Yar. Context (2021)

  Review preview for Babi Yar. Context

  The way June 1941 is presented here, the looming warfare seems to happen in the present

  Nazi troops massacre 33,771 Jews in Kyiv over a two-day period in September 1941.
• 
  Bacurau (2019)

  Review preview for Bacurau

  Creates a unique and eerily grounded suspense that transcends genre.

  Villagers sold as human prey defend themselves from hunters using a psychotropic drug.
• 
  Barbie (2023)

  Review preview for Barbie

  We all at some point in early childhood learn the difference between inanimate objects and sentient beings, but in some secret corner, doubt may linger on.

  Barbie suffers a crisis which leads her to question her world and her existence.
• 
  The Beast (2023)

  Review preview for The Beast

  The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are so desperately relevant today that it leaves one breathless.

  In the near future a woman decides to purify her DNA in a machine that takes her into her past lives. Then she meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she had always known him.
• 
  A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)

  Review preview for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

  You cannot have too much Mister Rogers, the film shows.

  A dramatisation of the real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod.
• 
  Becoming Cousteau (2021)

  Review preview for Becoming Cousteau

  The clothes they wear make you swoon and the colourised underwater images do the rest to transport us into a magical world.

  Profile of the undersea explorer.
• 
  Beginning (2020)

  Review preview for Beginning

  The lengths of time the shots last and the camera angles that hide more context than they reveal are what formally is most striking about Beginning. But it is the story that sticks with you.

  In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah Witness community is attacked by an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict, the familiar world of Yana, the wife of the community leader, slowly crumbles.
• 
  Below The Clouds (2025)

  Review preview for Below The Clouds

  Rosi expertly paints a picture of a community with all its widely varied facets.

  Documenting Vesuvius, featuring traces of history, the excavation of time, the remains of everyday life.
• 
  The Bling Ring (2013)

  Review preview for The Bling Ring

  The Bling Ring cuts through the vapid foam to the vapid core to ask questions about morality, responsibility and where desolate idleness may lead.

  A group of teenage fans monitors celebrities' activities over the internet in order to rob their homes.
• 
  The Blue Caftan (2022)

  Review preview for The Blue Caftan

  Covert glances and dauntless gestures between the three protagonists, that keep us guessing about who knows what, weave a web as diaphanous as the stitching on fine cloth.

  Halim and Mina own a small family tailor shop that specializes in sewing ceremonial caftans. Since traditional hand-crafted work is time-consuming, Halim decides to hire an assistant, Youssef. The presence of the attractive young man arouses long-suppressed feelings in Halim, something that does not go unnoticed by his wife Mina.
• 
  Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)

  Review preview for Blue Is The Warmest Colour

  A commanding painting of passions, relationships and enlightenment.

  Two young women fall unexpectedly and passionately in love.
• 
  Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story (2024)

  Review preview for Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

  An overflowing life is presented to us through archival interviews and film clips, and most revealingly through on-camera insights from O’Brien herself.

  A portrayal of Irish writer Edna O'Brien's writing, loves, stardom, and unconventional life.
• 
  Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017)

  Review preview for Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

  Her life story plays out like an adventure novel overflowing with intrigue.

  A documentary about the celebrated actress and inventor.
• 
  The Boy And The Heron (2023)

  Review preview for The Boy And The Heron

  The hand-drawn beauty of the images always connects to ideas, something grander that we have yet to find out about.

  A teenager, haunted by his mother’s tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, who bears a striking resemblance to his mum. His strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who dubs him the “long-awaited one.”
• 
  Braguino (2017)

  Review preview for Braguino

  With indelible images born from an unflinching gaze, Clément Cogitore's Braguino lets us feel enraptured in an impossible community - cradled by archaic myth and awed by a sublime nature.

  Documentary about a remote Siberian town and a feud between two families who live there.
• 
  Breaking The Ice (2022)

  Review preview for Breaking The Ice

  Stern takes her time letting us discover what really concerns her characters, their hard shells and vulnerable cores.

  An Austrian woman escapes from the pressure of running her family’s vineyard by playing ice hockey. Then a new player arrives to challenge her rigid worldview, leading to a life-changing night on the streets of Vienna.
• 
  Breath (2017)

  Review preview for Breath

  Samson Coulter and Ben Spence give startling, intensely physical performances.

  Two teenage boys form an unlikely friendship and embark on adventure.
• 
  Breuer's Bohemia (2021)

  Review preview for Breuer's Bohemia

  The more personal the remembrances get, the more we can fill in what it must have been like to grow up in a world where the architecture provided a feeling of calm and order, while the personal lives of the adults were causing havoc all around

  A documentary exploring a series of homes designed by legendary architect Marcel Breuer.
• 
  Brighton 4th (2021)

  Review preview for Brighton 4th

  After the fantastic opening scene, snapshots of their life in Georgia set the tone.

  The story of a Georgian wrestler, Kakhi, en route to Brooklyn to help his son out of a gambling debt.
• 
  The Brutalist (2024)

  Review preview for The Brutalist

  A past shines through another layer of the past into a silver screen present that is both familiar and brand-new.

  When visionary architect László Tóth flees post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild his legacy and witness the birth of modern America, his life is changed forever by a wealthy client.