Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Dreamland (2019)

  Review preview for Dreamland

  A bittersweet vision of America barrelling down a two-lane road to nowhere.

  Amid the dust storms and economic depression of Dustbowl Era Oklahoma, Eugene Evans finds his family farm on the brink of foreclosure. His last bet to save the farm is the bounty on the head of fugitive bank robber Allison Wells.
• 
  Echo (2019)

  Review preview for Echo

  The disparate vignettes of Echo are held together by strange rhymes and resonances.

  A portrait of modern Icelandic society.
• 
  Looted (2019)

  Review preview for Looted

  Looted is all at once a localised crime drama, a tale of a difficult yet loving father-son relationship, an exploration of escapism's price, and a social realist anatomisation of a community.

  Rob spends his days stealing cars with his gang in a town on the English coast... but at night he returns home to his terminally ill dad.
• 
  A Family (2019)

  Review preview for A Family

  Funny, bleak and profound.

  A lonely man seeks emotional refuge in the organising and documenting of family moments using low-grade impersonators. When his fake sister becomes inspired to follow his method, their relationship struggles between the forged and genuine.
• 
  Girl With No Mouth (2019)

  Review preview for Girl With No Mouth

  On the one hand, a parable of corporate greed and exploitation, and of society's treatment of the disabled or "deficient", and on the other a story of the way we all reinvent ourselves precisely through story

  Family survivalist adventure in post-apocalyptic Turkey.
• 
  Marionette (2019)

  Review preview for Marionette

  Marionette (Marioneta) makes special demands on its cast

  An actor begins to train a group of beggars to be more convincing.
• 
  Saul At Night (2019)

  Review preview for Saul At Night

  You can sense the influence of Charlie Kaufman.

  In an effort to create a safer, healthier, and more productive society, a legally imposed curfew and mandated sleeping schedule forces all citizens to keep the same hours. Except Saul Capgras...
• 
  Just 6.5 (2019)

  Review preview for Just 6.5

  All its genre elements are the neat packaging for some grim state-of-the-nation commentary, showing an aspect of Iranian society that is seldom explored on film.

  Action film sees a young cop take on a drug lord.
• 
  Drowsy City (2019)

  Review preview for Drowsy City

  Both a portrait of marginalised lives in urban Vietnam, and a "Taoist" fable.

  A young man who slaughters chickens for a living finds his trouble brewing when three strange gangsters come to hide in the abandoned building where he is living, bringing violence and a young prostitute with them.
• 
  Mater (2019)

  Review preview for Mater

  This is a very subtle and accomplished feature debut.

  A Croatian ex-pat is has to return home due to her mother's declining health, forcing them to face the ghosts of their past.
• 
  Some Beasts (2019)

  Review preview for Some Beasts

  A chiller of displaced domesticity

  A family enthusiastically disembarks on a deserted island on Chile’s southern coast with the dream of building a tourist hotel. When the man who brought them across from the continent disappears, the family is trapped.
• 
  Psychobitch (2019)

  Review preview for Psychobitch

  One of the things that makes Psychobitch stand out is how flawed both its principals are.

  A self-declared 'class outsider' becomes the study buddy of the most perfect boy in school.
• 
  Disco (2019)

  Review preview for Disco

  The jarring juxtaposition of sparkly, sexualised Seventies choreography and fire-and-brimstone Catholicism is absolutely key to a film that explores the mismatch between devout religious beliefs and modernity.

  The stepdaughter of a charismatic pastor begins to question her faith
• 
  The Black Forest (2019)

  Review preview for The Black Forest

  Realism is certainly the mode that Platt embraces here, crafting her film as though it were an intimate holiday video, and inviting viewers to be flies on the wall.

  Drama about a pair of dysfunctional families on a summer break.
• 
  Us (2019)

  Review preview for Us

  Us is a deeply subversive film

  A mother and father take their kids to their beach house, expecting to enjoy time with friends, but their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some visitors arrive uninvited.
• 
  Cat Sticks (2019)

  Review preview for Cat Sticks

  For all its lowlife wallowing in metaphorical (and in the end literal) shit, Cat Sticks is beautiful.

  The stories of a group of addicts weave together on a rainy night in Kolcata.
• 
  Insect (2018)

  Review preview for Insect

  In short, Insect is a self-consuming product, always at pains to expose its artifice as it offers behind-the-scenes commentary on both its own and the play's making.

  An amateur drama troupe rehearse the Čapek Brothers’ The Insect Play.
• 
  Moana (2016)

  Review preview for Moana

  The truth is, as much as Disney wants to inspire its young viewers, it also knows what sells.

  A young woman goes on an adventure with a demi-god.
• 
  As He Lay Falling (2014)

  Review preview for As He Lay Falling

  This short film's theme - of the errant quest for dignity and labour - represents a timeless European tale.

  Tensions simmer after a Greek emigre takes work at a Highland croft.
• 
  Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

  Review preview for Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

  Like a mutant monster, barreling out of control and straining to contain its own shifting form.

  The Caped Crusader takes on Superman, leading Lex Luthor to capitalise on the situation.
• 
  Just One Drink (2015)

  Review preview for Just One Drink

  As all the thematic strands of the film's first half are brought violently together in a symmetrical set of revenge stories, the viewer is left to pass divine judgment as to who is in the right, and who is in the wrong.

  When a man receives a party invitation from a woman he doesn't remember meeting, vengeance is on the cards.
• 
  Patchwork (2015)

  Review preview for Patchwork

  An always engaging, often intriguing and highly comical story of the monstrous feminine.

  Waking to find themselves Frankensteined together in one body after a night out, three young women set aside their differences to seek revenge.
• 
  The Mind's Eye (2015)

  Review preview for The Mind's Eye

  The latex and practical effects, the lighting dominated by primary red and blues, and the synth-heavy score by Steve Moore, all contribute to the strong Eighties vibe.

  A drifter with telekinetic powers sets out for revenge.
• 
  Buttercup Bill (2014)

  Review preview for Buttercup Bill

  Beautifully shot, subtly performed, and full of grown-up observations on precocious, perilous play.

  A story of twisted romance and dark secrets between childhood friends.
• 
  Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

  Review preview for Mad Max: Fury Road

  Baroque-n-roll does not begin to describe the petrol-headed delirium on offer here.

  In a post-Apocalyptic world, survivor Max hooks up with a mysterious woman to face off against murderous gangs.
• 
  What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

  Review preview for What We Do In The Shadows

  In this fish-out-of-water comedy, mundanity is key.

  Vampire mockumentary.
• 
  Fear (2014)

  Review preview for Fear

  With its digitally heightened colours and shifting frame rates, Fear is a beautifully realised funhouse.

  A woman's mind plays tricks on her.
• 
  Feral (2008)

  Review preview for Feral

  A moody, mysterious tour de force.

  A young man seeks wildness in the woods.
• 
  Night Moves (2013)

  Review preview for Night Moves

  Reichardt observes the game coolly, yet provides more than enough detail to show the contradictions in her players' gambits.

  Three people plot an act of eco-terrorism.
• 
  A Dangerous Cure (2014)

  Review preview for A Dangerous Cure

  An alternative gonzo history of the Noughties.

  A tabloid journalist tries to the cause of a life-threatening epidemic in New York
• 
  Done In (2014)

  Review preview for Done In

  A suicide-note rumination on life and loss, memory and mortality.

  A man writes a suicide note.
• 
  Compassion (2013)

  Review preview for Compassion

  Oliveri is confident enough in his material to keep his camera mostly at a distance, to eschew any kind of emotion-cueing score.

  A woman confronts a burglar.
• 
  The Zero Theorem (2013)

  Review preview for The Zero Theorem

  The Zero Theorem is a messy mélange of broad pratfalls, challenged idealism, dark satire, and expansive, indeed cosmic allegory - but it also .cannot escape being seen as a kind of Brazil vers. 2.0.

  A reclusive computer genius, plagued with existential angst, works on a mysterious project aimed at discovering the meaning of life.
• 
  Blackwood (2013)

  Review preview for Blackwood

  This film really does do something genuinely new with its old, grinding tropes - but once the veil has been lifted, the mask removed and the mechanics beneath all these devices exposed, no mystery remains.

  A college professor finds himself plagued by spectral visions.
• 
  The Selfish Giant (2013)

  Review preview for The Selfish Giant

  Apart from Mike Eley's lustrous, lyrical cinematography, The Selfish Giant is also elevated by the central performances of Chapman and Thomas.

  Roughly based on the Oscar Wilde parable, this is a tale of jealousy between two boys vying for the favour of a scrap merchant.
• 
  Starred Up (2013)

  Review preview for Starred Up

  Mackenzie shows everyone, inmates and guards alike, to be trapped in a corrupted, corrupting system that resists all change.

  A young offender is relocated to the adult prison where his father is locked up.
• 
  We Are The Best! (2013)

  Review preview for We Are The Best!

  We Are The Best! is a rebel yell of positivism - with exclamation mark - that brings a fuzzy warmth to all the wintry Stockholm locations.

  Coming of age tale about three teenage girls in Stockholm forming a punk band.
• 
  B For Boy (2013)

  Review preview for B For Boy

  To begrudge this film its faults would be to ignore the way it cuts to the very heart of the contradictions and hypocrisies of a nation that still regards women as vessels for male bloodlines.

  A woman resorts to desperate measures after she has a stillbirth.
• 
  Side By Side (2013)

  Review preview for Side By Side

  A meandering, overlong trek of a film.

  A brother and sister set off on a road trip and discover that together they can deal with anything.
• 
  Enough Said (2013)

  Review preview for Enough Said

  Refreshing and breezy - but also forgotten almost as soon as it has wafted by.

  A divorced woman learns the new man in her life is her new friend's ex-husband.
• 
  Drinking Buddies (2013)

  Review preview for Drinking Buddies

  What might in lesser hands have been an aimless, stilted disaster here becomes, thanks to these capable, funny capable actors, a finely observed naturalist comedy of manners.

  Bar-fuelled intimacy between two brewery workers blurs the line between friendship and romance.
• 
  Young & Beautiful (2013)

  Review preview for Young & Beautiful

  Keeps holding out a promise of insight into its young protagonist's mentality and makeup, but ends up merely observing her from a cool distance, as if through the binoculars from the opening scene.

  Portrait of a 17-year-old, who sells her body for cash.
• 
  Afternoon Delight (2013)

  Review preview for Afternoon Delight

  Soloway has crafted a well-observed script, too coarse and cruel to be dismissed as frothy romcom.

  A lost LA housewife puts her idyllic hipster life in jeopardy when she tries to rescue a stripper by taking her in as a live-in nanny.
• 
  Late At Night: Voices Of Ordinary Madness (2013)

  Review preview for Late At Night: Voices Of Ordinary Madness

  Built upon a variety of different perspectives, Guo's politically engaged sort-of documentary is more an episodic tapestry of suggestions than anything like a coherent argument.

  A portrait of the frenetic East End of London.
• 
  Mystery Road (2013)

  Review preview for Mystery Road

  Sen has crafted a tense thrill ride without ever forgetting his roots.

  An Aboriginal cop returns to his home town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl.
• 
  As I Lay Dying (2013)

  Review preview for As I Lay Dying

  As I Lay Dying looks and sounds great, and offers many individual moments of heightened intensity.

  The death of a family matriarch and her loved ones' efforts to have her buried according to her wishes.
• 
  Yellow (2012)

  Review preview for Yellow

  An astonishing and compelling assemblage of contradictions: it is messy yet controlled; enigmatic and elliptical yet clean and crystal-clear; and it casts a modern eye back on the old school.

  A serial killer makes taunting phone calls.
• 
  Evil Dead (2013)

  Review preview for Evil Dead

  Alvarez's film goes efficiently through the expected motions without really finding its own identity in relation to either the original film or the contemporary horror landscape.

  A group of friends run into trouble in the woods.
• 
  Chocó (2011)

  Review preview for Chocó

  Yet although the film is shot wide by an unmoving camera in full naturalist mode, we ultimately remain uncertain whether Chocó has taught Everlides a lesson, or just dreamt that she has.

  The story of a woman struggling on the thin line between hope and despair in a small Columbian village.
• 
  Attack Of The Werewolves (2012)

  Review preview for Attack Of The Werewolves

  In Moreno's genre comedy, not only are the horrors of a century-old Romanian vendetta exposed to the full moon's half light, but also a trail of hidden ordnance and long-buried bodies from the more recent, entirely real and utterly homegrown Spanish Civil

  A writer returns to his Galician village expecting to receive an award, but the villagers have very different plans for him.