Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Sick Sex (2008)

  Review preview for Sick Sex

  The unlikely phrase, 'a thermos full of warm oysters,' used to describe the supposedly attractive qualities of a feverish vagina, may just give rise to a whole new sexual fetish.

  The libido blues for an ill girl.
• 
  My Olympic Summer (2007)

  Review preview for My Olympic Summer

  Daniel Robin demonstrates how bare images can conceal all manner of secrets about the past and lessons for the future.

  A discovery prompts a filmmaker to re-examine his parents' relationships.
• 
  The French Collection: Volume 2 - Thrillers (2008)

  Review preview for The French Collection: Volume 2 - Thrillers

  The perfect opportunity to catch up with some of the finest pieces of Gallic cinema from the last few years.

  Three top-notch films from across the Channel, now out to own as a box set.
• 
  Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

  Review preview for Shoot 'Em Up

  A violent showdown where style (in its purest form) outshoots substance from the very first draw.

  An action man tries to protect a newborn baby during a gun battle. Out to own on DVD now.
• 
  No Country For Old Men (2007)

  Review preview for No Country For Old Men

  Full of the brothers' trademark wit and surreal flourishes, but also unremittingly tense and bleak.

  A man goes on the run from a psychopath in Texas after coming across a briefcase of stolen cash.
• 
  Dan In Real Life (2007)

  Review preview for Dan In Real Life

  Clings steadfastly to rom-com form.

  Widower Dan meets the girl of his dreams - but she's dating his brother.
• 
  Black Water (2007)

  Review preview for Black Water

  In a watertight script, no option available to the characters is left unconsidered, and each has its deadly downside, leaving viewers to wonder what they themselves would have done.

  Three young adventurers find themselves stranded in a mangrove swamp with a killer crocodile waiting in the water.
• 
  P2 (2007)

  Review preview for P2

  All the pieces are in place for a great thriller – and then, just like your typical Yuletide get-together, it all falls a little flat.

  A workaholic woman gets stalked in parking garage on Christmas Eve.
• 
  Bright Future (2003)

  Review preview for Bright Future

  No less enigmatic, broad-reaching and majestically paced than a jellyfish.

  Exploration of disaffected youth in Japan.
• 
  All About Eve (1950)

  Review preview for All About Eve

  There is so much to admire in All About Eve, even for those too young to be drenched in nostalgia for the spectacle of Bette Davis unleashing her sharp tongue.

  An aging star is challenged by a ruthless younger actress.
• 
  I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006)

  Review preview for I Don't Want to Sleep Alone

  Tsai has erected a somnolent reverie on alienation, desire and restlessness.

  Migrants in Malaysia dream of sleep, recovery, and each other.
• 
  Beowulf (2007)

  Review preview for Beowulf

  A myth is here being deconstructed only to be reinforced and updated.

  An imaginative retelling of the Old English story about a hero who saves a kingdom from a monster and its mother.
• 
  Invisible Waves (2006)

  Review preview for Invisible Waves

  On paper, Invisible Waves may sound like just another Asian action policier or revenge thriller, but in reality it is altogether more abstract and elusive than that.

  A man, dogged by guilt, goes on the run after poisoning his lover.
• 
  Basket Case (1982)

  Review preview for Basket Case

  The sort of film that any aspiring director of schlocky shock should be proud of having as their debut.

  Cult horror à la basket.
• 
  In Memory Of Me (2007)

  Review preview for In Memory Of Me

  Like the sequestered lives that it portrays, Constanza's film is stripped down to its bare essentials.

  A man tired of his superficial life decides to join the priesthood but finds a web of deceit in the monastery which makes him question his faith.
• 
  Death At A Funeral (2007)

  Review preview for Death At A Funeral

  For farce to work well, the plotting needs to be watertight, whereas here the sheer excess of characters fails entirely to cover up this film's flimsy underpinnings.

  Funeral farce.
• 
  Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007)

  Review preview for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres

  A smart, trippy treat.

  Feature-length quest for the trippy fast-food superheroes.
• 
  I Do (2006)

  Review preview for I Do

  Far from caring much if he will ever get his girl, you just want Luis to act his age and grow some balls.

  A single man hatches a plan for a marriage of convenience and gets more than he bargained for.
• 
  30 Days Of Night (2007)

  Review preview for 30 Days Of Night

  Sends an icy blast of fresh air into the moribund genre.

  A group of Alaskan townsfolk try to protect themselves from a group of marauding vampires during the darkest month of the year.
• 
  The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

  Review preview for The Darjeeling Limited

  Chaotic, funny, beautifully shot and performed with a childlike deadpan.

  Three brothers take a 'spiritual journey' across India by train.
• 
  Eastern Promises (2007)

  Review preview for Eastern Promises

  This never really congeals into anything beyond a solid genre movie, where viewers have been reared to expect a little more from Cronenberg.

  An idealistic young midwife inadvertently stumbles across a crime syndicate trafficking prostitutes.
• 
  Aki Kaurismäki Collection: Volume 1 (2007)

  Review preview for Aki Kaurismäki Collection: Volume 1

  Grim realism and heady romanticism meet in a surreal borderland where deadpan reigns.

  The cult director's underdog trilogy - Shadows In Paradise, Ariel and The Match Factory Girl.
• 
  Shadows In Paradise (1986)

  Review preview for Shadows In Paradise

  Comedy rarely comes so bleak, and depression is rarely so funny.

  A lonely binman finds solidarity with a mistreated shop assistant. Out to own as part of the Aki Kaurismäki Collection: Volume 1.
• 
  Ariel (1988)

  Review preview for Ariel

  A compelling blend of gritty realism and escapist fantasy.

  An unemployed miner is joined by a multi-tasking single mother in his bid to escape to a better world. Out to own as part of the Aki Kaurismäki Collection: Volume 1.
• 
  The Match Factory Girl (1990)

  Review preview for The Match Factory Girl

  Kaurismäki regular Outinen proves herself the divine muse of minimalism, conveying more emotion with her stony facial expressions than a whole marquee's worth of shrill starlets could manage.

  A production line worker tries to mend her shattered dreams through acts of vengeance. Out to own as part of the Aki Kaurismäki Collection Volume 1.
• 
  The Duel Project (2003)

  Review preview for The Duel Project

  Tartan's decision to release the films as a double-disc set is to be applauded.

  A pair of films - Aragami and 2LDK - shot according to specific rules over one week.
• 
  2LDK (2003)

  Review preview for 2LDK

  The film races along, covering a range of moods (comedy, horror, action, tragedy) with economic fluidity.

  Two women fight over a part in a movie. Out to own on DVD as part of the Duel Project.
• 
  Aragami (2003)

  Review preview for Aragami

  Aragami is always intense, often funny, and never cliched.

  A samurai fights the god of battle on a dark and stormy night. Out to own on DVD as part of the Duel Project.
• 
  American Gangster (2007)

  Review preview for American Gangster

  Scott has gone back to source, bringing viewers the most refined product available.

  The true story of the rise of an American mobster.
• 
  Postal (2007)

  Review preview for Postal

  Boll should be defended, even admired, for his willingness to swim against the political tide - but that alone, unfortunately, is not enough to make Postal worth watching.

  An adaptation of the computer game about a state employee who snaps and goes on a killing spree.
• 
  Death Proof (2007)

  Review preview for Death Proof

  Death Proof feels exactly like what it is: a 90-minute film that has been stretched painfully to 114 minutes.

  Quentin Tarantino's glorious grindhouse send-up.
• 
  Tough Enough (2006)

  Review preview for Tough Enough

  Buck has crafted an assured, uncompromising and often tense piece of social commentary.

  A teenager is drawn into a criminal underworld as he struggles to get by.
• 
  Taxidermia (2006)

  Review preview for Taxidermia

  With painterly mise-en-scène and the subtlest of CG effects to aid the camera's fluid movements... Taxidermia always compels us to stare wide-eyed at the screen in awe as much as disgust.

  Three generations of grotesque goings on in Hungary.
• 
  The Zombie Diaries (2006)

  Review preview for The Zombie Diaries

  This is horror well and truly updated for the YouTube/reality TV generation.

  Three pieces of 'found' documentary footage detail a zombie outbreak in Britain.
• 
  1408 (2007)

  Review preview for 1408

  In terms of quality, 1408 is neither executive suite nor basement broom cupboard.

  A writer of guides to haunted houses finds himself out of his depth in a creepy hotel.
• 
  Écoute Le Temps (2007)

  Review preview for Écoute Le Temps

  Écoute Le Temps takes that stalest of subgenres, the village green murder mystery, and turns it inside-out to invigorating effect.

  A sound recordist investigates the murder of her clairvoyant mother.
• 
  Padre Padrone (1977)

  Review preview for Padre Padrone

  Padre Padrone is a film of careful balances, setting raw nature against refined culture, offering family drama that grips from start to finish without once resorting to sentimentality.

  Surviving an abusive childhood in Sardinia with sheep.
• 
  Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé (2007)

  Review preview for Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé

  His unbridled enthusiasm and his metaphorical flourishes ensure that viewers are always as engaged as they are alienated by his peculiar subject matter.

  Collection of groundbreaking films from the French documentarian.
• 
  Transformers (2007)

  Review preview for Transformers

  High-octane nonsense for those who suffer from permanently arrested development.

  Robots in disguise!
• 
  Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films (2007)

  Review preview for Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films

  The animator brings to full life precisely what his rulers were endeavouring to keep repressed: the nightmarish, the unconscious, the nonsensical, the abject, the uncanny, the insatiable, the immoderate, the ecstatic.

  Selection of surrealist shorts gets a polished release from the BFI.
• 
  Vacancy (2007)

  Review preview for Vacancy

  A solid and unpretentious piece of genre cinema.

  A young couple take a room in a motel only to discover that they've been set up to star in a snuff film.
• 
  Sex And Fury (1973)

  Review preview for Sex And Fury

  There is so much going on that, through mad exuberance alone, Sex And Fury quickly achieves critical mass, bubbling over into something far more than just the sleazy sum of its parts.

  Pinky violence film about a female yakuza out for vengeance.
• 
  Female Yakuza Tale (1973)

  Review preview for Female Yakuza Tale

  With its emphasis on female nudity, this may be cinema more for the devoted voyeur than the casual viewer - but at the same time it puts the male gaze in its place.

  Japanese female fighter, famous for wardrobe malfunctions, takes on a gang of kidnappers.
• 
  Lunacy (2005)

  Review preview for Lunacy

  Svankmajer makes the whole world a madhouse and all humanity its patients.

  Horror film addresses madness, both in and out of the asylum.
• 
  The Jodorowsky Collection (2007)

  Review preview for The Jodorowsky Collection

  A comprehensive and immaculately compiled collection.

  Six-disc collection of Jodorowsky's first three features.
• 
  The Celestine Prophecy (2006)

  Review preview for The Celestine Prophecy

  It may be full of wonders, but The Celestine Prophecy is untouched by the miracle of good humour.

  A former schoolteacher finds himself caught up in the hunt for sacred scrolls in Peru.
• 
  The Holy Mountain (1973)

  Review preview for The Holy Mountain

  A film of exquisite beauty, shocking power, delirious intellect and wicked humour.

  The seven most powerful people on the planet undertake a pilgrimage to the holy mountain. Out now to own as part of a six-disc Jodorowsky Collection.
• 
  Fando Y Lis (1968)

  Review preview for Fando Y Lis

  Fando y Lis is a genuine curiosity piece - but one that drags more than it grips.

  A wayward young man pushes his paralysed lover along in a cart in search of a mythical land. Out now to own as part of the six-disc Jodorowsky Collection.
• 
  28 Weeks Later (2007)

  Review preview for 28 Weeks Later

  28 Weeks Later... makes for scorching horror. Like the original, it offers a perfect blend of well-drawn characters, political allegory, grand guignol, flesh-crawling tension and very fast-moving zombies.

  Six months after the events of 28 Days Later a US-led force begins a tentative attempt to repopulate Britain.
• 
  Aaltra (2004)

  Review preview for Aaltra

  Grim, bleak, misanthropic, confronting and uproariously funny from beginning to end.

  A disabled road movie.