Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Godzilla (1954)

  Review preview for Godzilla

  The special effects in Roland Emmerich's 1998 remake may have been bigger and better, but what it lacks is the chilling seriousness of the original.

  The original Japanese monster lizard movie - Ban The Bomb!
• 
  Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)

  Review preview for Good Night, And Good Luck

  Good Night, And Good Luck proves that it is still possible in the cinema, if not in television, to inform without being boring and entertain without condescending.

  The integrity of journalism is pitted against the politics of the Cold War in Fifties America.
• 
  Grizzly Man (2005)

  Werner Herzog examines the psyche of Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived and died with bears.
• 
  Ghost Game (2006)

  Review preview for Ghost Game

  As a grim commentary on the whole reality television phenomenon Ghost Game really grabs the attention and stands out from the horror crowd.

  Controversial Thai horror, pushing reality TV to its limit.
• 
  Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (2004)

  Review preview for Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

  Though scrupulously backwards-compatible with the original, makes it, and everything else besides, seem entirely redundant.

  A literate anime that sets a dog loving, once-human detective to discover why female sex droids are killing their users.
• 
  Goodbye Solo (2008)

  Review preview for Goodbye Solo

  A deeply affecting portrait of the way that we are all changed in small but significant ways by our encounters with others.

  An unlikely relationship between a grumbling old-timer and a Senegalese taxi driver.
• 
  The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)

  Review preview for The Good, The Bad, The Weird

  Despite its lengthy duration, this film gallops along.

  Manchurian homage to Sergio Leone sees unlikely protagonists vie over a treasure map.
• 
  Goto, L'Île D'Amour (1968)

  Review preview for Goto, L'Île D'Amour

  Full of tricks and ambiguities that will trap any viewer confined to the single, narrow perspective that the film itself tries to impose.

  The wife of an island's despotic ruler, attempts to escape with her lover.
• 
  Grassroots (2012)

  Review preview for Grassroots

  Perhaps wisely, Grassroots never really seems especially engaged with ideology.

  A jaded journalist helps his friend stand for the local city council.
• 
  Gruesome (2006)

  Review preview for Gruesome

  A modest yet impressively assured psycho-mystery.

  An infernal Groundhog Day as a student seems destined to relive the day of her murder.
• 
  A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

  Review preview for A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints

  What rescues A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints from bland conventionality is Montiel's bravura approach to direction.

  A man haunted by a summer from his past, returns to his old stamping ground to confront old ghosts.
• 
  Hansel And Gretel (2007)

  Review preview for Hansel And Gretel

  Every frame beguiles and unnerves in equal measure, and the sense of paranoia is conveyed less by baroque actions than by subtle glances exchanged between characters.

  A young man crashes his car on a forest road and finds himself trapped in the "House of Happy Children".
• 
  Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law, Vol. 2 (2004)

  Review preview for Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law, Vol. 2

  It is jaw-droppingly funny, but also somewhat perplexing.

  The trials and tribulations of Hanna-Barbera's third-rate superhero turned third-rate lawyer.
• 
  Headhunters (2011)

  Review preview for Headhunters

  It is the black comedy that is the real surprise, rescuing Headhunters from both Norwegian dourness and Tinseltown blandness.

  Adaptation of Jo Nesbo's bestselling Norwegian thriller about a headhunter who moonlilghts as a thief.
• 
  The Headless Woman (2008)

  Review preview for The Headless Woman

  Martel expertly compounds ambiguities without ever abandoning the apparent naturalism of her presentation.

  A woman's life goes off the rails after a mysterious car accident.
• Hearts And Minds (1974)

  Documentary expose of Vietnam-era US politics.
• 
  The Hedgehog (2009)

  Review preview for The Hedgehog

  Achache overexplains the odd reference to Tolstoy and strips away almost entirely her source's more philosophical content.

  A precocious 11-year-old decides to kill herself on her 12th birthday.
• 
  Here And There (2012)

  Review preview for Here And There

  The sort of film that practically defines the festival experience, but that one could not ever imagine watching in any other context.

  After years in the US, Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico, but the lure of the north remains as strong as ever.
• 
  Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai (2011)

  Review preview for Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai

  Hara-kiri: Death Of A Samurai is in fact a lesson in artful restraint, slowly and deliberately building to its violent conclusion with a multi-layered narrative of flashback and counter-flashback.

  Takashi Miike follows 13 Assassins with a neo-classical remake of the Yasuhiko Takiguchi story about desperate, impoverished ronin and implacably cruel feudal lords.
• 
  Harsh Times (2005)

  A war veteran loses his mind in South Central LA.
• 
  Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

  Review preview for Hellboy II: The Golden Army

  Cinema is full of monsters, but few in recent memory have been so capable of eliciting our sympathy and understanding.

  Hellboy confronts an Elven prince determined to raise an ancient army and destroy the world of men; and has domestic troubles to deal with at the same time.
• 
  Hidden (2005)

  Review preview for Hidden

  Hidden is no conventional mystery and viewers searching for straightforward answers to the questions that it raises are likely to be disappointed.

  What dark secrets lie behind the mysterious video stalker?
• 
  The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

  Review preview for The Hills Have Eyes

  A master class in the art of the remake.

  A family fall foul of mutants in the desert.
• 
  The Holding (2011)

  Review preview for The Holding

  Jacobson is definitely a new British talent to watch.

  An enigmatic stranger may not be as much of a godsend as he first appears to a lonely mum and her daughters.
• 
  Hollow (2011)

  Review preview for Hollow

  Hollow unfolds more like a brutal psychodrama than a horror, but is perhaps none the worse for that.

  A group of friends visiting an old house are increasingly disturbed by the tales associated with the sinister tree outside.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Host (2006)

  Review preview for The Host

  The Host is like a mutant hybrid spawned from the improbable union of Little Miss Sunshine and Godzilla.

  A toxic monster terrorises Seoul.
• 
  Hostel (2005)

  Teen backpackers get more than they bargain for in sex-fuelled horror.
• 
  Hot Fuzz (2007)

  Tongue-in-cheek British twist on the buddy cop genre.
• 
  Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

  Review preview for Howl's Moving Castle

  Anime at its very finest - lightning paced, visually stunning, feverishly creative and overrun by a logic all its own.

  A magical tale in a troubled kingdom on the brink of war.
• 
  How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

  Review preview for How to Train Your Dragon

  Fast and funny enough to let even its derivativeness take wing – and, as any seven-year-old can tell you, dragons are cool.

  A young viking becomes an unlikely dragon master.
• 
  Hush (2008)

  Review preview for Hush

  A taut thriller, rooted more in atmosphere, character and nail-gnawing suspense than the sort of sadistic gory excess that has otherwise typified this decade's horror.

  Cat and mouse thriller sees a young couple fall foul of a trucker on the motorway.
• 
  Hut In The Woods (2011)

  Review preview for Hut In The Woods

  As Martin walks to and fro from urban settings to the Edenic countryside, Weingartner's film also seems to meander, and to drift a little too close to the sentimental – until a twist comes that forces the viewer to re-evaluate everything that has gone bef

  A young man befriends an orphaned boy, and they try to escape the world by building a cabin in the woods.
• 
  The Hide (2008)

  Review preview for The Hide

  This is a film of double-entendres, innuendos and equivocal nuances, where words, looks and gestures alike are made to resonate with confounding ambiguity.

  Masculinity and menace create a heady mix when two strangers meet in a bird hide.
• 
  The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007)

  Review preview for The Hills Have Eyes 2

  A bog-standard pick-'em-off-one-by-one splatterfest.

  A group of young National Guard trainees run afoul of rural cannibals.
• 
  Himizu (2011)

  Review preview for Himizu

  The result is a coming-of-age, state-of-the-nation film which, though important in the post-tsunami context, nonetheless hardly feels like one of Sono's best.

  A pair of teens struggle to get by in a Japan that has been ravaged by natural disaster.
• 
  His & Hers (2009)

  Review preview for His & Hers

  Concentrated insights (without any complicating distractions) into sex, family, the shifts in generations and the continuities of life.

  Seventy women talk about the men in their lives.
• 
  The Horseman (2008)

  Review preview for The Horseman

  While The Horseman will have viewers squirming in their seats, its take on the workings of vengeance is remarkably responsible.

  A grief-mad father tracks down the men responsible for his daughter’s death and discovers more about his daughter than a father should ever know.
• 
  The House Of The Devil (2009)

  Review preview for The House Of The Devil

  As a genre filmmaker through and through, West is unlikely to be winning an Oscar any time soon – but when it comes to the extraordinary manipulation of tension and atmosphere, he is an unsung master of cinema.

  Retro suspense thriller centers on a cash-strapped college girl who answers a babysitting ad only to gradually unravel the horrifying secret behind why she was truly hired.
• 
  The House With Laughing Windows (1976)

  Review preview for The House With Laughing Windows

  A gripping murder mystery.

  A church painting restorer discovers an horrific web of intrigue in an isolated village.
• 
  How I Ended This Summer (2010)

  Review preview for How I Ended This Summer

  A work of chilling beauty, whose sparse, unforgiving landscapes can accommodate all manner of allegorical readings.

  A youngster on a remote Arctic research station engages in a series of deadly deceptions.
• 
  Inception (2010)

  Review preview for Inception

  You will no doubt need to see Inception more than once to appreciate every nuance of Nolan's carefully balanced ambiguities – but, more importantly, you will also want to.

  DiCaprio's dream spy takes on the ultimate inside job.
• 
  Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2009)

  Review preview for Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

  As each of the Indiana Jones films has demonstrated, iconic talismans from the past can still conceal an awesome power.

  The whip-cracking archaeologist hero returns.
• 
  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.
• 
  Inside Man (2006)

  Review preview for Inside Man

  One of the tricksiest, most tautly plotted rollercoaster rides through the thriller genre since The Usual Suspects.

  Spike Lee takes on the heist genre.
• 
  I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

  Review preview for I Spit On Your Grave

  Zarchi finds a way to position his characters and viewers alike as both aggressors and victims. The results are neither comfortable nor pretty, but they are certainly confronting.

  A woman seeks revenge after she is brutally gang-raped.
• 
  The Incredible Hulk (2008)

  Review preview for The Incredible Hulk

  Predictable popcorn pap - this feels exactly like the holiday filler that it is.

  On the run, Bruce Banner must come to terms with his alter ego, the Hulk, in order to defeat a hostile version.
• 
  Ink (2009)

  Review preview for Ink

  Winans is at his best in the visual realm, and the early sections of his film, in which supernatural entities are seen wordlessly working their nightshifts, prove highly effective examples of narrative economy.

  A father and daughter finds themselves caught up in a battle for human souls by the keepers of dreams and nightmares.
• 
  Innocence (2004)

  Review preview for Innocence

  A dark, dreamlike fantasy.

  Kafkaesque fantasy about a girls' boarding school.
• 
  Institute Benjamenta, Or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)

  Review preview for Institute Benjamenta, Or This Dream People Call Human Life

  An abstract, uncanny experience.

  Enigmatic story of a man who enrolls at an institute to learn to be a servant.