Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Rio (2011)

  Review preview for Rio

  Once Rio has settled into its status as a romantic chase caper, the breakneck momentum comes ready-fitted.

  A rare macaw leaves the comforts of his cage in small town Minnesota for the exotic wonders of Rio de Janeiro... meeting a bunch of feathered friends on the way.
• River Queen (2005)

  Review preview for River Queen

  A hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema.

  A young Irish woman searches for her kidnapped half-Maori son.
• 
  Road Train (2010)

  Review preview for Road Train

  Francis positively relishes taking his viewers on deranged, demonic detours down uncharted byroads of body horror, too, with grand guignol as icky as it is utterly irrational.

  Supernatural chiller sees a camping trip to the outback turn sour.
• 
  Robot Chicken: Season One (2005)

  Review preview for Robot Chicken: Season One

  Catch one episode of this, and you are likely to be left in awe... catch more than on and you will start noticing the grinding repetitions.

  Pop-culture savvy sketch show from over the Pond.
• 
  Robot Chicken: Star Wars (2007)

  Review preview for Robot Chicken: Star Wars

  The tone may be cheeky and playful, but it is always affectionately so.

  Animated sketch show takes you to The Silly Side of George Lucas's sci-fi empire.
• 
  Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II (2008)

  Review preview for Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II

  Often there is a concept that positively zings, but then has little follow-through.

  Second dose of post-modern action-figure comedy sees the robot chicken strike back.
• 
  R-Point (2004)

  Review preview for R-Point

  Make no mistake about it: R-Point is one confusing trip - but never without purpose.

  Soldiers at war see ghosts in the charnel house.
• 
  Red Canyon (2008)

  Review preview for Red Canyon

  Rodriguez weaves an incestuous blurring of genres – now amnesiac psychodrama, now desert gothic, now grotesque slash-n-dash, now perverted tragedy - that is genuinely disorienting.

  Trouble brews in redneck Utah for a pair of siblings trying to come to terms with a horrifying attack.
• 
  Revolver (2005)

  Review preview for Revolver

  Probably Ritchie's boldest and most interesting film to date, even if it is also pretentious enough to give his detractors yet another rope to hang him by.

  An ex-con is out for vegeance on the man he believes caused his downfall.
• 
  Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

  Review preview for Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

  In short, this is a great summer movie, spectacular in its realisation, yet resonant in its themes.

  Man's experimentation on apes sparks a war for supremacy.
• 
  The Road (2009)

  Review preview for The Road

  Pure, stripped-down bleakness, both in the desaturated drabness of its appearance and in the last-days essentialism of its themes.

  An unnamed father and son travel through a post-apocalyptic America in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
• 
  Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III (2010)

  Review preview for Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III

  Severe editing might have been a better solution for this hit-and-miss affair.

  Spoof take on Return Of The Jedi.
• 
  The Samurai That Night (2012)

  Review preview for The Samurai That Night

  By the close, the revenge motif has become completely decentred, giving way to a quirky study of lost souls.

  A man obsessed with avenging his late wife, mown down by a hit-and-run driver, threatens to kill the guilty driver... but will he find his inner samurai to act on the threat?
• 
  The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)

  Review preview for The Saragossa Manuscript

  A true masterpiece of modernism.

  Labyrinthine set of stories-within-stories that take place during the Napoleonic Wars.
• 
  Save Your Legs! (2012)

  Review preview for Save Your Legs!

  It could be comedy gold, but the ball is dropped early.

  A feeble amateur cricket team blags its way into international competition.
• 
  Sawako Decides (2009)

  Review preview for Sawako Decides

  Its occasional flashes of quirkiness are never enough to justify its overstretched duration.

  A young woman struggles to save her family's ailing clam-packing business.
• 
  School Of The Holy Beast (1974)

  Review preview for School Of The Holy Beast

  One minute School of the Holy Beast is titillating viewers with light porn, the next it is staging theological debates about the nature of faith and the problem of evil.

  A celebration of sadomasochism and other painful pleasures in a naughty nunnery.
• 
  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.
• 
  Scream 4 (2011)

  Review preview for Scream 4

  Put simply, this supposedly new direction for the franchise will very soon grow old, as a franchise once famed for its innovations is reduced to becoming a deeply conservative product.

  When the survivor of the previous films returns to her home town, the killer reappears.
• 
  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.
• 
  Senseless (2008)

  Review preview for Senseless

  Senseless is a well-crafted, relatively restrained affair, boasting rock solid performances, believable characters (in extremis), highly effective sound design, and a clinically claustrophobic Big Brother-style set.

  A businessman is abducted and deprived of his senses one by one as his torment is broadcast live over the internet.
• 
  A Serbian Film (2009)

  Review preview for A Serbian Film

  The whole point of A Serbian Film is to sicken and offend the viewer.

  Controversial film about a porn star's descent into depravity.
• 
  Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

  Review preview for Serial Experiments Lain

  Everything is awash with an eerie, disorienting atmosphere... riveting.

  Lysergic adult anime series about a young schoolgirl caught between the real and the virtual.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Sharkwater (2006)

  Review preview for Sharkwater

  If Stewart had focused more on sharks and less on his own misadventures, then the sharks could have had their day in the court of cinema without any needless and unhelpful interjections from their own defence team.

  Documentarian champions the cause of the shark.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Shrine (2010)

  Review preview for The Shrine

  A mirthless hybrid of different subgenre elements that, though merged with a twist, remain resolutely bland to the end.

  Three journalists find themselves in danger when on the trail of a cult which just might be practising human sacrifice.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Sinking Of Japan (2006)

  Review preview for Sinking Of Japan

  While the film certainly grabs the attention with its opening sequence, it struggles to hold it over its excessively long duration.

  The race is on to evacuate Japan after an earthquake threatens its existence.
• 
  Sister (2012)

  Review preview for Sister

  It is a well-observed portrait of the family ties that bind, but with insufficient narrative development to justify its length.

  A snapshot of life for a 12-year-old, who steals from the rich at a local ski resort to support him and his sister.
• 
  Skirt Day (2008)

  Review preview for Skirt Day

  A stark political satire, exposing all the divisions and frictions – social, sexual, racial, cultural and religious – of a modern multi-cultural France.

  A teacher accidentally takes her class hostage.
• 
  Skyline (2010)

  Review preview for Skyline

  The entire invasion might even be read as a vivid anxiety dream about the alienating impact of birth and parenthood.

  Strange lights appear over Los Angeles and the people who walk into them disappear.
• 
  Songs From The Second Floor (2000)

  Review preview for Songs From The Second Floor

  Andersson's film offers a dystopian vision of the new millennium, where misery, pain, guilt and despair are the universal condition, where escape is impossible, and where, no matter how much anyone tries to turn their back on the past, somehow it always r

  Wry examination of the human condition told through a series of vignettes.
• 
  South Solitary (2010)

  Review preview for South Solitary

  Anna Howard's cinematography is never anything less than stunning in its starkness.

  A spinster battles loneliness after she is sent to look after a lighthouse on a remote island.
• 
  Sparrow (2008)

  Review preview for Sparrow

  aa work as breezy and charming as it is enigmatic.

  A group of pickpockets find themselves on course for a showdown with a veteran from a rival gang
• 
  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...
• 
  Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

  Review preview for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

  For all the postmodern presentation, every emotion here ultimately rings true, and there are enough great ideas, oddball characters, amiable performances and big laughs to ensure that this remains a cult favourite.

  A man finds he has to defeat his girlfriend's evil ex-boyfriends.
• 
  Shame (2011)

  Review preview for Shame

  It is so very well made that one can only wish there were a little more to it than the fleshy mechanics of trauma.

  A thirtysomething finds his life spiral out of control after his sister moves into his apartment.
• 
  Sharktopus (2010)

  Review preview for Sharktopus

  It will not win any awards for its hammy acting or merely adequate effects, but again, these shortcomings seem an integral part of the overall desired effect.

  A hybrid monster menaces Mexico.
• 
  Shifty (2008)

  Review preview for Shifty

  Races furiously along, capturing perfectly the sense of a life fast spinning out of control.

  Twenty-four hours in the life of a Muslim crack dealer and a friend from his past.
• 
  Shutter Island (2010)

  Review preview for Shutter Island

  Even when one has a rough idea of where this mystery thriller is headed, the devil is in the detail, and each turn of the screw is handled with the sort of deft craftsmanship that becomes a pleasure unto itself.

  Two US marshalls are sent to a remote island to investigate the disappearance of an inmate from a mental asylum.
• 
  The Signal (2007)

  Review preview for The Signal

  Rarely have the faultlines between comedy and horror been exposed with greater precision.

  Three-part tale of horror sees a strange signal start to drive people crazy.
• 
  Sky High (2005)

  Review preview for Sky High

  Never forgets to keep its emphasis on fun

  Super-powered high school comedy.
• 
  Slither (2006)

  Review preview for Slither

  Accompanying the ample gore of Slither is dialogue that, without ever resorting to cheap gags, or deviating from the integrity of the story, is laugh-out-loud funny.

  Alien spawn turns a small Southern town into a monstrous menu.
• 
  Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

  Review preview for Slumdog Millionaire

  An unabashed crowdpleaser.

  Tale of love and longing across the decades, seen through a streetkid growing up in India.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Somnambulists (2011)

  Review preview for The Somnambulists

  The Somnambulists is a powerful, unapologetically political contribution to the discourse about this country's questionable manoeuvrings abroad since 9/11, lest we forget.

  Richard Jobson's committed, imaginative response to our collective apathy to the war in Iraq.
• 
  Source Code (2011)

  Review preview for Source Code

  Ben Ripley's script is far less interested in the technical aspects of its own apparatus than in the human condition itself – our desperate search for big answers and satisfying closure, and the mortality that both delimits and perhaps ennobles this very

  A man discovers he's part of an experiment that lets him inhabit another man's body for the last eight minutes of the man's life - his task is to stop a terror attack.