Reviews by Emma Slawinski

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  7 Days In Havana (2012)

  Review preview for 7 Days In Havana

  The seven stories knit together well, and provide an engrossing and alternative view of a city whose image has long been absorbed into popular culture

  Seven short films show unseen sides to Havana through the eyes of locals and visitors.
• 
  Town Of Runners (2012)

  Review preview for Town Of Runners

  The product of around four years’ filming, Town Of Runners is impressive on several levels.

  A documentary following three young runners from a small Ethiopian town that keeps producing champions.
• 
  Heart, Beating In The Dark (2005)

  Review preview for Heart, Beating In The Dark

  The combination of unappealing personalities and lack of hooks to get to know the characters’ motivations better means that most of the time, watching Heart, Beating in the Dark is quite an alienating experience.

  A young couple meet their older selves running from their dark pasts.
• 
  Position Among The Stars (2010)

  Review preview for Position Among The Stars

  The family are captivating subject matter, the strong personalities frequently tugging in different directions, so that the film is never short of drama.

  The effects of globalisation in Indonesia’s rapidly changing society ripple into the life of a poor Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta with her Muslim sons and teenage granddaughter.
• 
  Go (2001)

  Review preview for Go

  Yukisada manages to meld two storylines seamlessly: one is about racial politics and another is about teenage angst and love, and the difficulty of asserting your identity, whatever your roots.

  Korean youth in Japan fights against prejudice.
• 
  Linda Linda Linda (2005)

  Review preview for Linda Linda Linda

  The humour is the key – it’s not subtle but it’s definitely original.

  In the days before the school's culture festival, a girl's music group is facing a dilemma.
• 
  Cry, The Beloved Country (1952)

  Review preview for Cry, The Beloved Country

  Though stylistically it has dated somewhat, the message still resonates.

  Accomplished drama that examines race-relations in 1950s South Africa.
• 
  Under The Mud (2006)

  Review preview for Under The Mud

  The writers have put together a funny, frequently surreal and occasionally touching script.

  A family on the edge of a breakdown are the unlikely protagonists of a Liverpool fairytale.
• 
  Mime-Mime (2008)

  Review preview for Mime-Mime

  Mime-Mime’s frustrations eventually outweigh its rewards.

  Story about an eccentric who is the black sheep of her family.
• 
  The Longest Night (2009)

  Review preview for The Longest Night

  Kleinert pushes beyond the structural stuff, creating subtle and shifting dynamics between the characters, and introducing a supernatural threat lurking in the woods.

  Six friends on a camping trip are pursued by a gang of skinheads, but an even greater threat lurks in the woods.
• 
  25 Carat (2008)

  Review preview for 25 Carat

  Director Patxi Amézcua sets the pace carefully – it’s fast enough to keep your heart-rate up but not in that forced, dizzying, blink-and-you’ll miss it style with which Hollywood is so enamoured.

  A thug and a thief fall for each other and try to escape a life of crime in this Barcelona-set thriller.
• 
  Nobody Knows (2004)

  Review preview for Nobody Knows

  A labour of love that invites you into a disturbing world on the margins of society, invisible to most.

  Film based on true events, charting a year in the life of four children abandoned by their mother.
• 
  The Agent (2008)

  Review preview for The Agent

  The Agent sits in an uncomfortable hinterland between stage play and cinema.

  A disillusioned writer confronts his slippery agent.
• 
  Tokyo! (2008)

  Review preview for Tokyo!

  There's much that’s enjoyable and enchanting.

  Three off-beat visions of the famous city.
• 
  Anything For Her (2008)

  Review preview for Anything For Her

  Tense and unpredictable – a film that leaves you short of breath, pulse racing.

  When Julien's wife is imprisoned and all legal means fail her, he becomes determined to save her at any cost.
• 
  The Machine Girl (2008)

  Review preview for The Machine Girl

  The film consists of various set-pieces which jostle to outdo each other for gore and inventiveness.

  Outrageous revenge B-movie themed around sadistic schoolkids, vicious yakuza and terrifying prosthetics.
• 
  Delta (2008)

  Review preview for Delta

  The film is rich with the distinct mood of each setting and the intense emotional currents generated by each character.

  A precarious love affair evolves on the Danube delta.
• 
  Fast & Furious (2009)

  Review preview for Fast & Furious

  If only Fast And Furious had a better sense of humour, it might just wash.

  Pimped-out motors, pumped-up muscles and lots of burnt tarmac.
• 
  Waveriders (2008)

  Review preview for Waveriders

  The action scenes right through the film are visceral and heart-thumping.

  Exhilerating documentary proves surfing has Irish roots.
• 
  Friend (2001)

  Review preview for Friend

  Friend drags on, fuelled by navel-gazing discussions of the meaning of friendship and loyalty

  The loyalty of four childhood friends is tested when two are drawn into the Seoul underworld.
• 
  The Desert Of The Tartars (1976)

  Review preview for The Desert Of The Tartars

  Competently filmed and acted and, by all accounts, faithful to the novel, it’s the story itself that hinders Desert Of The Tartars as a piece of cinema.

  A young army recruit is sent to a remote and mysterious desert outpost.
• 
  Kokoro (1955)

  Review preview for Kokoro

  Kon Ichikawa’s film is a rich and careful – if depressing – portrait of a transitional period in Japan’s history.

  A pessimistic film exploring one man’s self-imposed isolation.
• 
  Spider Forest (2004)

  Review preview for Spider Forest

  Pulls off the narrative trickery and surreality with the help of an exceptional performance from Woo-Seong Kam,

  Slow-burning thriller that follows a man on his fractured psychological journey to understand the chilling murder of his girlfriend and her lover.
• 
  Princess Aurora (2005)

  Review preview for Princess Aurora

  The biggest obstacle for Princess Aurora is that it will suffer inevitable comparisons with Lady Vengeance, a far superior film on every level.

  A wronged mother goes on an imaginative killing spree and plays cat-and-mouse with the detectives.
• 
  Tokyo Sonata (2008)

  Review preview for Tokyo Sonata

  Considering each aspect individually, this is a picture of outstanding quality, from the strong cast to the photography and haunting soundtrack to the acute character studies.

  A Tokyo salaryman loses his job and tries to conceal it from his already dysfunctional family.
• 
  Fine, Totally Fine (2007)

  Review preview for Fine, Totally Fine

  A skillful cast and writer/director Fujiya's eye for detail and vivid imagination add up to a warm-hearted and engaging picture.

  A gentle, witty character study that takes in a panorama of small-town eccentrics.
• 
  Turtles Are Suprisingly Fast Swimmers (2005)

  Review preview for Turtles Are Suprisingly Fast Swimmers

  A miscellany of characters, scenes and events that studiously avoids a plot.

  A young woman in small-town Japan leads a dull and solitary life, until she stumbles into a local spy ring.
• 
  Festen (1998)

  Review preview for Festen

  A delicious exercise in controlled, cathartic anarchy.

  Skeletons fall out of the closet at a family birthday party.
• 
  Hunger (2008)

  Review preview for Hunger

  Quite exceptional.

  Examination of the events leading up to and during Bobby Sands' 1981 hunger strike. Winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
• 
  Virginity (2008)

  Review preview for Virginity

  The atmospheric sequences without narrative are too long, and the grainy texture and nauseating fast pans across neon cityscapes an unnecessary distraction.

  Three girls travel to Moscow to exchange their greatest asset - their virginity - for money, celebrity or love.
• 
  Cruelty (2007)

  Review preview for Cruelty

  Engrossing and fresh in its approach.

  The worlds of a precocious teenager and a businesswoman collide after an affair is caught on camera.
• 
  Caught (1949)

  Review preview for Caught

  Ophüls’ technical skill is clearly visible in his use of camera-work to express the power relationships between the main characters.

  Tense psychological drama about a young woman whose dream of marrying into riches descends into a nightmare.
• 
  Uniform (2003)

  Review preview for Uniform

  Uniform is a brave and conscientious attempt to depict the lives of ordinary residents of modern provincial China, and address some of the social issues of the moment.

  By impersonating a police officer, a young man starts to lead a double life.
• 
  Numb (2007)

  Review preview for Numb

  There are about two decent gags in the whole of Numb. Even the trailer had me yawning.

  A love-struck screnwriter tries to come to terms with depersonalisation disorder.
• 
  A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures (2008)

  Review preview for A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures

  Though this is a funny, engaging film, I found myself asking how much of it is in good faith and how much is deliberate hyperbole for the camera.

  Does what it says on the tin - a personal documentary about a subject for which most blokes will have sympathy.
• 
  The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (1952)

  Review preview for The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

  Not content with killing off the players, Harold French has decided to bludgeon the audience as well.

  Hitchcock-style suspense drama about a provincial man caught up in a dangerous intrigue.
• 
  Smithereens (1982)

  Review preview for Smithereens

  Berman generates an irrepressible energy that makes Wren endearing in spite of her prickly personality, and draws it all together.

  A punky girl dreams of celebrity in Eighties New York.
• 
  Mala Noche (1985)

  Review preview for Mala Noche

  A moody, raw piece of cinema.

  Moody and atmospheric picture about unrequited love on skid row.
• 
  Dangerous Parking (2007)

  Review preview for Dangerous Parking

  The overall effect is an awkward patchwork of a film that tries to cover a lot of ground, to little effect.

  An alcoholic film-director on the road to self-destruction.
• 
  Streamers (1983)

  Review preview for Streamers

  Though the tone is lower-key and much darker than in M*A*S*H, there is still some of the sense of the ridiculous which made Altman’s cult classic so watchable.

  Tense and dark alternative take on the Vietnam movie which focuses on four paratroopers preparing to ship out.
• 
  The Visitor (2007)

  Review preview for The Visitor

  McCarthy’s script is spot-on, enchanting us with its characters and giving us food for thought with its wry comment on our world of immigrants and neighbour-strangers.

  An ageing, lonely man rediscovers his love of life when he visits New York and shares his home with two strangers.
• 
  Sakuran (2006)

  Review preview for Sakuran

  Sakuran gets the balance between surface and substance just right.

  Japanese period drama about a rebellious courtesan.
• 
  Assembly (2007)

  Review preview for Assembly

  What is especially heartening in this film is its abandonment of war-film clichés, and the lack of bias towards a single character or viewpoint.

  Survival and loss in the Chinese Civil War.
• 
  My Blueberry Nights (2007)

  Review preview for My Blueberry Nights

  Aesthetically this film is an absolute joy to watch. Somehow though, my satisfaction with the story didn’t match my sensory pleasure.

  A heartbroken woman travels across America in search of love.
• 
  The Alcohol Years (2000)

  A former groupie returns to Manchester to find out who she was back then in the Eighties.
• 
  Days Of Being Wild (1991)

  Review preview for Days Of Being Wild

  Wong's depiction of character is second to none.

  Rebellious Casanova caught in a love triangle in 1960s Hong Kong.
• The Trip To Bountiful (1985)

  Review preview for The Trip To Bountiful

  Foote's script is intelligent and well paced.

  A sassy lady from Houston takes a bus ride back to her old home town, with surprising results.
• 
  Spanglish (2004)

  Review preview for Spanglish

  James L Brooks has nurtured a very convincing ensemble piece, with some delicately pitched performances.

  Comedy of bad manners in Bel Air, with a chef, a neurotic wife and a beautiful Mexican servant.
• 
  I'm With Lucy (2002)

  One year, five blind dates - will Lucy find her ideal man?
• 
  Shall We Dance (2004)

  Review preview for Shall We Dance

  The film's tameness is undoubtedly its downfall.

  A family man in a mid-life crisis spices up his life by secretly learning ballroom dancing.