Reviews by Jeff Robson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  December Boys (2007)

  Review preview for December Boys

  The buzz around December Boys has been considerable – but in truth it doesn’t bear the weight of expectation, being a slight and somewhat predictable coming of age drama with a heavy dose of religiosity.

  Four boys from a Catholic orphanage in Australia are given a summer holiday in a remote cove, where they learn more about love, family and friendship.
• 
  Dirty Oil (2009)

  Review preview for Dirty Oil

  A committed but controlled piece of documentary film-making that makes its case in a sober, factual manner.

  A documentary investigation into a Canadian oil operation which campaigners claim is destroying the environment – and residents’ health.
• 
  Ditching (2009)

  Review preview for Ditching

  If you found The Road just that little bit too feelgood, then Ditching could be the film for you.

  In a post-apocalyptic Ulster, a group of travellers try to find vital medicine.
• 
  Doctor Zhivago (1965)

  Review preview for Doctor Zhivago

  Every image drives the story on, or highlights the characters’ tragedy.

  Restored version of the Lean classic sees an idealistic poet/physician and the fiancée of a political activist meet and fall in love against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution.
• 
  Doghouse (2009)

  Review preview for Doghouse

  Doghouse offers a lot of shouting, a ton of gore and a male wish-fulfilment fantasy where all women really ARE nothing but trouble and the only way to deal with them is to hit them round the head.

  A ‘lads’ weekend’ turns into a nightmare when the boys arrive in a village where the women have turned into flesh-eating zombies.
• 
  Dracula Untold (2014)

  Review preview for Dracula Untold

  The plot developments become progressively more ludicrous and inconsistent and the dialogue offers lead where ham and cheese would be much more appetising.

  To defeat a Turkish invasion, medieval Romanian warlord Vlad Tepes must enter into a demonic bargain.
• 
  The End - Confessions Of A Cockney Gangster (2008)

  Review preview for The End - Confessions Of A Cockney Gangster

  The names and job titles might read like a Guy Ritchie synopsis, but it soon becomes clear this is an altogether darker, more sober look at the criminal life.

  Members of the East End underworld talk about their life and times.
• 
  Exhibit A (2007)

  Review preview for Exhibit A

  You forget you are watching a fictional narrative for long stretches of the film, so completely do the actors inhabit their characters.

  Camcorder footage reveals the events leading up to brutal murders within an ordinary family home.
• 
  Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)

  Review preview for Far From The Madding Crowd

  For me, and I suspect an entire generation, this is the definitive, almost faultless, take on one of English literature’s most powerful and evocative works.

  In 19th century Wessex, a young woman inherits a farm and attracts the attention of three contrasting suitors.
• 
  Fashion Victims (2007)

  Review preview for Fashion Victims

  Rasper’s sparky farce does prove that a German joke can sometimes be a laughing matter.

  A German clothes salesman finds his territory challenged by a young rival – who’s also become romantically involved with his secretly-gay son.
• 
  Father Of My Children (2009)

  Review preview for Father Of My Children

  Hansen-Love prefers to make her points through gesture and nuance and the film is all the better for it.

  A French producer struggles to balance completing his roster of films with the demands of his young family.
• 
  The Fog (1980)

  Review preview for The Fog

  Simple things like a radio suddenly switching on, a wine glass falling to the floor, or an insistent knocking at the door are an object lesson to contemporary horror’s blood-soaked tyros.

  A small town on the California coast is swathed in a mysterious fog containing the vengeful ghosts of shipwrecked sailors.
• 
  The Forgiveness Of Blood (2011)

  Review preview for The Forgiveness Of Blood

  The screenplay deservedly won a Silver Bear at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, taking the audience to the heart of a culture at once markedly different and universally familiar.

  An Albanian family are caught in a blood feud.
• 
  For Ellen (2012)

  Review preview for For Ellen

  It took me a while to warm to this film...But as Yong Kim explores her characters a more nuanced, rewarding movie emerges.

  A rock musician in the middle of an acrimonious divorce tries to gain access to his six-year-old daughter.
• 
  The Firm (2009)

  Review preview for The Firm

  The rucks have a grim, handheld intimacy which shows how clumsy, ugly and bloody terrifying a mass brawl can be.

  A teenager growing up in 1980s London falls under the spell of the charismatic leader of a ‘firm’ of football hooligans.
• 
  Flash Of Genius (2008)

  Review preview for Flash Of Genius

  See it for Kinnear’s career-best performance and a few effective scenes and pithy lines.

  A part-time inventor devotes his life to suing the Ford Motor Company for stealing his idea.
• 
  Forbidden Lie$ (2007)

  Review preview for Forbidden Lie$

  A terrific tale.

  A harrowing ‘true-life’ story about an honour killing in Jordan becomes a publishing sensation. But the author is not all that she seems. Touring.
• 
  Fox And His Friends (1975)

  Review preview for Fox And His Friends

  The quality of the writing, editing, cinematography and everything else is top-notch, but it’s undoubtedly a bleak, hard watch.

  An unemployed young homosexual finds that a lottery win grants him access to a new, but hostile, world. Out to own now on the RW Fassbinder Commemorative Collection: Vol 2.
• 
  Frankie Boyle: If I Could Reach Through Your TV And Strangle You, I Would (2010)

  Review preview for Frankie Boyle: If I Could Reach Through Your TV And Strangle You, I Would

  His timing’s impeccable and he knows how to work an enormodrome like the Apollo as well as the most intimate upstairs room.

  Frankie Boyle’s latest (and, he says, last) stand-up tour, filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo.
• 
  Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)

  Review preview for Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

  If TV sitcom veteran Carrivick’s film debut doesn’t quite milk the film's comic potential to the full there are still worse ways to pass 86 minutes – in this dimension, anyway.

  A sci-fi nerd and his two mates discover a time travel portal – in their local pub.
• 
  From Paris With Love (2010)

  Review preview for From Paris With Love

  Crass, lazy, predictable stuff.

  A low-ranking official at the US embassy in Paris teams up with a special agent to foil a terrorist plot.
• 
  Gandhi, My Father (2007)

  Review preview for Gandhi, My Father

  Any film about Gandhi will inevitably invite comparisons to Richard Attenborough’s, but Khan... has created a much more intimate, low-key exploration of the man rather than the myth.

  In 1906, Gandhi’s eldest son Harilal joins his father at his recently-founded communal farm/ashram in South Africa. But as Gandhi’s civil rights campaigning gathers pace, the relationship between the two men becomes strained.
• 
  Garbage Warrior (2007)

  Review preview for Garbage Warrior

  Hodge is confident and clever enough to let the story tell itself

  Maverick architect Michael Reynolds has spent years building eco-friendly ‘sustainable’ homes in New Mexico. Just as the state authorities crack down, a call for help comes from an island hit by the Asian Tsunami.
• 
  Going South (2009)

  Review preview for Going South

  It’s tempting to summarise this review as: slap them, they’re French.

  Tensions flare as a group of four twenty-somethings take a road trip to the south of France.
• 
  Gregory's Girl (1980)

  Review preview for Gregory's Girl

  The real pleasure of the film is in the non-stop parade of funny, well-observed scenes and killer lines of dialogue.

  A gangly schoolboy develops a crush on a girl who plays some of the best football he's ever seen - but dealing with girls is even more complicated than it first appears.
• 
  The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael (2005)

  Review preview for The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael

  I’m at a loss to see what Thomas Clay’s point is.

  The fall of an intelligent teenager into a life of ultraviolence and depravity.
• 
  Half Moon (2006)

  Review preview for Half Moon

  Sympathy for the underdog and belief in the power of the human spirit shine through.

  A Kurdish Iranian musician travels to Iraq for a concert after the fall of Saddam, determined to bring a legendary female vocalist with him, despite the fact that women are forbidden to sing in public.
• 
  Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

  Review preview for Happy-Go-Lucky

  Shot through with Leigh’s trademark improv-based dialogue, constantly finding humour and truth in the mundane.

  Poppy, a young primary school teacher living in Camden Town, starts taking driving lessons with an instructor who is her opposite in every respect.
• 
  Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part I (2010)

  Review preview for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part I

  Yates conjures up a succession of ‘follow-that’ face-offs which equal the opening salvo for edge-of-the-seat bravura.

  As the forces of evil take over the wizarding community, Harry and his friends are forced to go on the run – and hunt down the magical items that could allow Voldemort to be destroyed.
• 
  The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

  Review preview for The Heartbreak Kid

  This film sees the brothers right back on form but ringing a few changes and even making the odd serious point.

  A newly married man meets the girl of his dreams.
• 
  Hard Eight (1996)

  Review preview for Hard Eight

  As a director, he captures the seedy glamour of the gambling world perfectly and as a writer he propels a taut, no-frills story along with a screenplay that’s literate and believable.

  A veteran gambler takes a young drifter under his wing.
• 
  Heartbeats (2010)

  Review preview for Heartbeats

  Dolan – in all his incarnations – has proved himself a name to watch here.

  Two close friends find the bond between them tested when both fall in love with the same man.
• 
  Homicide (1991)

  Review preview for Homicide

  The testosterone, sweat and fag-smoke ambience of a New York precinct house is so well-realised that you might want a shower afterwards.

  A Jewish detective finds his loyalties and sense of identity questioned when he investigates a murder with anti-Semitic overtones.
• 
  Howl (2010)

  Review preview for Howl

  The real standout performance is Franco’s.

  The story of Allen Ginsberg’s ground-breaking poem is told through a mixture of reconstruction and animation.
• 
  Idiocracy (2006)

  Review preview for Idiocracy

  A film well worth seeking out, or rediscovering, if you like stupid films that are actually made by very clever – and very funny – people.

  A soldier who took part in a hibernation programme reawakens to discover he is the most intelligent person left alive.
• 
  Ikiru (1952)

  Review preview for Ikiru

  In the end what makes this a classic is the direction – stately and assured, with a keen eye for a telling image.

  A civil servant, told he has incurable cancer, resolves to change his mundane life before he dies. Out on re-release.
• 
  The Indian Runner (1991)

  Review preview for The Indian Runner

  Penn had a definite feel for the incidental details and the everyday rhythms of small-town life.

  A State patrolman tries to keep his troubled Vietnam veteran brother on the straight and narrow...
• 
  The Informant! (2009)

  Review preview for The Informant!

  Soderbergh has great fun playing with the conventions of the conspiracy thriller.

  A high-ranking executive contacts the FBI with details of price-fixing in the food industry. But their investigation reveals more than they bargained for.
• 
  The Innkeepers (2011)

  Review preview for The Innkeepers

  You can’t help thinking that West would have made a better (and perhaps more genuinely unsettling) film if he’d focused more on the inner demons of his young protagonists

  An old inn is about to shut its doors for the final time and two of its employees get more than they bargain for when they go ghost hunting.
• 
  In The Land of the Free... (2010)

  Review preview for In The Land of the Free...

  Jackson’s narrative, like the film as a whole, is committed but calm, letting the facts speak for themselves. And the mood and atmosphere of Louisiana, and America, in its most turbulent years is vividly conveyed.

  Probe into the case of the Angola 3 - who were convicted in the US of murdering a prison guard, despite no physical evidence or credible eye witnesses.
• 
  In The Shadow Of The Moon (2007)

  Review preview for In The Shadow Of The Moon

  One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.

  The surviving members of the 1968-72 Apollo missions tell the story of the moon landings in their own words.
• 
  Intimate Enemies (2007)

  Review preview for Intimate Enemies

  While it never achieves the classic status of some of its forebears, it’s a gripping study of modern warfare at its most savage.

  A young army lieutenant volunteers for frontline duty in Algeria in 1959, and soon learns the realities of France’s “dirty war”.
• 
  It's Kind Of A Funny Story (2010)

  Review preview for It's Kind Of A Funny Story

  It’s kind of a good film, but it’s kind of an irritating one too.

  A New York teenager with suicidal tendencies strikes up friendships when he finds himself placed on the hospital’s adult psychiatric ward.
• 
  I Am Alive (2008)

  Review preview for I Am Alive

  The film is, if nothing else, an intriguing snapshot of modern industrial Italy, a world away from the travel guide clichés of Rome or Tuscany.

  A young Italian worker, persuaded by his friend to take on a one-off ‘nightwatchman’ job for easy money, finds the reality is more macabre – and complex – than he expected.
• 
  Jindabyne (2006)

  Review preview for Jindabyne

  A compelling look at the tensions and contradictions behind the image of ‘The Lucky Country’.

  A close-knit Australian community is rocked when four men discover a murder victim’s corpse and do nothing about it.
• 
  Johnny Mad Dog (2008)

  Review preview for Johnny Mad Dog

  The film is a heartfelt cry for someone to stop these children being exploited so cruelly, but offers no easy answers.

  As civil war rages in an unnamed African country, the lives of a boy soldier and a young girl fleeing the fighting become intertwined.
• 
  Katyn (2007)

  Review preview for Katyn

  While the film isn’t a complete success it’s still a powerful, heartfelt take on the cruelties of which people can be capable – and the courage and nobility they can display in their determination to find out the truth.

  In the early days of World War Two, thousands of captured Polish officers are handed over to the Soviet authorities – and vanish.
• 
  Killer Of Sheep (1977)

  Review preview for Killer Of Sheep

  A profound, lyrical and moving film that paints a vivid picture of another world without ever resorting to cliché.

  A slaughterhouse worker in 1970s Los Angeles tries to provide for his family and stay out of trouble. Out on reissue.
• 
  Katzelmacher (1969)

  Review preview for Katzelmacher

  An excellent introduction to his nihilistic but strangely poetic worldview.

  The aimless lives of a group of young Germans are disrupted by the arrival of a Greek immigrant. Out to own now on the RW Fassbinder Commemorative Collection: Volume 1.
• 
  Kelly And Victor (2012)

  Review preview for Kelly And Victor

  Evans coaxes excellent performances from a couple of very talented young actors.

  Two people trying to survive in difficult circumstances embark on a passionate affair