Reviews by Owen Van Spall

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  10+10 (2011)

  Review preview for 10+10

  A diverse collection of short films inevitably means there will be a mixed bag in terms of enjoyment for any one viewer: some of the films are very obscure or outright bizarre, whereas some are so short and slight they leave little impact

  Short film collection themed around the "unique attributes of Taiwan".
• 
  13th (2016)

  Review preview for 13th

  Effectively assembles footage and facts in a relentless barrage that just overwhelms you, while confidently establishing connecting threads that have terrifying implications.

  An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
• 
  2 Days In New York (2011)

  Review preview for 2 Days In New York

  This was clearly a family affair for Delpy and a labour of love, but this film inevitably is taking a risk reheating the five-year-old meal that was 2 Days in Paris.

  Trouble brews for a New York couple when French relatives come to stay.
• 
  The ABCs Of Death (2012)

  Review preview for The ABCs Of Death

  With each director having only four minutes there is really little time for the viewer to get engrossed in the material, barring some kind of sharp shock, superb central twist, gag or sharp social commentary, and some of writers and directors struggle wit

  An alphabet of short films focusing on different ways to die.
• 
  The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

  Review preview for The Amazing Spider-Man

  A competent effort that ensures the franchise - and [Webb's] reputation - are safe, it's just a shame it doesn't soar.

  Peter Parker tries to get to the bottom of his parents' disappearance.
• 
  Animal Kingdom (2009)

  Review preview for Animal Kingdom

  Michod has created a deeply pessimistic but fascinating world lit by excellent cinematography and set to a moody score.

  After the death of his mother, a 17-year-old boy is thrust precariously between an explosive criminal family and a detective who thinks he can save him. Plus read our exclusive interview with Ben Mendelsohn.
• 
  Apollo 11 (2019)

  Review preview for Apollo 11

  Despite knowing, thanks to the consumption of a dozen or so books, how things would play out...I still found myself tensing up when we see the Eagle lunar lander begin its descent

  A purely archival reconstruction of humanity’s first trip to another world, featuring never-before-seen 70mm footage and never-before-heard audio from the mission.
• 
  Attack The Block (2011)

  Review preview for Attack The Block

  Sticking two fingers up to the media columnists who decry violent video games, Cornish gleefully suggests that our salvation rests with the Xbox and PlayStation skills these kids have honed.

  A gang of dissolute teenagers protect their block of flats from an alien attack.
• 
  Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016)

  Review preview for Alice Through The Looking Glass

  This movie is a candy-coloured mess.

  Alice returns to Wonderland to save the Mad Hatter.
• 
  Antiviral (2012)

  Review preview for Antiviral

  As a first feature, it may not be totally surprising or very subtle, but it does have some impact, particularly visually.

  In a future where people pay to be infected with the same diseases as their idols, a dealer races to find a cure after a starlet whose illness he has stolen dies.
• 
  An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (2013)

  Review preview for An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker

  Drawing from real life events, Tanic's docudrama gains its power from the emotionally stirring scenario and all-round naturalistic performances, which feel infused with greater honesty given that a version of this nightmare has been played out in real lif

  Life becomes desperate for a scrap merchant when his pregnant wife needs medical help they can't afford.
• 
  The Armstrong Lie (2013)

  Review preview for The Armstrong Lie

  The Armstrong Lie confirms Gibney’s position as one of the US’ foremost documentarians.

  Study of the cyclist that was being shot when the doping scandal broke.
• 
  Barbara (2012)

  Review preview for Barbara

  A quietly enjoyable film with a sense of the old-fashioned about it and a few bursts of humour to cut through the air of melancholy and suspicion.

  Set in 1978 East Berlin, a doctor desperate to escape to the West finds herself thrown into turmoil by the attentions of another physician.
• 
  The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)

  Review preview for The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

  Scruggs still suffers from the problem that afflicts too many other anthologies - not all the tales come up to the same level in telling the essentially Coen-esque truth over and over.

  An anthology of short films based on a fictional book of “western tales”.
• 
  The Beaver (2011)

  Review preview for The Beaver

  By and large Foster keeps things straight, but the film does wobble tonally between psychodrama and whimsy.

  A depressed executive finds solace in a hand puppet.
• 
  The Best Intentions (1992)

  Review preview for The Best Intentions

  Cut down from the six-hour version made for television, there is still plenty to digest here and nothing feels rushed.

  A pastor's marriage is stretched to breaking point.
• 
  Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2011)

  Review preview for Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

  The talking heads from the media world - PR execs, former journalists, other filmmakers - provide some of the more troubling yet fascinating insights in the documentary as to how modern corporate entities can react when they come under the spotlight.

  The story of how Dole food corporation tried to suppress a documentary about them.
• 
  Bisbee '17 (2017)

  Review preview for Bisbee '17

  Though the film feels too smart and too busy for its own good at times, the story remains fascinating (though troubling), and the cinematography always striking.

  An old mining town on the Arizona-Mexico border finally reckons with its darkest day: the deportation of 1200 immigrant miners exactly 100 years ago. Locals collaborate to stage recreations of their controversial past.
• 
  Bone Tomahawk (2015)

  Review preview for Bone Tomahawk

  Brutally effective in what it does overall, which is fuse western and horror tropes to create a slow-burning, visceral experience that, although not flawless, should ensure fans of both genres are satisfied.

  Four men set out in the Wild West to rescue a group of captives from cannibalistic cave dwellers.
• 
  Breaking In (2018)

  Review preview for Breaking In

  The problem with Breaking In is not that it is silly, but that it isn't quite silly enough.

  A woman tries to save her children, who are being held hostage in her father's fortress-like country house.
• 
  Broken City (2013)

  Review preview for Broken City

  The cardboard characters' motivations and agendas are clearly signposted, often in unintentionally hilarious ways.

  A private detective gets caught up in a conspiracy involving elected officials and murder.
• 
  Beasts Of No Nation (2015)

  Review preview for Beasts Of No Nation

  The result is a gripping, disturbing experience, though one which risks numbing as much as it informs or shocks viewers.

  Based on the namesake novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation tells the story of the young Agu, recruited as soldier to fight in a civil war in an African country.
• 
  Beats Of The Antonov (2014)

  Review preview for Beats Of The Antonov

  This is a film more interested in life than death, even if death is often hovering above.

  Documentary, capturing the lives of Sudan's displaced population.
• 
  Bent (1997)

  Review preview for Bent

  The film is arguably not very technically sophisticated or stylistically consistent... but these faults are compensated for by actors Owen and Bluteau, who essentially carry the film alone for its second half.

  The plight of a gay man at the hands of the Nazis.
• 
  Best Of Enemies (2015)

  Review preview for Best Of Enemies

  The film has lofty ambitions (and probably too many of them), but is successful in painting an entertaining portrait of the two idiosyncratic and flamboyant central figures.

  A behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F Buckley Jr, and their rancorous disagreements about politics, God, and sex.
• 
  Beware Of Mr Baker (2012)

  Review preview for Beware Of Mr Baker

  What comes out in the film seems like the very essence of a rock life, though Baker demands to be called a jazz, as opposed to a rock, musician.

  Documentary about the flamboyant drummer.
• 
  The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution (2015)

  Review preview for The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution

  The film is an interesting, timely, though ultimately dispiriting look at how the twin forces of institutional bigotry and internal discord fragmented one of the key organising forces in black America.

  Story of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party.
• 
  The Blind Side (2009)

  Review preview for The Blind Side

  Director John Lee Hancock doesn't seem to have the guts to go the full distance and pulls his punches every time. We get gloss instead of grit.

  Biopic of football star Michael Oher.
• 
  Blood (2012)

  Review preview for Blood

  There simply isn't anything here that will surprise anyone who is a veteran of cop films, with characters' actions, plot twists, misdirections and revelations quite easy to see coming.

  A police detective's disgust at the murder of a young girl leads him to make dangerous decisions.
• 
  Boomerang (1947)

  Review preview for Boomerang

  A gripping and angry cautionary tale about the dangers in taking the justice system, and one's own perceptions, for granted.

  A prosecutor fights to clear an innocent man of murder.
• 
  Boomerang Family (2013)

  Review preview for Boomerang Family

  Everyone, bar one character, shouts, and when they are not shouting they are usually hitting someone or something or being slapped about themselves.

  Three grown-up siblings struggle to get along after circumstances force them to move back in with their mother.
• 
  Brand: A Second Coming (2015)

  Review preview for Brand: A Second Coming

  Tempting though it might be to think, this is not a mockumentary. Brand is serious.

  Documentary about comic Russell Brand.
• 
  Captive (2012)

  Review preview for Captive

  Mendoza never lets your expectations, or your blood pressure, settle as the strange and isolated group face physical and existential threats.

  Unlikely relationships form between hostages and captors as they trek through the Philippine jungle.
• 
  Carlos The Jackal (2010)

  Review preview for Carlos The Jackal

  This is brisk and bold filmmaking told with confidence.

  A biopic of the mercenary soldier and assassin Carlos the Jackal, his shifting interests in politics and money and his bid to go down in history as a hero.
• 
  Cartel Land (2015)

  Review preview for Cartel Land

  A premier example of how thin the line between documentary and feature film can seem.

  Vigilantes on both sides of the Mexican Border with the US take on the drug cartels.
• 
  A Cambodian Spring (2017)

  Review preview for A Cambodian Spring

  Kelly’s film covers a lot of ground, though maybe too much.

  An intimate portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and aggressive sweep of forced evictions.
• 
  Chasing Ice (2012)

  Review preview for Chasing Ice

  The arguments are persuasive, and Balog is a charismatic presence at all times.

  Time-lapse photography of glaciers over several years providing tangible visual evidence of climate change.
• 
  Computer Chess (2013)

  Review preview for Computer Chess

  It's the boxy Apple Mac precursors that are the real stars in many ways. It's hard not to feel a warm glow of affection for them, assuming you are a viewer of a certain age.

  Early nerds congregate at a convention with a surreal twist.
• 
  Coriolanus (2011)

  Review preview for Coriolanus

  The film also looks great, with a rich and varied colour palette and costume array, plus crisp camerawork from Barry Ackroyd combined with nifty editing.

  Contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's play of political power and intrigue.
• 
  Corporate Animals (2019)

  Review preview for Corporate Animals

  Rarely becoming laugh-out-loud funny to compensate for any sophistication in the conceit, Corporate Animals is at its best when it takes the ludicrous scenario into the craziest, ickiest areas.

  Disaster strikes when the egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company leads her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in New Mexico. Trapped underground, this mismatched and disgruntled group must pull together to survive.
• 
  Centurion (2010)

  Review preview for Centurion

  Centurion cannot escape the huge shadow cast by previous swords-and-sandals epics.

  A group of Romans struggle for survival after a guerilla attack.
• 
  Childish Games (2012)

  Review preview for Childish Games

  There are simply not enough surprises to be had and as the film progresses one gets a sense that a series of boxes are being ticked.

  The sudden appearance of a childhood friend and his young daughter leads a schoolteacher on an unwanted psychological journey into his past.
• 
  Citizenfour (2014)

  Review preview for Citizenfour

  This is the first essential film about the post-Snowden era, made by one of the key figures who helped usher that era into being.

  Documentary about Edward Snowden.
• 
  The Clan (2015)

  Review preview for The Clan

  The film is briskly paced, infused with energy and the backdrop remains interesting.

  The true story of the Puccio Clan. A family who kidnapped and killed people in the 80s.
• 
  Closet Monster (2015)

  Review preview for Closet Monster

  Well-paced, genuinely funny most of the time and emotionally resonant.

  A sexually confused teenager drifts into a fantasy world where his anxieties take physical shape.
• 
  The Club (2015)

  Review preview for The Club

  The banality only makes the sinners in the club more tragically human, stripping them utterly of the last vestiges of the cloth’s grace.

  A group of priests of various ages lives together with Mónica, a nun, in a house on the Chilean coast. When they are not praying and atoning for their sins, they train their greyhound for the next race.
• 
  Cold Fish (2010)

  Review preview for Cold Fish

  At times the tone gets hysterical and there are moments of utter ridiculousness, but there are smart layers of black satire underlying the proceedings and any extreme material ends up helping emphasise the journey into murderous insanity the film takes us

  An innocent tropical fish salesman gets caught up in a series of murders in this violent and extremely gory thriller.
• 
  Coming Home (2012)

  Review preview for Coming Home

  Despite the fine cast, and some striking, color-drained cinematography, A Moi Seule doesn't have enough psychological complexity.

  Story of a kidnapped woman and what happens to her after release.
• 
  Containment (2015)

  Review preview for Containment

  The film successfully unsettles the viewer by demonstrating the number of headaches the rush to harness the power of the atom has left us.

  Documentary on the potential future problems from the world's nuclear waste.
• 
  The Corpse Of Anna Fritz (2015)

  Review preview for The Corpse Of Anna Fritz

  Though Vicens stumbles in the execution towards the bloody finale, he at least keeps the tension strumming.

  Three young men get up to no good in a hospital morgue.