Reviews by Robert Munro

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  13 Assassins (2010)

  Review preview for 13 Assassins

  Ultimately, what you see is what you get in 13 Assassins. Lots of blood and death and despicable cruelty.

  A retired samurai has to assemble a squad of assassins and set a town-sized trap.
• 
  Aprile (1998)

  Review preview for Aprile

  This is a caricature, and often a very funny one, but equally Moretti is simply irritating to watch and listen to for much of the film.

  A documentary that is more about the documentary-maker than its subject.
• 
  As If I Am Not There (2010)

  Review preview for As If I Am Not There

  Natasha Petrovic infuses the role of Samira with a quiet, stoic dignity, that is both heart-breaking and inspiring.

  A schoolteacher suffers brutality at the hands of Serb soldiers during the Bosnian War.
• 
  All Around Us (2008)

  Review preview for All Around Us

  While the pace may seem slow at times, the deliberate and considered consumption of all the little details that make up the couple’s life results in a more than satisfying pay-off towards the end.

  Witty drama about eight years in a marriage.
• 
  American: The Bill Hicks Story (2009)

  Review preview for American: The Bill Hicks Story

  American: The Bill Hicks Story provides us with a wonderful glimpse behind the curtain of performance and lets us see the sensitive, warm, patriotic and fiercely intelligent man we all suspected lay beneath the act.

  Documentary examining the life and legacy of the controversial comic.
• 
  Amy (2015)

  Review preview for Amy

  An intensely sad and affecting look at a hugely talented young woman, ill equipped for the all-consuming fame which her soulful voice would bring her.

  A documentary about Amy Winehouse.
• 
  The Anomaly (2014)

  Review preview for The Anomaly

  Strikingly lacking in originality or sense of fun.

  A former soldier is taken captive and awakens in the back of a van to learn he only has a few moments to figure out how he got there.
• 
  Bad Company (2001)

  Review preview for Bad Company

  There’s a slow-burning, stoical rebellion bubbling gently underneath the stillness of the surface for much of the film.

  A teenager is caught between his desire to rebel and his desire to please his father.
• 
  Blood Of My Blood (2011)

  Review preview for Blood Of My Blood

  One of the most affecting films of the year.

  An intense family melodrama set in the outskirts of Lisbon.
• 
  Beloved Sisters (2014)

  Review preview for Beloved Sisters

  The film is 170 minutes long and, if anything it feels like it should have been longer.

  Two sisters both fall for the same man - poet Friedrich Schiller.
• 
  Between 2 Fires (2010)

  Review preview for Between 2 Fires

  Constantly crucifies what could have been such an interesting and engaging tale.

  How far would you go to protect your daughter? Would you become a refugee?
• 
  Blackbird (2013)

  Review preview for Blackbird

  A frequently comic script is enhanced by the naturalism with which all the actors deliver their lines.

  A young ballad singer laments the way his small Scottish village is changing - and dying
• 
  Bobby Fischer Against The World (2011)

  Review preview for Bobby Fischer Against The World

  Intriguing, funny, and sad.

  A documentary portrait of the brilliant chess champion who gradually lost his mind.
• 
  Borrowed Time (2012)

  Review preview for Borrowed Time

  More like a tragicomic fairytale than a social-realist examination of inner-city problems.

  Low-budget crime drama about two misfits.
• 
  Breathe In (2013)

  Review preview for Breathe In

  Director Drake Doremus handles the material superbly, aware of its pitfalls and sensitive to all the vagaries of human behaviour which make these characters so intriguing.

  The arrival of an exchange student reawakens a middle aged man's musical ambitions.
• 
  Burning Ice (2010)

  Review preview for Burning Ice

  Seems to offer very little in the continuing battle to convince those who still need convincing.

  Jarvis Cocker, Robyn Hitchcock, Martha Wainwright, KT Tunstall, Marcus Brigstocke, Ryuichi Sakomoto tackle climate change.
• 
  Casque d'Or (1952)

  Review preview for Casque d'Or

  Becker trusts his actors and their small movements and gestures to portray meaning beyond the dialogue.

  In turn of the 20th century France, working girl Marie snubs the affections of the local gangsters for Georges Manda, a reformed hoodlum himself, with unpleasant consequences.
• 
  The Colour Of Pomegranates (1968)

  Review preview for The Colour Of Pomegranates

  It may be staggeringly beautiful and inventive, but it’s posturing nonsense all the same.

  Exploration of the life of Sayat Nova.
• 
  Cop Car (2015)

  Review preview for Cop Car

  This is a tense and enjoyable genre picture, and one which gets terrific central performances from all involved.

  Two 10-year-old boys steal an abandoned police car.
• 
  Chapiteau Show (2011)

  Review preview for Chapiteau Show

  That the film tests our patience due to the wearily extroverted characters and a distinct lack of laughter is undoubtedly more frustrating than the numb limbs arising from such an intimidating run-time.

  At a Crimean resort, various characters cross paths with one another across an intricate multi-story narrative.
• 
  A Dangerous Game (2014)

  Review preview for A Dangerous Game

  An often searing indictment of the abuse of power that a privileged elite feel is their right.

  The follow-up to the award-winning You’ve Been Trumped, exploring American property developer Donald Trump’s incursion into Scotland.
• 
  The Devil's Rock (2011)

  Review preview for The Devil's Rock

  As soon as the early, claustrophobic dread of the tunnels gives way to the kind of predictable supernatural, ritualistic, witchcraft fare that blights much horror cinema, interest wanes.

  Allied soldiers take on a daemon-controlling Nazi.
• 
  Death Watch (1980)

  Review preview for Death Watch

  Bertrand Tavernier’s 1980 curio Death Watch remains a chilly and enigmatic film, one which is hard to love but not hard to admire.

  A man with a camera implanted in his brain is commissioned to film a documentary about a terminally ill woman's last days.
• 
  Demain? (2011)

  Review preview for Demain?

  We never fully empathise or understand Delmira's plight, or feel completely drawn into her world. However, that may just be the point.

  The short, passionate life of Uruguyan poet Delmira Agustini is stylishly evoked in this film by Christine Laurent, longtime script collaborator of Jacques Rivette.
• 
  Donor Unknown (2010)

  Review preview for Donor Unknown

  Donor Unknown never quite pushes hard enough on the big ethical and philosophical questions involved in the notion of fatherhood by proxy.

  A young woman born via donor insemination advertises in search of her biological father, meets half-siblings and subsequently explores her feelings for the surprised stranger who reads about her quest.
• 
  Don't Expect Too Much (2011)

  Review preview for Don't Expect Too Much

  Offers us an important last look at the man Jean-Luc Godard held personally responsible for cinema.

  Documentary on the life of Nicholas Ray’s, featuring his partner Susan Ray on the director's attempts to finish We Can’t Go Home Again.
• 
  Dressed To Kill (1980)

  Review preview for Dressed To Kill

  De Palma pulls no punches in his representation of sex and violence, which are, as the film makes explicit, often inextricably intertwined.

  A mysterious, tall blonde woman, wearing dark sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she goes after the high-priced call girl who witnessed the murder.
• 
  Elegy Of Life (2006)

  Review preview for Elegy Of Life

  A film that will no doubt appeal to those already with an interest in classical music, or Russian culture, but perhaps not those who come to the film with an appreciation of Sokurov’s feature films.

  A documentary about the famous musician Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya.
• 
  Emperor Vists The Hell (2012)

  Review preview for Emperor Vists The Hell

  Feels like an attempt to stretch out what should really exist as a short film.

  A powerful man who offends a divine messenger is condemned to an early death but told he can win a second chance if he can placate the ghosts of his enemies.
• 
  Exit Elena (2012)

  Review preview for Exit Elena

  It is the balancing of a social awkwardness - which provokes comedy and terror at the same time - that makes Exit Elena such a pleasant success.

  A live-in nurse moves in with a pleasant yet quietly unsettling family to help look after their ailing grandmother.
• 
  Flicker (2012)

  Review preview for Flicker

  A funny, original and often tender début feature from the talented Mr Eklund.

  When a power cut strikes a small town in Northern Sweden, a chain reaction begins that sees sparks fly and lives change forever.
• 
  Forsaken (2015)

  Review preview for Forsaken

  The film is enjoyable enough, but unfortunately Kiefer Sutherland is not Alan Ladd.

  A disillusioned former gunslinger tries to reconcile with his father but finds their frontier town terrorised by a brutal gang.
• 
  A Fuller Life (2013)

  Review preview for A Fuller Life

  Any greater insight into the life of Fuller is most welcome.

  Tribute to maverick American filmmaker Samuel Fuller.
• 
  The Giants (2011)

  Review preview for The Giants

  Whenever the three kids are together and, basically, bullshitting and fooling around the way teenage boys do, the film works like a charm.

  Coming-of-age yarn which takes a cue from Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• 
  The Guvnors (2014)

  Review preview for The Guvnors

  It's all a little bit familiar, with the characters seemingly straight out of Green Street or Football Factory.

  A young gangster tries to challenge the football hooligans of the generation before him.
• 
  Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2012)

  Review preview for Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

  The nature of Harry Dean Stanton means that no documentary is ever going to get underneath his skin, yet director Sophie Huber does manage to crack his defensive wall on occasion.

  A portrait of the actor, with singing.
• 
  Hellion (2014)

  Review preview for Hellion

  Chandler's excellent script allows the raw drama to take centre stage.

  An alcoholic father struggles to keep his adolescent son out of jail and give him a better life.
• 
  Hammett (1982)

  Review preview for Hammett

  Once the story begins to hurtle along towards its conclusion, much of its early cheapness is forgotten.

  The novel writer Dashiell Hammett is involved in the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful chinese cabaret actress in San Francisco.
• 
  Hospitalité (2010)

  Review preview for Hospitalité

  Hospitalité begins with a promising and intriguing set-up before falling to pieces over the last half hour.

  A family welcome an unusual guest into their house, who soon assumes control and begins playing the family against each other.
• 
  A House In Berlin (2014)

  Review preview for A House In Berlin

  There’s really no excuse for producing such a visually insipid film.

  After a woman inherits an old house in Berlin, she starts to piece together its history.
• 
  Hyena (2014)

  Review preview for Hyena

  Bent copper. Check. A liking for the charlie. Check. Shady gangsters operating out of shady strip clubs. Check.

  The story of a corrupt cop caught up in the London crime scene.
• 
  Iona (2015)

  Review preview for Iona

  Director Graham is fantastic at allowing the underlying relational strain to simmer for most of the film, in quiet, unspoken Scots Calvinist passive-aggression.

  A woman and her teenage son return to the place she was born to seek refuge from a violent gang.
• 
  The Last Picture Show (1971)

  Review preview for The Last Picture Show

  Bogdanovich allows the scenes to play out in near silence as the brilliance of the lighting, staging, and acting leave the viewer breathless and trembling.

  The coming-of-age struggle of three kids in small town Texas.
• 
  The Legend Of Barney Thomson (2015)

  Review preview for The Legend Of Barney Thomson

  Robert Carlyle's directorial debut adapts Douglas Lindsay's novel detailing the life and crimes of Barney Thomson with real panache and wit.

  A Glasgow barber accidentally turns killer.
• 
  Letters From The South (2013)

  Review preview for Letters From The South

  Like many a portmanteau film Letters From The South is an uneven collection, with some films enchanting while others frustrate in equal measure.

  A portmanteau film about six cross-cultural encounters.
• 
  Let Us Prey (2014)

  Review preview for Let Us Prey

  Credit must go to cinematographer Piers McGrail whose sumptuous visuals add to the tension and creeping sense of dread.

  Held in a remote police station, a mysterious stranger takes over the minds and souls of everyone inside.
• 
  Leviathan (2012)

  Review preview for Leviathan

  An awe-inspiring experience.

  A documentary shot in the North Atlantic and focused on the commercial fishing industry.
• 
  Limbo (2020)

  Review preview for Limbo

  A film brimming with freshness in its ideas and their execution.

  Omar is a promising young musician. Separated from his Syrian family, he is stuck on a remote Scottish island awaiting the fate of his asylum request. Due to the plaster-cast on his arm, he cannot play his oud and instead wanders the epic landscapes searching for answers to a complex past and daunting future.
• 
  A Long Way From Home (2013)

  Review preview for A Long Way From Home

  The film never goes anywhere, never develops any conflict and never feels believable.

  Meeting a holidaying couple causes a retired couple to reassess life.
• 
  The Long Riders (1980)

  Review preview for The Long Riders

  "We played a rough game, and we lost"

  The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge.