Reviews by Robert Munro

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Orlando (1992)

  Review preview for Orlando

  A film which flatters to deceive, teasing the viewer with a fluttering of aesthetically-pleasing eyelids before dashing off in pursuit of another suitor.

  Young nobleman Orlando is commanded by Queen Elizabeth I to stay forever young. Miraculously, he does just that...
• 
  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.
• 
  Unfair World (2011)

  Review preview for Unfair World

  An odd film which seems as likely to find admirers as it is to find detractors.

  Dramatic comedy about the strange goings on of a police officer obsessed by making the world a fairer place.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Search For Emak Bakia (2012)

  Review preview for The Search For Emak Bakia

  It soon becomes clear that it isn’t the destination, and the discovery of Emak Bakia, that is the most interesting thing about the film, but the journey itself.

  In 1926, Man Ray filmed a cinepoem in the southeast of France, and called it Emak Bakia, which is a Basque expression meaning 'Leave me alone' - now Filmmaker Oskar Alegria embarks upon an exploration of the film and its title.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Rest Of The World (2012)

  Review preview for The Rest Of The World

  Director Damien Odoul successfully blends a mixture of naturalistic and unobtrusive camerawork with occasional bursts of surreal imagery.

  A grieving woman finds no comfort in turning to her family, whose members all have their own dark secrets.
• 
  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.
• 
  We Can't Go Home Again (1976)

  Review preview for We Can't Go Home Again

  Truth be told, it is annoying as hell and becomes very tired, very quickly.

  A companion piece to Don't Expect Too Much, We Can't Go Home Again is an experimental vision of disillusioned American youth in the Seventies.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Sodankylä Forever: The Century Of Cinema (2010)

  Review preview for Sodankylä Forever: The Century Of Cinema

  The weight of history lies heavy on the shoulders of these filmmakers.

  The Century of Cinema is a documentary which focusses on World War II in relation to filmmaking.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Two Frogs In The West (2010)

  Review preview for Two Frogs In The West

  It’s clearly an earnest and (probably) autobiographical effort from Papineau, but there’s no refuge to be found amongst such details as the film blunders on for what seems like an eternity.

  Marie Deschamps, a 20-year-old French-Canadian girl, quits college to go travel and learn English in Western Canada.
• 
  Moneyball (2011)

  Review preview for Moneyball

  While the film does rattle through these pillars of the underdog sports movie narrative, it does so with an element of class, a helping of humour and a knowing wink.

  The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Raging Bull (1980)

  Review preview for Raging Bull

  De Niro’s renowned devotion to the art of acting has never been so tested as it is here.

  An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it.
• 
  Mr Nobody (2009)

  Review preview for Mr Nobody

  Dormael’s film fizzles with an abundance of ideas, most of which are beautifully realised.

  A tale that spans different time zones of the 20th and 21st centuries.
• 
  Take Me Home Tonight (2011)

  Review preview for Take Me Home Tonight

  It’s a film to be watched late at night, sunken into the sofa with one eye open. And then entirely forgotten about come the morning.

  As the summer of 1988 winds down, three friends on the verge of adulthood attend an out-of-control party in celebration of their last night of unbridled youth.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Maltese Falcon (1941)

  Review preview for The Maltese Falcon

  The Maltese Falcon provides us with one of the earliest, and undoubtedly one of the best, examples of Hollywood Noir.

  A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Off The Beaten Track (2011)

  Review preview for Off The Beaten Track

  The film quietly and confidently draws us in to the lives of one particular family of shepherds, and their ordinary struggle for survival.

  Transylvania transported into the new world.
• 
  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?
• 
  Oliver Sherman (2011)

  Review preview for Oliver Sherman

  Redford, and cinematographer Antonio Calvache, do an excellent job of subtly playing with the audience’s nerves.

  Nerve splintering drama about man's dual capacity for compassion and violence.
• 
  Mama Africa (2011)

  Review preview for Mama Africa

  Manages to do justice to Makeba’s wonderful talent and noble activism.

  A documentary portrait of the acclaimed performer and political campaigner.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Route Irish (2010)

  Review preview for Route Irish

  Route Irish just about overcomes these shortcomings in its portrayal of the de-humanising consequences of modern warfare.

  One man’s search for the truth behind the death of his best friend leads him into the murky underworld of contracted military mercenaries in Iraq.
• 
  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.