I, Daniel Blake

Shame on those people who say this film is not realistic, is boringly moralistic or - most shockingly - is poverty porn. I have known these people. If it weren't for the opportunities afforded me by a free (at the time) education system together with a wodge of good luck, I would be these people. So …

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

In which Tom Cruise tries to prove to both himself and viewers that he is still capable of doing the same action movie stuff. Well I'm here to issue a cease and desist notice, Tom. It's time to move on to other things. We know you can do them (Magnolias, Tropic Thunder). You just have …

American Honey

There is no doubting that Andrea Arnold has found a really good young cast and has elicited some great performances from her main actors, particularly Sasha Lane, Riley Keough and also Shia LaBeouf. Lane in particular is so good as the lost teenager who links up with a 'mag-crew' - a group of outcast teenagers who …

Neruda

Director Pablo Larraín gives Chilean poet Pablo Neruda a taste of his own magical reality by mixing elements of Neruda's real life with a fictional police officer who is on his trail. As can be expected, Gael García Bernal beautifully inhabits the self-aware, self-aggrandising fictional sleuth, hot on the trail of Neruda, a fugitive in …

El hombre de las mil caras – Smoke and Mirrors

I detest when people in the cinema talk during the film. But when it happend this time, it had an interesting effect on my perception of the film, another 'based on a true story' tale of a man who fooled the entire Spanish government over a period of years with fraud, lies and stories. Inevitably …

Réparer les vivants – Heal the Living

A  fabulous, almost dialogue-free, opening section with some stunning visuals sets up one side of the story, and we only meet the protagonists of the other side much later, when their story is told separately. Obviously, the two threads are intertwined by the end, but I don't wish to give too much away so I'll say …

El Clan – The Clan

A film based on real-life events in the Argentina of the 1980s, which intersperses odd moments of original news footage with the drama. What I recall from news at the time is that Argentina had its fair share of mafia-style and government corruption, and this is the setting for this story. The clan of the title kidnaps people …

El Sur – The South

Fascinating in many ways. Released in 1983, this is half of what director Víctor Erice  (The Spirit of the Beehive) originally envisaged. It would appear that financial issues prevented filming the full script, and the director was left to make what he could from what had been filmed. And while, at the end, there is …

Juste la fin du monde – It’s Only the End of the World

This was the film I had built my entire (if short) London Film Festival experience around. As soon as I knew I was going to be in town on the evening of the UK premiere, I booked my ticket. Director Xavier Dolan is currently one of my favourite directors. His films aren't always easy to …

London Film Festival – First Visit!

Occasionally I find myself in London for work, and I was quite excited to realise that one of these visits for the first time coincides with the London Film Festival. So I've been able to squeeze enough time to see a tiny handful of films - I'd love to see more, but adding in accommodation costs …