2016
Anonymous is a film based on computer hacking, yet, with a less than subtle focus, it feels much like a tamer version of the show Mr. Robot.
Disney’s latest film, Moana is sure to please crowds, but it plays it safe by recycling a story that has been told to exhaustion.
With Allied, yet another volume has been added to the overflowing pile of wartime films. Though with the talented Robert Zemeckis at the helm, it seldom showcases his trademark focused and proficient direction, which is therefore not enough to raise the film above its many aching flaws.
Fantastic Beasts is a mostly satisfactory return to the world of Harry Potter, though it also suffers from confused and muddled plot-lines.
Graduation, Mungiu’s fourth film as director, is yet another example of how he masterfully weaves an intimate character drama into an intelligent commentary on injustices in Romanian society.
Though Moonlight employs a stylistic, arthouse approach as opposed to a traditional narrative, it is nonetheless an important one to watch for people of all walks of life.
Cents is a film about a teenager attempting to find her identity; though not without its shortcomings, it is a refreshing and admirable film.
Army of One could have been a lot of different things, with plenty of room to shock and titillate fans of Larry Charles’ usual propensity for visceral subversions of cultural norms. Instead, the movie falls flat as a conservative piece of biographical fiction.
I Am Not Madame Bovary is highly critical of Chinese bureaucracy, both using the plot to highlight its inability to care about anything other than their job position, as well as poking fun at the workings of officialdom with the conversations between the officials themselves.
There is a story with immense emotional depth within Toni Erdmann, but the movie is so frequently dull, when the moments of comedy arrive they can feel somewhat cynical.
The New Man is a fascinating insight into modern fatherhood, male identity, cultural expectation and the torturous path of late parenthood.
Arrival shows up where the crowds would expect it to, in the emotional department. But upon further analysis, the film lacks the wit or width for uncertainty, and it has only one dimension to offer as entertainment.
The humor in Capture is one of its best qualities. This isn’t the humor that comes from telling a good joke, but rather from the spontaneous situations that the people find themselves in.
Ti West may be best known in the indie horror circuit, yet with In a Valley of Violence he has proven that he has additional genres up his sleeve.
Julieta is an earnest drama and has been noticeably billed by Almodóvar himself as his welcome return to the “cinema of women”.