Italian-American filmmaker Jonas Carpignano has shown in only his second feature, A Ciambra, to be one of the most empathetic social realist filmmakers working today.
Boys For Sale dives into the world of the urisen (also known as “boys”) that are paid to have sex with other men. Brought in by the allure of a high paying part-time job, urisens have to learn to navigate the industry as they go.
While lacking the effervescence of his previous film Claire’s Camera, Sang-soo Hang’s The Day After has a mournful cloud that hangs over this digital monochrome display of admirable honesty.
On Chesil Beach feels like three separate character studies awkwardly forced into one occasionally incoherent film – but with a characteristically brilliant Saoirse Ronan performance at the centre, it is never anything less than compelling.
The Escape from director Dominic Savage is an unsettling character story, one that takes its time getting its claws into you but ultimately delivers an intense ride.
Lacking emotional honesty, Disobedience from director Sebastián Lelio fails to create believable, organic tension between its characters and translate an understanding of the films primary cultural focus and subject matter.
It may sound like exploitative torture porn, but Revenge introduces director Coralie Fargeat as a filmmaker worth your attention – taking problematic genre tropes and subverting them into a vital, exhilarating feminist film.
Beast is a gritty psychological-mystery with a brilliantly dark, pulsating and atmospheric heart, with an exceptional lead performance from Jessie Buckley. Michael Pearce delivers a brilliantly assured and confident feature-length directorial debut.
Director Claire Denis is choosing a more diverse range of film projects than any other time in her career – and it’s best exemplified by Let the Sunshine in, a romcom that subverts genre expectations on the hunt for true love.