Leave No Trace is Debra Granik’s first fiction feature in eight years, and proves that she is one of the social realist filmmakers most urgently needed in cinema right now.
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.
Funny Cow is one of the most harmful depictions of the British working class in popular culture since Sacha Baron Cohen’s Grimsby, in addition to being one of the most mindbogglingly racist and homophobic films in recent memory.
Dark River feels more like a transitional gateway to better films, bridging the gap between Clio Barnard’ older social realist efforts and flirtations with experimental works likely to come.
Thirty years on, Alan Clarke’s fitfully funny film, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, still holds up as a first-rate character study and resonant critique of the Thatcher era.