Little White Lies

Released 21 APRIL In an interview with The New York Times that ran in February 2020, Harvey Weinstein’s attorney, Donna Rotunno, was asked by reporter Megan Twohey if she had ever been a victim of sexual assault. “I have not,” Rotunno replied. “Becau

Emerald Fennell is an actor, author, screenwriter and filmmaker with an enviable CV. Her 2018 short film Careful How You Go premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and she returned there in January 2020 with her debut feature, Promising Young Woman

“If a man says a woman is crazy or difficult, ask him, ‘What bad thing did you do to her?’ That’s a code word. He is trying to discredit her reputation.” These are the words of actress and activist Natalie Portman, spoken in a speech at Variety’s 201

“I’ve never been in a film people might actually see before,” Carey Mulligan says with a knowing grin. It’s not quite true, given that she burst onto the scene a decade ago when her role as a lovestruck teenage girl in An Education garnered a Best Ac

BOY MEETS GIRL BOY FALLS IN LOVE WITH GIRL GIRL MAKES EXPLICITLY CLEAR THAT SHE HAS NO INTEREST IN BOY BOY STARTS FOLLOWING GIRL BOY PROCEEDS TO INFILTRATE GIRLS LIFE BOY LIES TO GIRL AND MANIPULATES HER BOY RUINS HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER BOYFRIEND/

“Avile bag of garbage”. This is the way Roger Ebert infamously described Meir Zarchi’s I Spit on Your Grave in the very first line of his 1980 review. The famous American critic goes on to describe the more enthusiastic viewers at the screening he at

In 1948, French film critic Alexandre Astruc coined the phrase “caméra-stylo” (“camera-pen” in English) to describe a personal and intellectual style of filmmaking that would flourish during the New Wave era. In 1995, Amy Heckerling made beloved teen

For many of us, movies – along with whisperings on the school bus, maybe – are one of the first places we learn about sex. It could be the swimsuit strip-off in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or the window-steaming love scene in Titanic. Or renting som

In Rose Plays Julie, sexual trauma is hereditary, a curse passed on by bad men and handed down by injured, furious women. It is not strictly a horror film, although much of what transpires is reasonably horrific: cool, dilatory and clean, the action

Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa makes flinty visual poems addressed to the disenfranchised and disenchanted. He projects empathy and envelops himself in the world of his subjects. He tries to make films which transmit something truthful about the in

#14: Polyvinyl chloride There’s a very specific vernacular that goes along with wearing PVC. Whether its a Kardashian-style rubber dress or a pair of throwback go-go boots, the oil-slick, reflective quality is striking and futuristic. This is a mater

Directed by PEDRO COSTA Starring VITALINA VARELA VENTURA MANUEL TAVARES ALMEIDA Released 6 MARCH 5 ANTICIPATION. A new Costa is an event – not “event” like a party, “event” like an earthquake. 4 ENJOYMENT. An ideal introduction to Costa’s work – don’

Directed by ROSE GLASS Starring MORFYDD CLARK JENNIFER EHLE, LILY KNIGHT Released 1 MAY 4 ANTICIPATION. Good buzz from its festival premiere. 4 ENJOYMENT. A queasily tense descent into the blindest of faith. 4 IN RETROSPECT. Two expertly performed, i

Directed by LEVAN AKIN Starring LEVAN GELBAKHIANI BACHI VALISHVILI ANA JAVAKISHVILI Released 13 MARCH 3 ANTICIPATION. A lot of unknowns with a promising premise. 4 ENJOYMENT. Every entrancing movement will leave you in awe, never wanting the film to

Ex-film critic turned writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho has made three features in creative partnership with production designer Juliano Dornelles. Their first, Neighbouring Sounds, from 2012, offered a portrait of a walled housing conurbation, w

Directed by JULIANO DORNELLES KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO Starring SÔNIA BRAGA UDO KIER BÁRBARA COLEN Released 13 MARCH 4 ANTICIPATION. A film that has galvanised the public in Brazil. Need to see this. 5 ENJOYMENT. Revolutionary and vital. 5 IN RETROSPECT

Directed by JULIAN JARROLD Starring MARK STANLEY, EMILY BEECHAM, ANNA FRIEL Released 6 MARCH David (Mark Stanley) is your classic overconfident city boy, a workaholic with a slick smooth veneer who does everything to the extreme. He attempts to impre

Directed by OLIVER LAXE Starring AMADOR ARIAS, BENEDICTA SÁNCHEZ, INAZIO ABRAO Released 20 MARCH Shots of lush greenery, verdant hillsides and the awe-striking spectacle of untrammelled, overgrown farmland blanketing the rolling hillsides take up the

Directed by ANDREW KÖTTING Starring EDEN KÖTTING, IAIN SINCLAIR, PHILIP HOARE Released 4 APRIL For those that don’t know, a whalebone box is “a box made of whale bones”, as director Andrew Kötting helpfully explains in his film, The Whalebone Box. De

Directed by LORCAN FINNEGAN Starring JESSE EISENBERG, IMOGEN POOTS, JONATHAN ARIS Released 27 MARCH Few young couples trying to get on the property ladder will have a worse time than Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg in Lorcan Finnegan’s Vivarium. A h

Directed by J.-P. VALKEAPÄÄ Starring PEKKA STRANG KRISTA KOSONEN ILONA HUHTA Released 20 MARCH 3 ANTICIPATION. Fifty shades: darker. 4 ENJOYMENT. Simultaneously squirm-inducing and sweet. 4 IN RETROSPECT. The feel-good feel-bad movie of the year. Thr

Directed by HLYNUR PALMASON Starring INGVAR SIGURDSSON ÍDA MEKKÍN HLYNSDÓTTIR HILMIR SNAR GU.NASON Released 1 MAY 4 ANTICIPATION. Palmason’s second feature has won prizes at just about every film festival it’s played at. 5 ENJOYMENT. Dreamlike and in

Directed by SARAH GAVRON Starring BUKKY BAKRAY KOSAR ALI D’ANGELOU OSEI KISSIEDU Released 24 APRIL 3 ANTICIPATION. Sceptical the story was in the right hands, but definitely intrigued by it. 4 ENJOYMENT. My cheeks are sore from smiling. 4 IN RETROSPE

Directed by HIROKAZU KOREEDA Starring CATHERINE DENEUVE JULIETTE BINOCHE ETHAN HAWKE Released 20 MARCH 4 ANTICIPATION. Hot off a Palme win, trying his hand with a Western cast – all eyes are on Koreeda. 3 ENJOYMENT. Like Deneuve’s tea, it’s warm unti

Directed by HAIFAA AL MANSOUR Starring MILA AL ZAHRANI NORA AL AWADH DAE AL HILALI Released 27 MARCH 3 ANTICIPATION. Al Mansour’s history-making debut, Wadjda, is a beaut, but a few mis-steps since then. 4 ENJOYMENT. The framing of one woman against

As the first female film director from Saudi Arabia, Haifaa Al Mansour’s career has been built on breaking barriers. Her early, quietly radical documentaries about the women behind enforced veils, led to her entering the global stage with Wadjda, abo

Directed by MICHAEL CATON-JONES Starring EVE AUSTIN TALLULAH GREIVE ABIGAIL LAWRIE Released 24 APRIL 3 ANTICIPATION. A beloved, award-winning novel finally makes it to the screen after 20-plus years. 4 ENJOYMENT. Teen horniness is not a crime. 4 IN R

Directed by ALICE WINOCOUR Starring EVA GREEN ZÉLIE BOULANT MATT DILLON Released 8 MAY 3 ANTICIPATION. The writer of Mustang, Eva Green in the lead and space as the subject is an intriguing combination. 3 ENJOYMENT. Going to space looks really hard.

Space movies have repeatedly provided the most intense and highstakes examples of works in which the wife stays home worrying about her husband while he is busy worrying about survival. But in Alice Winocour’s Proxima, a woman astronaut played by Eva

Directed by JOHANNES NYHOLM Starring LEIF EDLUND PETER BELLI YLVA GALLON Released 27 MARCH ANTICIPATION. The poster has a cat on it, so interest is instantly piqued. ENJOYMENT. Weird, repetitive and jarring – like a nightmare. IN RETROSPECT. A Twilig

Directed by SCOTT GRAHAM Starring MARK STANLEY, AMY MANSON, MARLI SIU Released 13 MARCH Scottish writer-director Scott Graham regularly explores isolated communities in the furthest reaches of Scotland. His third feature, Run, advances his exploratio

Directed by HENRY BLAKE Starring CONRAD KHAN, ASHLEY MADEKWE, HARRIS DICKINSON Released 17 APRIL In the opening moments of Henry Blake’s County Lines, a woman out of shot explains the meaning of an ‘acceptable loss’ to 14-year-old protagonist Tyler (

Directed by VACLAV MARHOUL Starring PETR KOTLAR, HARVEY KEITEL, STELLAN SKARSGÅRD Released 27 MARCH This punishing but undoubtedly brilliant monochrome epic opens on a travelling shot of a small boy, running as fast as his legs will carry him while c

As a teenager, sleepovers with my girlfriends would pretty much always go the same way. There’d be a decadent spread of pizza, crisps and sweet treats containing ill-advised amounts of sugar. Feasting would conclude with the consumption of fizzy pop

Directed by PABLO LARRAÍN Starring MARIANA DI GIROLAMO GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL SANTIAGO CABRERA Released 17 APRIL 4 ANTICIPATION. From Jackie O to pyromaniac reggaeton dancer Ema, Pablo Larraín isn’t holding back. 4 ENJOYMENT. A hypnotic and beautiful wor

Directed by BEN RIVERS, ANOCHA SUWICHAKORNPONG Starring ARAK AMORNSUPASIRI, NUTTAWAT ATTASAWAT, PRIMRIN PUARAT Released 8 MAY What year is it? In this stimulating, collaborative work by filmmakers Ben Rivers and Anocha Suwichakornpong, it initially s

Directed by EMILY HARRIS Starring DEVRIM LINGNAU JESSICA RAINE HANNAH RAE Released 3 APRIL 3 ANTICIPATION. A fresh take on a Gothic classic. 3 ENJOYMENT. Plenty to admire here, especially the performances of young co-leads Hannah Rae and Devrim Lingn

Directed by WERNER HERZOG Starring MIKI FUJIMAKI, UMETANI HIDEYASU, SHUN ISHIGAKI Released 1 MAY Over the course of his career, Werner Herzog has operated within the boundaries between fact and fiction, drama and documentary, in his own inimitable wa

Directed by AKI OMOSHAYBI Starring AKI OMOSHAYBI, PIPPA BENNETT-WARNER, KAREN BRYSON Released 24 APRIL Actor Aki Omoshaybi’s sweetly earnest debut feature is undone by its attempts to apply dramatic conventions to the most banal aspects of life. Set

Directed by LADJ LY Starring DAMIEN BONNARD ALEXIS MANENTI DJEBRIL ZONGA Released 24 APRIL 4 ANTICIPATION. Picked over Portait of a Lady on Fire as France’s International Feature Oscar submission. 3 ENJOYMENT. Lots of meaty confrontation, but all fee

Directed by KITTY GREEN Starring JULIA GARNER MAKENZIE LEIGH MATTHEW MACFADYEN Released 3 APRIL 4 ANTICIPATION. Casting JonBenet was a gruelling but fascinating watch. 4 ENJOYMENT. A simple premise, masterfully executed. 4 IN RETROSPECT. Required vie

Directed by ERIC ROHMER Starring MARIE RIVIÈRE PASCALE OGIER AMANDA LANGLET 1981-87 Released 20 APRIL Blu-ray The great French filmmaker Eric Rohmer mostly made films which were individual fragments of a wider series. His first grand project is refer

Directed by ROBERT ALTMAN Starring JENNIFER JASON LEIGH MIRANDA RICHARDSON HARRY BELAFONTE 1996 Released 2 MARCH Blu-ray We do not treasure the singular talent of actor Jennifer Jason Leigh half as much as we should. Her ‘90s run alone cast most cont

Directed by MIKHAIL KALATOZOV Starring TATYANA SAMOYLOVA ALEKSEY BATALOV VASILIY MERKUREV 1957 Released 13 APRIL Blu-ray It’s become a cliché of film criticism to reference the dour, intellectually imposing work of Andrei Tarkovsky when writing about

Directed by MASAO ADACHI ATSUSHI YAMATOYA Starring AKI SASAKI MIKI WATARI MAKIKO KIM 1967, 1978 Released 16 MARCH Blu-ray This Blu-ray twofer set contains a pair of mid-century features from Japan: 1971’s Gushing Prayer by Masao Adachi; and 1967’s In

Before I had actually attended a film festival, I assumed they were deeply social occasions, in which critics hobnobbed with stars, all brought together and bonded by close proximity and their shared love of cinema. My preconceptions were swiftly sha