Andrey Zvyagintsev's third feature constructs an intimate and subtle study of a woman from a poor background who has remarried a highly successful retired business man. Each of them are strangely detached and disinterested in the others children from previous marriages; Our Elena (Nadezhda Markina) has a quiet hatred for Vladimir's (Andrey Smirnov) spoiled daughter Katerina (Elena Lyadova) and in turn he is stubborn and moralistic when it comes to helping out Elena's lay about son, Sergey (Aleksey Rozin)…

Jay Roach turns his gross out comedy hand to the political campaign battle ground in the American south with this Will Ferrell vs Zach Galifianakis flick. Though the laughs are sporadic and mostly obvious they are present and the pair face off well, with Ferrell's primal hot headed style and Galifianakis's sweet fool schtick helping this rather average comedy balance itself out…

Kirby Dick's documentary about the sexual abuse epidemic within the American military service is filled to the brim with jaw dropping statistics. Statistics so vile and heartbreaking that they deepen the stories in his very personal and insightful work by adding the faces of thousands and thousands of unseen and unheard victims to the ones interviewed in The Invisible War…

Benh Zeitlin's kinetic and wondrous deep south fairy tale has become a bit of a smash hit even with very few screens receiving reels of it this year. Never the less, the buzz around it continues to grow and rightly so. It's a mesmerising debut, filled up with magic, fantasy and a stirring Cajun score which buoys the film often into moments of eye watering joy...

Bart Layton's mesmerising documentary takes a seriously thrilling look the unbelievable true story of a French con man and the lie he pursued into oblivion. The tale of enigmatic sociopath Frédéric Bourdin and his deception of a small Texan family in the 90's made headlines all over the world after he posed as their 16 year old missing son 3 years and a half years after his disappearance…

John Hillcoat's spirited "western" focuses on three illicit liquor barrens, the real life Bondurant brothers in prohibition-era Virginia. Though the film is wonderful to look at and a surprisingly strong performance by Shia Labeouf and an unsurprisingly strong performance by the hulking Tom Hardy, make it worthy, it's snappy violence and family drama make it seem slightly empty…

Ben Affleck's brilliantly written and assuredly directed comedy thriller is already surrounded by multiple Oscar rumours. The actors third feature behind the camera is certainly his most ambitious yet and he truly succeeds in handling a tricky balance of laughs and power…

The fraying threads of interweaving tales are more on show than the threads themselves in Fernando Meirelles' multi layered 360. Penned by English man Peter Morgan the film takes it cues from Alejandro González Iñárittu and Guillermo Arriaga's many efforts to interconnect international lives and tragedies and from Max Ophüls' masterful La Ronde…

Untouchableis is inspired by the true story of Phillipe (François Cluzet), a rich white millionaire quadriplegic, fed up with the pitying clinical treatment he receives from his aides, who hires a young brash black man named Driss (Omar Sy) from the Parisian projects to be his live-in help…

Universally adored and cemented in American conscious as a work of genius, as a celebration of the generation growing up during WWII and as a potent cultural firecracker for them to flaunt, On the Road contained a blue print for the spirited youth who made America a boiling pot of creativity in the 50's and 60's. It rewrote what it was to be young and free in a time which had left the world shaken and confused. It's also the reason that a cinematic version has been a near impossible task.

William Friedkin's films are usually shot through with an intense desperation and his latest, Killer Joe is no exception. Working again with Bug writer Tracy Letts, Friedkin revels in the grime and blood which the script allows him, creating a twisted and unsettling film. ..

Brit Marling made a bit of a splash at last year's Sundance Film Festival with the ambitious but ambiguous Sci-fi Another Earth. Once again Marling takes a writing credit, this time alongside first time director Zal Batmanglij and, although The Sound of My Voice rides a similar race, it also delivers a seriously compelling riddle…

Sofia Coppola’s latest meditative offering lies somewhere between the loneliness of Lost in Translation, the disassociation with stardom of Marie Antoinette and the directors own life as the daughter of a famous film maker. It’s well trodden territory on the surface, the bored cry of a privileged upbringing and the down falls fame can bring. But why the seemingly barefaced treading of water?

Restrepo chronicles one year in the life of a platoon of soldiers fighting against a strong hold of Taliban in the most dangerous place in Afganistan, the Karangul Valley. It’s techniques are simple and effective using a minimal soundtrack and some intricate editing work to bring the full force of war home on an extremely personal level.

A contract truck driver wakes up in a wooden coffin underground somewhere in Iraq with just a lighter, a pen and a mobile phone. He soon finds out he’s being held captive for ransom and we, never leaving the coffin watch him desperately try to get out. There’s no way this could sustain excitement for 90 minutes is there?

Danny Boyle, never one to choose easy stories, has indeed honed his pop skills, his knack for mainstream, audience winning film making is growing and, even with a storyline you could write on the back on a pen knife, has again proven himself to be an endlessly creative and carefree director…

David O Russell breaks his idiosyncratic style with this by the numbers but (kinda) great addition to the stalwart genre of the boxing film. He follows the well trodden rules and falls into every trap possible but handles the overall feel good piece with a simple duck and weave and some deft direction…

Australian director David Michod’s debut film puts us firmly under the wing of Smurf (an excellent Jackie Weaver) and her criminal family in the drab suburbs of Melbourne...

Mark Henderson’s short and sharp documentary begins where most stories about kidnapping end; After Henderson and 7 others were taken from the Sierra Nevada and held captive in the Colombian Mountains for 2 months until they were released physically unscathed…

The Coen Brother’s already impressive catalog of films is expanded on beautifully with a near perfect, funny and effortlessly balanced rewrite of Charles Portis’ novel and Henry Hathaway’s 1969 redemption western…