Sound of Falling
Dir. Mascha Schilinski
Previous depictions of provincial living tend to paint the pastoral experience as idyllic, simple, and much more innocent compared to…
It Was Just an Accident
Dir. Jafar Panahi
You can probably predict from the title that an accident starts this thriller but what happens after is totally unexpected.…
Holy Spider
Dir. Ali Abbasi
As a crime thriller, Holy Spider is taut and terrifying, a modern noir that manages to unnerve despite the familiar…
Show Me Love
Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Set in the small town of Åmål, western Sweden, the debut feature by Lukas Moodysson (We Are the Best), is…
Martin Eden
Dir. Pietro Marcello
Loosely based on the 1909 novel, Martin Eden is a stunning film about the hollow success of individualism. The plot…
Blancanieves
Dir. Pablo Berger
As a popular fairytale, Snow White has been depicted many, many times, but never quite like the 2012 Spanish film…
Force Majeure
Dir. Ruben Östlund
A seemingly well-adjusted Scandinavian Family vacationing in the French Alps experiences a frightening avalanche scare near the beginning of Force…
Live Flesh
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
It won’t be surprising to hear that a film called Live Flesh would be all about the body. There are,…
The Son's Room
Dir. Nanni Moretti
The Son’s Room is about grief, but there’s something refreshing about the way it depicts how the family navigates it,…
Dirty Pretty Things
Dir. Stephen Frears
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as a disgraced doctor-turned-immigrant cab driver who inadvertently stumbles upon London’s black market organ trade. Audrey Tatou…
Mustang
Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven & Female director
Five orphaned sisters are put under house arrest by their uncle and grandmother after they are seen horsing around with…
Waltz with Bashir
Dir. Ari Folman
In Waltz with Bashir, director Ari Folman grapples with the trauma and dehumanization of war by examining the role he…
Run Lola Run
Dir. Tom Tykwer
An offbeat film with a more than decent amount of suspense. To that it adds really good music and unexpected…
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Dir. Ken Loach
You might expect a movie about the Irish struggle for independence from the British Empire during the 1920s to be…
Happy-Go-Lucky
Dir. Mike Leigh
Happy-Go-Lucky is a Mike Leigh feel-good movie tells the story of Poppy, a North London teacher, whose story we follow…
The Edge of Heaven
Dir. Fatih Akin
This is a hard movie to describe, but I’ll do my best without giving too much away. The movie takes…
The Magdalene Sisters
Dir. Peter Mullan
This is a touching saga based on the plight of the women labelled as “fallen” that the Magdalene Laundries housed…
Italian for Beginners
Dir. Lone Scherfig
With the austere ethos of Dogme 95, most Dogme films tend to be naturalistic, serious dramas, dealing with heavy topics.…
Let the Right One In
Dir. Tomas Alfredson
Somehow an art house film, horror, and romance all in one, Let the Right One In explores the boundaries of…
The Other Side of Hope
Dir. Aki Kaurismäki & Aki Kaurismäki
Finnish director and megastar Aki Kaurismäki hits with yet another absurd but poignant movie. The Other Side of Hope is…
Bloody Sunday
Dir. Paul Greengrass
Filmed in Paul Greengrass’ signature documentary style, Bloody Sunday captures one of the worst tragedies in Northern Ireland’s recent history…
The Class
Dir. Laurent Cantet
Taking place almost entirely in a single classroom, the two-hour-plus runtime of this French drama breezes past thanks to its…
The Best Offer
Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
A riveting take on one of the most prestigious forms of modern art, The Best Offer is a film laced…
