Taxi

Proof that France can churn out movies every bit as dumb as Hollywood’s comes courtesy of a Luc Besson-scripted actioner that combines the specialities of one territory (high-octane car chases, noisy shoot-outs) with the penchants of the other (saucy sex farce, casual racism).

Set in Marseilles, Gérard Pirès’ comedy follows pizza deliverer turned speed-freak cabbie Daniel (Samy…

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Overcrowding is a killer for comic-book movies. This summer’s The Incredible Spider-Man 2 became the latest superhero broth to be spoiled by too many cooks (read: villains), and even Marvel, who have built an empire around an ensemble, largely stick to beefing up solo movies with potent supporting players rather than regular group efforts.

The announcement, then,…

Boyhood

For all his affection towards the laid-back, lackadaisical and dispossessed, Richard Linklater has never been a slacker. While he tends to tell relatable, human tales, he often peacefully experiments with form: check out the Before trilogy’s decades-spanning romance, Bernie’s blurring of fact and fiction and the one-room dramatics of Tape, if you need evidence.

Boyhood is easily…

We Are The Giant

The Arab Spring remains a potent topic for debate in this documentary portrait of those behind the uprisings. Largely avoiding detailed political analysis, Greg Barker emphasises the human cost as key protestors in Libya, Syria and Bahrain brood over more timeless questions, notably the relation merits of armed struggle versus peaceful protest.

Barker’s approach starts simplistic but gathers…

Third Person

As we know from Crash, writer-director Paul Haggis likes to hypothesis cross-connected tales. Third Person intertwines strands set in New York, Paris and Rome. Missing or dead children figure in each, as do issues of trust, and a talented cast – Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Adrien Brody, Mila Kunis et al – make what they can of the complications.

Standby

The feature debut of Irish director brothers Rob and Ronan Burke, Standby is a gentle, amusing rom-com for which the term ‘heart-warming’ might have been coined.

Alan (Brian Gleeson, son of Brendan) lives a dead-end life, manning the tourist-info desk at Dublin airport, when back into his life swims Alice (Mad Men’s Jessica Paré), with whom he…

Life Itself

The world’s most influential film critic, the late Roger Ebert knew the importance of good management. That Ebert chose Steve James to direct this exceptional documentary, based on his own chronicle, says much about its subject’s character. Ebert always believed in cinema as a machine for generating empathy, citing James’ Hoop Dreams as a classic example. With full access to Ebert during…

The Imitation Game

With a title like The Imitation Game, you’d be forgiven for expecting a contemporary CIA thriller – rather than a carefully constructed character study of one of WW2’s largely unsung heroes. It’s centred on Alan Turing, the man responsible for cracking the Nazis’ Enigma cipher, thus helping end the war. Enemy dispatches, but, are not the only guarded secrets.

The Drop

Stills of Tom Hardy pursing his lips at a puppy might have made Twitter melt, but The Drop did well to exchange its title from Animal Rescue. This is no cutesy romcom or inspirational adventure but rather a downbeat, character-driven crime drama set in a squalid neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Facial stubble and handguns are de rigueur, for this, as the opening voiceover…

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

As districts are devastated above ground, other struggles rage underground. We’re not just talking Woody Harrelson’s straggly Games vet Haymitch Abernathy’s problems with “prohibition”, either. With her role beefed up from Suzanne Collins’ third and final Hunger Games novel, how can Elizabeth Banks’s future fashion grotesque Effie Trinket hope to look ab fab in a rebel hold-out with honest wardrobe issues?

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