Old Joy (2006)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Cinematographer: Peter Sillen
Composer: Yo La Tengo
Cast: Daniel London, Will Oldham

Reichardt’s elegiac film – a gentle exploration of a dying friendship, set against the backdrop of a flailing country, with gorgeous cinematography and a hypnotic natural soundtrack – proves to be an enigmatically moving experience. Iain.Stott

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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Highly Recommended

Romania

Feature Film
Original Title: 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
Writer/Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cinematographer: Oleg Mutu
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean, Luminita Gheorghiu, Ioan Sapdaru

Mungiu’s remarkable, critically acclaimed film, a candid, unflinching, and beautifully paced depiction of a young student’s illegal abortion during the final days of Communist rule in Romania, and one that, with its excellent, naturalistic performances and photography, is really rather moving and quite unforgettable. Iain.Stott

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Volver (2006)

Highly Recommended

Spain
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave

Almodóvar’s delightful film, a seemingly light-hearted look at murder, abuse, guilt, and redemption, with its gorgeous photography and exemplary performances, is an oft funny, surprising, and original black comedy. Iain.Stott

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Morvern Callar (2002)

Essential Viewing

UK

Feature Film
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writers: Liana Dognini, Lynne Ramsay, Alan Warner
Cinematographer: Alwin H. Kuchler
Cast: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Raife Patrick Burchell

Ramsay’s poetically enigmatic adaptation of Warner‘s novel, beautifully and sensually exploring a young woman’s quite baffling reaction to the suicide of her novelist boyfriend, is a magnificently acted, beautifully paced, visually stunning, and quite unforgettable masterpiece. Iain.Stott

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Summer Hours (2008)

Highly Recommended

France
Feature Film
Original Title: L'heure d'été
Writer/Director: Olivier Assayas
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Cast: Charles Berling, Edith Scob, Jeremie Renier, Juliette Binoche, Dominique Reymond, Valérie Bonneton, Isabelle Sadoyan, Alice de Lencquesaing, Emile Berling

Depicting a family’s efforts to come to terms with the death of its popular matriarch, this gorgeous return to form from Assayas proves to be a beautiful, naturalistic, insightful, and very moving exploration of the passing of time and the transience of art, familial relationships, and traditions. Iain.Stott

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28 Days Later... (2002)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Alex Garland
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle
Composer: John Murphy
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, Luke Mably, Stuart McQuarrie, Ricci Harnett, Leo Bill, Junior Laniyan, Ray Panthaki, Sanjay Rambaruth, Marvin Campbell

Boyle and Garland’s vibrantly visceral collaboration, depicting a Britain ravaged by a virus that has left its victims blood-thirsty, cannibalistic animals, is a hugely thrilling and compelling if somewhat uneven “zombie” film, which mines much of the same ground as Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985). Iain.Stott

Followed by 28 Weeks Later (2007).

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24 Hour Party People (2002)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Cinematographer: Robby Müller
Cast: Steve Coogan, Lennie James, Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine, John Simm, Danny Cunningham, Ralf Little, Sean Harris, Andy Serkis, Peter Kay

Winterbottom’s playfully irreverent biopic, following the misadventures Tony Wilson – newsreader, record label founder, and piss-poor businessman – is an episodic, frequently funny, occasionally moving, and slightly nostalgic look-back at the Manchester music scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Iain.Stott

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Capote (2005)

Recommended

USA/Canada
Feature Film
Director: Bennett Miller
Writers: Dan Futterman, Gerald Clarke
Cinematographer: Adam Kimmel
Composer: Mychael Danna
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Mark Pellegrino

Miller’s engrossing film, portraying Truman Capote’s writing of the non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, an exploration of the events that lead to the horrific murder of an entire Kansas family in 1959, is, with excellent performances from Hoffman and Collins Jr. and Danna’s thoughtful score, an insightful, restrained, and moving depiction of difficult events. Iain.Stott

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Bamako (2006)

Recommended

Mali/USA/France
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Cinematographer: Jacques Besse
Cast: Aïssa Maïga, Tiécoura Traoré, Hélène Diarra, Habib Dembélé, Hamadoun Kassogué, Mamadou Konaté, Magma Gabriel Konaté, Hamèye Mahalmadane, Roland Rappaport, Aissata Tall Sall, Mamadou Savadogo, Sahl Samaké

Sissako’s impassioned and inventive polemic, an attack against privatisation, globalisation, and the adverse effects of multinational financial companies in Africa, is an important and engrossing if rather depressing film. Iain.Stott

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Black Book (2006)

Recommended

The Netherlands/Germany/Belgium

Feature Film
Original Title: Zwartboek
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writers: Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Cinematographer: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Composer: Anne Dudley
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf de Vries, Peter Blok

Verhoeven’s exploration of the exploits of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War, with the questions it raises about the difference between terrorists and freedom-fighters by book-ending the film with scenes in Israel, and despite an occasionally rather cartoonishly on-the-nose score, proves to be an intelligent, thrilling, and lovingly crafted film. Iain.Stott

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Andrew Dominik
Writers: Andrew Dominik, Ron Hansen
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Composers: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Hugh Ross, Mary-Louise Parker

This thoroughly compelling film, which pretty much does what it says on the tin, an exploration of hero worship, celebrity, and honour, or lack there of, amongst thieves, is, despite being rather rushed post assassination, a beautifully paced, excellently acted, and insightful depiction of notorious events. Iain.Stott

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Still Life (2006)

Cautiously Recommended

China/Hong Kong
Feature Film
Original Title: 三峡好人
Director: Jia Zhangke
Writers: Jia Zhangke, Guan Na, Sun Jiamin
Cinematographer: Yu Lik-wai
Composer: Lim Giong
Cast: Zhao Tao, Han Sanming, Li Zhubing, Wang Hongwei, Ma Lizhen, Zhou Lin, Luo Mingwang

Chronicling a city and its inhabitants in a state of flux, Jia’s beautifully observed if emotionally uninvolving film, with its long, stately takes, restrained performances, and lack of any real resolution, proves to be an admirable if somewhat inconsequential and forgettable work. Iain.Stott

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Persepolis (2007)

Recommended

France/USA
Animated Feature Film
Writer/Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Composer: Olivier Bernet
Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes, François Jerosme

This stylish, animated, black & white feature, recounting the growing pains of a young Iranian girl as she lives through revolution, war, exile, sex, drugs, love, heartache, and oppression, is, with some wonderfully memorable images, a moving and engaging if slightly rushed-feeling film. Iain.Stott

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Highly Recommended

France/USA
Feature Film
Original Title: Le scaphandre et le papillon
Director: Julian Schnabel
Writers: Ronald Harwood, Jean-Dominique Bauby
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Composer: Paul Cantelon
Cast: Mathieu Almaric, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais, Niels Arestrup, Olatz López Garmendia, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Marina Hands, Max von Sydow, Isaach De Bankolé, Emma de Caunes

A stunning, one-of-a-kind near-masterpiece, Schnabel’s remarkable film relates the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, following a massive stroke that left him almost completely paralysed, wrote a book about his experiences, solely using blinking as a means of communication. Iain.Stott

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No Country for Old Men (2007)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Cormac McCarthy
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins
Composer: Carter Burwell
Cast: Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Kelly McDonald, Woody Harrelson, Barry Corbin

With its deliberate, measured pace, minimalist sensibilities, and enigmatic ending, this, an unsparing adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s bleak novel, is the Coen brothers’ least commercial offering to date; but, with Tommy Lee Jones’s excellent performance at the film’s moral centre, it is a never-less-than-compelling existential thriller. Iain.Stott

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Once (2006)

Highly Recommended

Ireland
Feature Film
Writer/Director: John Carney
Cinematographer: Tim Fleming
Composers: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová
Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova, Marcella Plunkett, Niall Cleary

John Carney’s beautiful film, an earthy musical depicting a chaste romance between an Irish busker and a Czech flower-seller, is like a breath of fresh air: a musical that is simultaneously romantic, credible, insightful, and, thanks in the main to Hansard’s emotion-drenched vocals, very very moving. Iain Stott

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Into the Wild (2007)

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Sean Penn
Writers: Sean Penn, Jon Krakauer
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Composers: Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook

Based on the true story of Chris McCandless, a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp, who, in the early ‘90s, travelled into the wild in order to escape from society and/or his parents, Sean Penn’s impressive film is an excellently acted and beautifully made exploration of the dangers of both living as part of, and not living as part of, a society. Iain Stott

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Half Nelson (2006)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film
Director: Ryan Fleck
Writers: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden
Cinematographer: Andrij Parekh
Composers: Broken Social Scene
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Tina Holmes, Monique Curnen, Denis O'Hare

Fleck and Boden’s (fiction) feature debut, a portrait of an inner-city teacher determined to change the lives of his pupils, who simultaneously is slowly destroying his own with crack cocaine, is a vibrant, beautiful, and wonderfully acted exploration of the inequities and contradictions that make up society. Iain.Stott

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Climates (2006)

Highly Recommended

Turkey/France
Feature Film
Original Title: İklimler
Writer/Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Cast: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Nazan Kirilmis, Mehmet Eryilmaz, Arif Asçi, Can Ozbatur

Ceylan’s spare and measured film, an examination of extramarital affairs and break-ups, manages to avoid the melodramatic pitfalls associated with the genre, and presents us, instead, with a hypnotically beautiful experience that is as insightful as it is moving. Iain Stott

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Paranoid Park (2007)

Highly Recommended

USA/France
Feature Film
Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers: Gus Van Sant, Blake Nelson
Cinematographers: Christopher Doyle, Rain Kathy Li
Cast: Gabe Nevins, Daniel Liu, Taylor Momsen, Scott Patrick Green, Lauren McKinney

Van Sant’s beautiful, dreamy, hypnotic, and sensual adaptation of Blake Nelson’s novel, an exploration of a young skater’s attempts to deal with the memory of a tragic accident and the guilt and fear involved with it, also manages to affectingly examine the universal difficulties inherent to the transition from boyhood to manhood. Iain Stott

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