cinefile

The new film from James Marsh, whom most cinemagoers know as a documentary-maker, is a tightly packed and wonderfully shot espionage-thriller set in Belfast and London in the early 1990s. Continue reading »

Set in Montréal, this story about children mourning the loss of their teacher has a remarkable tenderness and acuity to it, viewing the travails of her substitute through their eyes—and as a parallel for their own grief. Continue reading »

Diana Vreeland was larger than life. She wouldn’t have approved of this small-time documentary, which shines only in fits and starts, never quite lighting up the screen the way Vreeland apparently lit up every room she entered. Continue reading »

Ben Affleck’s new film, which dramatises part of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, aims to be a send-up of Hollywood as well as an action-packed tale of true espionage; unfortunately, it takes liberties with the facts, and is bogged down by a commitment to period style. Continue reading »

The 2012 festival lineup is spectacular, with yet another record-breaking number of films direct from Cannes, and the world premières of more than half a dozen locally-made features. Continue reading »

Though this seven-year stretch was a fruitful period, too much of this unofficial portrait is spent in redundant, repetitive conversation with collaborators—but even hard-core fans will enjoy its linking of Eno’s avant-garde and (contemporary) classical influences. Continue reading »

Joe Berlinger’s new documentary, one of two by the director in the Showcase’s programme, is about the making, the lasting impact, and the attendant political controversy of Paul Simon’s Graceland, an album that has never not been cool. Continue reading »