Fantastic and imaginative exploration of how a young person might deal with grief. Brilliantly told by Patrick Ness and superbly realised by J.A. Bayona, this is one story that balances drama and CGI with aplomb. Incredibly moving, deftly handled and one of my favourite films of last year. Liam Neeson's gravelly voice is brilliantly put to use as the tree. It's wonderful, please watch it!
find out more...Director Alex de la Iglesia's look back to Spanish filmmaking of old centres on Carlos, a young boy on a mission to find the grandfather denied him by his mother. The grandfather, Julian (Sancho Gracia), who was once a stuntman on spaghetti westerns, is now reduced to doing stunt shows for tourists with his old buddies on the same decaying sets. Carlos's appearance restores some pride to Julian, but when Carlos's mother Laura finds out where he is, she decides to finally destroy the last remn find out more...
A wonderful tale revolving round the atheistic female mathematician, philosopher and all-round genius Hypatia, the lover she spurned and the slave who adored her; Roman authority is collapsing, the end is nigh and the Talibanesque Christians are preparing to both sack and burn the great library at Alexandria, destroying the collective scientific work of centuries, setting back science and maths a millennium, and massacre thousands (including, of course, the Jews). This is an ambitious and swe find out more...
In the small village of Alcarras in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Sole family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction - and the loss of far more than their home. Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the sophomore film from Carla Simon (Summer 1993) is a sun-dappled, deeply moving ensemble portrait of the countryside and a community's u find out more...
The runaway success at last year's Goya Awards, Pablo Berger's Blancanieves takes the tale of Snow White and resets it in 1920s Andalucia, telling the tale of Carmen, the young daughter of a celebrated bullfighter, and her passage into adulthood and conflicts with her evil stepmother (a wondrously wicked Maribel Verdu). A beautifully-realized homage to the silent cinema, it will inevitably draw comparisons with The Artist, though its blend of youthful ebullience and Grimm-like find out more...