Untouchableis is inspired by the true story of Phillipe (François Cluzet), a rich white millionaire quadriplegic, fed up with the pitying clinical treatment he receives from his aides, who hires a young brash black man named Driss (Omar Sy) from the Parisian projects to be his live-in help…

Universally adored and cemented in American conscious as a work of genius, as a celebration of the generation growing up during WWII and as a potent cultural firecracker for them to flaunt, On the Road contained a blue print for the spirited youth who made America a boiling pot of creativity in the 50's and 60's. It rewrote what it was to be young and free in a time which had left the world shaken and confused. It's also the reason that a cinematic version has been a near impossible task.

William Friedkin's films are usually shot through with an intense desperation and his latest, Killer Joe is no exception. Working again with Bug writer Tracy Letts, Friedkin revels in the grime and blood which the script allows him, creating a twisted and unsettling film. ..

Brit Marling made a bit of a splash at last year's Sundance Film Festival with the ambitious but ambiguous Sci-fi Another Earth. Once again Marling takes a writing credit, this time alongside first time director Zal Batmanglij and, although The Sound of My Voice rides a similar race, it also delivers a seriously compelling riddle…

Sofia Coppola’s latest meditative offering lies somewhere between the loneliness of Lost in Translation, the disassociation with stardom of Marie Antoinette and the directors own life as the daughter of a famous film maker. It’s well trodden territory on the surface, the bored cry of a privileged upbringing and the down falls fame can bring. But why the seemingly barefaced treading of water?

Restrepo chronicles one year in the life of a platoon of soldiers fighting against a strong hold of Taliban in the most dangerous place in Afganistan, the Karangul Valley. It’s techniques are simple and effective using a minimal soundtrack and some intricate editing work to bring the full force of war home on an extremely personal level.

A contract truck driver wakes up in a wooden coffin underground somewhere in Iraq with just a lighter, a pen and a mobile phone. He soon finds out he’s being held captive for ransom and we, never leaving the coffin watch him desperately try to get out. There’s no way this could sustain excitement for 90 minutes is there?

Danny Boyle, never one to choose easy stories, has indeed honed his pop skills, his knack for mainstream, audience winning film making is growing and, even with a storyline you could write on the back on a pen knife, has again proven himself to be an endlessly creative and carefree director…

David O Russell breaks his idiosyncratic style with this by the numbers but (kinda) great addition to the stalwart genre of the boxing film. He follows the well trodden rules and falls into every trap possible but handles the overall feel good piece with a simple duck and weave and some deft direction…

Australian director David Michod’s debut film puts us firmly under the wing of Smurf (an excellent Jackie Weaver) and her criminal family in the drab suburbs of Melbourne...

Mark Henderson’s short and sharp documentary begins where most stories about kidnapping end; After Henderson and 7 others were taken from the Sierra Nevada and held captive in the Colombian Mountains for 2 months until they were released physically unscathed…

The Coen Brother’s already impressive catalog of films is expanded on beautifully with a near perfect, funny and effortlessly balanced rewrite of Charles Portis’ novel and Henry Hathaway’s 1969 redemption western… 

Frozen is a short and sweet thriller gimmick from Hatchet director Adam Green in which three college friends get stranded on a ski lift late on a Sunday night. It’s a taught and un-complex set up but one which digs its heels in once the trio are stuck allowing the simplistic nature of the tension (and the howling from the woods) work it’s own magic…

Rafi Pitts film three feature films have headed out into the world relatively unnoticed, garnering circles of intense critical praise for their mood and beauty but the Iranian director has set his sights on making far more of a splash with The Hunter…

Jee-woon Kim’s ever present obsession with revenge and redemption took a bit of a holiday in the sun with his last effort, the completely off the wall The Good, The Bad, The Weird. It returns full force and darker than ever in the long and brutal I Saw the Devil.

Richard Ayoade’s darkly funny, rich and technically faultless debut film has been causing quite a stir since it’s beautiful trailer started floating about online. How could Moss from the IT Crowd be into Francois Truffaut, Hal Ashby, Wes Anderson and Lois Malle? 

Guillaume Canet’s Little White Lies is an odd ensemble film. It takes great pride and time in presenting it’s many characters in a myriad of unlikeable ways and asks you to come on holiday with them all to a beach house after the near death of a close friend… and care about them…

Watching the hobo of Jason Eisener’s wonderfully titled grindhouse homage roll into Scumtown is a massive guilty pleasure for any action film fan. Rutger Hauer is the hobo in question; Deciding he’s had enough of the violence against the downtrodden in this mildly apocalyptic world…

Barbara Kopple’s wonderful Harlan County, USA gallantly documents the battle of a group of coal miners and their struggling families against the Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973. Grittily, candidly and deftly shot by Kopple and her team the film holds up amazingly well today and shows just how lazy we’ve gotten in documentary film making...

In essence The Tree of Life could be described as a montage of nearly wordless childhood memories of a boy named Jack (Sean Penn) reminiscing over his lost brother and a nearly forgotten family. About life, death, birth and, in the films wildest and talked about sequence, the beginning of the universe…