Film Reviews by Steve

Tasty, nasty, violent film starts off focusing on the exposure of a relatively sheltered teenager to the machinations of a depraved criminal family, going crazy under threat. About halfway it takes a turn into the heart of darkness of the family's astonishingly pragmatic and vicious mother. Then it really takes off courtesy of Jacki Weaver's staggering portrayal.

Powerhouse, realistic political drama of a Stasi official in the old East whose loyalties begin to shift as he carries out surveillance on a charismatic, liberal couple working in the theatre. A film that makes you question your own worth and values. Starts slowly, but builds to an amazing ending that will haunt the rest of my life.

Relationship drama, loosely constructed around the investigation into the death of a young women, is an atmospheric mood piece about the sadness and loneliness of the city (Sydney). A contemporary film noir. Features a wonderful cast (Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey...) and an unusual, original plot twist.

A sincere, dedicated teacher serving poor kids in New York, is trying to help a troubled thirteen year old girl, when she discovers his heroin addiction, and the wreckage of his own personal life. Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps really make you care, despite the slightly contrived set up and the bleak themes.

A jilted man and a spiky, unpredictable woman are brought together by a dating site, to walk and talk in the picaresque Linklater style, through the streets of a b&w LA at New Year. And we begin to care for them. A sweet and sour, and feelgood, indie date movie.

Herzog investigates the life of Timothy Treadwell, a conflicted loner who had spun some minor celebrity out of his close cohabitation with grizzly bears in Alaska; and he and his girlfriend's death by them. A story of two obsessives, Treadwell and the dry, inquisitive Herzog, with a brilliant narration from the director.

A Danish soldier in Afghanistan who is presumed dead, loses his wife to the wastrel brother who has just been released from prison. Bier exhumes the hidden and denied agonies within the family relationship while charting the distress generated by this incident. A mature, emotionally volatile film in the Dogme style.

Ki-duk wrote, directed and appeared in this piece of philosophical minimalism, set entirely on a tiny floating house, about a monk teaching his apprentice about tolerance, compassion and forbearance. A film almost without incident, but exquisite and illuminating.

Documentary (with extensive reenactments) about the extraordinary experiences of two mountaineers. At first I I was alienated by the prospect of watching two rather smug Brits talk about extreme leisure activities. Then I was transfixed by a journey into the heart of an amazing fight to survive.

Loach's first film with an American theme typically finds him engaged in social politics on the side of the oppressed: an illegal Mexican immigrant working as a cleaner in an LA office block fights for the right to unionise. Typical Ken: a funny, moving and righteous film about labour relations!

While a million people are slaughtered during the tribal wars of 1994, one man keeps Tutsis alive by offering shelter within the grounds of his luxury tourist hotel. Humbling and convincing depiction of an encroaching horror indicts us all for our indifference. Wonderful performance by Don Cheadle as this extraordinary man.

Philip K. Dick is rotoscoped (the film is digitally processed to give the effect of animation) in a paranoid, dystopian conspiracy thriller featuring Woody Harrelson, Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey as drug damaged drop outs! Only, Reeves is a cop, and every day he puts on a scramble suit to go to work! Can be watched sober.

The best of the director's films with fragmented narratives demonstrating the interdependence of things. A gunshot in the North Africa has repercussions for ordinary people across the world. Inarritu shows us world where everyone tries to communicate, but no one is listening.

Heartbreaking expose of the abuse suffered by Irish girls at the hands of the Catholic church, deemed to have transgressed often in vague, uncertain ways. Geraldine McEwan is horrifying as the head of a convent run workhouse. An angry reminder of the exploitation often visited on the poor and the powerless.

About as mainstream as the great Hungarian director ever got. Tarr's characteristic slow moving camera, the repetitive industrial rattle and clang and absurd characterisations are all intact. But this is a thriller from a Simenon story. Like all Tarr's work, unique, beautiful, and utterly strange.