Raw (18)
(Julia Ducournau, 2016, Fra/Bel) 99 mins
This is one sashimi dish of a horror film: delectably presented but not for the squeamish. The setting is a secluded veterinary school, where gory hazing rituals, drunken parties, sexual stirrings and sisterly bonds all conspire to release unsavoury appetites in a new student (Garance Marillier). Her coming of age becomes a gruesome progression up the food chain.
I Am Not Your Negro (12A)
(Raoul Peck, 2016, Fra/US) 95 mins
James Baldwin’s penetrating, provocative views on race relations are as pertinent to today’s US as they were in his 1960s prime. This outstanding doc communicates them with power and artistry, illustrating his words with real-life footage past and present.
Neruda (15)
(Pablo Larraín, 2016, Chi/Arg/Fra/Spa) 108 mins
The manhunt for Chilean poet/politician/communist/national hero Pablo Neruda becomes a metaphysical game of cat and mouse in this handsomely crafted 1940s-set drama, which delightfully blurs the line between reality and poetry. Chilean comedian Luis Gnecco fills the role superbly; Gael García Bernal is the resentful cop on his trail.
Graduation (15)
Cristian Mungiu, 2016, Rom) 127 mins
Sombre, complex Romanian morality play centred on a well-connected surgeon (Adrian Titieni) who pulls some strings for his daughter when she’s attacked just before her all-important exams. Whether he does so for her own good or to give meaning to his own chaotic existence is open to debate.
A Quiet Passion (12A)
(Terence Davies, 2017, UK/Bel) 125 mins
No city and even less sex for Cynthia Nixon, as she portrays 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson. Far from a straightforward costume drama, Davies’s elegant, composed film suggests her verse sprang from a life of loveless frustration and social constriction.
