Film Reviews by Steve

High Plains Drifter set in the Peak District, with Paddy Considine (who co wrote with Meadows) seeking those responsible for the death of his brother. Not just a suspenseful revenge drama, but Meadows again creates a real environment, whether the enervating poverty of his small town, or the feeble lives of his criminal gang.

Brain exhausting fantasy featuring the thoughts of a man dying in a road accident, representing his last eight minutes of brain activity after the body dies. In this rotoscoped world, he dreams of, or recalls, visits to his friends to discuss philosophy, conspiracy and the universe. A hundred minutes of dense, difficult dialogue; but fascinating.

An ambitious film made over twelve years, featuring Ellar Coltrane, who grows up before our eyes from infant school to university. The cast (featuring Linklater regular Ethan Hawke, who is excellent) is on hand for the whole journey. No gimmick this, but a unique, detailed and poignant portrayal of childhood, its joys and its threats.

Dramatic reconstruction of the tragic drowning of Chinese illegal immigrants in Morecambe Bay, compelled to their deaths by gangs in China and the UK. Broomfield exhibits the links between their fate and the food in our mouths. Broomfield is no Ken Loach but delivers a compelling, shaming polemic.

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.

One of the great prison film. A nineteen year old Corsican Arab learns to survive and then thrive in this barbarous, destitute institution. While the film comments on the penal environment and the experience of French Moslems, it's Tahar Rahim's outstanding performance that most powerfully endures.

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.

In the post millennium horror explosion, plenty have mastered the look, but few have hitched their technique to a story as satisfying as this: The Turn of the Screw, with a little extra twist. Nicole Kidman's froideur is perfect for her part as the disturbed widow. An exemplary ghost story that chills through eerie insinuation.

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.

Police procedural, Nordic noir about secrets hidden in the past of a small town... A grey and gloomy film is saved from stifling genre convention by a strain of deadpan and surreal peculiarity that plays throughout.