Doghouse (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Jake WestWriter: Dan SchafferCinematographer: Ali AsadComposer: Richard WellsCast: Stephen Graham, Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Emil Marwa, Lee Ingleby, Keith-Lee Castle, Terry Stone, Neil Maskell, Christina ColeIn order to cheer up one of their number following his recent divorce, a group of friends travel to a remote village for a booze-dripping, misogyny-laden lads’ weekend, but their plans are upset by...

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4.3.2.1 (2010)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirectors: Noel Clarke, Mark DavisWriter: Noel ClarkeCinematographer: Franco PezzinoComposers: Adam Lewis, Barnaby RobsonCast: Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond, Shanika Warren-Markland, Noel Clarke, Adam Deacon, Susannah Fielding, Jacob Anderson, Freddie Stroma, Linzey Cocker, Ben Drew, Ashley Thomas, Alan McKennaReminiscent of Doug Liman’s Go (1999), Clarke and Davis’s stylish and fun if somewhat...

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Village of the Dolls (2010)

RecommendedUSAFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: MarwencolDirector: Jeff MalmbergCinematographers: Jeff Malmberg, Tom Putnam, Matt Radecki, Kevin WalshComposers: Ash Black BuffloFeaturing: Mark HogancampJeff Malmberg’s fascinating and insightful yet warm and witty documentary paints a portrait of Mark Hogancamp, a man in his mid-40s who, in order to deal with the trauma of being beaten (literally) senseless by five youths in a pub car park in the...

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The Arbor (2010)

Highly RecommendedUKFeature DocumentaryDirector: Clio BarnardCinematographer: Ole Bratt BirkelandComposers: Harry Escott & Molly NymanCast: Christine Bottomley, Neil Dudgeon, Robert Emms, Natalie Gavin, Manjinder Virk, George Costigan, Jimi Mistry, Monica Dolan, Neil DudgeonStrikingly photographed and disquietingly scored, Clio Barnard’s deliberate and innovative yet devastatingly moving documentary, filmed with actors lip-synching to recorded...

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1946 (2011)

Notorious (1946)It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)The Big Sleep (1946)The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)A Matter of Life and Death (1946)La Belle et la Bête (1946)Great Expectations (1946)My Darling Clementine (1946)The Killers (1946)The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)Gilda (1946)Shoeshine (1946)Paisan (1946)The Yearling (1946)Duel in the Sun (1946)The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)The Dark Corner (1946)The Blue Dahlia (1946)Green for Danger (1946)Cluny Brown (1946)Song of the South (1946)The Murderers Are Among Us (1946)Humoresque (1946)The Razor’s...

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1946 (2011)

Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) Under the Bridges (1946)Deadline at Dawn (1946)Decoy (1946)The Battle of the Rails (1946) Five Women Around Utamaro (1946)Margie (1946)Gates of the Night (1946)Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)Let There Be Light (1946)Strange Impersonation (1946)Nocturne (1946)Sister Kenny (1946)My Reputation (1946)The Bandit (1946)The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)Northwest Hounded Police (1946) The Chase (1946)Devotion (1946)Enamorada (1946)The Other One (19...

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ASIFA’s Top 50 Animated Short Films (2010)

Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)Tale of Tales (1980)The Hand (1966)Tango (1981)The Street of Crocodiles (1986)Harpya (1979)The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)Tuning the Instruments (2000)The Street (1977)Ryan (2004)Breakfast on the Grass (1987)Pas de Deux (1968)Father and Daughter (2000)Satiemania (1978)Repete (1995)Creature Comforts (1989)Balance (1989)When the Day Breaks (2000)Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)Mount Head (2002)Hunger (1974)The Big Snit (1985)Hen, His Wife (1990)Labirynt (1963)Substitute (1961)Le Nez (1963)Felix in Exile (1994)The Cow (1989)Rowing...

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You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Not RecommendedSpain/USAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Woody AllenCinematographer: Vilmos ZsigmondCast: Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, Freida Pinto, Antonio BanderasRehashing a number of themes, characters, and scenarios from his earlier work, only with their heart ripped out and replaced with cynicism and bile, Allen’s London-set film casts a jaundiced eye over the coupling and uncoupling of a group of unhappy...

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Shane BlackWriters: Shane Black, Brett HallidayCinematographer: Michael BarrettComposer: John OttmanCast: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Rockmond Dunbar, Shannyn SossamonA petty criminal, via a fortuitous film audition-cum-escape attempt, is whisked off to Hollywood, where he attends the odd party, meets (after numerous years apart) the unrequited love...

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In Treatment (2008-)

USATelevision SeriesDeveloper: Rodrigo GarcíaCast: Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Michelle ForbesDeveloped by Garcia from Ori Sivan’s Israeli series, Be'Tipul (2005-2008), this intelligent, surprisingly dramatic, and very well-acted if never entirely credible HBO drama follows the therapy sessions of Dr. Paul Weston with a number of his patients over a course several weeks, as he gently brings forth the demons that haunt them, whilst also confronting...

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TONY's The 50 Best Documentaries of All Time (2010)

Shoah (1985)Sans Soleil (1983)The Thin Blue Line (1988)Night and Fog (1955)Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)Dont Look Back (1967)The War Game (1965)Nanook of the North (1922)Roger & Me (1989)Man with a Movie Camera (1929)Salesman (1968)Grizzly Man (2005)Triumph of the Will (1935)Hearts and Minds (1974)Crumb (1994)Titticut Follies (1967)Stop Making Sense (1984)Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)Lake of Fire (2006)Gimme Shelter (1970)Hoop Dreams (1994)Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977)High School (1968)Empire...

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Annecy International Animated Film Festival's Top 100 Animated Shorts (1906 - 2006)

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)Fantasmagorie (1908)Dimensions of Dialogue (1983)Crac (1981)The Man Who Planted Trees (1988)Tale of Tales (1980)Night on Bald Mountain (1933)A Colour Box (1935)The Idea (1932)The Street (1977)Neighbours (1952)Blinkity Blank (1955)Duck Amuck (1953)Harpya (1979)Luxo Jr. (1986)Snow-White (1933)Creature Comforts (1989)Tango (1981)Street of Crocodiles (1987)Begone Dull Care (1949)Le Petit Soldat (1947)What's Opera, Doc? (1957)Father and Daughter (2001)Red Hot Riding Hood (1943)The Hand (1966)Steamboat Willie (1928)Le Nez (1963)The...

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Friday Night Dinner (2011-)

UKTelevision SeriesCreator: Robert PopperCast: Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Paul Ritter, Tom Rosenthal, Mark HeapEach Friday evening, Adam and Jonny return to their family home for dinner with their dopey dad and long-suffering mum, a ritual often interrupted by their strange, pervy neighbour, Jim, and their own sophomoric pranks and japes, in Popper’s frequently hilarious and vaguely perceptive (if perhaps a little lightweight) family sitcom.Series...

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The Killing (2007)

RecommendedDenmark/Norway/SwedenTelevision Mini-SeriesOriginal Title: ForbrydelsenHead Writer: Søren SveistrupCast: Sofie Gråbøl, Lars Mikkelsen, Søren Malling, Bjarne Henriksen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Marie Askehave, Michael Moritzen, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Bent Mejding, Johan Gry, Morten Suurballe, Farshad KholghiOn her last day before leaving for a new life in Sweden, Sarah Lund, an obsessive police detective, gets drawn into a murder investigation,...

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Happy Gypsies (1967)

Cautiously RecommendedYugoslaviaFeature FilmOriginal Title: Skupljaći perjaWriter/Director/Composer: Aleksandar PetrovićCinematographer: Tomislav PinterCast: Bekim Fehmiu, Olivera Vučo, Bata Živojinović, Gordana Jovanović, Mija AleksićA hard-drinking gypsy from a small town, when not losing heavily at cards or trying to avoid his ageing wife, whom he soon hopes to replace with a younger model, struggles manfully to build his goose feather business...

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The Green Ray (1986)

Highly RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Le rayon vertDirector: Eric RohmerWriters: Eric Rohmer, Marie RivièreCinematographer: Sophie MaintigneuxComposer: Jean-Louis ValéroCast: Marie Rivière, Lisa Hérédia, Béatrice Romand, Rosette, Eric Hamm, Carita, Joël Comarlot, Vincent GauthierLet down at the last minute by her friend and travelling companion, Delphine, a delicate young woman with cripplingly low self-esteem and equally cripplingly...

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Brimstone and Treacle (1976)

RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)Director: Barry DavisWriter: Dennis PotterCinematographer: Peter BartlettCast: Michael Kitchen, Denholm Elliott, Patricia Lawrence, Michelle NewellMade to be shown as part of the BBC’s Play for Today strand in 1976, but not shown until 1987, Dennis Potter’s provocative and shocking yet thoughtful and intelligent play explores the effect that the Devil, masquerading as an old flame...

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The Insurance Man (1986)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmSeries Title: Screen Two (1985-1994)Director: Richard EyreWriter: Alan BennettCinematographer: Nat CrosbyComposer: Ilona SekaczCast: Robert Hines, Daniel Day Lewis, Jim Broadbent, Vivien Pickles, Geoffrey Palmer, Tessa Wojtczak, Katy Behean, Trevor Peacock, Alan MacNaughtonA middle-aged man in Nazi-occupied Prague with a lung condition tells his doctor of how he came to work briefly in an asbestos factory thirty...

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Dinner at Noon (1988)

Highly RecommendedUKShort Television DocumentarySeries Title: Byline (1988-1991)Director: Stuart BurgeWriter/Presenter: Alan BennettCinematographers: Mike Fox, Paola RibeiroIn this wonderful little documentary, Alan Bennett spends time at the Crown Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, quietly observing its varied clientele, whilst ruminating on the changing face of class structure and his own personal family history of hotel stays, warmly and wittily...

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1985 (2011)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)Ran (1985)Brazil (1985)After Hours (1985)Come and See (1985)Back to the Future (1985)Vagabond (1985)My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)Witness (1985)Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)My Life as a Dog (1985)A Room with a View (1985)Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)Out of Africa (1985)The Color Purple (1985)Prizzi’s Honor (1985)The Breakfast Club (1985)Runaway Train (1985)To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)Day of the Dead (1985)Lost in America (1985)The Trip to Bountiful (1985)The Official Story...

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1985 (2011)

Taipei Story (1985) Wetherby (1985) Broken Down Film (1985)Alamo Bay (1985) Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1985)Angry Harvest (1985)An Early Frost (1985) Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1985) Treasure Island (1985) Turtle Diary (1985)Compromising Positions (1985) A Gentle Spirit (1985)Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme (1985)Tea in the Harem (1985)Wuthering Heights (1985)The Satin Slipper (1985)Letter to Brezhnev (1985) Favourites of the Moon (1985)The Story of the Voyages (1985)Bayan Ko: My Own Country (19...

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F (2010)

Not RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Johannes RobertsCinematographer: Tim SidellComposer: Neil StempCast: David Schofield, Eliza Bennett, Ruth Gemmell, Juliet Aubrey, Emma Cleasby, Finlay RobertsonExploiting and exploring rather than embodying bourgeois paranoia about knife-wielding hooded youths, Johannes Roberts’s vaguely promising school-set horror flick is certainly a big step up from the execrable Eden Lake (2008), with which it shares...

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LOL (2006)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector/Cinematographer: Joe SwanbergWriters: Kevin Bewersdorf, Joe Swanberg, C. Mason WellsComposer: Kevin BewersdorfCast: Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Wells, Kevin Bewersdorf, Brigid Reagan, Tipper Newton, Greta Gerwig, Kate WinterichWith mobile phones and computers dominating the way that they interact with others, three twenty-something Chicagan males struggle to make meaningful connections with the women in their lives,...

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The Children (2008)

Cautiously RecommendedUK/Cayman IslandsFeature FilmDirector: Tom ShanklandWriters: Tom Shankland, Paul Andrew WilliamsCinematographer: Nanu SegalComposer: Stephen HiltonCast: Eva Birthistle, Stephen Campbell Moore, Jeremy Sheffield, Rachel Shelley, Hannah Tointon, Rafiella Brooks, Jake Hathaway, William Howes, Eva SayerTwo young families attempt to spend a relaxing new year’s eve in a remote, snowy idyll, but are met only with nightmarish pain and...

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Being Human (2009-)

UK/USATelevision SeriesCreator: Toby WhithouseCast: Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey, Aidan Turner, Sinead Keenan, Jason Watkins, Donald Sumpter, Lyndsey MarshalBeing Human is a thoroughly entertaining series, following the misadventures of three housemates – a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost – as they do their very best to be seen as human, blending metaphors old and new, comedy and drama, and reality and fantasy.Series 1 (2009) A vampire and a werewolf...

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