2008 Dir: Juan Antonio Bayona Script: Sergio G. Sánchez Cast: Belén Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo, Mabel Rivera, Roger Príncep, Montserrat Carulla, Edgar Vivar With The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro revitalised a horror subgenre long subsided to slasher pics and gore-porn attractions. Though he retreats to a producer position here, The…

2008 Dir: Mike Leigh Script: Mike Leigh Cast: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Samuel Roukin, Andrea Riseborough In one of Happy-Go-Lucky’s initial scenes the perpetually perky Polly enters a bookstore and begins a one-way conversation with an arrogant clerk. When her exchange reaps no rewards she cheerfully departs, her sunny disposition…

Director: Martin McDonagh Script: Martin McDonagh Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy When Ratatouille was released last year, the posters bore the faux phonetic transcription (rat-a-too-ee) below the title, both acting as a pun and educating under-tens Americans how to pronounce such a dauntingly foreign – and from the perspective of cautious…

2007 Dir: Richard Kelly Script: Richard Kelly Cast: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Wallace Shawn, Miranda Richardson, Mandy Moore, Kevin Smith, John Larroquette, Jon Lovitz Hollywood’s underside is littered with the bodies of freakish, lifelong dreams that seemed like a good idea at the time, but retrospect should…

2008 Director: Doug Liman Script: David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, Simon Kinberg Cast: Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, AnnaSophia Robb, Max Thieriot Film trailers just cannot be trusted. Take Jumper for instance, which promised an epic science fiction tale focussed on a war between “jumpers” (individuals able to teleport) and the…

2007 Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson Script: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier Loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent effort is an epic portrait of prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), an animal of a man whose lust for power is unhindered by any degree of…