Drama films

Gagarine review – close encounters of the banlieue kind

This mesmerising debut about a teenager looking to fix up his Paris estate passes up the usual angry social-realism in favour of something more celestial

Cath Clarke

23, Sep, 2021 @8:00 AM

Siberia review – Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara on fine freaky form

Dafoe has gravitas as a barkeep on a journey of delusion and epiphany in Ferrara’s glacial, woozy dream-odyssey

Peter Bradshaw

23, Sep, 2021 @6:00 AM

The Ballad of Billy McCrae review – erotic noir is on rocky ground

This Wales-set tale of sex and intrigue among quarry workers is strangely murky, although the scenery looks lovely

Leslie Felperin

22, Sep, 2021 @1:00 PM

True Calling review – a government minister goes awol on long night of the soul

A politician’s long night of the soul becomes a confusing debate on the climate crisis in Erik Knudsen’s tiny-budget drama

Cath Clarke

22, Sep, 2021 @11:00 AM

Percy vs Goliath review – Christopher Walken battles Big Agriculture

The New Yorker makes no effort to sound Canadian or look like real life Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser, but he still steals the show

Leslie Felperin

20, Sep, 2021 @3:00 PM

Balloon review – beauty and melancholy in Tibet’s sheep-herding life

Writer-director Pema Tseden tells this story of a clash between modernity and tradition as a woman is dismayed to find she is pregnant

Phuong Le

20, Sep, 2021 @9:00 AM

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie review – superficial charmer with a star turn

Newcomer Max Harwood sparkles in this adaptation of the musical about an aspiring young northern drag queen

Wendy Ide

19, Sep, 2021 @10:00 AM

Toronto film festival 2021 roundup – from poets to deadly parasites

While overshadowed by its flashier film festival rivals, there were still gems to be found at Tiff 2021, from Terence Davies, Mélanie Laurent, Michael Pearce and more

Simran Hans

18, Sep, 2021 @3:00 PM

Mandibles review – lunkhead road movie that will leave you buzzing

The mundane meets the bizarre in Quentin Dupieux’s strangely moving comedy about two friends who discover a giant insect in the boot of their stolen car

Wendy Ide

18, Sep, 2021 @2:00 PM

Mommie Dearest at 40: the derided camp classic that deserves a closer look

Faye Dunaway’s all-guns-blazing performance as Joan Crawford is one of many reasons why the reviled biodrama is not the disaster many have labelled it

Guy Lodge

18, Sep, 2021 @6:02 AM

The Obscure Life of the Grand Duke of Corsica review – Tim Spall as oddball architect

Spall plays an eccentric architect hired to design a tomb for the the eponymous aristocrat, in writer-director Daniel Graham’s homage to Peter Greenaway

Mike McCahill

17, Sep, 2021 @6:00 AM

Rose Plays Julie review – eerie, edge-of-your-seat suspense

This uncanny and transgressive film about a young woman who tracks down her birth parents is Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s best work yet