ANIMAL KINGDOM

David Michod's "Animal Kingdom" is a brilliant and genuinely disturbing crime movie from Australia about a family of criminal psychopaths that make the Barker brood seem like pussycats. Actually, the analogy between the Barkers and the Codys here is an apt one since they are both ruled by a particularly tough old broad with a penchant for planting big wet kisses on the mouths of their criminal sons. As 'Ma Cody' Jackie Weaver is superb, (she was Oscar-nominated), though the central character is her grandson 'J' who comes to live with the family after his mother has overdosed on heroin and through whose eyes the unfolding events are seen. He's played by James Frecheville as an uncomprehending lout in way over his head and wanting out. As the policeman trying to help him get out Guy Pearce is outstanding. An American film dealing with the same material would almost certainly have played it as an action picture but here the killings are chillingly cool and the perpetrators are characters out of a nightmare. Very unsettling.

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM

Possibly the year's most unexpected treat; a visually gorgeous and hugely imaginative screen version of Peter Ackroyd's novel, "The Limehouse Golem" is only director Juan Carlos Medina's second film and is something of a triumph in all departments, mixing as it does fact with fiction to brilliant effect. Told almost entirely in flashback, it tells two parallel stories as Inspector Kildare, (a superb Bill Nighy), investigates the murders perpetrated by the Jack-the-Ripper like 'Limehouse Golem' while attempting to prove the innocence of Lizzie Cree, (the excellent Olivia Cooke), on trial for the murder of her husband who also happened to be one of the suspects in the Golem murders. Other suspects include Karl Marx and the Music Hall comic Dan Leno, (Douglas Booth).

Of course, the real stars of the picture are Cinematographer Simon Dennis and Production Designer Grant Montgomery who give the film its distinctive look, (like the best Hammer movies and then some), while Medina milks it for all its worth, helped by his very talented cast and such little throwaway touches as making, not only Inspector Kildare gay but also his constable as well, (the always excellent Daniel Mays). Obviously aimed at the multiplex but maybe just a little too smart for mass consumption.

JOHNNY MAD DOG

From its blistering, shocking opening "Johnny Mad Dog" never lets up. The subject is a civil war in an unnamed African country, but more specifically it deals with the boy soldiers fighting on the side of the rebels and it presents us with a terrifying view of humanity, of a world gone mad or maybe simply of evil run riot. Using a cast of non-professionals Jean-Stephane Sauvaire's film is like a documentary on slaughter; it's certainly one of the most realistic depictions of war on film and is all the more frightening in that the soldiers are mostly children.

Sauvaire directs it beautifully, (it was only his second feature), and it's magnificently photographed and edited while the 'acting' of his young cast is distressingly real. Indeed not since Gillo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers" have I seen a film that dealt with urban warfare as effectively as this. Needless to say it is far from an easy watch but it is an absolutely essential one.

'71

In 1971 I was living on the fringes of Derry's Bogside. On several occasions my home was 'collateral damage' in a number of bombings and I remember lying on the floor of my bedroom in case I might fall victim to a stray bullet from one of the gun-battles raging outside. I drank in pubs that would be bombed in time and I was on the march on Bloody Sunday. Things were bad in Derry in 1971 but they were a lot worse in Belfast which is where and when Yann Demange's terrific movie "'71" is set.
Maybe it's because I had first-hand experience but I've never really taken to films about 'the Troubles'. Irish film-makers have usually shied away from the subject, (a rare good exception being Jim Sheridan's "In the Name of the Father" and that was set mostly in England), leaving it up to the English and the Americans to tackle them, mostly ineptly, (exceptions again being Alan Clarke's made-for-television film "Elephant" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger"), so my expectations of "'71" were far from high, yet I believe this will be the film about the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' by which all others will be judged.

Firstly nothing happens on screen that seems far-fetched or exaggerated, (and here is a film that doesn't pull its punches in showing the collusion between the British Government and paramilitaries on both sides). It's a film that could never have been made in the seventies and even 20 years ago it would have been banned here in Northern Ireland. Politically, it's dynamite but it's as a nail-biting, nerve-shredding thriller that it really makes its mark.

In may respects it's a very minimalist work, taking place almost entirely over the course of one night and is really made up of two lengthy set-pieces. It's about Private Hook, (a superb Jack O'Connell), a young British solider who, on his first day of active service in Belfast, is separated from his platoon and forced to go on the run in a totally alien landscape where he is seen as 'the enemy' to be hunted down and killed. We've seen this story before. In "Odd Man Out" James Mason was the IRA man on the run in an equally treacherous Belfast but as they say, it's a tale as old as time. Outstanding American examples have included "Deliverance" and "Southern Comfort", albeit in very different settings, but few have packed the punch of "'71"; this is a terrifyingly tense thriller.

It's also the feature debut of Yann Demange who handles the material with all the assurance of a Paul Greengrass. He shoots it as if it were a newsreel, using mostly a hand-held camera, (the DoP is Tat Radcliffe), putting the audience in the centre of things. For once, all the performances are superb. In the past actors playing either Ulstermen or the occupying forces have often been reduced to nothing more than mouth-pieces; not here. Everyone on screen is utterly believable. This is one of the finest films you will see all year.

THE APPARITION

Religious belief is a subject not often discussed in the cinema and there are very few 'great' religious films; the best of them more often dealing with doubt than with faith, ("Ordet", "The Diary of a Country Priest"), while the ones dealing with visions and miracles often cheapen the subject, (Linda Darnell as the Virgin Mary in "The Song of Bernadette"). Now we have "The Apparition", a very detailed and serious account of the Catholic Church's investigations into determining whether a young girl's claims to have seen the Virgin Mary are true or not. The twist, for want of a better word, is that the man tasked with carrying out the investigation is a journalist and a non-believer still grieving over the loss of his colleague.

Xavier Gianolli's film is clearly a work of considerable intelligence that midway through appears to radically change course, though not quite in the way you might expect. As Jacques digs deeper into the girl's past the film becomes something of a policier; he might be investigating a murder or a kidnapping rather than a vision of the Blessed Virgin. Given that he has very little to do but look glum and ask questions Vincent Lindon is excellent as the investigator and given that she has very little to do but look enigmatic Galatea Bellugi is equally good as the girl. If, ultimately, the film never rises to the heights of "Ordet" it certainly deserves kudos for tackling a difficult subject in such a way as to make you think about the issues involved while keeping you entertained at the same time.

WITCHFINDER GENERAL

One of the most disturbing of all horror movies, perhaps because it isn't really a conventional horror movie at all but rather an historical drama, (it's set in England during the time of the Civil War), dealing with the horrific subjects of witchcraft and religious persecution. The central character is Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General of the title, (a never better Vincent Price), who wanders the countryside in search of potential witches and satanists, torturing and killing as he goes.

It is a very beautiful and a very cruel film; the tranquillity and beauty of the English countryside, (superbly shot by John Coquillon), offset by scenes of extreme violence. It was the third and final film of the young English director, Michael Reeves, before his early death from a barbiturate overdose and it displays a rare intelligence for a picture of this kind. As well as Price, there is fine work from Ian Ogilvy as a young Roundhead, Rupert Davies as one of Price's victims and Robert Russell as one of his henchmen. Considered 'a cheapie' at the time, it is now rightly revered as something of a classic.

MY TWENTIETH CENTURY

A film of great charm, beauty and invention and yet it's almost totally unknown, Ildiko Enyedi's debut "My Twentieth Century" is ripe for rediscovery. It's the story of twin girls, Dora and Lili, (both played by Dorotha Segda), born in Budapest in 1880 but separated in early childhood, one growing up to be an anarchist, the other a courtesan. It's also the story of the inventions of one Thomas Edison and it's wonderfully shot in black and white, with nods to the silent cinema, by Tibor Mathe. Darting all over the place with no concessions to reality it feels, at times, like it could have been made by Max Ophuls early in his career and at other times like something from the Czech New Wave and you might even be forgiven for thinking that Miguel Gomes may have seen this before making "Tabu". Gorgeous, mysterious and unmissable.

VAN GOGH

The life and death of Van Gogh is a subject that has often been covered in the cinema but almost certainly never better than by Maurice Pialat in his extraordinary "Van Gogh" with Jacques Dutronc as the painter and concentrating on the last couple of months of his life. It's a very simple film, very matter-of-fact, with as great an emphasis on Van Gogh's relationship with his doctor and his family and his brother Theo and his wife as on the artist himself. It's also gorgeously photographed by Gilles Henry, Jacques Loiseleux and Emmanuel Machuel with images worthy of any film about any great artist while Dutronc is superb in the title role but then the whole cast is superb with Alexandra London and Corinne Bourdon particularly brilliant as the doctor's daughter who falls for the artist and Theo's wife respectively. Arguably Pialat's masterpiece.

ANTIVIIRAL

More body-horror courtesy of Cronenberg but this time it's Cronenberg fils as opposed to Cronenberg pere. "Antiviral" is another dystopian fantasy set in a world that very much resembles our own but one in which a high-tech clinic sells celebrity viruses that are readily taken up by fans seeking a new thrill; illness as sexual pleasure with an obvious AIDS metaphor.

It's clear that young Cronenberg has been heavily influenced by his dad's early work, particularly "Shivers" and "Videodrome" with a little touch of "Soylent Green" thrown in for good measure but this is altogether more sophisticated than any of these and there's a nice touch of the living dead about the ashen-faced performance of Caleb Landry Jones as the Frankenstein figure who becomes his own monster as he injects more and more of the virus into his body. The plot may not always be the easiest to follow but this is a very stylish piece of sci-fi-cum-horror and it looks absolutely terrific.

TABU

Floyd Crosby's superb cinematography won him a richly deserved Oscar for F.W. Murnau's "Tabu". The film itself is a very simple, perhaps even simplistic. love story of the kind we have become accustomed to hearing since love stories first were told; boy loves girl, girl loves boy but they can't be together because, in this case, the girl is decreed to be a sacred virgin by the island chief.

The subtitle of the film is 'A Story of the South Seas' and Murnau, together with Robert Flaherty, made the film on the island of Bora Bora. There are very few inter-titles so the film is, for the most part, a truly visual experience. The cast is made up entirely of non-professionals; the leads are native islanders and if often feels like a documentary rather than a work of fiction. Of course, it also feels as primitive as the lifestyle it portrays; sophistication is the one thing it lacks but perhaps that is not such a bad thing. Fundamentally this is a tale of innocence and of paradise lost and it has stood the test of time

THE OLD DARK HOUSE

James Whale's 1932 masterpiece is one of the most enjoyable films of its kind ever made; even when it's terrible it's still glorious. "The Old Dark House" set the bar for all spooky old house movies, (even if it wasn't the first), and it's never been surpassed, (there was a dreadful remake in 1963 which should be avoided). It was based on J. B. Priestley's novel "Benighted" and takes place over the course of one stormy night when a group of travellers, (Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, Melvyn Douglas Charles Laughton and Lilian Bond), are stranded in the crumbling old house of the title with its very weird inhabitants, the Femms, (Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Brember Wills and their 102 year old father played by Elspeth Dudgeon, but credited as John Dudgeon, as well as their mute brute of a butler played by Boris Karloff, sans the Boris in the credits). The Femms are all mad as hatters and they are superbly played; once seen, and heard, they are unlikely to be forgotten. On the other hand, both Massey and Douglas are very hammy indeed, though Laughton shows all the promise of a great actor in an early role. It's also superbly designed and photographed and although clocking in at only 72 minutes it was obviously a prestige production following hot on the heels of "Frankenstein". This old, dark house may creak in places but it has also stood the test of time and, newly restored, looks as good today as when it was first released.