The Host

Retail: A thoroughly unusual kind of monster movie from Korean director Bong Joon-Ho.

Bamako

Philip French: This sophisticated picture about a desperate situation expresses its optimism through its style and its respect for the people who appear in it.

Bamako

Peter Bradshaw: Distinctive, with commanding moments.

Echo Park LA

Retail: It doesn't amount to an awful lot and the acting is pretty variable but there's a real feeling for the location in a small but distinctive film.

Los Olvidados

Philip French: A cruel, unflinching look at the lives of delinquent kids in the slums of Mexico City.

Los Olvidados

Peter Bradshaw: Remarkable flourishes of surreal, transcendental insight.

The 9th Company

Peter Bradshaw: Americanised macho-sentimental war movie about an isolated Soviet division.

The Science of Sleep

Peter Bradshaw: A thwarted love story that does not trade in the degraded cliches either of romance or conventional sexiness.

Climates (Iklimler)

Philip French: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest film, about a disintegrating relationship, is riveting art house cinema of the highest order

Man Push Cart

Retail: A tiny, zero-budget film that is reminiscent of the first great neo-realist film Bicycle Thieves in both style and content.

Volver

Rental and retail: A gentle film and a little too silly and cosy to rank with Almodóvar's best - but as ever, he has put together a colourful entertainment well worth a couple of hours of your time.

Climates

Peter Bradshaw: The dark side of love, examined with fierce, cold brilliance.

Welcome to Dongmakgol

Peter Bradshaw: A weird, sentimental but very watchable fantasy drama about the Korean war.