Shanghai Dreams Xan Brooks: Semi-autobiographical account of the displaced city workers who were moved inland as part of Mao's cultural revolution.
Hell Retail: Referencing Greek mythology, it all seems too glossily precious to grip, though there's nothing wrong with the acting.
Stray Dogs Peter Bradshaw: The film has a settled habit of withholding its meaning, withholding dramatic satisfaction, withholding any tonal resolution.
Innocent Voices Philip French: The period is vividly recreated and the point of view of a lad approaching that dangerous 12th birthday well sustained
Innocent Voices Peter Bradshaw: Another of those films intent on telling you something you already know.
Woman of the Dunes Retail: An entomologist studying insect life in a remote desert stays with a local widow whose house is at the bottom of a sandpit, accessible only by a rope ladder. But overnight, the ladder disappears.
The Child Retail: The Dardenne brothers shoot chronologically in an unfussy style that fair rattles along at a time when so many films seem bloated and flabby.
Three Times Peter Bradshaw: This is connoisseur's cinema - but it's a connoisseurship worth cultivating.