Soulboy

Slight coming of age fluff played against a backdrop of affectionate nostalgia that appears to be portraying the origin of rave culture.

The Town

Held up against the canon of cinematic crime dramas, this musters an 'above average'.
Held up against the canon of Ben Affleck movies, this swings in at a comfortable 'really very good'.

Storage

Lumbering nonsense seemingly built on the notion that a belief in the ineffectuality of the police will render you with a single digit IQ.
Changes tack several times due to what the director seems to think are twists but he's deluding himself, it's just meandering shit.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

A wonderful portrait of creeping madness, chock full of Lynch hallmarks (coffee, idiosyncratic cops, Grace Zabriskie's face giving the impression it's going to jump off her head and attack) all nestled neatly in a blistering cascade of Herzog lunacy.

Russian Ark [Русский ковчег]

One shot love letter to the importance of remembering the past. An organisational feat that culminates in 2000 people desperately trying not to look directly at the camera and for the most part failing.

Sleeping Beauty

Looks pretty, but not pretty enough to cover up the fact that it's painfully dull.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

A touch over eager, but they really didn't have to try so hard, I was hooked immediately by the chiptune rendition of the Universal ident music followed by the sweet tinklings of the Zelda theme.

The Last Exorcism

Slow to the point of tedium. Then, just at the point when the film managed to construct a coherent justification as to why this should be, it blows itself apart with a climax of bizarre stupidity so intense an intelligence vacuum formed in my brain large enough to make me think my skull might cave in.

Metropolis

Incredible, visually epic, early dystopia.
Huge sets, staggering miniature work and a giant cast of extras invoke both a phenomenal sense of scale and a lingering lament on how modern day CGI saturation has managed to extinguish such wonder from our screens.

Salt

Efficiently tortuous prologue, told in three acts clearly delineated by Jolie's hairstyles.

Valhalla Rising

It would appear that the best way to break a film watching hiatus is with a metaphysical viking movie.
The cinematography mimics a graphic novel, the tone is closer to that of space exploration and the whole thing is soundtracked by droning, doomy, post rock. All of which calls for cries of pretension, but then one man's pretension is another man's genius.
I'm the other man, this is fucking ace.

This Is England

Shane Meadows aims his considerable evocation skills at the early eighties and produces a masterpiece.