Pacifiction review - portending hell in paradise

★★★★★ PACIFICTION Albert Serra's spellbinding anti-colonial drama

The French High Commissioner fears Polynesia's destruction in Albert Serra's spellbinding anti-colonial drama

Paranoia seeps into paradise in Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, a scathing critique of French colonialism on the Polynesian island of Tahiti. Acting on rumours that his overlords are about to resume nuclear testing in the region and fearing his elimination, the urbane High Commissioner De Roller (Benoît Magimel) is forced to turn detective to learn their veracity. It’s not his fault that Inspector Clouseau might do a better job.

Sick of Myself review - queasy black comedy about self-obsessed youth

Shallow Norwegian social media satire leaves a bad taste

Sick of Myself is being marketed as one of those oh so clever satirical comedies about privileged but fucked-up people. Think Worst Person in the World, Triangle of Sadness and The White Lotus and you’ll get the genre.

A Thousand and One review - fighting the system in 1990s New York

AV Rockwell's beautifully crafted first feature captures the struggles of a black woman determined to make a family life

AV Rockwell well deserved the Grand Jury award at Sundance in January for her debut feature film, A Thousand and One.

It’s hard to believe that this subtle portrait of a troubled young woman trying to raise a child is the work of a first time writer-director, or that Inez, its gritty protagonist, is played with no vanity by the glamorous choreographer, singer, and reality TV star Teyana Taylor.

How To Blow Up a Pipeline review - can eco-terrorism be justified?

Andreas Malm's book becomes a provocative environmental thriller

“This was an act of self defence,” is the last message we hear as How To Blow Up a Pipeline approaches the end of its 104-minute span. The speaker, a revolutionary environmental activist called Xochitl, has been arrested for her involvement in the demolition of oil pipelines in Texas, but in her view her arrest and the media frenzy surrounding it is all grist to her mill of shaking the world out of its climate-crisis apathy.

Blu-ray: Wanda

A Rust Belt divorcee flees domestic drudgery in Barbara Loden's low-key masterpiece

In Sight & Sound’s recent Greatest Films of All Time poll, Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) placed joint 48th with Ordet (1955), just ahead of The 400 Blows (1959) and The Piano (1992).

Blu-ray: Full Circle

★★★★ BLU-RAY: FULL CIRCLE Mia Farrow palely haunts in a resurrected, atmospheric London ghost story

Mia Farrow palely haunts in a resurrected, atmospheric London ghost story

Julia (Mia Farrow) stands jolting and shuddering, a butterfly pattern of blood on her blouse, shocking the ambulancemen on her doorstep. Her nine-year-old daughter Kate, who choked on an apple like Snow White before Julia cut her throat in a desperate tracheotomy, lies dead and unseen in the kitchen.

Renfield review - Dracula meets Steptoe and Son

★★ RENFIELD Nic Cage's vampire still puts his servant in the shade, in a slight horror comedy

Nic Cage's vampire still puts his servant in the shade, in a slight horror comedy

Dracula’s fly-eating henchman Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) seeks solace in a self-help group from his co-dependent, fanged boss (Nicolas Cage), in a comic horror action flick which posits the pair as a vampiric Steptoe and Son – though that relationship was more genuinely nightmarish.

Filmmaker Tarik Saleh: ‘A director is at heart an immigrant’

FILMMAKER TARIK SALEH 'Cairo Conspiracy' director talks power, Egypt, Islam and Le Carré

Cairo Conspiracy's director talks power, Egypt, Islam and Le Carré

Tarik Saleh was born between two worlds, with a Swedish mum and Egyptian dad. His Egyptian side has inspired his two highest-profile releases.