Mike Cheslik’s “Hundreds of Beavers”
“…a heap of fun best enjoyed with the biggest group you can muster.”
Yôji Yamada’s “What a Wonderful Family!”
Rabidly conservative family “comedy” that is at best bland and predictable and at worst offensive and patronising
Eric Appel’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
A hilarious, cinema-literate pastiche of the rock biopic whose strength comes from its ability to play even the most ridiculous with a straight face led heroically by a terrific comedy performance from Daniel Radcliffe
Tom George’s “See How They Run”
Enjoyable, theatrical whodunnit built around Agatha Christie’s long running stageplay The Moustrap(which it doesn’t spoil) is a playful romp led by pitch perfect performances from Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan
Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn’s “Official Competition”
In a year full of satire, this wins out with a sharp and witty script, outstanding performances and great humour that plays out like a combination of Fellini’s “8½” and Frank Oz’s “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” with an Almodovar sensibility
Jeff Tremaine’s “Jackass Forever”
Subversive, scatalogical slapstick hinging on masses of schaedenfreude with a weird family dynamic at its core that skewers (not literally) the male form and never pretends to be more than its dumb self
Lena Dunham’s “Catherine Called Birdy”
A frothy, modernist medieval coming of age story that probably works for the tween demographic from which the source material was written
Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise”
Don DeLillo by way of Spielberg before straying into darkness in this absurdist look at modern American culture
David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam”
A Big Lebowski-style caper with Christian Bale’s Columbo-esque Burt standing in for The Dude in a story covering the rise of fascism that never quite feels weighty as it should while never ceasing to entertain
Shinichirou Ueda’s “One Cut of the Dead”
A hilarious ode to guerilla filmmaking with an innovative three act structure that pays homage to low-budget horror