Flow is a quietly mesmerizing film that proves dialogue isn’t necessary to create emotional depth. Director Gints Zilbalodis crafts a hauntingly beautiful world where a black cat and a group of animals struggle to survive after a devastating flood. The animation feels fluid and dreamlike, with every movement and sound carrying emotional weight.

What makes Flow so memorable is its restraint: the animals behave like real animals, yet their relationships convey themes of trust, cooperation, and resilience with surprising power. The film’s painterly visuals and immersive sound design create an almost meditative experience, while the absence of humans gives the story an eerie, post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

Both intimate and epic, Flow is one of the most original animated films in years — a moving, visually stunning reminder that empathy and connection can transcend words.

Torch Song Trilogy is a heartfelt, character-driven drama that balances sharp humor with emotional depth. Centered on Arnold, a witty and resilient drag performer, the film explores love, loss, and the search for acceptance—both from others and within oneself. Harvey Fierstein’s performance is the standout, bringing warmth and authenticity to a role that could easily have felt exaggerated. While some moments feel stage-bound (it’s adapted from a play), the emotional core lands effectively, especially in its exploration of chosen family and identity. It’s a poignant, quietly groundbreaking film that still resonates today.

The Sixth Sense is a tightly crafted psychological thriller that blends supernatural elements with an emotional human story.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the film follows a troubled child, played by Haley Joel Osment, who claims he can see and communicate with the dead, and a child psychologist, portrayed by Bruce Willis, trying to help him.

What makes the film stand out is its atmosphere—quiet, eerie, and deeply unsettling without relying on overly scary scenes. Osment delivers a remarkably mature performance, while Willis brings a subdued, introspective presence. The film explores themes of grief, fear, and acceptance, giving it emotional depth beyond a typical horror movie.

Of course, it’s best known for its iconic twist ending, which is cleverly constructed and redefines everything that comes before it. Even today, it remains one of the most memorable twists in cinema history.

Overall, The Sixth Sense is a haunting, emotionally resonant film that balances suspense with heartfelt storytelling—well worth watching, even if you already know the twist.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, The Devil’s Backbone (2001) is a haunting and poetic ghost story set during the final days of the Spanish Civil War. Blending supernatural horror with historical tragedy, the film tells the story of Carlos, a young boy who arrives at a remote orphanage and discovers that it harbours dark secrets—both living and dead.

Rather than relying on jump scares, del Toro crafts a slow-burning atmosphere filled with melancholy and tension. The ghost at the center of the story is not merely a source of fear, but a symbol of innocence lost and the lingering scars of war. The orphanage itself feels alive—isolated, fragile, and overshadowed by an unexploded bomb sitting ominously in the courtyard.

Visually, the film is rich with warm, dusty tones that contrast with its chilling subject matter. The performances, particularly by the young cast, feel natural and emotionally grounded. At its heart, The Devil’s Backbone is less about ghosts and more about cruelty, betrayal, and the vulnerability of childhood in times of conflict.

Subtle, atmospheric, and deeply human, the film stands as one of del Toro’s most poignant works and a powerful precursor to his later masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth.

All We Imagine as Light is a hushed, luminous film that lets emotion surface through atmosphere rather than plot. Set in Mumbai, Payal Kapadia follows the quiet lives of three women, capturing loneliness, intimacy, and resilience in moments that feel almost overheard. The film’s strength lies in its restraint: gentle performances, dreamlike imagery, and a soundscape that blurs memory with the present. It’s less a conventional narrative than a mood you slowly sink into—tender, political without being didactic, and deeply human. A film to be felt as much as watched.

Reviewers say ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ is celebrated for Al Pacino’s compelling performance and Sidney Lumet’s direction. It explores themes like crime, media influence, and social issues. The film is praised for its realistic depiction, strong characters, and blend of drama and humour. However, some find it overly long and uneven. Despite mixed opinions on pacing and length, it is generally regarded as a significant work in American cinema, capturing the 1970s spirit.

Some people felt that Mike Leigh’s films Mr. Turner and Peterloo represented the best in his career in cinema. He finally had a high budget and his artistic craft met them perfectly.  Hard Truths is a step back from this scale back into the social dramas he used to make, although this feels totally new for him at the same time.  If you have a dark sense of humour, you will find it extremely funny when she is nasty and yelling at everyone. They put her in one environment after another, almost like Mr Bean but she causes mayhem everywhere she goes. The furniture store, the doctor, the grocery store. I loved these scenes because the fouler she gets, the funnier the movie becomes.  It is such a simple and ingenious idea.  Yet outside of these comic vignettes, the film is extremely bitter.   It is so well acted and well staged. The supporting characters around her bring the depth in their reaction against her forming a film where we are drawing our own meaning. It is another solid classic in his filmography that it is worth revisiting.

Often movies have a magical quality as you’re viewing them. Some will demand your undivided attention, others will hypnotize your senses, leaving them to simply wash over you with their exuberance and classic filmmaking procedures. In the case of John Crowley’s “Brooklyn,” the latter is certainly the case. There comes a moment in the film when you are taken in by the film’s classic style filmmaking, and tenderly thought-provoking performances from its cast. Director Crowley, in partnership with Oscar-nominated scribe Nick Hornby, create a beautiful and sensitive love story that is everything a Nicholas Sparks film adaptation wishes it could be. With a vibrant turn from Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan at the helm, “Brooklyn” utilizes all of its tools in its arsenal to convey a potent message of love and family.

Every day life, however ‘real’ and gritty it may be, is rarely portrayed on film and was certainly a rarity in the 1950’s. In Europe however, there was a movement in film-making that embraced this realism and searched for the deeper meaning in the ‘here and now’. This is about the most basic and miniscule portion of the meaning behind the French New Wave of the 1950’s – films that explored the filmmaker’s surroundings, and eventually became an inspiration for filmmakers around the world. Francois Truffaut’s ‘The 400 Blows’ is one of the most well-known films of this movement, and has been embraced and hailed as one of the greatest films of all time.

Every frame a picture

It’s a bit of a cliché but it is literally true in this case! Here are some interesting facts about Loving Vincent:

The movie consists of 65,000 frames, each one of which is an oil painting.

The movie took 100 painters to complete.

Over 130 paintings by Van Gogh were used to create the film, the vast majority of which without needing any significant adaptation.

All this resulted in a magical film, which looks so good that it hardly matters what the actual story of the film is. But that is a good one too. Delving into Van Gogh’s final days, an initially reluctant man becomes more and more involved trying to make sense of the painter’s troubled life.

Now if that doesn’t want to make you come to our AGM night on 16 May, then nothing will!