Alissa Simon

What’s missing, however, is a clear picture of where the apparently vulnerable Hilu lives, how he has supported himself and what has happened to his family.

Six Minutes to Midnight, helmed by Andy Goddard, wants to be a Hitchcockian thriller, but merely manages a familiar pastiche peopled with stock characters that should divert less-discriminating viewers.

Fascinating backroom politics circa WWII are undermined by banal marital melodrama in Danish director Christina Rosendahl’s The Good Traitor, resulting in a so-so period drama that raises more questions than it answers.

An earnest, over-stuffed infomercial for the potential and benefits of practicing mindfulness.

An uneven dramedy from U.K. commercials helmer Simon Hunter, working from a screenplay by Elizabeth O’Halloran that has a big problem in tone and beaucoup clichéd contrivance.

[A] touching, albeit occasionally heavy-handed, drama.

All This Panic is more remarkable for the way it looks than the actual, somewhat banal, girl-talk content.

Unfolding with the disjointed logic of a bad dream, the pic never catches emotional fire — though not for lack of trying by fast-rising young star Lea Seydoux, who shows her range in a defiantly unglamorous performance.

The screenplay by Matthiessen and co-writers Martin Pieter Zandvliet and Anders Frithiof August is compelling up until the melodramatic, credulity-straining final act, although the characters, apart from Emma, feel underdeveloped.

Although it sports a few fresh moments, the tonally all-over-the-place drama is hampered by script and assembly problems.

The screenplay by Sher-Niyaz, Bakytbek Turdubaev and Kyrgyz culture minister Sultan Raev takes an “important moments” approach to Kurmanjan’s life, requiring the casting of four different actresses. Unfortunately, the result plays like an illustration of her Wikipedia entry rather than providing any psychological insight into her feelings.

Unfortunately, the glowering, non-pro Gyemant twins, who seem to have only one facial expression (and oddly anachronistic haircuts), continually break the spell woven by the other performers.