The Parrot and the Swan (2013)

El loro y el cisne

2013 | Argentina | Alejo Moguillansky | ★★★★

Alejo Moguillansky's disarmingly playful The Parrot and the Swan is an Altmanesque comedy about dance and film-making that slowly morphs into something more intimate and affecting, featuring enjoyably odd formal choices, amusing filmic references, and pleasing low-key performances.

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"In his new film, Alejo Moguillansky baldly and skillfully articulates the world of dance –specifically, the shooting of a documentary about a series of ballets– with the story of a break-up and a romance." Mubi

Dag (2010-15)

2010-15 | Norway | Øystein Karlsen | ★★★★

Øystein Karlsen's Dag is a bleak but riotously funny Norwegian comedy series, comprised of a heady mix of outré black humour, surprising moments of tenderness, and a decidedly dark worldview, driven by the strangely loveable performances of Atle Antonsen, Tuva Novotny, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Agnes Kittelsen, and Rolf Lassgård.

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"Dag is a Norwegian comedy series about a marriage counselor who thinks people should live in solitude. He hates spending time with other people, except from his friend Benedict who is struggling to be faithful in his own relationship. Dag's life changes when his well-meaning sister, Marianne, forces him to go on his nineteenth blind-date with her old childhood friend, Eva." IMDb

See also: 

Stotty's Norwegian Favourites

The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu (2013)

La fille du 14 juillet

2013 | France | Antonin Peretjatko | ★★★★

Antonin Peretjatko's cheaply but lovingly crafted The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu is a formally playful, thematically irreverent French rom-com, packed with hilarious political satire, wonderful sight gags, and memorablly deadpan performances.

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"Hector meets Truquette on Bastille Day and becomes obsessed with seducing her. The plan is to get her to the seaside pronto. Pator is not complaining, especially if her friend Charlotte comes along for the ride. So off they go, down the country roads of a broke and broken France. Times are hard ! Suddenly the government cancels a month of summer. Everyone back to work! A wad of cash and two gun shots later, the group splits in two like France itself. But careering away from work in no way daunts the remaining trio, dead set on relocating the Bastille Girl and reveling in an endless summer." TMDb

Top of the Lake (2013)

2013 | Australia / New Zealand | Jane Campion | ★★★

Jane Campion's New Zealand-set Top of the Lake is a well-crafted and generally diverting but seldom credible-feeling six-part mystery-thriller, driven by Elisabeth Moss's sensitive, soft-spoken performance and Adam Arkapaw's oft breath-taking photography.

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"A 12 year old girl walks chest deep into the freezing waters of a South Island lake in New Zealand. She is five months pregnant and won’t say who the father is. Then she disappears. Robin Griffin is a gutsy but inexperienced detective called in to investigate. But as Robin becomes more and more obsessed with the search for Tui, she slowly begins to realise that finding Tui is tantamount to finding herself - a self she has kept well hidden. Set against one of the most amazing and untouched landscapes left on the planet, Top of the Lake is a powerful and haunting story about our search for happiness where the dream of paradise attracts its dark twin, the fall." 2entertain

Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)

2013 | France | Bruno Dumont | ★★★★

Bruno Dumont's crushingly sad Camille Claudel 1915 is a boldly cast, exquisitely crafted historical drama, notable for its impeccable sets and costumes, the delicately naturalistic photography of Guillaume Deffontaines, and, in particular, the remarkable performance of the ever wonderful Juliette Binoche.

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"Bruno Dumont directs this biographical drama about the French sculptor Camille Claudel, who is here portrayed by Juliette Binoche. The film focuses on Camille's time spent in an asylum after she is sent there by her brother, the poet Paul Claudel (Jean-Luc Vincent), who questions his sister's sanity when she destroys some of her own works. She lives a reclusive life trying to prove to her doctor that she is mentally stable while waiting in hope that her brother will visit and consent to her discharge from the institution." Soda Pictures

Salvo (2013)

2013 | Italy | Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza | ★★★

Starring Saleh Bakri and Sara Serraiocco, Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza's unusual, formally ambitious Salvo is a psychologically unconvincing and vaguely unpleasant if nevertheless mildly effective existential hitman thriller.

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"As a henchman for the Sicilian mob sneaks into a house to eliminate an enemy, he comes across a young blind girl, and something extraordinary happens: Their destinies become linked together forever." Abu Dhabi Film Festival

American Hustle (2013)

2013 | USA | David O. Russell | ★★★

Starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Amy Adams, David O. Russell's American Hustle is a sporadically entertaining but overlong and somewhat plodding crime drama, buoyed by decent performances and memorable comic detail.

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"Award-winning crime drama directed by David O. Russell and starring Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper. Based on the Abscam sting operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the story follows FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) as he blackmails conman Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and his lover Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) into helping him with a case after a successful investigation into the pair's own foreign banking scam. Although DiMaso's sights are initially set on New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), the investigation is broadened to include influential members of Congress who are suspected of taking bribes. The supporting cast includes Jennifer Lawrence as Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn, Louis C.K. as DiMaso's superior at the FBI and Robert De Niro as ex-mafia hitman Victor Telleggio who has now turned to the casino business as a means of making money." Entertainment in Video

Sunshine on Leith (2013)

2013 | UK | Dexter Fletcher | ★★★★

Based on Stephen Greenhorn's 2007 stage musical, Dexter Fletcher's Sunshine on Leith is a hugely likeable Scottish feature, packed with enough charismatic performances and memorably belted out Proclaimers songs to look past its somewhat trite plotting.

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"Dexter Fletcher directs this cinematic adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical featuring the music of Scottish band The Proclaimers. Returning home from their most recent stint in Afghanistan, Davy (George MacKay) and Ally (Kevin Guthrie) have a new appreciation for life after witnessing the horrors of war first-hand. While Ally plans his proposal to Davy's sister Liz (Freya Mavor), Davy falls for Yvonne (Antonia Thomas) and the two couples come together in time for Liz's parent's wedding anniversary, but not everything is plain sailing for love in Leith..." Eiv

Girls (2012-17)

2012-17 | USA | Lena Dunham | ★★★★

Lena Dunham's Girls is an unpredictably entertaining half-hour comedy-drama series about narcissistic arrested development, featuring quietly incisive writing, engaging star turns, and some decidedly memorable guest appearances.

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"The show's creator Lena Dunham stars as Hannah, a struggling writer living in Brooklyn who finds herself broke when her parents decide to cut off their financial support. As she attempts to deal with the trials of life including problems at work and in her relationship with Adam (Adam Driver), her friends Marnie (Allison Williams), Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) each battle with their own issues." HBO