20 Awesome Movies At The LFF

American: The Bill Hicks Story

What Is It? This bio-doc about one of America's most notorious - and cult-worshipped - comics is actually from the British team off Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas.

But since Hicks was the comedy Hendrix - more revered over here than in his native land - the Brit origin makes a lot of sense.

If you've never heard of him, now's your chance to catch up with the aggressive - and aggressively funny - late comedy God.

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When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors

What Is It? Director Tom DiCillo raids the archives and uncovers a treasure trove of previously unseen material about one of the most influential bands in history.

Follow their fast rise, brief reign and spectacular, tragic fall with footage that's rarely been seen outside the US.

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Valhalla Rising

What Is It? Nicolas Winding Refn offers the story of One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen), a brutal, mute warrior from medieval times held captive by a rival chieftain.

But when he escapes and joins up with some Christian Vikings, One-Eye gets a new purpose in life.

Epic, ambitious and not to be confused with the Clive Cussler novel about the oil biz.

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Bunny & The Bull

What Is It? "Withnail & I for the mentally ill" is how its producers describe the first film by Mighty Boosh director Paul King.

It's a surreal but emotional road trip comedy. Obsessive-compulsive Stephen (Edward Hogg) refuses to leave his house, but is eventually forced out by an infestation of mice.

He embarks on a trip planned by best mate Bunny (Simon Farnaby). What happens next is a sweet, funny and unrelentingly odd bonding experience...

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The Road

What Is It? Held over from last year by editing worries and awards hope, John Hillcoat's staggeringly bleak adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel finally makes its way to the UK.

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee are the father and son looking for a better life as the world around them slowly dies. Stark but soulful.

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Toy Story 2 (3D)

What Is It? Do you really need us to explain why Toy Story 2 should be experienced on the big screen?

Okay: it's Pixar at the top of their already impressive game, it's one of the rare sequels that improves on a classic original and it's now in 3D.

The Emeryville toon-masters have applied the same care and concern that fueled the look of Up! - crafting layered scope over cheesy gimmicks.

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Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans

What Is It? Just how weird can Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage get? Try: very.

A trippy, whacked-out take that doesn't so much remake the Abel Ferrara movie as snatch the basic conceit of a corrupt, drug-snorting copper and pelt it straight to the maddest end of the spectrum.

It's Cage having more fun than he's had in a long time - and the notoriously severe Herzog loosening up a little.


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MICMACS

What Is It? A welcome return from Amelie/A Very Long Engagement's Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who this time blends his usual fantastical whimsy with a grounded satire on the arms trade.

It's a sumptuous wash of wordplay and wonder in the tale of a man who must decide whether to live a short, but clear existence with a bullet lodged in his brain, or have it taken out and survive in a coma.

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Nowhere Boy

What Is It? Artist Sam Taylor-Wood makes her directing debut for this look at John Lennon's early years.

Scripted by Control writer Matt Greenhalgh, Nowhere Boy delves into the musical roots of the future Beatle and sifts through the family friction that helped form him and fuel his band.

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A Serious Man

What Is It? Looks like winning Oscars hasn't changed the Coens any - A Serious Man is already being described as one of their best.

Coal-black comedy is the tone for this screwball parody thriller that finds Larry Gopnik (theatre vet Michael Stuhlbarg) finding his life spinning into chaos.

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Cold Souls

What Is It? Is it possible to extract someone's soul? And what happens when you do? That's the question posed by Sophie Barthes' first film, which sees Paul Giamatti playing a version of himself in a Charlie Kaufman-like tale.

Giamatti's having trouble detaching himself from a depressing role in Uncle Vanya, so an unscrupulous doctor (David Strathairn) plucks out his soul and stores it for him. And then it goes missing…

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Enter The Void

What Is It? Gaspar Noe (Irreversible) is back in the provocative saddle. He describes his latest as a "psychedelic melodrama" which finds siblings reunited years after their parents died in a car crash.

But then the brother dies and we follow events through the eyes of his spirit as it hovers over the city...

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Paper Heart

What Is It? Juggling fact and fiction and blurring the boundaries between the two, comedienne Charlyne Yi tries to prove if true love really exists in this sharp mockumentary.

It's a geeky look at romance and co-stars Michael Cera, who may or may not have been in a relationship with Yi at the time of filming...

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Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire

What Is It? Acclaimed at the Sundance and Toronto fests, director Lee Daniels brings a brutally honest look into the hellish home life of Precious, a teenager rejected by her mother and repeatedly abused by the woman's boyfriend.

A tough watch, but bracing and brave.

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We Live In Public

What Is It? Good enough that it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Ondi Timoner's doc follows an internet pioneer who grew up with a life fueled more by TV than family and who predicted back in the 1990s that we'd all be living online.

He also spent money shoving 100 artists into a New York bunker to film every aspect of their lives and work - and when that was shut down, he turned the cameras on his own life... This is part of the result.

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Kicks

What Is It? First-time director Lindy Heymann delivers a Liverpool-set comedy drama about two very different female friends who bond over their love for a footballer and ponder an extreme response when they learn he's about to be sold.

Funny, frank and stabbing acutely at the cult of sporting celebrity.

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Fantastic Mr Fox

What Is It? Wes Anderson takes his first real stab at animation with this stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic story.

Anderson gathered a big name cast (George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray) then sent them to a farm to record their voices. The result is like Aardman crossed with American indie...

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The Boys Are Back

What Is It? Clive Owen stars in this based-on-truth tale of a father trying to raise sons from different marriages following the death of his beloved second wife.

Shine's Scott Hicks directs a moving family drama that sidesteps the standard schmaltz for a more adult and muscular approach.

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A Prophet

What Is It? French director Jacques Audiard's meditation on violence is set within a prison, where young French Arab Malick (Tahar Rahim) slowly learns how to survive - and win powerful friends.

A tense and uncompromising character study that played well at this year's Cannes.

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Up In The Air

What Is It? Hailed at the Toronto Film Fest and heavily buzzed elsewhere, Juno director Jason Reitman's new film finds him back in the Thank You For Smoking-style world of corporate America.

This time the focus is Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who has the job of removing other people from their jobs.

With no interest in a grounded life or family, he loves to travel and notches up an impressive air mile account. But then he suddenly realises that something is missing from his itinerant airport/hotel existence...

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