Hunter has worked for Screen since 1990. He is based in Edinburgh, and is also co-director of Glasgow Film Festival.
Top five
1. Parasite (Dir. Bong Joon Ho)
On the surface this is a sly home-invasion scenario that Bong nourishes and shapes into an acid-tipped black comedy, deliciously twisted thriller, class-divide satire and shocking morality tale. It is the precision-engineered control of all these elements and tones that makes the film’s balance of mayhem and mischief so satisfying. Contact: CJ Entertainment
Read Screen’s review here
2. The Souvenir (Dir. Joanna Hogg)
Deeply personal, diamond-sharp filmmaking from Hogg that has the sting of unvarnished truth as it captures a young woman’s search for her own creative voice. Contact: Protagonist Pictures
Read Screen’s review here
3. The Irishman (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
An epic that passes in an instant, even though the film has a runtime of more than three hours, The Irishman is a wintry last hurrah for Scorsese, populated by ghosts, reflections on mortality and a reckoning with a past that turns to ashes. Contact: Netflix
Read Screen’s review here
4. Monos (Dir. Alejandro Landes)
A mesmerising battle for survival among a group of child soldiers. There are elements of Lord Of The Flies and Apocalypse Now that inform an unpredictable narrative which is filled with mystery and told with a feverish intensity. Contact: Le Pacte
Read Screen’s review here
5. The Last Black Man In San Francisco (Dir. Joe Talbot)
A fond elegy for a vanishing city that touches tenderly on a web of interconnected themes, from friendship and family ties to the class divide and notions of modern masculinity. Contact: A24
Read Screen’s review here
Best documentary
Collective (Dir. Alexander Nanau)
Utterly gripping from start to finish, Nanau’s documentary captures the rippling consequences of a fatal Romanian nightclub fire in 2015. Following the investigations of journalist Catalin Tolontan, it presents a shocking account of corruption, fraud, a broken healthcare system and a society that is rotten to the core. Contact: Cinephil
Read Screen’s review here
Overlooked gem
Running To The Sky (Dir. Mirlan Abdykalykov)
Abdykalykov brings a Truffaut-like charm to the well-worn coming-of-age template. Temirlan Asankadyrov is a delight as a 12-year-old boy in a remote mountain village loyal to his alcoholic father and possessed of a skill that could be the family’s salvation. A little ray of sunshine in what often felt like a bleak year. Contact: Pluto Film
Read Screen’s review here
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