One of the most powerful documentaries in a long time, Alone in Four Walls introduces us to the inmates of a Russian prison for boys aged 11-14, interspersing their daily activities with tales of their crimes from the boys themselves and from their families and victims. It's hard to know what to feel about these inmates as they go through the usual struggles of adolescence and the regional struggles of poverty on one hand and then we're told, in police report detail, what found them in the institution to begin with.

Emotionally harrowing, with an incredible attention to cinematography, this, like all documentaries should be, is a window on a world we'll never come across, but more than that it's a frighteningly appropriate film for a world in the throes of increasing teenage violent crime. Want to keep kids out of jail? Showing them this would be a good place to start. JU



Werner Herzog returns to documentary filmmaking with Encounters at the End of the World, this time travelling to Antarctica to share stories about the people who call the frozen continent home. Starting off, and frequently returning to his base in McMurdo, a desolately grey and dreadfully functional town that most in Antarctica call home.

Herzog's typically editorialised commentary singes the film with humour, as he shares with us his insistence to financiers that he wouldn't be travelling all that way to make another movie about penguins, though, of course, he finds a researcher to plug with questions about the flightless birds' sexual proclivities and mental instabilities. There are moments of extreme humour as he interrupts a woman's tales of her travels by opining that "her story goes on forever," and wonders how many languages have died in the time he's been talking to a man who's explaining, at great length, how often languages die.

But, equally, there are scenes that seem extended for no reason other than to keep the running time feature length and while Herzog finds plenty of characters, few of them seem compelling enough to warrant the journey. People who call Antarctica home are bound to be slightly weird by our standards, but are they really as crazy as Herzog seemed to hope on his journey out there, or are they just people doing their job exploring extremes so that we don't have to? JU



Not only is WALL*E one of the freshest films of the year - some critics have even thrown around the word 'masterpiece' like they believe it this time - but it's also one of the loveliest, most charming and most accomplished animated films of all time. Pixar's tale of a little robot, WALL*E, who dreams of a new companion in the shape of a sleek and shiny probe called EVE is a testament to Pixar's emphasis on story and emotion.

It shouldn't work - not in an era of big, noisy and exposition-heavy event movies - and yet it really, truly does. Within a few minutes without even a hint of dialogue the film has you totally invested in this little character's journey and you're with him right until the end. Combine such a strong core with some of the most beautiful and creative artwork ever seen on screen and WALL*E deserves to be remembered as a proper classic. JU



The Black Balloon is a typically-bright but satisfyingly-dark Australian drama about a teenage boy, Thomas Mollison (Rhys Wakefield), whose autistic brother Charlie (Luke Ford) requires constant attention and whose acting out is starting to put a strain on the friendships Thomas is developing at a new school. When a girl comes along, in the form of a beautiful school friend, Thomas' relationship with his brother, and parents who've largely ignored him to take care of Charlie, will be tested.

Toni Collette and Erik Thomson co-star, but it's really a movie for Wakefield and Ford, with the latter particularly brilliant as the autistic Charlie. It's a selfish side of caring that's rarely witnessed but inevitably present; a teenager's desire for a "normal" brother and a relationship with his parents that's hampered by the special needs of his sibling and it's handled delicately and emotionally without delivering and overly-sentimental piece. JU



Mancora will be compared to Y Tu Mama Tambien, being that it's about a sexually-charged road trip involving three hot, young things in a Spanish-speaking country, but there's something decidedly more real about the consequences of these actions. As incest makes way to tribal drug trips, the characters go on hard, real journeys and push themselves to their limits, perhaps in an attempt to find some feeling within them: as the film begins, our lead, Santiago, has lost his father to suicide and finds that he's disillusioned with his surroundings.

But, rather disappointingly, the film quite simply isn't as entertaining as Alfonso Cuaron's predecessor, and the conclusion of the journey feels false and all too convenient. Nevertheless, it's of a high quality and should make stars of its leads if it's given the exposure in North America that it deserves. It certainly marks Ricardo de Montreuil as a director to watch. JU