Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benh Zeitlin's "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is vibrant, soulful, magnificently raw and worthy of all the superlatives splashed across its poster.

6-yeal-old lead actress Quvenzhané Wallis radiates childlike wonder while embodying strength, courage and vulnerability. A revelation.

Alps

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' "Alps" feels more fragmented and (sometimes intentionally) wooden than "Dogtooth", but its story of identity and performance is every bit as morbid and gripping as that of his astonishing last feature.

Once you can get past the rather artificial construct of the plot, the questions it raises about the authenticity of human behavior and the substitution of emotions are just fascinating to ponder.

Barbara

Nina Hoss, with her regal stature and icy stares, infuses the titular character in Christian Petzold's "Barbara" with quiet fury, fierce intelligence and a slow-burning sensuality that combine to convey a sense of repression and longing that's breathtakingly German. While the movie might be a little too detached for its own good, the performance carries it with conviction and ultimately pulls at your heartstrings in spite of itself.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Despite some believability issues, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" is an exceptionally directed and acted psychological thriller about a girl cracking under the weight of two worlds. First-time director Sean Durkin has an assured sense of style and an uncanny grasp of dread reminiscent of Michael Haneke, which he put to good use to create an acutely unsettling atmosphere for the film and some moments of spine-tingling scares.

Berlinale:Tabu

Recalling in many ways Almodóvar and his visceral style of filmmaking, Portugese director Miguel Gomes' "Tabu", a tale of forbidden love buried deep in the crocodile swamps of Africa, is structurally dazzling, narratively rich (if a little too densely written) and aesthetically bold. Black-and-white throughout and silent in places, this movie deftly plays with the audience's senses as it revives wild emotions and circumstances of its characters. Although some overall fine-tuning might be needed, it is unquestionably the most stylish, passionate, hypnotic movie I saw at this year's Berlinale.

Berlinale: Gnade (Mercy) / Was bleibt (Home for the Weekend)

Two German competition titles, "Gnade (Mercy)" & "Was bleibt (Home for the Weekend)", both tried to say too much and ended up telling too little. The former packed guilt, angst and all kinds of moral hocus-pocus into a feeble storyline which crumbles under the weight of the (not too subtle) allegories. It's to the director and the technical department's credit that through terse pacing and lensing of the beautiful polar icescape audience interest could be sustained throughout. The latter, about a family in crisis, was elevated from conventional melodramas mainly by its outstanding cast, which exudes all the compatibility and potential for damage between family members. The final act in the woods, with its dreamlike quality and room for interpretation, is a nice touch.

Berlinale: 白鹿原 (White Deer Plain) / Love

Historical, political context not readily accessible to the general public and a curiously thin plot with no driving theme dragged down the epic 3-hour+ family saga "白鹿原 (White Deer Plain)", set in rural China after the end of its imperial era. But the exquisite art direction and the gorgeously lit, framed, color-saturated images are pure marvels to behold; the script for the Taiwanese ensemble romantic comedy "Love" can't scratch beneath the surface of urban relationships with their modern complexities, but when the surface is decked out with such dreamy sets and extremely pretty people falling in and out of love with one another while cracking jokes, fun is to be had.