Floating Skyscrapper

Tomasz Wasilewski's Floating Skyscrapers (Poland, 2013) - 2013KVeotw Best Film Winnner. Kuba attends an art opening with his girlfriend of two years and bumps into Mikal. The connection between these two young men is instantaneous and intoxicating, and despite opposition from all sides, he allows Mikal into his life. The results go beyond anything he could have imagined. This intimate and bold second feature from Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski captures the often-complicated consequences of finding love where others do not want it. 2013KVeotw, 2013TRI. RATING: 3

The Wolverine

James Mangold's The Wolverine (US, 2013) RATING: 3  - The Marvel team has recast the Incredible Hulk three times in recent years, but when it comes to their most popular hothead, Wolverine, there’s only one actor fit to wear the claws: Hugh Jackman returns for his sixth screen appearance as the adamantium-reinforced superhero in James Mangold’s smart, Japan-set “The Wolverine,” an entertaining and surprisingly existential digression from his usual X-Men exploits. Though Wolvie comes across a bit world-weary and battle-worn by now, Jackman is in top form, taking the opportunity to test the character’s physical and emotional extremes. Fans might’ve preferred bigger action or more effects, but Mangold does them one better, recovering the soul of a character whose immortality left something to be desired.

Snowpiercer

Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (South Korea, 2013) - Two decades into a second Ice Age, a few thousand human survivors live out their days aboard a state-of-the-art luxury train in “Snowpiercer,” an enormously ambitious, visually stunning and richly satisfying futuristic epic from the gifted Korean genre director Bong Joon-ho (“The Host,” “Memories of Murder”). A rare high-end sci-fi/fantasy pic made completely outside the studio system, and that even rarer case of an acclaimed foreign helmer working in English with no appreciable loss of his distinctive visual and storytelling style, Bong’s adaptation of French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige” reps a pricey investment ($40 million) for majority producer CJ Entertainment, but seems a downright bargain compared with the cost of forging such pics on Hollywood turf. A heavy marketing blitz combined with Bong and co-star Song Kang-ho’s considerable fan bases will drive strong biz at home (where the pic opens Aug. 1), if less than the whopping $64 million earned by “The Host” in 2006 — until recently, Korea’s all-time box office champ.

R.I.P.D

Robert Schwenke's R.I.P.D (US, 2013) - Transforming the supernatural into the subpar, R.I.P.D. aspires to the hip, zippy, irreverent spirit of Men In Black, but this effects-heavy action-comedy is simply too unremarkable to generate much of a pulse. Co-stars Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are not without their charms, but director Robert Schwentke (RED) has made a film that culls together marketable elements without ever really getting them to congeal into anything satisfying. RATING: 2

The Frozen Ground

Scott Walker's The Frozen Ground (US, 2013) - A bleak and deliberately dour police procedural that follows the real-life events surrounding Alaska’s most notorious serial killer Robert Hansen, a family man who over a period of some 12 years abducted and killed at least 24 women in the 1970s and ‘80s, the impressively staged The Frozen Ground is a striking platform for strong, intense and serious performances from Nicolas Cage (as determined cop) and John Cusack (as manipulative killer). While straight-forward in tone and structure, the film is admirably non-exploitative as it lays out the developing drama.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (India, 2013) *** 1/2 - Farhan Akhtar gives a powerful performance as Milkha Singh AKA The Flying Sikh who overcome great family tragedy to become the world champion runner and Olympian.

Everybody Has A Plan

Ana Piterbarg's Everybody Has A Plan is an Argentinian film stars Viggo Mortensen as a twin brothers who entangled in underworld kidnapping business. 2012TOR. **1/2

Viggo Mortensen’s trademark quiet strength and enigmatic stillness works to impressive effect in Ana Piterbarg’s moody and evocative drama Everybody Has A Plan (Todos Tenemos Un Plan), largely set against backdrop of Argentina’s tough and isolated the Tigre Delta, a labyrinthine tangle of islands and waterways which has its own codes and sense of justice.

Byzantium

Neil Jordan's Byzantium stars Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton in artsy but toothless vampire tale with feminist twist. 2012TOR, 2013SANF, 2013SEA, 2013TRI. **

A lush and atmospheric vampire tale that may be short on fangs but rich in moody menace, Neil Jordan’s latest delve into gothic genre drama – after Interview With The Vampire 17 years ago – provides a fine platform for striking performances from Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, though may lack the sheer gore quota to draw in horror fans.