10 Awesome Movies You Might Have Missed in 2012

5. Shadow Dancer

James Marsh is best-known for his incredible pair of documentaries, Man on Wire (which won him an Academy Award) and Project Nim, but in narrative feature Shadow Dancer, he proves himself an even more able and versatile talent by spinning a hugely compelling yarn set during the end of the Troubles in 1993 Belfast. The film begins with a prologue and then a long, silent portion in which Colette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough) plans to blow up Mile End Tube station before being caught. She is handed over to MI5 handler Mac (Clive Owen), who compels her to snitch on her own family, who happen to be a similar bunch of IRA die-hards. Though it drips with uneasy, quiet tension throughout, the best thing about Shadow Dancer is Riseborough, who after giving fine performances in a number of unworthy projects such as the Brighton Rock remake and Madonna's ill-conceived W.E., finally gets her firm due with a project befitting her talents. Riseborough makes of Colette a complex figure, torn between duty to one family and another, driven to grass up her relatives plotting to murder to ensure that she gets to stay with her young son and mother, comparative innocents. Clive Owen is as perfectly reliable as ever, while the likes of Gillian Anderson, Domnhall Gleason and Aidan Gillen provide fantastic support. It all leads to an ending that quite has to be believed to be seen, shocking and extremely thought-provoking. Shadow Dancer is available on DVD/Blu-Ray January 14th, 2013.