In choosing Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives to receive the Palme d’Or award, a decision which effectively ensured the Thai art film’s international distribution and exposure to a wider audience, the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival surely forgot to mention an important detail about their selection process – precisely what it was they’d been smoking. Loved by critics, loathed by audiences, this work is nothing more than a painfully dull, needlessly dragged out series of random, amateurishly shot sequences and stills so profoundly uninteresting and pointless you’ll soon find yourself wishing Uncle Boonmee took less time to die.

From Japan’s Hiroshi Nishitani comes the meticulously crafted suspense feature Suspect X, the story of an impromptu psychological match fought between two brilliant academics and set in the context of a murder inquiry. Convoluted to say the least, the film is fast-paced and intellectually stimulating as it consistently keeps its audience guessing with endless twists and turns reminiscent of other recent Japanese productions, most notably G@me (2003) and Death Note (2006). Suspect X is dream material for those less artsy types who can appreciate a unique and challenging cinematic perspective while also enjoying a good old rush of adrenaline.