LFF: Art appreciation

It's always bittersweet to get to this stage in the festival and realise how many films I'll be missing this year. At the 65th BFI London Film Festival, I made a list of the movies I wanted to see - about 70 titles from nearly 200 films in the programme. And in the end I've had to admit that there about 35 of those that I won't catch here. Some will pop up during awards season or on UK release dates over the coming months, but sadly many will never be available again here. Meanwhile, with the festival's end in sight, I'm trying to catch up on the backlog of reviews for the website - they should all be posted there over the next few days. Here are five highlights for Saturday...

Memoria
dir-scr Apichatpong Weerasethakul; with Tilda Swinton, Elkin Diaz 21/Col ****
Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul makes his first foray abroad, taking an international cast on an evocative odyssey set in various beautifully shot locations in Colombia. It's the kind of film that only hints at its meaning, requiring faith from the audience as we're taken a journey that's haunting for reasons we can barely define. It's a beautiful exploration of sights, sounds and, as the title says, memory.

King Richard
dir Reinaldo Marcus Green; with Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis 21/US ***
In this lively, crowd-pleasing biopic, Venus and Serena Williams' rise to fame is recounted through the story of their father. This throws things out of balance, because it's not actually his movie. In a mannered performance by Will Smith, Richard comes across as stubborn and annoying, which no doubt fuelled his daughters' success. But we're much more interested in their points of view, which are underrepresented here.

Benedetta
dir Paul Verhoeven; with Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling 21/Fr ***.
Leave it to Paul Verhoeven to turn the true story of Sister Benedetta into a lurid religious horror romp with equal measures of fervour and lust. More than a little camp, this biopic is deliberately provocative as it adds steamy melodrama to real-life events. It's skilfully assembled, with strong period detail and a vicious sense of humour. So even if it plays loosely with facts, it remains devilishly entertaining.

Bull
dir-scr Paul Andrew Williams; with Neil Maskell, David Hayman 21/UK ***
Highly stylised in the form of an old-time movie, with added quirky touches and hints of a modern sensibility, this offbeat British biopic is impossible to pigeonhole. And filmmaker Will Sharpe isn't afraid to mix overwhelming cuteness with pitch-black drama and soaring sentimentality. It's all a bit too mannered to properly engage the audience, but it does look amazing, and it features some defiantly singular performances.

Petrov's Flu
dir-scr Kirill Serebrennikov; with Semyon Serzin, Chulpan Khamatova 21/Rus ***.
A riotous odyssey through post-Soviet Russia, this demanding epic keeps the audience on its toes, as adept filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov moves rapid-fire through a series of full-on set pieces. The camerawork is extraordinary, often in elaborately long takes. With the titular viral infection spreading, the film has a clever timeliness, and its blackly comical tone prevents the outrageously gloomy series of events from ever feeling too heavy... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews of festival films will be published as possible and linked at Shadows' LFF HOMEPAGE 
For full information, visit BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL