LFF: Feeling festive

The 65th London Film Festival launched on Wednesday evening with a gala screening of The Harder They Fall at a grand new venue, the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank (critics watched the film there very early in the morning). The festival still has some online elements, but is largely back in-person this year, with a full schedule of press screenings that's keeping me busy. As usual for journalists attending, this feels less like a film festival than a lot of standing in long lines to get into screenings. But it's a terrific season of top titles from the past year's leading festivals - with only a few exceptions, all of the most prominent movies from Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto and New York are showing here. So I have a lot of great films to look forward to over the next 10 days. Here are some highlights from the first few days, followed by my usual weekly roundup...

Belle
dir-scr Mamoru Hosoda; voices Kaho Nakamura, Ryo Narita 21.Jpn ****
A spectacularly animated riff on Beauty and the Beast, this Japanese drama layers in social media themes with complex explorations of pungent issues like grief and child abuse. It's a fascinating approach to a story that's packed with surprises, even as it sometimes feels wildly over-emotional or somewhat gimmicky. Filmmaker Mamoru Hosada (see Mirai) is skilled at maintaining perspective to tell a story that's vividly visual and hauntingly resonant... FULL REVIEW >

The Harder They Fall
dir Jeymes Samuel; with Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors 21/US ***.
Loud, stylised and loaded with attitude, this action Western pits two gangs of outlaws against each other in a violent series of gun and fist fights. Essentially a blood-splattered fantasy, the film has deeper resonance in its themes, while filmmaker Jeymes Samuel puts the focus on the snappy carnage. It's all strikingly well-staged with a powerful ensemble cast, but the mayhem almost drowns out the story's subtler meaning... FULL REVIEW >

The Feast
dir Lee Haven Jones; with Annes Elwy, Nia Roberts 21/UK ****
Strikingly directed by Lee Haven Jones, this Welsh drama has a blackly comical surface with churning folk-tale horror elements underneath it. And Roger Williams' script taps into some very deep ideas along the way, including a wider resonance that relates to the impact greedy humans have had on the planet. It's a gripping, grisly, remarkably assured feature debut for Jones, and it carries a vicious kick.

Compartment No 6 [Hytti Nro 6]
dir Juho Kuosmanen; with Seidi Haarla, Yuriy Borisov 21/Fin ****
A celebration of brief connections that can change a life, this offbeat Finnish comedy-drama is set on a long Russian train journey. But it isn't the typical road movie that it seems to be, about a budding romance or friendship; it's a more nuanced exploration of self-discovery. Filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen has a terrific eye for detail, both in people and places, so the story reverberates with witty real-life touches... FULL REVIEW >

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
No Time to Die
Knocking • Pier Kids
PERHAPS AVOID:
John and the Hole
ALL REVIEWS >

Among the films I saw this week are Wes Anderson's delightful new ensemble comedy The French Dispatch, Ridley Scott's punchy epic 14th century morality drama The Last Duel, Joanna Hogg's audacious autobiographical sequel The Souvenir Part II and the adaptation of the darkly moving hit stage musical Dear Evan Hansen. There was also the warm but cliched drama South of Heaven with a superb Jason Sudeikis,  the shot-for-shot cartoon remake Night of the Animated Dead, which doesn't add much to the original, and the astute street-life documentary Pier Kids.

Films next week are almost all LFF titles, although many will soon hit cinemas as well, including Spencer, Ron's Gone Wrong, Last Night in Soho, The Lost Daughter and Belfast. I'll also catch up with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, On the Fringe of Wild and Night Drive, which open next week.