Filibuster
by Kook Ensemble
with Tom Gaskin
dir Sean Kempton
set & costume Adrian Linford • sound design Pete Buffery
Jackson's Lane, London • on tour 14.Sep-8.Nov.24 ★★★★
T H E B L O G
Filibuster
The 68th London Film Festival continues into this weekend with a range of terrific movies. I'm taking it easy this year, just seeing some of the top titles during these days, often including Q&As and receptions where we can chat with the filmmakers and actors. So it's been a lot of fun (see my Insta for pics!), and there's a bit more to come this weekend. One of the bigger titles was Jason Reitman's Saturday Night, a rollercoaster ride of a film recounting a tense 90 minutes before the first SNL show went live in October 1975. The cast is excellent, and it's skilfully written, shot and edited to be both funny and moving, although perhaps only for fans. It was also the surprise film at LFF this week.
Also this week, I finally caught up with the animated adventure The Wild Robot, which I saw preview footage from in June when I hung out with the creative team at Annecy Animation Film Fest. So expectations were very high, and the film more than lived up to them. It's one of the most gorgeously animated movies I've ever seen, and the story has unusual depth and textures.
BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Anora • The Wild Robot The Crime Is Mine The Summer With Carmen In Restless Dreams ALL REVIEWS > |
Outside LFF, there was the always watchable Alex Wolff in rather over-familiar fraternity drama The Line. And there were two docs: Mark Cousins' fascinating collage-style doc A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, about artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and the lively Studio One Forever, exploring the iconic Los Angeles nightclub.
Things are clearly getting back to normal for me, as I have a final flurry of LFF films this weekend: Elizabeth Banks' Skincare, the animated Memoir of a Snail, Walter Salles' I'm Still Here, Mati Diop's Dahomey, Indian drama All We Imagine as Light and more. Then next week it's Tom Hardy in Venom: The Last Dance, Eddie Redmayne in The Day of the Jackal and Jordana Brewster in Cellar Door.BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Transformers One We Live in Time ALL REVIEWS > |
Chicos Mambo
Foreverland
BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Things Will Be Different Daaaaaali • Maya and the Wave PERHAPS AVOID: Salem's Lot ALL REVIEWS > |
The TV series I'm working on wraps this week after shooting eight episodes, just in time for the start of the 68th London Film Festival on Wednesday. In the diary this coming week: Steve McQueen's Blitz, Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, Samuel L Jackson in The Piano Lesson and the Chinese action movie Stuntman, plus Chicos Mambo's live show Tutu.
The National Ballet of Canada
Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada
Crystal Pite / James Kudelka / Emma Portner
Sadler's Wells, London • 2-6.Oct.24 ★★★★
Passion
choreography James Kudelka
with McGee Maddox, Heather Ogden, Larkin Miller, Genevieve Penn Nabity, Donald Thom, Chelsy Meiss, Isaac Wright, Monika Haczkiewicz, Nio Hirano, Clare Peterson, Ayano Haneishi, Connor Hamilton, Miyoko Koyasu
music Ludwig van Beethoven • piano soloist Zhenya Vitort
costumes Dennis Lavoie • lighting Michael Mazzola
Islands
choreography Emma Portner
with Heather Ogden, Genevieve Penn Nabity
music Brambles, Guillaume Ferran, David Spinelli, Forest Swords, Lily Koningsberg, Bing & Ruth
costumes Stephanie Hutchinson
lighting Paul Vidar Saevarang
Angels’ Atlas
choreography Crystal Pite
with Svetlana Lunkina, Ben Rudisin, Alexandra MacDonald, Spencer Hack, Hannah Galway, Siphesihle November, Genevieve Penn Nabity, Spencer Hack, Donald Thom
music Owen Belton, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Morten Lauridsen
costumes Nancy Bryant • lighting Tom Visser
For details, SADLER'S WELLS >
photos by Johan Persson, Karolina Kuras, Bruce Zinger • 2.Oct.24