The 68th BFI London Film Festival kicked off this week, just as my two-month stint on a television series wrapped, so there's been no time to kill! But I'm taking the festival more lightly this year, with just one or two films per day. I'll catch up with other movies later. Meanwhile, awards season is fully underway in London, with Q&A screenings most evenings. And over the next week many of these are also in the festival. This week's screenings included Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner
Anora, a lively romantic comedy that spins into something even more interesting as it goes along. It's a proper stunner.
LFF opened with Steve McQueen's
Blitz, a gorgeously produced recreation of 1940 London under attack, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan. The story doesn't quite work, but it looks astonishing. Ralph Fiennes leads a strong cast in
Conclave, Edward Berger's drama about the selection of a new Pope. It's smart, nuanced and riveting. John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler lead an adaptation of August Wilson's play
The Piano Lesson, which is beefy and intense, but remains rather stagebound. Mike Leigh is back with
Hard Truths, an edgy family drama starring the terrific Marianne Jean-Baptists and Michele Austin. And apart from LFF/awards season, the lively Hong Kong action movie
Stuntman pays playful and sometimes melodramatic homage to the stunt performing community. I also caught Chicos Mambo's amusing live show
Tutu at the Peacock.
Most films I'm watching this coming week are also screening at LFF, including the animated adventure
The Wild Robot, the SNL romp
Saturday Night, Angelina Jolie in
Maria, Amy Adams in
Nightbitch, Thomasin McKenzie in
Joy, Kieran Culkin in
A Real Pain, the Indian comedy
Superboys of Malegaon and the psychic doc
Look Into My Eye. There's also Alex Wolff in
The Line, Mark Cousins' A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things and the doc
Studio One Forever, plus
Fillibuster at Jackson's Lane.
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