Flare: Men in love

The British Film Institute's 33rd Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival is just past its halfway point, and as always I'm enjoying the mix of provocative movies and great conversations with filmmakers, programmers and other journalists. This is a seriously social festival! And the quality of the films, many of which are difficult to find on a big screen, is very high. Meanwhile, I'm also watching the weekly theatrical releases as they are screened to the press - so the usual Critical Week section is below these Flare highlights...

The Blond One [Un Rubio]
dir-scr Marco Berger; with Gaston Re, Alfonso Baron 19/Arg ****.
As with Marco Berger's other films, this drama captures an easy masculinity that blurs lines of sexuality as a group of fit young men circle around each other. The film is quiet and observational, telling its story in offhanded moments rather than big plot points. It's a strikingly involving, moving exploration of the nature of relationships, transcending the gay genre to explore both deeper human emotions and larger societal issues.

Papi Chulo
dir-scr John Butler; with Matt Bomer, Alejandro Patino 18/US ***.
Irish filmmaker John Butler traces an offbeat friendship in this engaging comedy-drama, which takes a turn that adds a complex exploration of a deep theme. It's a charming story with intriguing characters who interact in honest, messy ways. So while the events in the movie sometimes tip over the top, the story and characters remain easy to identify with... FULL REVIEW >

Tucked
dir-scr Jamie Patterson; with Derren Nesbitt, Jordan Stephens 18/UK ****
Warm and moody, this British drama has an earthy honesty to it that's instantly engaging. It's the story of an offbeat, unlikely friendship, but filmmaker Jamie Patterson resists the usual cheap humour or sentimentality. Instead, each belly laugh is tinged with prickly emotion. And it's remarkable that the film maintains a sense of cheeky optimism even in the story's intensely moving darker moments. Packed with surprises, it's well worth seeking out... FULL REVIEW >

Nevrland
dir-scr Gregor Schmidinger; with Simon Fruhwirth, Paul Forman 19/Aut ****
First-time Austrian filmmaker Gregor Schmidinger demonstrates his love of film history with a psychological thriller that stylistically echoes masters from Cocteau to Kubrick to Noe. Digging deeply into the mental state of the protagonist, this bold and involving film can't help but unnerve the audience as it drags us down a psychedelic rabbit hole that involves suppressed sexuality, a nervous disposition and serious daddy issues.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K 

There were a pair of big screenings of animated movies, starting with Disney's live-action revamp of the classic Dumbo, a lively, engaging film that maintains some of Tim Burton's quirky sensibilities. It was also my first visit to the newly revamped Odeon Leicester Square, London's largest cinema which is now full of comfy recliners. British voice cast members Joe Sugg and Caspar Lee introduced the screening of Wonder Park, a frantic adventure with a terrific premise but little in the way of story, pace or message. And Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn star in Dragged Across Concrete, the latest genre-buster from S Craig Zahler, which is sharply well made, entertaining and jaw-droppingly nasty, but about twice as long as it needed to be.

This coming week's non-festival screenings include the superhero romp Shazam, the Stephen King remake Pet Sematary and the Aretha Franklin doc Amazing Grace.

Critical Week: Let the race begin

Awards season officially kicked off this week with a flurry of accolades including the New York Film Critics and the British Independent Film Awards. I've been voting already, and have more to do in the coming weeks. In my last few days in California, I caught up with a few more contenders, including Angelina Jolie's biopic Unbroken, starring Jack O'Connell as Olympic runner Louie Zamperini, who later survived 47 days adrift at sea before being captured by the Japanese during WWII. It's a staggering story of resilience, made with unexpected subtlety. Tim Burton's Big Eyes is another gorgeously made biopic. It stars Amy Adams as Margaret Keane, who painted all of those sad-eyed children in the 60s and 70s while her husband (Christoph Waltz) took the credit. It may look sunnier than most of Burton's films, but it's just as gleefully deranged, and it carries a big emotional kick.

But of course the biggest film screened to the press this past week was Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, another enormous epic of a film, packed with lively characters, first-rate effects and huge, expertly staged action sequences. Frankly, until some engaging personal drama emerges in the second half, it's a bit exhausting. Somewhat smaller films included The Face of Love, a gimmicky, melodramatic romance starring Annette Bening and Ed Harris. And The Great Museum is a riveting fly-on-the-wall doc about the backstage workings of Vienna's national gallery.

Coming this week: Julianne Moore in Still Alice, Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Quevenzhane Wallis in a remake of the musical Annie, Christian Bale in Exodus: Gods and Kings, Aardman Animation's Shaun the Sheep Movie, the acclaimed Spanish anthology Wild Tales and the British drama Wasp. I'll also finally catch up with the sequel Dumb and Dumber To, although frankly I'd rather not.

33rd London Critics' Circle Film Awards

It wasn't just another Critics' Circle ceremony for me: this year I was chair of the awards committee, so the whole evening was my baby. And it was odd to see every tiny detail I've agonised over for the past few months slot into place so nicely, despite some significant obstacles. We lost four nominee attendees at the last minute due to the snow (Tom Hooper) and the flu (Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter and Jacqueline Durran), and others couldn't come because they were working far, far away. But everyone who made it had a great night.

The day started on Sunday morning as I looked out the window to see snow falling. It's been a snowy week in London, with the usual travel chaos any change in the weather brings. But we were in motion, and couldn't be stopped. I headed from home via replacement bus (my Tube line was helpfully closed) to the May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, where the production team ran through the show in the theatre at noon. Then there were fine-tuning adjustments, printing up the winners cards for the envelopes, collating the speeches from those who couldn't be there to accept their award, and of course changing into our finery for the show. The critics who were presenting awards arrived at 5pm to run through their parts of the presentation with our host Richard Herring (who has blogged brilliantly about his experience).

By 5.30pm the first attendees were assembling on the red carpet and facing the press line. The cameramen of course latched on to the glamorous women, including Helena Bonham Carter (recipient of our top honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film), Emily Blunt (nominee for British Actress), Samantha Barks (nominee for Young Performer) and Olivia Colman (last year's British Actress winner, who generously came to help me present the award this year).

Also very popular with the press was young Jack Reynor, nominated as Young Performer, who has just been named as the star of Transformers 4. He had a great night, knowing he was heading home to Dublin in the morning to begin four months of physical training for the film. Although I told him he really needs to take a break to celebrate his 21st birthday this week!

I had a chance to talk to all of our special guests as they arrived, including Ben Drew (nominated for Ill Manors), Charlie Creed-Miles and Dexter Fletcher (nominatees for Wild Bill), and three nominees from the superb British film My Brother the Devil: writer-director Sally El Hosaini, actor Fady Elsayed and cinematographer David Raedeker. At 6.30pm the champagne reception was shifted into the theatre for the awards ceremony, which clipped along thanks to Richard Herring's snappy hosting. Several early winners weren't present: Anne Hathaway's Supporting Actress award was accepted by Les Miserables producer Debra Hayward, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was unable to be here to get his Supporting Actor award, Emmannuelle Riva sent a lovely video message from Paris to accept Actress, and Joaquin Phoenix wrote the thank-you note of the night* to accept Actor.

But most of the British winners were on hand to collect their prizes. Above: The Impossible's Tom Holland with his Young Performer trophy, Rafe Spall turned up to accept the Director award for his Life of Pi director Ang Lee, and The Imposter's Bart Layton took home the award for Documentary. Below: Alice Lowe and Steve Oram were multiple nominees for British Actress and British Actor, and won Breakthrough Filmmaker for their Sightseers script.

Andrea Riseborough won the British Actress award, which I presented, but she'd had to cancel her attendance at the last minute due to illness. So last year's winner Olivia Colman accepted the award and read a message from her. Toby Jones (below) won the British Actor award, and then came back to the stage with sound designer Stevie Haywood (a Technical Achievement nominee) to claim British Film of the Year for Berberian Sound Studio.

There was a warm acceptance video from Bill Westenhofer, who won Technical Achievement for the visual effects in Life of Pi. And Michael Haneke sent two thank-you videos - accepting his awards for Screenplay and Film of the Year for Amour. He's in Madrid at the moment staging a version of Cosi Fan Tutte. 

The highlight of the evening was Mike Newell presenting the Dilys to Helena Bonham Carter: "She's like a kaleidoscope, she is able to deliver these wonderful, vivid characters again and again. They're all full of variety, full of wit and energy and I think people long to see what she's going to try next. She's become an institution. Working with her is always surprising, always harmonious. Not one tiny little bit of foot-stamping or tantrum-throwing."

Her speech was hilariously witty, warm and honest, and she later told the press: "It feels like a rash. It suddenly seems like I've got a contagion of diseases - I mean awards! But it's nice, it's a nice feeling. It's so weird, because I'm only 46. A lifetime achievement award - it feels like 'I'm not over yet'. I hope they're not trying to say it's time to stop. I'm only just getting the gist of it." She clearly had a great evening, and she and Tim Burton were among the last to leave, happily chatting to everyone throughout the after party. I left shortly after them, sharing a cab through the snowy streets to North London with fellow critic and awards committee member Pauline McLeod (that's us below).

I didn't open my goody bag until this morning - quite a haul! I need to thank our charity partner Missing People and our amazing sponsors for making this happen. And now I feel like I need a holiday before I start thinking about 2014....

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Critics' Circle Film Section - top 10 films of 2012:

1. Amour
2. The Master
3. Life of Pi
4. Argo
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild
6. Zero Dark Thirty
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
8. Django Unchained
9. Tabu
10. Rust and Bone

LFF 10: Big finale

The 56th BFI London Film Festival came to a close tonight with the European premiere of Mike Newell's new version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which brought Helena Bonham Carter back out to the red carpet just a night after she and her partner Tim Burton (himself an LFF red carpet veteran from opening night) attended the glamorous festival awards presentation, where they were each awarded the BFI Fellowship. Here are all of the winners:

• Film: RUST AND BONE
• Documentary (Grierson Award): MEA MAXIMA CULPA
• First Feature (Sutherland Award): BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
• British Newcomer: Sally El Hosaini (MY BROTHER THE DEVIL)
• BFI Fellowship: Tim Burton (FRANKENWEENIE) and Helena Bonham Carter (GREAT EXPECTATIONS)

Here are my own 10 favourites from the festival:

1. RUST AND BONE
2. SIGHTSEERS
3. AMOUR
4. NO
5. OUR CHILDREN
6. KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
7. ERNEST & CELESTINE
8. ARGO
9. MY BROTHER THE DEVIL
10. BEYOND THE HILLS

Saturday also included Silver Linings Playbook as the surprise film (I'm seeing it on Tuesday) - pictured (right) at the surprise screening are David O Russell, LFF director Clare Stewart and Bradley Cooper.

And here are a few final highlights...

Great Expectations
dir Mike Newell; with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter 12/UK ***.
Charles Dickens' oft-adapted novel is faithfully transferred to the screen barely six months after another BBC television version. And while this film is very nicely made and played, it's impossible not to wonder why they've done it again so soon... REVIEW >

Celeste & Jesse Forever
dir Lee Toland Krieger; with Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg 12/US ***.
With a snappy script and observant filmmaking, this enjoyable rom-com refuses to fit into the standard movie formula. It also offers both Jones and Samberg the chance to give much more layered performances than usual... REVIEW >

Our Children
dir Joachim Lafosse; with Emilie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim 12/Be, ****.
Based on a true story, this film paints a picture of happy but complicated domestic bliss before quietly shifting into something very unsettling. The understatement is likely to annoy some filmgoers, but it allows the cast to deliver devastating performances... REVIEW >

Ernest & Celestine
dir Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner; voices Lambert Wilson, Pauline Brunner 12/Fr ****.
Charming and adorable, but not remotely childish, this animated French adventure has a terrific sense of anarchy that will appeal to adults as much as kids. It's also a superb fable about standing up for yourself even when you challenge society's traditions... REVIEW >

Requisite Blog Photo: Back to school

If you're in London, be sure to visit the Art of Frankenweenie exhibition in the Southbank Centre. It's free (tickets from the BFI box office), and features several sets and figures from the film, plus other goodies like Tim Burton's artwork and production models. Plus you can have your photo taken peering into the classroom!

LFF 1: Monster mash-up

Tim Burton hit the red carpet in Leicester Square last night, opening the 56th BFI London Film Festival with his new movie Frankenweenie. He was accompanied by cast members Martin Landau, Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara, plus the usual LFF luvvies. (Uninvited, I was at a screening of Argo with most critics.) Here are some highlights today...

Frankenweenie
dir Tim Burton; voices Winona Ryder, Martin Short 12/US ****.
Expanding his 30-minute 1984 short, Burton has created one of his most enjoyable movies in years. Not only is the adventure thoroughly engaging, but it's packed with references to great monster movies. In other words, it's the kind of classic you can watch over and over... FULL REVIEW >

Amour
dir Michael Haneke; with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva 12/France ****Haneke never makes easy movies, and this is no exception. But as he explores the relationship between an ageing couple, Haneke avoids the bleakness that has characterised most of his films. And without even a hint of manipulation or sentimentality, he moves us deeply... FULL REVIEW >

The Hunt
dir Thomas Vinterberg; with Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen 12/Denmark ***.
This provocative, difficult film won three prizes at Cannes, including best actor for Mikkelsen. With its askance approach to the hot potato topic of child abuse, this is not the kind of film you can just ignore. Especially since it's actually about collective paranoia... FULL REVIEW >

Chakravyuh
dir Prakash Jha; with Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol 12/India ***.
Since it's from Bollywood, this thriller feels somewhat overwrought and bombastic compared even to Hollywood's most ridiculous blockbusters. But it also has a story that works its way under the skin, daring to explore a complex moral dilemma that has remarkable relevance. Based on a true story, it's about two best pals (Rampal and Deol) who get involved in a grisly fight between police, the government, a multinational corporation and the rebels taking everyone on from their jungle hideout. The hitch is that one is a senior police officer in charge of tracking down the terrorists, and his friend goes undercover to help supply information, only to discover that the rebels are actually only trying to protect poor villagers from government and corporate greed. The emotional story is very punchy, and sometimes a bit corny, but the filmmaking is robust and energetic. There are even a few big musical numbers cleverly worked into the plot.

Dead Europe
dir Tony Krawitz; with Ewen Leslie, Marton Csokas 12/Aus ***
An intensely dark, foreboding tone is the best thing about this perplexing thriller. While playing around intriguingly with issues of race, religion and sexuality, the film gets under our skin even though we are never quite sure what's actually going on. Kind of like the central character himself. Leslie is terrific as an Australian photographer who has never been to Europe to see the old country, and when he finally gets to Greece with his father's ashes, everyone talks about an old family curse. He travels on to Paris and Budapest, discovering bits of information along the way while being haunted by the memory of a young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) he failed to help in Athens. Oddly, the more people explain the situation, the less we feel like we understand it properly. So the conclusion feels enigmatic and more than a little sinister.

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CRITICAL WEEK: Along with festival films, I caught up with a few general releases over the past week, some of which are also in the LFF. These include Paul Thomas Anderson's fascinating but difficult The Master, Ben Affleck's raucously entertaining true thriller Argo, the beautifully played drama The Sessions, the lively black comedy Ruby Sparks, the sharp but uneven neighbourhood comedy-drama The Oranges, the enjoyable film-set documentary Radioman, the creepy-emotional Polish drama Suicide Room, and the spectacular 4K restoration of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia.

Outside the LFF this coming week I'll also see the Wachowski's generational drama Cloud Atlas, and Chinese action epic The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and, yes, the new James Bond movie Skyfall.

Critical Week: Battle of the bulge

Yes, UK critics were screened the all-star ensemble rom-com What to Expect When You're Expecting this past week, although our reviews are embargoed until five days after the film opens in the US. Seems a bit extreme, but there it is. Meanwhile, we had a very late press screening of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, which almost gets the creepy-witty tone right even if the film's structure doesn't hang together. And we had to buy our own tickets to see the horror-comedy sequel Piranha 3DD, which many of us did because the first film was such a guilty-pleasure gem. Sadly, this one doesn't work on any level.

Off the beaten path, we sa a range of films. There was the blackly comical but slow-building haunted hotel romp The Innkeepers, the inspiring but cliched British world-class athletes drama Fast Girls, the silly but amusing 3D animated feature Top Cat: The Movie, the wasted genius premise of Nazis invading from the moon in Iron Sky and, best of the week by a wide margin, the hugely engaging geriatric table tennis doc Ping Pong.

This coming week we have some more very late screenings, including Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator, Will Smith's Men in Black 3 and Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. Squeaking in just a tiny bit earlier are Kristen Stewart's Snow White & the Huntsman and Ken Loach's The Angel's Share. And a bit further afield we have Willem Dafoe's The Hunter, Kristin Scott Thomas' In Your Hands and Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now.