BFI Flare: Sing it loud

The 38th BFI Flare heads into the week with a continuing flurry of screenings and events. Over the weekend it was great fun to hang out with actors and filmmakers who are in town to present their films. The post-screening Q&As have been lively, revealing how important these movies are as they are appreciated by such a wide range of people in the audience. And of course films with a British connection get even more audience love, with round of applause for each cast and crew member. Or in the case of the Merchant Ivory doc, post-film selfies with the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Greta Scacchi, James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Natasha McElhone and many more. Here's another set of highlights...

Unicorns
dir Sally El Hosaini, James Krishna Floyd; with Ben Hardy, Jason Patel 23/UK ****
With a sometimes dreamlike sensibility, this British drama follows two young men who are struggling to make sense of their lives, and may find the answer together. Directing alongside screenwriter James Krisna Floyd, Sally El-Hosaini maintains an optimistic but clear-eyed and honest tone, even as the film takes on some big issues in a situation that feels impossible. It's also remarkably sympathetic to its very different central characters... FULL REVIEW >

Riley
dir-scr Benjamin Howard; with Jake Holley, Colin McCalla 23/US ****
Earthy authenticity infuses this warm drama, as writer-director Benjamin Howard knowingly captures the pervasive masculinity in sporting culture, which expresses itself in ignorant homophobia. He also gets into the mind of a teen athlete grappling with his sexuality. As the drama gets increasingly serious, the film grabs hold powerfully. So even if things begin to turn a bit melodramatic, there's truth in the way the story plays out... FULL REVIEW >

Hidden Master:
The Legacy of George Platt Lynes
dir Sam Shahid; with Bernard Perlin, George Platt Lynes II 23/US***.
Essentially making the case that photographer George Platt Lynes deserves a place in art history, this well-researched documentary recounts his career with eye-opening detail. Director Sam Shahid spent a decade compiling the interviews and hunting down archival material that fill this movie to overflowing. And Lynes' stunning images gain meaningful context through the fabulous first-hand anecdotes about a little-known but hugely influential segment of the art world from the 1930s to the 1950s. 

Merchant Ivory
dir Stephen Soucy; with James Ivory, Ismail Merchant 24/US ***.
Beautifully assembled with extensive interviews and film clips, this engaging documentary takes thorough look at the team behind the eponymous game-changing production company best known for its 1980s period dramas. As this story unfolds, filmmaker Stephen Soucy unearths some eye-opening things about the film industry and society at large. This is both a story about moviemakers who work outside the system, making first-rate projects against the odds, and an involving account of a decades-long love story that has never been told before. 

B E S T    O F    Y E A R
Bottoms
dir Emma Seligman; with Ayo Edebiri, Rachel Sennott 23//US ***
Both broadly silly and thematically pointed, this high school comedy moves at a brisk pace through a plot that's laced with absurdity. But the satire is cleverly grounded in big issues and emotional resonance, which makes even the silliest gags hilarious. Director-cowriter Emma Seligman gleefully pushes the characters and story right to the edge. So even as the transgressive nastiness takes over, the film has plenty of heart... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked on Shadows's BFI FLARE PAGE >

For festival information, BFI FLARE >

Critical Week: Fairy dust

London finally enjoyed a late-summer heatwave this past week - not baking hot, but sunny skies and warm weather lured what looked like everyone out into the city. That'll likely have a knock-on effect on cinema box office if it continues through this weekend. Otherwise, things have been a bit quite for critics, as the Venice Film Festival continues and Toronto Film Festival kicks off. The programme for October's 65th London Film Festival was launched this week, and there are several bit titles from Venice, Toronto and Cannes in there. Meanwhile, here in London I caught up with two high-profile Amazon releases: Camila Cabello makes a strong acting debut in Cinderella, a musical comedy that's silly but entertaining. And Justice Smith gives a welcome grown-up performance in The Voyeurs, which starts as a Hitchcockian thriller but contrives itself into something unnervingly bleak.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Servant • Respect • Boy Meets Boy
The Collini Case • The Capote Tapes
ALL REVIEWS >

Smaller films includes Small Engine Repair, John Pollono's adaptation of his own play about three men on a mystery mission that swerves from edgy comedy to pitch-black thriller; Dating & New York is a twinkly romantic comedy about millennials trying not to fall in love (no surprise what happens); Iceland Is Best is a quirky and strangely muted British-made, Iceland-set comedy about teens with dreams; Death Drop Gorgeous is a messy but rather hilariously grisly slasher comedy set in a drag club; and The Collini Case is an excellent German courtroom drama that uses a fictional story to explore a shockingly true situation.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the filmed stage musical Come From Away, British drama A Brixton Tale, British comedy Pirates, horror thriller The Djinn, social media satire The Influencer, Norwegian comedy Ninjababy, Second World War drama Natural Light and Bruce LaBruce's Saint-Narcisse.

Critical Week: Too cool for school

Things have been a bit quieter for me this week, as I haven't had too many films to watch. Although while the weather has been warmer, we're still in complete lockdown, meaning it's impossible to met up with friends or go into town. So I've been catching up on things and watching what I can to get a little ahead of the curve.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Night of the Kings • The Mauritanian
The United States vs Billie Holiday
The Father • Song Without a Name
PERHAPS AVOID:
Crisis • Tyger Tyger
ALL REVIEWS >

The most mainstream film I saw this week was Moxie, the comedy directed by Amy Poehler for Netflix. It stars Hadley Robinson in a hugely engaging tale about girl power, and rather a lot more. I also enjoyed the black comedy Pixie, an engagingly messy road movie set in Ireland as young people navigate a brewing war between gangster priests (led by Alec Baldwin) and the local mob (Colm Meaney). 

Smaller films included the remarkable British drama Justine, a sensitive look at a troubled young woman, and Tyger Tyger, an enigmatic and artful film set on the outer fringe of Southern California society during a killer pandemic. And from Ivory Coast, Night of the Kings is a staggeringly involving prison drama that's well worth a look. There were also two strong short film collections exploring aspects of youthful masculinity: Boys on Film 21: Beautiful Secret and The Latin Boys: Volume 2.

We also had the virtual programme launch event for the British Film Institute's annual Flare LGBTIQ+ film festival, which next month will be held online for the second year running. The kind folk at the BFI sent me a small version of the annual logo cake to enjoy for the launch, a tradition I've enjoyed each year while covering this event over the past 23 years. (See my Insta post below.)

This coming week's collection of movies includes Disney's animated Raya and the Last Dragon, the award-winning Filipino drama The Verdict, the Japanese true drama Fukushima 50 and bonkers filmmaker Quentin Dupieux's Keep an Eye Out.

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