BFI Flare: Raise your hands

Of course, it's only the first weekend of BFI Flare, and I'm already feeling sleep-deprived. It doesn't help that the warm/cold weather has caused havoc with my sinuses, I'm still recovering from a missed night's sleep to watch the Oscars, and each day is starting early and ending late. But I'm still out and about, seeing films and catching up with festival friends at BFI Southbank, which is aways a buzzy venue throughout the run of this festival. I may not feel like the life of the party this year, but I'm out and about - so say hello if you see me. Here are some more highlights...

Swallowed
dir-scr Carter Smith; with Cooper Koch, Jose Colon  22/US ***
Unusually unsettling, this offbeat horror thriller features a line-up of visceral jolts that cleverly play on deeper internalised ideas. Writer-director Carter Smith takes a stripped-back approach to filmmaking, keeping things gritty and loose while honing in on quirky character details and playing provocatively with tropes from both horror and gay cinema. So even if the story and characters are somewhat lacking when it comes to internal logic, the film creates a superbly queasy sense of unease.

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn
dir Timothy Harris; with Malcolm Kenyatta, Matt Miller 23/US ****
Covering a vitally important political campaign in perhaps too much detail, this documentary is essential viewing simply for what it says about American politics. Using a fly-on-the-wall style over the course of two years, filmmaker Timothy Harris zeroes in on a milestone candidate who simply rejects the idea that only straight white guys can run the country. As a gay Black man, Malcolm Zenyatta knows rather a lot more about the state of his community.

Horseplay [Los Agitadores]
dir-scr Marco Berger; with Bruno Giganti, Agustin Machta 22/Arg ***.
Argentine filmmaker Marco Berger continues to provocatively explore the nature of masculinity in this loosely unstructured comedy-drama about a group of friends who play very close to the boundaries. But the meandering pace conceals a startling swell of very dark emotions, from toxic machismo to self-loathing homosexuality. These things are depicted in ways that force the viewer to think, continually blurring the lines society says are neatly cut and dried.

Wolf and Dog [Lobo e Cão]
dir-scr Claudia Varejao; with Ana Cabral, Ruben Pimenta 22/Por ****
Set in the Azores archipelago, this strikingly visual slice of life is artfully shot by cinematographer Rui Xavier. Writer-director Claudia Varejao tells the story in a way that feels almost accidental, capturing tiny moments that accumulate along the way. The narrative feels meandering and elusive, with only a few sharply pointed events, but this provides the space for us to put ourselves into the situations and consider our reactions... FULL REVIEW >

Bread and Salt [Chleb i Sól]
dir-scr Damian Kocur; with Tymoteusz Bies, Jacek Bies 22/Pol ***
Bracingly shot in observational style, this Polish drama gets up close to its characters even as it neglects the narrative. It's an often harrowing depiction of a small town where young people think it's cool to deal in racism, bigotry and bullying. And the thoughtful central character draws us in, even if his journey remains stubbornly off-camera. Writer-director Damian Kocur has a terrific eye for real-life interaction, so the film has power as a document of a place and time. But stronger storytelling might have made it involving and moving.

BEST OF YEAR
The Inspection
dir-scr Elegance Bratton; with Jeremy Pope, Gabrielle Union 22/US ****.
There's striking artistry in the way filmmaker Elegance Bratton recounts an autobiographical narrative about a Black gay man in US Marines boot camp during the "don't ask, don't tell" years. Never preachy, the film has an earthy, intensely internalised tone that puts its complex characters into a razor-sharp perspective. And its knowing authenticity adds both deep emotion and a textured, vital comment on the nature of bigotry... FULL REVIEW >

Critical Week: Fight fire with fire

Since I'm not in Cannes with many of my fellow critics, I'm still catching up on screenings of films opening in cinemas at the moment. At least we're having Cannes-like weather in London! This week we had a very late press screening (just the night before it opens) for Breaking In, the home-invasion thriller starring Gabrielle Union as a tough-minded mother who isn't about to let a gang of violent thieves harm her children. This gender flip is very cool, and sharply played too, even if the script is rather standard fare.

Also rather standard, the British comedy Swimming With Men echoes The Full Monty in its story of a group of middle-aged men dealing with their issues as they form a male synchronised swimming team. The cast is so good that it makes it worth a look. And the American comedy Dating My Mother is somewhat awkward, but has a refreshing honesty to it.

There were also three documentaries. The first two have a showbiz slant: Filmworker is that riveting story of a British actor who gave up his career to be Stanley Kubrick's assistant for 30 years, and Always at the Carlyle is a star-packed look at the iconically elegant New York hotel. The third doc was something altogether different: Path of Blood uses acquired footage of Saudi security services battling local al Qaeda cells, including video seized from them. It's shocking, heart-pounding, eye-opening and, even though it's hard to watch, utterly essential.

Coming up this next week, we have press screenings of Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, Diane Keaton in Book Club, Sundance hit The Miseducation of Cameron Post, British thriller Welcome to Curiosity and the Mexican drama Boy Undone. I also plan to buy a ticket to see John Cameron Mitchell's How to Talk To Girls at Parties, as its distributor never let me know about screenings even though I asked. (Another distributor didn't screen Melissa McCarthy's Life of the Party for critics at all, but I don't feel the need to seek that one out.)