Critical Week: Duelling divas

Two of the biggest movies this week were released online, so I watched them in my heatwave-warmed home rather than a nicely air conditioned cinema. Charlize Theron takes on a villainous Uma Thurman in The Old Guard 2, a sleek sequel that carries on the saga of a team of immortal mercenaries. But it bogs down in the mythology before a cliffhanger ending. Much stupider, and therefore a lot more fun, is Heads of State, starring John Cena and Idris Elba as bickering leaders of the US and UK forced to work together to save Nato. The starry supporting cast includes a scene-stealing Jack Quaid and hilariously sparky Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Heads of State
Jurassic World: Rebirth
ALL REVIEWS >

David Cronenberg's dark mystery The Shrouds is packed with intriguing ideas and striking imagery, plus churning performances by Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger. It's also gets more enigmatic as it goes along. And Sam Riley is terrific as a scruffy surfer-like tennis pro in Islands, a provocative drama that inventively subverts its thriller-like plot and characters who never speak the whole truth. All in gorgeous Canary Islands locations. I also caught a couple of live shows: my favourite-ever Edinburgh Fringe act triumphantly hit London for one night only with Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour at Jackson's Lane, and another iconic duo returned to London after 17 long years with Kiki & Herb Are Trying at Soho Theatre Walthamstow.

This coming week we have James Gunn's new take on Superman, Nick Offerman in Sovereign, Maxine Peake in I Swear, the Dardenne brothers' Young Mothers, Spanish comedy-drama The Other Way Around and a live performance of R.O.S.E. at Sadler's Wells.

Critical Week: I'll drink to that

In this full week between two short ones, I've been working to get ahead of things before taking a break starting next week. So I've been both attending screenings and watching films at home on links. And there were a couple of big ones along the way. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are back for the frothy comedy-thriller Another Simple Favour, this time set in gorgeous locations around Capri. Both silly and violent, it's also very entertaining. Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan lead a ragtag ensemble in Thunderbolts*, a more character-based Marvel film than usual, with a terrific linear narrative that outs the effects nonsense into emotional context.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Where Dragons Live • Thunderbolts*
Parthenope • Another Simple Favour
ALL REVIEWS >

Nicolas Cage gives one of his wonderfully bonkers performances in The Surfer as a guy who simply wants to return to surf the waves on the Australian beach where he grew up. Then things get outrageously messy. From Scotland, the 18th century samurai-Western mashup Tornado is set in the Highlands, slow and riveting, and superbly played by Koki, Tim Roth, Jack Lowden and more. From Italy, Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope is yet another sumptuously gorgeous free-spirited epic odyssey, enjoyable and yet oddly out of reach. From Brazil, Karim Ainouz's bracingly colour-drenched dramatic thriller Motel Destino is bursting with passion and yearning. The Argentine drama Most People Die on Sundays has a much lighter tone than the title suggests, and it's a warm exploration of identity and connection. And the British doc Where Dragons Live is a fascinating look at a middle-class family sifting through its personal history.

This coming week, I'll have a few things to watch over the long weekend before heading off to visit my parents for a couple of weeks. Films include the musical drama Midnight in Phoenix, and there's also a stage production of Blood Wedding at the Omnibus in Clapham.

Critical Week: Eye of the tiger

It's a busy but short week here in London, and I've been running around catching the usual eclectic variety of movies at press screenings. I've been a fan of Henry Golding since his excellent work in Crazy Rich Asians and Monsoon, so I was willing to set Snake Eye aside and look forward to Assassin Club. Alas, this one's a generic, poorly written thriller. At least he's good in the first act, before things get truly nutty. Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult are gleefully over-the-top from the start of Renfield, and they're the best thing about the movie, which mashes-up horror, comedy, romance and drama in ways we've seen before. But at least it's good fun.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Suzume • Everything Went Fine
Private Desert • Cairo Conspiracy
PERHAPS AVOID:
Assassin Club
ALL REVIEWS >

Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton are of course excellent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a very British road movie about a man who decides to walk the length of England. Thankfully, it avoids sentimentality for something darker and more resonant. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature in A Thousand and One, an unusually realistic New York drama that traces a mother and son over a decade that's as tumultuous for the city as it is for them. And the Norwegian pitch-black comedy Sick of Myself, which lampoons how everyone is vying for attention, is so bone-dry that it makes us feel uncomfortable in all the right ways.

This next week I'll be watching Eva Green in The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan, Jim Gaffigan in Linoleum, the Polynesian epic Pacification and the Filipino drama I Love You Beksman, which opens the Queer East Film Fest (reviews here soon).

Critical Week: It's all coming back to me

The pandemic continues to affect releasing schedules. Even with twice as many movies in need of cinema slots, studios are being unusually tenuous in getting movies out to audiences. This week, the two biggest releases were only screened once to the press, a few days before the films opened. Even though the films are finished and sitting on shelves waiting to go into cinemas, studios are more protective than ever, which means they're effectively killing any chance at word of mouth. This is obviously why some major releases have stumbled recently, but no one is saying this. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Annette • Underground
Censor • Sabaya
PERHAPS AVOID:
Rare Beasts
ALL REVIEWS >

The biggest release this week is Reminiscence, in which Hugh Jackman uses sheer charm to sustain a futuristic plot that's full of gaping holes. And costars Rebecca Ferguson and especially Thandiwe Newton help too. The other big UK release is Snake Eyes, again rescued by its lead actor Henry Golding, even though the GI Joe action movie's script isn't up to much. A lot more intriguing, and much more challenging, is the darkly satirical show-business musical Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It's a movie that could only have come from the minds of musicians Sparks and filmmaker Leos Carax.

Less mainstream, Underground is a French-Canadian drama that astutely unpicks issues of masculinity, and Demonic is a gritty horror film from Neill Blomkamp that almost works. The American indie The Land of Owls is a sensitive, occasionally insightful look at relationships. A new French animated version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days is very quirky, and more fun than it should be. And seven filmmakers contribute segments to The Year of the Everlasting Storm, exploring the impact of covid lockdowns in ways that are witty, pointed and hauntingly personal.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Elijah Wood in No Man of God, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Powder Keg, sci-fi thriller The Colony, Beau Knapp in Mosquito State, and the horror films Bloodthirsty and Knocking.

A Year in Shadows: 2020

52 films, in order of appearance: The Gentlemen, 1917, Waves, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Queen & Slim, Parasite, Emma, Greed, True History of the Kelly Gang, Onward, The Wolf Hour, Uncorked, Trolls World Tour, Love Wedding Repeat, Extraction, Bad Education, The Half of It, Capone, Scoob, Snowpiercer, A Rainy Day in New York, Days of the Bagnold Summer, Da 5 Bloods, Fanny Lye Deliver'd, Eurovision Song Contest, The Old Guard, Palm Springs, Stage Mother, Summerland, An American Pickle, Waiting for the Barbarians, Tesla, Tenet, Mulan, The Roads Not Taken, The Devil All the Time, Monsoon, The Glorias, Mangrove, Supernova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, WolfWalkers, The Human Voice, Ammonite, Small Axe, Happiest Season, Nomadland, The Prom, WW84, Soul.

TRIVIA ALERT!

• Two solo covers: George MacKay and Tilda Swinton.
• Twice on one cover: John David Washington.
• One solo and one shared cover: Henry Golding, Letitia Wright, Robert Pattinson and the film Mangrove.
• Two shared covers: Elle Fanning.
• Two shared covers, one as himself and one as an animated character: James Corden.
• Most crowded: Trolls World Tour (11), The Gentlemen (7).
• Most films on one cover: Small Axe (5).

Solo on one cover: Bong Joon Ho, Chris Hemsworth, Dev Patel, Frances McDormand, Gal Gadot, Mamoudou Athie, Maxine Peake, Naomi Watts, Rosamund Pike, Sacha Baron Cohen, Seth Rogen, Steve Coogan, Tom Hardy, Yifei Liu.

Sharing one cover: Alexa Demie, Alicia Vikander, Allison Janney, Amarah-Jae St Aubyn, Andy Samberg, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Hunnam, Charlize Theron, Clarke Peters, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Cristin Milioti, Dan Levy, Daniel Diemer, Daniel Kaluuya, Delroy Lindo, Earl Cave, Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hugh Grant, Hugh Jackman, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Jacki Weaver, Jeremy Strong, Janelle Monae, Javier Bardem, Jessie Buckley, John Boyega, Johnny Depp, Johnny Flynn, Jodie Turner-Smith, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Kenyah Sandy, Khali Best, Kristen Stewart, Leah Lewis, Luca Marinelli, Mark Rylance, Matthew McConaughey, Matthias Schoenaerts, Meryl Streep, Micheal Ward, Michelle Dockery, Monica Dolan, Norm Lewis, Olivia Munn, Oscar Moreno, Rachel McAdams, Sam Claflin, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Timothee Chalamet, Will Ferrell.

As the voice of an animated character: Amanda Seyfried, Anna Kendrick, Anthony Ramos, Chris Pratt, Eva Whittaker, Frank Welker, Gina Rodriguez, Gustavo Dudamel, Honor Kneafsey, Jamie Dornan, Jamie Foxx, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Kenan Thompson, Kunal Nayyar, Rachel Bloom, Ron Funches, Tina Fey, Tom Holland, Will Forte, Zac Efron ... as elfs, trolls, souls, wolf-girls, a cat and a dog.

And for the first time, here are the covers that were drafted but never used, mainly due to shuffling pandemic release schedules: Just Mercy, Oscar/Parasite, A Quiet Place Part II, All Day and a Night, Can You Keep a Secret, Arkansas, The Wrong Missy, Da 5 Bloods (alternate version), Greyhound, Animal Crackers, The Boys in the Band, The War With Grandpa, Black Box, County Lines. (Note that Mulan was originally designed for 27th March, then revised for 4th September.)

BFI Flare: Watching horizons

Here in lockdown, the 34th edition of BFI Flare continues to unfold virtually on the BFI Player (which has a free trial period). There are several films online, plus new titles added regularly along with filmmaker Q&As. Meanwhile, everyone in Britain is confined to their homes at the moment, only able to go out once a day for exercise and essential shopping. It feels more than a little like the apocalypse, but hopefully these drastic measures will help us calm the impact on the health system and return to some sort of normality soonish. Here are five more features from the festival's programme worth looking for, plus this year's Five Films for Freedom, a special selection of LGBTIQ+ shorts that are globally available online...

Monsoon
dir-scr Hong Khaou; with Henry Golding, Parker Sawyers 19/UK ****. 
Director Hong Khaou continues on from the delicate beauty of Lilting with this gentle, finely crafted exploration of personal history and identity. Set in Vietnam, it also centres around a death, but this time as a window into the past as the central character quietly allows his lost connection with his roots to wash over him and change him. It's a stunner of a film packed with moving moments... FULL REVIEW >

Moffie
dir Oliver Hermanus; with Kai Luke Brummer, Ryan de Villiers 19/SA ****
Strikingly well-made, and carrying a devastating emotional kick, this South African drama tells a deeply personal story that has much wider implications. Writer-director Oliver Hermanus creates gorgeous-looking films, and this one is augmented by beautiful cinematography and clever editing. It gets deep under the skin of a nation still grappling with its past, and offers a remarkably resonant look at issues of racism and homophobia... FULL REVIEW >

Don't Look Down [Haut Perchés]
dir-scr Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau; with Manika Auxire, Geoffrey Couet 19/Fr ***
Like a stage play, this film puts five characters in an apartment and watches them over the course of a single night as they talk to each other. French filmmakers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau use deep colourful lighting to give the film a lush look and feel, and each of the cast members has a vivid sense of physicality. This is a seductive, mysterious little film that pulls the audience... FULL REVIEW >

For They Know Not What They Do
dir Daniel Karslake; with Sarah McBride, Elliot Porcher 19/US ****
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision recognising marriage equality, mainstream evangelicals worked with the Republican Party to initiate more than 200 discriminatory laws, stoking fear and emboldening bigotry. This open-hearted documentary follows a series of specific experiences as parents struggled to deal with children who didn't fit in with their religious leaders' teachings. And this beautifully assembled film makes their pain and hope feel universal... FULL REVIEW >

Portrait of a Lady on Fire [Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu]
dir-scr Celine Sciamma; with Noemie Merlant, Adele Haenel 19/Fr *****
With a staggeringly astute screenplay and sharply observant direction, French filmmaker Celine Sciamma breathes inventive life into this period drama. She fills scenes to the brim with subtext, and not only mines her richly layered story for resonant themes but also creates complex characters the audience can fall in love with. So the film's otherworldly beauty becomes a provocative depiction of both art and romance... FULL REVIEW >

Five Films for Freedom
The British Council and BFI Flare present a selection of shorts each year during the festival, inviting viewers from around the world to watch and share the films in solidarity with LGBTIQ+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited, under the tagline "Love is a human right". Over the past five years, almost 14 million people have watched these films in more than 200 nations. This year's strong selection includes dramas and docs from four countries... FIVE REVIEWS >
After That Party: dir Caio Scot 19/Br ****.
134: dir-scr Sarah Jane Drummey 19/Ire *****
Pxssy Palace: dir Laura Kirwan-Ashman 19/UK ****
Something in the Closet: dir Nosa Eke 19/UK ****
When Pride Comes to Town: dir Julia Dahr, Julie Lunde Lillesaeter 18/Nor ****.

Watch #FiveFilmsForFreedom

Critical Week: Happy New Decade!

I watched a handful of films in the time between Christmas and New Year, some were catch-up awards-qualifying titles, others are coming to cinemas soon, some are both! The Japanese animated feature Weathering With You looks simply gorgeous (see above) and tells an imaginative story with style and emotion. Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen stars Matthew McConaughey in a British crime comedy-drama. And the Russia's Oscar qualifier Beanpole is an unforgettable, twisted, powerful post-war odyssey. There were also these three: the first is an acclaimed and pointedly timely drama set in Paris, the second is Poland's provocative Oscar contender, the third is a masterpiece made by my all-time favourite filmmaker before I was born...

Synonyms Synonymes
dir Nadav Lapid; scr Nadav Lapid, Haim Lapid
with Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte, Uria Hayik, Olivier Loustau, Yehuda Almagor, Gaya Von Schwarze, Gal Amitai, Idan Ashkenazi, Dolev Ohana
release Fr 27.Mar.19, UK Jun.19 eiff, US 25.Oct.19
19/France 2h03 ****

With an impressionistic, visceral filmmaking style, Nadav Lapid takes a fictionalised look at his own experiences moving away from his home country and adapting to a new culture. The narrative takes a series of random and sometimes absurd turns along the way, adding a range of textures to the film and its themes. It's strikingly well shot and edited, with intriguing angles and surprising twists in each scene. And it's anchored by a remarkably thoughtful performance from Tom Mercier, who brings a brave willingness to reveal the character inside and out.

Frustrated by his native country Israel, 20-ish Yoav (Mercier) esacapes after his military service to live in Paris. On his first night, literally everything he has brought with him is stolen. Neighbours Emile and Caroling (Dolmaire and Chevillotte) come to his rescue. As he befriends them, Yoav refuses to speak Hebrew, studying a French dictionary whenever he has a spare moment. Indeed, his only goal is to be French. He gets a job with a rather offbeat security group, which makes it even more difficult to simply reject his past. Yoav is angry at the ugliness he sees in Israeli society, but Emile reminds him that there is rot in every culture.

As Yoav bonds with Emile, Caroline and a Jewish colleague (Hayik), he reminisces about his life before France. Scenes are offbeat and unexpected, sometimes warmly involving or blackly comical, including a moment of sudden aggressive physicality. The character portrait and nature of his odyssey sometimes feel so broad that it's difficult to find the central idea, but then fleeing one culture for another is never going to be straightforward. The film is shot with style and honesty that hints at angles to the story Lapid deliberately struggles to explore, like identity or masculinity. Or perhaps he's just provoking his audience to find a way through their own stories.

28.Dec.19 • Berlin/Toronto

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Corpus Christi Boże Ciało
dir Jan Komasa; scr Mateusz Pacewicz
with Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel, Lukasz Simlat, Tomasz Zietek, Mateusz Czwartosz, Barbara Kurzaj, Leszek Lichota, Juliusz Chrzastowski, Zdzislaw Wardejn
release UK 18.Oct.19, US 22.Apr.20
19/Poland 1h55 ****

From Poland, this boldly provocative drama takes on some enormous issues while telling the darkly personal tale of a young man grappling with who he is. The story is set in the deep-seated Catholic culture, tackling underlying repression, prejudice and, most notably, the appalling inability of religious people to forgive each other. Writer Mateusz Pacewicz  and director Jan Komasa refuse to pull any punches as the events unfold, and their actors play it beautifully.

The story centres on Daniel (Bielenia), a teen who gets parole just as his arch-nemesis Bogus (Czwartosz) arrives at the juvenile detention centre. Daniel had found solace there working alongside Father Tomasz (Simlat), so while heading to his new job in a sawmill, he's distracted by the village church, and especially Eliza (Rycembel), daughter of church administrator Lidia (Konieczna). Presenting himself as a priest, Daniel winds up taking over while the vicar (Wardejn) is away in hospital. And Daniel works himself into the heart of the community.

Tension emerges throughout this story, including dark hatred around the village relating to a fatal car crash a year earlier, ruthless control exerted by the sawmill owner (Lichota), and another ex-con (Zietek) who recognises Daniel and threatens to expose him. Balanced on this precipice, it's fascinating to watch Daniel's crisis of faith, beautifully played by the young Bielenia, barely concealing his emotions under layers of earthy bluster. It's clear to see that this is where Daniel belongs: even if he's an unqualified interloper, he's not a fraud, his work is genuine. And the filmmakers never take an easy route through his story, which means that it is packed with moments of joy, pain and even a few epiphanies.

27.Dec.19 • Venice/Toronto

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La Dolce Vita
dir Federico Fellini; scr Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli
with Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaux, Alain Cuny, Annibale Ninchi, Nadia Gray, Magali Noel, Lex Barker, Jacques Sernas, Walter Santesso, Alain Dijon
release It 4.Feb.60, UK 24.Aug.60, US 19.Apr.61
reissue UK 3.Jan.20
60/Italy 2h54 *****

Any excuse to rewatch Federico Fellini's masterpiece should be embraced, so it's great that the film continues to be restored/reissued. This is one of the most audacious movies ever made, packed with life, love, energy, wit and some bleak emotion. It's very long, sweeping the audience along on an episodic odyssey that combines Fellini's larger-than-life exuberance with his earthier realism. It's also quite possibly the coolest movie ever made.

The story centres on Marcello (Mastroianni), a journalist who travels with a pack of paparazzi, chasing famous starlets around Rome. Marcello seems to fall deeply in love with each of these glamorous women, so it's no wonder that his drama queen fiancee Emma (Furneaux) is at home contemplating suicide. But Marcello carries on flirting, dancing through each night with a sequence of gorgeous celebrities even as darker drama plays out around him, including a freaky night in the pouring rain following two children who say they can see the Madonna, a lovely but unsatisfying visit with his father (Ninchi), and a friend (Cuny) who loses it horrifically.

From the opening shot of a helicopter dangling a statue of Christ over a rooftop pool of bathing beauties, the film explodes with life. And everyone's loving it. These achingly cool people wear sunglasses indoors, seduce each other shamelessly and have moments of serious introspection ("My father's still a handsome man, isn't he?" Marcello muses). Classic imagery and moments abound, from Maddalena's (Aimee) vast Cadillac convertible to a frolic in a fountain with a red-hot movie star (Ekberg) to an outrageous party in an unoccupied villa ("And I'm unoccupied too," notes Maddalena). There's a range of astonishing settings, various types of music, and both old and young people being free and happily sexy.

Few filmmakers have ever had Fellini's powers of observation, spotting the tiniest telling movement within the grandest spectacle. So the film is a funny, crazy, wrenching collision of banter, bravado and humanity. It's the kind of movie that reminds us to howl at the moon from time to time, to remember that the good times go hand in hand with the bad ones and to take nothing for granted.

revisited 31.Dec.19 • Cannes/Berlin

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Screenings will be cranking up slowly this coming week as press offices return from the holidays. At the moment, I only have two in the diary: the British road movie The Runaways and the shorts compilation The Uncertain Kingdom. More are to come, surely.

Critical Week: A pie in the face

I caught up with a bunch of films opening this week in the US and UK, including some high-profile ones. Written by Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy is an autobiographical drama about the actor's relationship with his father (whom he plays on-screen). It's seriously gorgeous filmmaking. Last Christmas is a holiday comedy-romance from Paul Feig and Emma Thompson, starring (cool casting alert!) Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. It's charming, funny and ultimately thoughtful. The Good Liar is a guilty pleasure about two old folks (Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren) caught up in a con. The wobbly plot is fun, riding on the actors' charisma. Roland Emmerich directs Midway, an entertaining special-effects action adventure about the pivotal WWII battle, with a strong cast manfully grappling with wooden dialog. And the animated feature Klaus looks a little too digital, but its derivative Christmas origin story is told with spiky humour and some enjoyable twists.

In the arthouse department, Terrence Malick's latest wonder is A Hidden Life, based on a true story, so it has a more forceful narrative than his films usually do, even with minimal dialog. It's the powerful story of a man who quietly stood by his principles in Austria under Nazi rule. From Senegal, Atlantics is a haunting drama about a young woman in love with the wrong guy. And it has a supernatural wrinkle that deepens its themes. From Ecuador, The Longest Night (La Mala Noche) could have been a cliched tale of a hooker with a heart of gold, but it becomes much more than that with its gritty plot and complex characters. And there's a restored rerelease for the 1985 drama Buddies, a beautifully made story of friendship that was one of the first films to address the Aids epidemic.

This coming week is another collection of contenders and other releases, including Greta Gerwig's new take on Little Women, Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, the Hamlet riff Ophelia, the British black comedy Kill Ben Lyk, the dance-musical Romeo & Juliet: Beyond Words, and the acclaimed doc For Sama. I also have a few stage shows to watch, just for some fresh air!

London Film Fest: Camping it up

Well, today was my first semi-meltdown at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival, as I shockingly skipped two screenings to come home and get some work done instead, the result being that all of the films mentioned below link to full reviews. But today I reached my limit; there's always a point during a festival when you say to yourself, "I don't actually need to watch every film on my want-to-see list." Well, I did start at an 8am screening this morning, which is a bit extreme no matter what the film is (it was Noah Baumbach's wrenching Marriage Story). It's also been raining off and on, and that has a way of wearing you down as you trudge from screening to coffee to screening to coffee. It can't be much fun for those walking red carpet at the big evening gala screenings. But then I don't see the stars, I only see the movies. And here are some more highlights...

Jojo Rabbit

dir-scr Taika Waititi; with Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie 19/Cz ****

Making a comedy about Nazis may be rather risky, but actor-filmmaker Taika Waititi strikes a clever balance between silliness and sadness with this provocative coming-of-age tale. The film is solidly well-made, with a terrific cast of comical geniuses romping through the scenery. So while the mood change from wacky to serious feels abrupt, the central story's pathos strikes a chord.... FULL REVIEW >

Abominable

dir-scr Jill Culton; voices Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai 19/Chn ***

The script for this animated adventure is oddly unambitious, recycling themes and action beats to tell a predictable story that contains no real tension. Thankfully it looks terrific, mainly due to spectacular settings that create a travelogue around China. So if the character design and big set-pieces lack imagination, at least there are some nicely engaging situations that keep it lively.... FULL REVIEW >

Monsoon

dir-scr Hong Khaou; with Henry Golding, Parker Sawyers 19/UK ****.

Director Hong Khaou continues on from the delicate beauty of Lilting with this gentle, finely crafted exploration of personal history and identity. Set in Vietnam, it also centres around a death, but this time as a window into the past as the central character quietly allows his lost connection with his roots to wash over him and change him. It's a stunner of a film packed with moving moments.... FULL REVIEW >

Rialto

dir Peter Mackie Burns; with Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Tom Glynn-Carney 19/Ire ***

Dark and very moody, this Irish drama excavates the life of a married man in his 40s who is grappling with issues relating to his job, family and sexuality. It's a little too mumbly and mopey to engage properly, and perhaps too deliberately pointed as well (it's based on the stage play Trade). But it's so intimately directed by Peter Mackie Burns that it can't help but be moving... FULL REVIEW >

Real

dir-scr Aki Omoshaybi; with Aki Omoshaybi, Pippa Bennett-Warner 19/UK ***.

There's an everyday authenticity to this British drama, capturing very present-day pressures on normal people who are trying to get their lives in forward motion. Actor-filmmaker Aki Omoshaybi has created a warm, involving spin on the kitchen sink tradition. While the situations are grim, the people in this film are very easy to identify with, especially as they're so relentlessly likeable.... FULL REVIEW >

Don't Look Down [Haut Perchés]

dir-scr Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau; with Geoffrey Couet, Francois Nambot 19/Fr ***

Like a stage play, this film puts five characters in an apartment and watches them over the course of a single night as the talk to each other. French filmmakers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau use deep colourful lighting to give the film a lush look and feel, and each of the cast members has a vivid sense of physicality. This is a seductive, mysterious little film that pulls the audience in.... FULL REVIEW >

Links:

Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 

Official LONDON FILM FEST site