Sundance: Find yourself

It's nice that the Sundance Film Festival: London is so manageable - just 12 features over fur days, plus short films and filmmaker events in a single venue. The programmers bring a terrific range of films and filmmakers over from the main festival in Utah. Most years there are only one or two films that I miss (it was only Skywalkers this year), and I also try to catch some of the shorts (see below). My favourite films this year were Kneecap, My Old Ass and the surprise film, which we had no idea about until the 35mm print began to roll. Here are some more short comments, starting with the closing film...

Dìdi
dir-scr Sean Wang; with Izaac Wang, Joan Chen 24/US ***.
Clearly autobiographical in nature, this teen drama isn't quite a coming-of-age movie, but writer-director Sean Wang refreshingly creates complex moments while making sharply pointed observations. So while this may be the usual collection of comically awkward and painfully embarrassing adolescent events, it also has several lovely things to say about generational issues in immigrant families. It may feel somewhat familiar, but there's a freshness to the approach... FULL REVIEW >

SURPRISE FILM
Kinds of Kindness
dir Yorgos Lanthimos; with Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons 24/UK ****
Returning to their surreally challenging storytelling style, Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimos Filippou have concocted three separate stories starring the same core cast. Each is a rather warped quest for some sort of redemption, with elements that ring true only within the reality of the narrative. And the actors deliver committed, eerily realistic performances that are often disarmingly emotional. With continual surprises, this is fiercely original and unforgettable... FULL REVIEW >

My Old Ass
dir-scr Megan Park; with Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza 24/Can ****
Rippling with authenticity, the dialog in this comedy-drama continually resonates, encouraging the audience to think deeply about things we take for granted. Writer-director Megan Park skilfully crafts a witty story that's packed with fully rounded characters who are hugely likeable even if they're imperfect. And with a wacky touch of hallucinogenic magic, the script finds a fresh new path into the coming-of-age genre that never feels simplistic or sentimental... FULL REVIEW >

Rob Peace
dir-scr Chiwetel Ejiofor; with Jay Will, Mary J Blige 24/US ***
There's a very strong true story at the heart of this film, full of complexities and issues that provoke thought. Although actor-filmmaker Chiwetel Ejiofor doesn't allow for much nuance in the way it's written, edited and played. Much of the dialog, as well as the overstated voiceover, are so on-the-nose that it's impossible to miss the properly important themes here. Still, it's finely played by a terrific cast, and the final sequence at least makes an attempt at feeling hopeful.

Girls Will Be Girls
dir-scr Shuchi Talati; with Preeti Panigrahi; Kani Kusruti 24/In ****
From India, this is a distinctive coming-of-age drama, beautifully shot and assembled to depict events through the eyes of a bright teen girl who is having her first encounter with love. This is a complex and remarkably insightful film, as writer-director Shuchi Talati draws on her own experiences, adding details that bring scenes to life with unusual subtlety. And unlike most teen movies, the story unfolds with an unflinching honesty in the way various events are depicted.

I also saw seven short films in the UK Shorts programme. My favourites were the surreal comedy Good Boy, starring Ben Whishaw as a guy grappling with the reality of his life; the beautifully shot and acted drama Essex Girls, about a teen girl who makes a discovery about who she is; and the amusing collage of Salone Love, which centres around a vox pop about love in Sierra Leone.

My Sundance London reviews will be linked on the website's FESTIVAL PAGE >

LFF: Under a big sky

Yes, there was more queuing today for the journalists covering the 65th London Film Festival, but by now we're getting better at using the hours standing in the alleyways to write up film notes on our phones or get to know our fellow delegates. Today's weather was variable, with both sunshine and rainshowers. But it was worth it for the movies. Meanwhile, somewhere far from us there's an actually festival going on, with star-studded red carpets, private parties and lots of schmoozing. Or so I imagine. Here are some more highlights...

The Power of the Dog
dir-scr Jane Campion; with Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst 21/NZ ****.
Writer-director Jane Campion masterfully combines spectacular landscapes with complex internal journeys in this provocative Western set in 1925 Montana (which is beautifully played by New Zealand). A collection of characters and connections are delicately played to pull the audience into an intriguing web of desire, expectation and legacy. And while much of the big emotion is under the surface, the film still packs a vivid punch.

Passing
dir-scr Rebecca Hall; with Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga 21/US ***.
Shot in iridescent high-contrast monochrome, this brittle period drama raises some powerfully haunting themes before its more standard plot takes over. Finely written and directed by Rebecca Hall, and circling around a remarkably layered performance from Tessa Thompson, the story offers a lot to think about. This helps make the film involving even when the metaphors get a bit obvious, and when the story seems to veer off-topic.

Boiling Point
dir Philip Barantini; with Stephen Graham, Jason Flemyng 21/UK ***.
Bravura filmmaking elevates this propulsive British drama, as personal issues engulf a group of characters over one fateful evening in a busy restaurant. Unfolding in real time as a single, continuous handheld take, it remains fast and busy all the way through, and frequently gets very intense. The collision of momentous plot lines in a small space feels somewhat overwrought, but the ace cast make it gripping.

Playground
dir-scr Laura Wandel; with Maya Vanderbeque, Gunter Duret 21/Fr ****
Despite a tough theme, this film has such a bracing sense of authenticity that it can't help but deeply engage the audience even as it gets under the skin with some provocative issues. Actor-filmmaker Laura Wandel shoots it with both doc-style urgency and intimate emotionality, while eliciting powerfully complex performances from a cast of young children. It's a remarkable achievement, putting us into the perspective of a little girl.

Full reviews of festival films will be published as possible and linked at Shadows' LFF HOMEPAGE 
For full information, visit BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 

Critical Week: Feeling blue

After a few big movies recently, this was a rather offbeat week at the movies for me. All but one were watched on screening links, which is also how I attended the programme launch for the 64th London Film Festival (which runs 7-18 Oct) - at which much of the festival and all press screenings will be virtual. But there's definitely a sense that the industry continues to slowly wake up.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Buoyancy • The Roads Not Taken
The Painted Bird • Lucid
PERHAPS AVOID:
Up on the Glass • The Lost Husband
FULL REVIEWS >>

Probably the biggest film I saw this week was the brain-bending horror thriller Possessor, starring Andrea Riseborough as a body-invading assassin and Christopher Abbott (pictured above with Tuppence Middleton) as a host who fights back. It's violent and downright stunning. Charlie Kaufman's new brain-bender I'm Thinking of Ending Things is also pretty stunning, with its existential surrealism expertly played by Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons. By contrast, the sappy romantic comedy Love Guaranteed is relentlessly cute and annoyingly likeable.

The other films I saw this past week were a random grab bag: Spiral is a queer horror movie that has a powerful thematic sting in its tail; the scruffy British indie Rocks carries a proper kick in its realistic depiction of a teen trying to solve problems on her own; the kaleidoscopic drama Residue is elusive but pointed as a filmmaker tries to go home again; the broad comedy Teenage Badass follows a young guy who joins a riotously silly, but also rather talented, band; Up on the Glass is an awkward thriller with some intriguing emotions; Buoyancy is a gorgeously well made odyssey about a young Cambodian sold into slavery on a Thai fishing trawler; The Acrobat is a darkly explicit French-Canadian drama about two men starting a tough relationship; and Ixcanul is a gorgeously well-made drama from Guatemala about an indigenous family living on a volcano.

Movies coming up in another busy week include Tom Holland in the thriller The Devil All the Time, Dan Levy in the pandemic comedy Coastal Elites, Ciaran Hinds in the comedy The Man in the Hat, David Cross in the adventure The Dark Divide, the topical comedy-drama The Wall of Mexico, the British indie Hurt by Paradise, and two actual screenings: Francois Ozon's Summer of '85 and the Chinese blockbuster The Eight Hundred.

Critical Week: In a haze

It's a film festival week in London, which means a glut of screenings even if the festival in question is only four days long. It's the 4th Sundance Film Festival: London this weekend at Picturehouse Central, and I am seeing nine of the 11 features in the programme. So far, I've caught Ben Schnetzer and Nick Jonas in the hazing drama Goat (above), Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon in Other People, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Burstyn in Wiener-Dog, plus the documentaries Author: The JT LeRoy Story and Weiner. More to come, with comments about these films later in the week.

As for normal press screenings, we had a special screening of the weepy romance Me Before You, presented by Emilia Clarke herself, with tissues on every seat. Brady Corbet's Venice-winner The Childhood of a Leader is a complex, difficult and fiercely original exploration of the personality of power. The Ghoul is a beautifully made indie British dark thriller. And the Oscar-nominated Colombian odyssey Embrace of the Serpent is staggeringly beautiful and deeply moving.

Sundance films still to come include Ellen Page in Tallulah, Logan Lerman in Indignation, Clea DuVall's The Intervention and the horror-comedy The Greasy Strangler. And I'll also catch up with Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey in Elvis & Nixon and some home screenings I've been putting off.