LFF: Tell your story

Aside from watching everything online, another major difference in this year's London Film Festival is that there isn't that usual nagging feeling that somewhere else in the city there are parties and filmmakers and actors hanging out having fun without you. This year everyone's joining in from home, aside from a precious few actual screenings. Here are two more highlights, plus this week's non-festival roundup...

Shirley

dir Josephine Decker; with Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg 20/US **.

A fictional story involving iconic author Shirley Jackson is told with inventive style by director Josephine Decker, who infuses the screen with imagery and sounds that play on Jackson's work, using wildly colourful flourishes and nods to murky horror tropes. The actors are superb as people who become twisted around each other. But the story never quite clicks into gear, so it's only the creepy tension that keeps us watching.

The Painter and the Thief

dir Benjamin Ree; with Barbora Kysilkova, Karl-Bertil Nordland 20/Nor ****

Playing out as a fascinating dramatic narrative, this documentary unfolds its story using found footage, surveillance cameras and remarkably intimate fly-on-the-wall sequences. Filmmaker Benjamin Ree is following the extraordinary story of an unexpected friendship, two people who shouldn't be able to see each other with such remarkable clarity. Perhaps they recognise that they're both survivors of difficult situations. And in many ways they're still struggling to get through.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Black Box • Kajillionaire
Song Lang • Yes 
PERHAPS AVOID:
The War With Grandpa 
FULL REVIEWS >

In between the festival films, I managed to watch the amusing but badly underpowered slapstick comedy The War With Grandpa, the guilty pleasure twisty sci-fi thriller Black Box, the provocative black comedy Yes, the warm midlife crisis comedy From the Vine, the scruffy road movie Making Tracks, the bonkers Turkish parable The Antenna, the meandering French odyssey The Wanderings of Ivan, and the moving Vietnamese drama Song Lang.

And this coming week I need to fit these in around LFF screenings: Paul Bettany in Uncle Frank, the horror films Evil Eye and Nocturne, the mystery Don't Look Back, and a doc called JR "Bob" Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius.

LFF: Power to the people

The 64th BFI London Film Festival kicked off today with a flurry of sold-out screenings around the country for Steve McQueen's film Mangrove. I tried to get a cinema ticket, but they were gone within minutes, which meant I watched the film in an online virtual press screening, the way I'll see all of the festival's movies. Which kind of removes even the slightest sense of this being a festival. There's also no printed programme, no press credential, no parties. Basically it's a two week web-based movie glut. But these are some of the best films of the year, so it's worth the effort. Here are some highlights...

Mangrove
dir Steve McQueen; with Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes 20/UK *****
This British drama recounts the first legal case that acknowledged racial bias in the London police force. With his fine artistic eye, Steve McQueen assembles this in period style, taking an everyday kitchen-sink approach that feels like a vintage soap opera, complete with flashes of sharp wit and dark emotion. This story is urgent and involving, moving at a quick pace as it follows engaging people through a jaw-dropping trial... FULL REVIEW >

Kajillionaire
dir-scr Miranda July; with Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez 20/US ***.
Another absurdly offbeat comedy from Miranda July, this wilfully wacky movie centres on a family of dysfunctional crooks who pull one tiny hustle after another. The plot defiantly refuses to travel in expected directions. And amid the nuttiness, this becomes a remarkably sensitive coming-of-age for a 26-year-old who is only just beginning to understand who she might actually be. This is a bold, bonkers movie with a warm, beating heart... FULL REVIEW >

Honeymood
dir-scr Talya Lavie; Avigail Harari, Ran Danker 20/Isr ***.

Set over one long night, this Israeli romantic-comedy superbly navigates a range of earthy emotions as a couple faces the first hours of their marriage. It's an entertaining, surprising film, shifting from funny to thoughtful as it explores issues of relationships and interconnections from a variety of resonant angles. The plot meanders and is sometimes a bit too pointed, but it's both engaging and provocative.

NB. My anchor page for the LFF is HERE and reviews will appear in between these daily blog entries.