Critical Week: Another nosey novice

Hot on the heels of Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate, here comes Nell Tiger Free investigating another sinister female-centred Catholic conspiracy in The First Omen, a 1971-set prequel that's strong on atmosphere and gothic grisliness but never feels hugely original. The events around setting up the notorious 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew is dramatised in Scoop, an interesting if straightforward account starring Gillian Anderson, Billie Piper and Rufus Sewell.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Evil Does Not Exist
Io Capitano
The Old Oak • Luca
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there's Woody Allen's latest, the sparky French comedy-thriller Coup de Chance, which maintains an entertaining tone even when it gets rather dark. Viggo Mortensen wrote, directed, composed the score for and stars alongside the always-superb Vicky Krieps in the Western dramatic thriller The Dead Don't Die. It's gorgeously shot and strongly involving. The faith-based drama Someone Like You is sunny and beautiful and almost painfully sudsy and predictable. And the Mongolian drama If Only I Could Hibernate is a fascinating glimpse into a complex culture, through the eyes of a stressed-out teen.

This coming week I'll be watching the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, the biblical epic The Book of Clarence, Irish horror All You Need is Death, Spanish mystery Close Your Eyes, Congolese thriller Omen and the Japanese anime Spy x Family: Code White.

London Film Fest: Swab the decks!

It's been another long day traipsing around Leicester Square watching movies and grabbing coffee in between screenings at the 63rd London Film Festival. I've been attending press and industry screenings, which are running alongside the public screenings (we don't get the cast and crew Q&As, just the movies). The new system for these screenings has eliminated some queuing and created some, as critics generally need to get to cinemas early to grab their preferred seats. Since I like to sit down front (I like the screen as big as possible), I can generally skip the lines and get there a little later. But they've been fuller than usual over the weekend, so timing can be tricky. The worst are the 8.00am or 8.30am screenings, which are a nightmare to get to in London rush hour, especially after watching four films the day before and sitting up writing until 2am. But there are only eight days to go. Here are Saturday highlights...

The Lighthouse
dir Robert Eggers; with Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson 19/US ***.
After The Witch, Robert Eggers takes on another set of legends with this seafaring shanty of a movie. Spectacularly shot in square-ratio black and white, the film brings some superbly freaky ideas into its claustrophobic and increasingly crazed story. Not all of it connects with viewers and, as it gets more manic, the movie does turn repetitive. But the mythical quality of the acting and filmmaking makes it utterly unforgettable... FULL REVIEW >

The Report
dir-scr Scott Z Burns; with Adam Driver, Annette Bening 19/US ****.
There's an unnerving urgency to this political thriller that not only makes it riveting to watch but adds a potent kick. Tracing the six-year Senate investigation into the CIA's use of torture following 9/11, writer-director Scott Z Burns builds maximum suspense out of people in suits shuffling papers in windowless rooms. Most importantly, the script's journalistic integrity cuts through liberal or conservative ideology: it's about the importance of the truth... FULL REVIEW >

By the Grace of God [Grace a Dieu]
dir-scr Francois Ozon; with Melvil Poupaud, Denis Menochet 19/Fr ****
Filmmaker Francois Ozon shifts gears again for this epic fact-based drama. Taking an almost documentary approach with earthy characters and situations, the film barely pauses to catch breath over its long running time. Focussing on now-adult victims of childhood abuse from a priest, the film is timely, urgent and powerfully moving as, like its central characters, it seeks to "lift the burden of silence"... FULL REVIEW >

Babyteeth
dir Shannon Murphy; with Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace 19/Aus ***.
Strikingly well-acted, and directed by Shannon Murphy with a quirky attention to detail, this unusual comedy-drama has particularly vivid characters and a story that's easy to engage with. Although it cuts rather close to the edge of melodrama in the way the narrative contrives to push people together and apart. Based on a play, its dialog is vivid enough to provoke all kinds of unexpected emotions while delivering the obvious message.

This Is Not Berlin [Esto No Es Berlin]
dir Hari Sama; with Xabiani Ponce de Leon, Jose Antonio Toledano 19/Mex ****
There's a loose adolescent energy to this drama set in mid-1980s Mexico City. At its centre, this may be a coming-of-age story, but it's also quietly exploring the nation's class system, art scene and deep-rooted macho culture in ways that transcend the period. Actor-filmmaker Hari Sama cleverly avoids making anything obvious, leaving the movie scruffy around the edges while provoking the viewer to look inward... FULL REVIEW >

Links:
Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 
Official LONDON FILM FEST site 

LLGFF 1: Simply Divine

The British Film Institute's 27th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival kicked off Thursday night with the international premiere of Jeffrey Schwarz's documentary I Am Divine, celebrating the unforgettable star of Pink Flamingoes and Hairspray. Jeffrey was on hand to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards at BFI Southbank, then mix with the opening night crowd at the big party on HMS President, just down the river. The festival is one of the biggest in the UK, and the next 10 days promise a wide range of fascinating films addressing issues of diversity, gender and sexuality from every conceivable angle. Here are a couple of highlights from the first few days, including revivals of two recent releases for appreciative audiences...

I Am Divine
dir Jeffrey Schwarz; with John Waters, Ricki Lake 13/US ****
This fast-paced documentary tells the story of an important artist who changed cinema, music and the theatre forever, but died far too early at age 42 in 1988. Divine (aka Harris Glenn Milstead) was a childhood friend of filmmaker John Waters in Baltimore, and together they took the underground cinema world by storm. As his career grew, Divine's work as an actor became increasingly sophisticated, with breakout roles in Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind before the crossover success of Hairspray. Schwarz documents this with energy and plenty of trashy style, interviewing family, friends and costars while also letting us see lots of fabulous film clips, glimpses behind the scenes, archive interviews and never-before-seen performance footage. It's an engaging, funny and surprisingly moving doc that never tries to be anything more than the celebration of an icon.

White Night
dir-scr Leesong Hee-il; with Won Tae-hee, Lee Li-kyung12/Kor ***.
With minimal dialog, this is a film about feelings, focussing intently on its central character's dark reckoning with his own vengeful soul. Wongyu (Won) is a flight attendant based in Germany who returns home to Seoul for the first time in two years to see his ex-boyfriend. But their meeting doesn't go as planned, leaving Won to stew alone over a violent homophobic attack they experienced years earlier. While he plots revenge against the thugs, who have just been released from prison, he has an anonymous sexual encounter with Taejun (Lee) that takes a series of surprising twists over one long night. The film is beautifully shot and edited to force us inside the minds of the characters. This makes the story strongly evocative as these two young men bristle against each other, bringing up sharp, painful memories as well as some tenderness and hope. It's the kind of film that isn't too obsessed with plotting, instead letting the story meander in ways that leave us thinking.

Laurence Anyways
dir Xavier Dolan; with Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clement 12/Can ***. 
With each feature, 23-year-old Dolan gets more ambitious. This third time out, the unusually gifted filmmaker pushes things just over the edge into self-parody, but still tells a powerfully provocative story with a strong emotional undercurrent... REVIEW >

Keep the Lights On
dir Ira Sachs; with Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth 12/US ****
This gorgeously shot and edited film is an incisive exploration of two people struggling to make a relationship work over nearly a decade. Its honest perspective makes it thoroughly involving, even if it turns dreary in the final act... REVIEW >

Critical Week: Pitch-slapped

The most raucous screening last week was for the musical comedy Pitch Perfect - it's rare to hear film critics laughing so loudly all the way through a film. It stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson as members of a very competitive a capella university singing group. Less hilarious was goofy infertility comedy The Babymakers, which has a terrific lead couple in Olivia Munn and Paul Schneider but gets lost in a lame caper subplot. The tense British horror-thriller Tower Block also has a terrific cast led by Sheridan Smith, Russell Tovey and Jack O'Connell, but falls apart due to a hole-ridden script.

Foreign-language-wise, we had Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner Amour, a staggeringly well-observed drama about a couple facing their mortality; Xavier Dolan's Toronto award winner Laurence Anyways, an ambitious gender-bender starring the terrific Melvil Poupaud and Suzanne Clement; and the genial Swedish political rom-com Four More Years. There was also one doc: Hungarian Rhapsody, which includes rare interviews with Queen followed by a gorgeously shot film of their 1986 Budapest concert. And I caught up with two classics: Pier Paolo Pasolini's stunning version of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Steven Spielberg's timeless adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was simply fabulous to revisit on the Imax screen.

This coming week we have Mike Newell's take on Great Expectations, Liam Neeson in Taken 2, the Ferrell-Galifianakis comedy The Campaign, the Aussie crowdpleaser The Sapphires, the animated horror-comedy Hotel Transylvania, the Polish hip-hop drama You Are God and the British indie drama Love Tomorrow. And on Monday morning, press screenings begin for the 56th BFI London Film Festival (10-21 Oct), so I'll be catching up with the likes of the comedy Celeste & Jesse Forever, the Cannes-winner The Hunt, and the doc West of Memphis, among many others.