LFF: Watch and learn

The 67th London Film Festival powers into its first weekend with a flurry of red carpet premieres attended by, well, directors and crew members. It isn't very starry unless you're a fan of people behind the cameras. But thats who audiences seem to be as they're sticking around for post-screening Q&As. And we're having a late autumn heatwave this weekend. Meanwhile, I enjoyed Disney's lunch the other day, celebrating both LFF and their 100th anniversary. And tomorrow is the annual Netflix brunch, no work allowed. Here are some more film highlights...

May December
dir Todd Haynes; with Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore 23/US ****
Layered and provocative, this melodrama is infused with a mystery-thriller sensibility, building tension and intrigue in the interaction between nuanced characters. Director Todd Haynes plays cleverly with perspective to explore the ways we try to understand others, sympathise with them and merge their experiences with our own. It's a fiendishly clever film that gleefully deploys a range of metaphors in ways that both lead and wrongfoot the audience.

The Bikeriders
dir-scr Jeff Nichols; with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer 23/US ***.
Based on a book of photographs and interviews from 1965 to 1973, this artfully crafted film explores motorcycle subculture as a makeshift family. Writer-director Jeff Nichols shapes this material into a strongly involving exploration of masculinity and identity, allowing the sharply drawn characters to exist in remarkable complexity, free from pushy narrative demands. The performances are loose and often lyrical, even as they hold us at an arm's length.

Shortcomings
dir Randall Park; with Justin H Min, Sherry Cola 23/US ****
This Bay Area romantic comedy infuses a naturalistic approach with witty dialog. Much of the humour is sharply pointed in an unusually soft-spoken way, and in his directing debut Randall Park maintains earthy rhythms that hold the interest. So even if it's never terribly flashy, there's a sense of honest depth to the film that makes it resonate far beyond the ethnic issues that simmer meaningfully throughout the script... FULL REVIEW >

Tiger Stripes
dir-scr Amanda Nell Eu; with Zafreen Zairizal, Deena Ezral 23/Mys ****
There's an engaging animalistic tilt to this adolescent body horror from Malaysia, as a young girl taps into her feral nature when puberty makes her feel like she's turning into a monster. Writer-director Amanda Nell Eu maintains a blackly comical undercurrent even as things get very freaky indeed, exploring big themes through lenses of culture, gender and religion. And Zafreen Zairizal shines in a complex and physically demanding role... FULL REVIEW >

In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon
dir Alex Gibney; with Paul Simon, Edie Brickell 23/US ****.
A musician of this stature deserves an epic documentary, and Alex Gibney takes an ambitiously artistic approach to Paul Simon's life and career. At three and a half hours, watching it is like binging a series, but on a big screen it's fully engulfing, thanks to the intimate approach and elaborate sound mix. This is a transcendent film packed with great archive footage, fantastic music and Simon’s raw humanity.

All full festival reviews will be linked to Shadows' LFF PAGE >

Critical Week: Stay cool

This is an almost comically hyped-up cinematic week, as #Barbenheimer heralds the release of two of the year's most anticipated releases, Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Annoyingly, Universal refused to let me attend any Oppenheimer press screenings, but I'll still see it. Of course, Warners launched Barbie in a big splash of pink, and it's a hugely enjoyable film, far smarter than expected, with a strong point underpinning its candy-coloured hilarity. Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx and John Boyega (above) star in the funky comedy-thriller They Cloned Tyrone, which oozes style as it tells a bonkers story that also has a much more serious edge to it. More gleefully ridiculous, Joy Ride is an entertaining and perhaps too-riotous romp following Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu into various crazy situations in East Asia.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Oppenheimer • Barbie
ALL REVIEWS >

Much more subtle films included Julia Louis-Dreyfus reteaming with writer-director Nicole Holofcener for the comedy You Hurt My Feelings, which astutely observes relationship issues from a knowing perspective. The stunningly well written, directed and acted drama Mutt follows a young trans man as he reconnects with three people from his past. The literally breathtaking thriller The Dive remains contained around two sisters who have a terrifying underwater crisis. There were also two docs: the sassy and profoundly moving Kokomo City, about Black trans sex workers caught between their various communities, and Bobi Wine: The People's President, a riveting portrait of a populist politician standing up against corrupt rule in Uganda. I also caught two superbly masculine shows at the end of Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival.

Tomorrow I'll buy a ticket to see Oppenheimer in 70mm but not Imax, as those are all sold out. In addition, I'll be watching the romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue, plus the French drama Smalltown Boys, the Malaysian thriller Walid, the animated adventure Mavka: The Forest Song, the Tibetan doc Baato, and the 23rd Boys on Film shorts collection Dangerous to Know.

Critical Week: Keep an eye out

Battling an eight-hour jetlag from Seoul, I dove straight back into action with screenings and deadlines here in London. It'll take awhile before I feel normal, but I'm getting there. And it's nice to have some intriguing films to fill the space between blockbusters. For example, Shortcomings is a terrific comedy with a superb Asian-American perspective, starring Justin H Lin and Sherry Cola as friends grappling with their own flaws as they seek romance. And then there's Tom Cruise's seventh franchise entry Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, a thunderously entertaining action thriller that holds the attention for nearly three hours with epic stuntwork and a knotted if absurd plot. From Germany, the drama Afire astutely explores the artistic sensibility in an offbeat tale set in a holiday home next to a forest on fire. And from Belgium, Easy Tiger is an almost silent drama about a man trying to work out his own nature.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Damned Don't Cry
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning
Afire • Amanda
Name Me Lawand • Easy Tiger
ALL REVIEWS >

I saw five films on four flights halfway around the world: Return to Seoul is a gorgeous drama about a Korean-American girl trying to come to grips with her ethnic identity; Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson team up for the corny but enjoyable action comedy The Man From Toronto; Adam Driver finds himself in Earth's distant past in the derivative but enjoyable dinosaur thriller 65; a Spanish water polo team battles trite internal rivalries as they head to a rousing gold-medal Olympic match in The Final Game; plus a revisit to a favourite musical Hairspray. Back in London, I also attended the lively press night for Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing.

Coming up this next week are Margot Robbie in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus in You Hurt My Feelings, Greta Lee in Joy Ride, the thriller The Dive and the docs Kokomo City and Bobi Wine: The People's President. I'll also attend a couple of events at Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival (reviews here soon).