FLARE 4: Life's a beach

Well, the weekend is here and we're back in party mode at BFI Flare, which wraps up on Sunday night. There's been a great atmosphere at the Southbank over the past week, with an open and friendly collection of all kinds of people. And there's a celebratory feeling too as England equalised marriage for gay and straight couples at midnight on Friday night. Here are some more programme highlights...

Reaching for the Moon
dir Bruno Barreto; with Miranda Otto, Gloria Pires 13/Br ***.
This beautifully made Brazilian drama tells a true story with sensitivity, bringing real people to life with a spark of personality. It's all a bit melodramatic, with surging emotions and soulful torment on every side. But it gives us an insightful glimpse into a momentous time and place. Set in 1951, it's the story of American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Otto), who travels to Rio to visit her university pal (Tracy Middendorf), who's living in idyllic splendour with her girlfriend, the noted architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Pires - pictured above with Otto). And it's the growing connection between Elizabeth and Lota that fuels the movie, complete with mercurial mood swings and deep jealousies. The plot takes some dark turns along the way that feel a bit overplayed, but Otto and Pires are terrific, as are the gorgeous Brazilian settings and the political and historical touches that give the film a sharp period context.

Test
dir-scr Chris Mason Johnson; with Scott Marlowe, Matthew Risch 13/US ****
Set in 1985 San Francisco, this involving drama captures a brief period in time with sharp introspection, focusing on characters who aren't sure how to react to the advent of Aids and the first possibility to test for HIV infection. Although in many ways the film works better as an internal journey than as an Aids drama, it's strong physicality is haunting. The movie focuses closely on Frankie (Marlowe), a young dancer who freaks out when he thinks he has a cold - after all, that's how it began with Rock Hudson! Through his interaction with fellow dancers, specifically the more sexually outgoing Todd (Risch), Frankie finds the inner strength to admit his fears and do something about it. This story is so locked in its time and place that it's tricky to see the relevance today, and sometimes filmmaker Johnson gets a bit preachy about safe sex issues. But he also keeps everything grounded and natural, letting the actors faces say more than the dialog. And the dance milieu adds a terrific physicality to the whole film.

My Prairie Home 
dir-scr Chelsea McMullan; with Rae Spoon 13/Can ****

With a sharp sense of humour and innovative filmmaking, this documentary uses all kinds of witty touches to tell the story of musician Rae Spoon, who talks about growing up in a strongly religious home in Calgary as a person of indeterminate gender. Yes, Rae is neither a he nor a she, and chooses to use neutral pronouns, which means we should refer to Rae as "them". But Rae is also a gifted music who expresses their life story through songs that blend a country music style with hints of grunge and punk. Meanwhile, filmmaker McMullan shoots these scenes with loads of style, hilariously depicting the lyrics in ways that are strikingly telling and bring out both the knowing absurdity of Rae's poetic observations as well as the everyday truths we can all identify with. This makes the film both wonderfully entertaining and strikingly important.

Continental
dir-scr Malcolm Ingram; with Steve Ostrow, Edmund White 13/US ****
Telling the story of New York's iconic Continental Baths, this documentary is a remarkably entertaining look at a transformative community centre that launched the careers of the likes of Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. The focal point is owner Steve Ostrow, a colourful figure whose life took a series of surprising twists and turns before, during and after he ran the club from 1968 to 1974. And in addition to discussing the celebrities who hung out there, Ostrow also observes the way New York society changed around the club over the years. The film is whizzy and energetic, a lot of fun to watch due to the terrific archive footage and eye-opening anecdotes. And it also has something important to say about America's obsessive attempts to control people's bodies by prohibiting sex. And more than that, the film clearly shows how important gay culture is in society at large.

BEST OF YEAR:

Stranger by the Lake
dir-scr Alain Guiraudie; with Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou 13/Fr ****.
What starts out as a subtle drama exploring male sexuality quietly shifts into a Hitchcockian thriller, with big questions about the tension between lust and morality. Set in a gay cruising site at a naturist beach, the film isn't for the faint of heart. But its themes are bigger than the controversial setting... FULL REVIEW >

LFF 9: Facing the fans

As the final weekend of the 57th London Film Festival gets underway, a raft of glamorous red carpets and parties were held on Friday night. At the Peccadillo party, I chatted with the directors of Salvo, and the director and stars of Stranger by the Lake. Meanwhile in Leicester Square, Steve McQueen, Lupita Nyong'o and Chiwetel Ejiofor smiled for the camera (above left) at the festival premiere of their film 12 Years a Slave, while Tom Hardy (above right) was on hand to sign autographs at the screening of his new one-man thriller Locke. All of those and two others are among my highlights of the day, including an amazing archival restoration that was performed last night with a live orchestral accompaniment...

12 Years a Slave 
dir Steve McQueen; with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender 13/US ****. 
Based on a chilling true story, this film is much more than an account of slavery in America: it's an exploration of the human urge to control and enslave people. And with fearlessly intense performances and director McQueen's artful eye, we are immersed in the story completely... FULL REVIEW >

Locke
dir Steven Knight; with Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman 13/UK *** 
Essentially a one man show, this pseudo-thriller explores the fallout from a single moment of weakness as our hero tries to salvage his marriage, family and career. The pushy set-up is a little hard to believe, but the film is held together by a terrific performance from Hardy as an essentially good guy who has reached his personal Armageddon... FULL REVIEW >

Stranger by the Lake 
dir Alain Guiraudie; with Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou 13/Fr ****. 
What starts out as a subtle drama exploring male sexuality quietly shifts into a Hitchcockian thriller, with big questions about the tension between lust and morality. Set in a gay cruising site at a naturist beach, the film isn't for the faint of heart. But its themes are bigger than the controversial setting... FULL REVIEW >

Salvo
dir Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza; with Saleh Bakri, Sara Serraiocco 13/It ***. 
With almost no dialog to speak of, this gritty Italian thriller is relentlessly artful, using strikingly skilful photography and a vividly detailed sound mix to tell a story about a heartless young man who has a sudden pang of conscience... FULL REVIEW >

Gone Too Far!
dir Destiny Ekaragha; with Malachi Kirby, OC Ukeje 13/UK ***.
With a strong blast of local humour, this comedy captures the ethnic mix of a South London community using riotous slapstick, knowing dialog and rather nutty characters. It's far too silly to have a proper kick to it, but it's bright and cheeky, and the script touches on some big issues without ever getting heavy about them... [review coming soon]

The Epic of Everest 
dir Captain John Noel with George Mallory, Andrew Irvine 24/UK 1h27 ***** 
In documenting the third expedition up Everest, filmmaker Noel demonstrates a staggering amount of stamina as well as groundbreaking technical and artistic skills. Watching this 1924 film is a mystical experience, revealing the big mountain in ways no one as ever done since. And this digital restoration makes it essential viewing... FULL REVIEW >

Critical Week: She's not human

I'm not feeling massively human myself after such a busy week. The 21st Raindance Film Festival came to a close Sunday night with the creepy British thriller The Machine (pictured), which also won the top prize for best UK feature. Exploring artificial intelligence with an emotional edge, the film features sharp performances and some genuinely unnerving touches. Also at Raindance, I caught up with the Argentine comedy The Critic, which touched a few nerves in its engaging, cleverly told tale of a film critic's messy life.

I saw a couple of independent films outside Raindance: Who Needs Enemies is a low-budget London crime thriller that takes a clever approach to the genre and has a superb cast, but doesn't quite come together. And the comedy-documentary Seduced & Abandoned is a joy for movie fans, as Alec Baldwin and James Toback hit Cannes to sell their Iraq-set remake Last Tango in Tikrit. Pointed and very funny, it's packed with big-name cameos including Bertolucci himself, as well as surprisingly adept raconteur Ryan Gosling. And just last night I attended a massive Ender's Game teaser event with Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and Ben Kingsley in attendance, but we'll have to wait to actually see the movie.

In continuing press screenings for the 57th London Film Festival, which opens Wednesday night, we caught up with Robert Redford's staggeringly well-made but somewhat over-done solo thriller All Is Lost; the amazing Robin Wright as a version of herself in Ari Folman's striking but confusing live-action/animated The Congress; the warm but implausible Brit-com Hello Carter with the likeable Charlie Cox, Christian Cooke and Jodie Whittaker; the provocative French drama Stranger by the Lake, which morphs from a quiet drama into a Hitcockian freakout on a gay-naturist beach; and the documentary Teenage, mixing terrific archive footage along with matching faked scenes that kind of undermine the entire point.

This coming week is pretty much devoted to the LFF with screenings of: Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, Alexander Payne's Nebraska, Jason Reitman's Labor Day, Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem, Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves, Xavier Dolan's Tom at the Farm, Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel 1915, Lukas Moodysson's We Are the Best, David Mackenzie's Starred Up, Hong Sangsoo's Haewon, the Berlinale winner Child's Pose, and the sexploitation doc The Sarnos. There's also a screening of two London movies: the crime thriller Vendetta and the comedy World of Hurt. Whew.