LFF: Blow the roof off

I'm covering the 66th London Film Festival a little differently than usual. Opting out of purchasing accreditation this year (for several pointed reasons), I am watching films from the outside this time around, which means I'll be seeing fewer of the big blockbuster gala movies (which I'll see anyway) and focussing on smaller offbeat things. So it should be rather good fun. I'll be posting every other day here, so keep an eye out for little gems as well as a few heavy hitters. Here are some highlights for the first couple of days...

Klondike
dir-scr Maryna Er Gorbach; with Oksana Cherkashyna, Serhii Shadrin 22/Ukr ****
Set during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014, this earthy and gorgeously shot drama is infused with pitch-black irony. The setting is reminiscent of the American West, with isolated farms and endless horizons, but writer-director Maryna Er Gorbach fills scene with present-day attitudes and feelings that are more timely than she could have imagined. Seen through a woman's eyes, it's a gripping mix of personal drama and punchy themes... FULL REVIEW >

Hidden Letters
dir Violet Du Feng; with Hu Xin, Wu Simu 22/Chn ****
Beautifully shot and edited, this fascinating documentary finds a sharply knowing perspective on a little-known way women learned to express themselves throughout China's history. Because she keeps things specific and personal, director Violet Du Feng finds enormously powerful echoes in the wider world. It's a riveting, moving film, assembled with a remarkable fluidity to make its important points almost subliminally. And the observations are unusually complex and nuanced.

These four films, which I saw at Venice Film Festival, are also playing in London...

Argentina, 1985
dir Santiago Mitre; with Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani 22/Arg ****
Including a heavy dose of sharp humour in the screenplay helps make this rather momentous true story unusually accessible. So while it hinges on a procedural investigation and historical courtroom trial, director-cowriter Santiago Mitre continually reveals the humanity of the characters, pulling us in deeper. And the case itself is harrowing, a landmark moment when a military dictatorship went on trial for its horrific crimes against the people... FULL REVIEW >

Bones and All
dir Luca Guadagnino; with Taylor Russell, Timothee Chalamet 22/US ****
Essentially a romantic horror road movie, this offbeat drama delights in provoking extreme reactions with its vampiric premise. But it's also almost jarringly grounded, with authentic situations and characters who may not be likeable but are strongly sympthetic. Director Luca Guadagnino is always terrific at cutting through surfaces to find human connections and deeper societal truths. So while this film gets very grisly indeed, it remains surprisingly sweet... FULL REVIEW >

Casa Susanna
dir-scr Sebastien Lifshitz; with Katherine Cummings, Diana Merry-Shapiro 22/Fr ****
Illustrated with a wonderful collection of home movies and snapshots, plus some terrific scene-setting newsreel footage, this quietly observational documentary offers a glimpse into a secret society from the early 1960s where cross-dressers could gather without fear. Director Sebastien Lifshitz gets out of the way and simply allows these people and their children tell the story with colourful anecdotes, big feelings and a lovely sense of nostalgia... FULL REVIEW >

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
dir Alejandro G Inarritu; with Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani 22/Mex **.
It would be hard to imagine a more indulgent, rambling, throw-everything-at-the-screen kind of movie. But Alejandro G Inarritu isn't a filmmaker you can dismiss, as each sequence is skilfully laced with moments of visual brilliance, thematic provocations and darkly emotional honesty. Channelling Fellini at his most flamboyant, Inarritu pours personal and artistic energy into this epic Mexican odyssey. Although a leaner, earthier approach would have been more effective... FULL REVIEW >

All London Film Festival reviews, once they're uploaded, will be linked to SHADOWS' LFF PAGE >

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

Outside of the festival, I watched Christian Bale and Margot Robbie in Amsterdam, Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan in The Lost King, Mila Kunis in Luckiest Girl Alive, the lively Bronte biopic Emily, BJ Novak's offbeat comedy Vengeance, the independent comedy All Sorts, the Chilean ghost rom-com Phantom Project and the Sadler's Wells dance/choreo comedy Nora the Many.

This coming week's films include Shawn Mendes as Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Eva Green in Nocebo, Noomi Rapace in You Won't Be Alone and Hero Fiennes Tiffin in The Loneliest Boy in the World. Plus of course rather a lot of festival movies.

Venezia79: And the winners are...

I saw 43 films at the 79th Venice Film Festival, spread across the various selections, including Competition, Out of Competition, Venice Days, Horizons and International Critics Week. One of my favourites was the documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which won the Golden Lion for director Laura Poitras (above). Here are the other big winners, followed by my favourites from the festival and then a report on my first proper foray into virtual reality...

A W A R D   W I N N E R S

• 
  Golden Lion: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
• Silver Lion: Saint Omer
• Special Jury Prize: No Bears
• Director: Luca Guadagnino - Bones and All
• Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh - The Banshees of Inisherin
• Actress: Cate Banchett - Tár
• Actor: Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin
• Young Actor: Taylor Russell - Bones and All
• Debut Film: Alice Diop - Saint Omer
• Queer Lion: Skin Deep
• Audience Award: Nezouh
• Horizons: World War III
• Venice Days: Blue Jean
• International Critics Week: Eismayer
• Fipresci Prize: Argentina, 1985

M Y   B E S T   O F   F E S T

1. 
   No Bears (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
2. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, Ireland)
3. Athena (Romain Gavras, France)
4. Blonde (Andrew Dominik, US)
5. Skin Deep (Alex Schaad, Germany)
6. Tár (Todd Field, US)
7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, US)
8. Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley, UK)
9. On the Fringe (Juan Diego Botto, Spain)
10. The Damned Don't Cry (Fyzal Boulifa, Morocco)

The next 10: When the Waves Are Gone (Philippines); Call of God (Kyrgyzstan); Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (US); Argentina, 1985 (Argentina); Immensity (Italy); Anhell69 (Colombia); Bones and All (US); Wolf and Dog (Portugal); Ordinary Failures (Czech Republic); Dreamin' Wild (US).

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V E N I C E   I M M E R S I V E

This was by first real experience with virtual reality on a festival level, and it's great to see how far the technology has come. It still has a way to go, mainly in making headsets less intrusive and the imagery crisper. I'd also love to see more narrative projects, but I'm sure those will come. Here's what I saw on the Venezia79 Immersive Island, in order...

Alex Honnold:
The Soloist VR

dir Jonathan Griffith; with Alex Honnold, Nicolas Hojac 22/UK 60m

The technology behind this film is almost as impressive as the seriously supernatural skills of Honnold (Free Solo) as he free-solo climbs a series of insane rock faces in Yosemite, the Dolomites and the French Alps. The camera seems to hang just off the cliff with him, allowing us to look 360 degrees: straight up and down, and also to take in the glorious views. In between the climbs we get to know Honnold as he chats to a journalist and prepares with fellow climber Hojac. So this is a brisk hour, packed with spectacular footage, and definitely not for anyone afraid of heights.

Dazzle: A Re-assembly of Bodies

dir Ruth Gibson, Bruno Martelli, Alexa Pollmann, Bine Roth; with Harry Alexander, Hannah Burfield, Emily Coates, Ruth Gibson, Axelle De Groote, Francesca Orlando, Alice Tatge 22/UK 45m 

Mixing live performance with a virtual experience, this ambitious project puts the audience amid cast members. On arrival we're assigned a role, and I was put in an observational one, sitting on the side watching, which was a bit dull as I wanted the fill experience. In front of me were two dancers in mo-cap suits and two audience members in VR gear with screens that showed the virtual environment they were engaged with. Hopefully next time I get a chance to get more involved. 

All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost

dir Melanie Courtinat 22/Fr 10m

Using written quotes from people who were told to leave their homes after the Chernobyl incident, this animated virtual reality piece glides through a futuristic landscape under which a meadow of colourful wildflowers wave in the breeze. Up above are what look like concrete overpasses and rising tower blocks. The quotes refer to displacement, clinging to memories in specific places and ultimately to heading out to create a new world. Even immersed in this environment, watching this is a bit passive, but it's packed with pointed moments.

Space Explorers: The ISS Experience - Spacewalkers

dir Felix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphael; with Akihiko Hoshide, Andrew Morgan, Christina Koch, Jessica Meir, Megan McArthur, Luca Parmitano, Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka, Thomas Pesquet 22/Can 10m

Lajeunesse and Raphael sent a 360-degree virtual rig to the International Space Station and, for this experience, attached it to the extending arms outside. The effect is like simply floating in space, between the station and the earth, while astronauts do a series of repairs. Not only is this a fascinatingly detailed glimpse at the exterior of the station (complete with a Spacex capsule docked there), but it's a magnificent way to see how it feels to stare down at our planet, with the sun and moon appearing around the horizons.

Space Explorers: The ISS Experience - Unite

dir Felix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphael; with Christina Koch, Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir, Luca Parmitano, Hazzaa Almansoori, Alexey Nikolaevich Ovchinin, Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka, Aleksandr Alexandrovich, Skvortsov 22/Can 35m

This time, Lajeunesse and Raphael's camera rig is inside the station, as various astronauts and cosmonauts interact with each other, go about their business, enjoy leisure time and show the viewer around the remarkably cluttered station. How they live and work is riveting to see so up-close and personal, as they share their own thoughts and feelings. And the coming and going of various crew members adds to the atmosphere, giving us a glimpse of the camaraderie and playfulness of these scientific experts who are still in awe when they look down on the Earth from above.

Eggscape

dir German Heller; scr German Heller, Federico Heller, Jorge Tereso 22/Arg 10m

Finally, I thought I'd attempt one of the game experiences, and this one looked particularly intriguing, as the physical site contains a series of tiny sets built with a witty attention to detail. And once you put on the VR headset, they come to life with augmented reality. You control a little egg who collects capsules while dodging obstacles, fighting monsters and trying not to fall off the sets and splat on the floor. It's colourfully animated, wildly inventive and absolutely hilarious. Thankfully they also give you infinite lives so you can make it to the exhilarating ending.

I still have a lot of writing to do, but full reviews of the films will be linked at Shadows VENICE FILM FESTIVAL page as soon as possible.

Critical Week: A warm embrace

Press screenings are slowing down as usual for this time of year, as journalists try to catch up with things they haven't seen yet. Attending the London Film Festival put be ahead of the curve, but there are some late-season releases I'm still chasing. I only had four screenings this past week: the staggeringly powerful drama Waves with Kelvin Harrison Jr and Alexa Demie (above), plus Lucas Hedges, Sterling K Brown and rising star Taylor Russell. The Brazilian drama Greta is dark and sometimes a little too serious, but has some strong things to say about people on the fringe of society. Starring Steven Berkoff and Martin Hancock, The Last Faust is basically a museum piece, an ambitiously artistic telling of both parts of Goethe's epic story, accompanied by paintings, sculptures, photographs and a novella. And I finally caught up with the devastatingly emotional doc For Sama, a deeply personal account of life in wartorn Aleppo.

Outside the screening room, it was a privilege to attend an event at which Peccadillo Pictures placed its archive at Bishopsgate Institute. Peccadillo has released a number of seriously notable films over its 20 year history, with more to come. Their releases over the years have included Embrace of the Serpent, Weekend, The Shiny Shrimps. I'm interviewing the director and lead actor from their upcoming Georgian drama And Then We Danced tomorrow.

Coming up this next week: Sam Mendes' already acclaimed war drama 1917, Todd Haynes' drama Dark Waters, Clint Eastwood's Atlanta Olympics bombing drama Richard Jewell, Daniel Kaluuya in Queen & Slim, and the John Cena comedy Playing With Fire. We also have our annual meeting with the Critics' Circle and the BBFC, always enjoyably informative as they tell us about the year's knife-edge ratings decisions.