BFI Flare: Stand up and sing

More busy days at the 36th BFI Flare, as it takes over the Southbank centre with a flurry of movies, events and parties. I've particularly enjoyed the chance to chat with filmmakers, actors and other industry professionals during the social events, talking about films and also catching up on life after two years of virtual film festivals. Here are some more particularly strong highlights...

Moneyboys
dir-scr CB Yi; with Kai Ko, Yufan Bai 21/Tai ****
Chinese-born filmmaker CB Yi studied in Austria under Michael Haneke, and it shows in this drama's tightly controlled camerawork and willingness to travel to properly devastating places. Stunningly visual, the film was shot in Taiwan because its Chinese-set story would never fly with censors there. It's a gorgeously assembled film packed with vividly textured characters, settings and insights into human nature. And at its heart, it's an epic love story.

I Want to Talk About Duras
dir-scr Claire Simon; with Swann Arlaud, Emmanuelle Devos 21/Fr ****
With a script taken verbatim from a 1982 interview, this French drama offers a complex exploration of celebrity. It's also a riveting, disturbing firsthand account of a relationship with an artistic icon. Writer-director Claire Simon clearly relishes the contradictions in the story, which grapples with uneven connections between people who find themselves in a non-traditional romance. So while the film is talky and prickly, it's also thoughtful and provocative.

Bruno Reidal: Confession of a Murderer
dir-scr Vincent Le Port; with Dimitri Dore, Jean-Luc Vincent 21/Fr ****
Deeply unsettling, this French drama emerges directly from court documents and journals. Its clinical tone sets it apart from the usual true stories about murder, because this allows the film to dig under surfaces, finding authenticity that eerily contradicts the facts of the case. Filmmaker Vincent Le Port also has a remarkable visual sensibility, creating a period piece that is achingly beautiful even with its harsh and horrific angles.

Manscaping
dir Broderick Fox; with Devan Shimoyama, Jessie Anderson 22/US ****
Open and observational, this documentary explores traditional barbershops from perspectives that are both pointed and revelatory. Filmmaker Broderick Fox speaks to three inventive men who are challenging notions of toxic masculinity while lifting up anyone who has been told they were less than normal. By making clients feel welcome, these men are changing the world. And Fox skilfully shows how important it is to tell their stories with honesty.

BEST OF YEAR
Parallel Mothers
dir-scr Pedro Almodovar; with Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit 21/Sp ****
A layered melodrama about mothers and daughters, this film features another of Pedro Almodovar's astute collections of complex female characters. Without many of the filmmaker's usual flourishes, this is instead a soapy study of connections with some added Hitchcock-style tensions that are jaggedly emotional in nature. There's rather a lot going on here, sometimes perhaps too much to take in properly. But it carries a powerfully moving kick... REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked to Shadows' BFI Flare ANCHOR PAGE (this may take awhile as I'm a bit busy watching movies!)

For tickets and information, visit BFI FLARE 

BFI Flare: Embrace the competition

BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival powers into its first weekend with a flurry of screenings and events that have turned BFI Southbank into the place to be in London. It's a great place to hang out, mingling with fans, filmmakers and actors. The audiences have been terrific in the cinemas, and it's been fun to see friends and colleagues who have been in hiding for two long years! Here are some more highlights...

The Swimmer
dir-scr Adam Kalderon; with Omer Perelman Striks, Asaf Jonas 21/Isr ***.
With a bracingly sensual aesthetic, this Israeli drama explores the strains experienced by top-level sportsmen, touching on pungent themes so subtly that you might miss them if you blink. Writer-director Adam Kalderon uses bright hues in costumes and sets, plus a lively score by The Penelopes, all of which quietly infuse scenes with a camp sensibility that plays on how the camera lovingly gazes at athletic men in speedos.

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story
dir Jeffrey Schwarz; with Gloria Swanson, Richard Stapley 21/US ****
A true story that echoes a classic movie, this documentary delves into the archives of screen icon Gloria Swanson. Ace filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz lays out the events with a snappy pace that's hugely entertaining, especially since the tale is so packed with surprising twists and turns. Not only is the film a fabulous account of unknown Hollywood history, but it ripples with deeper themes that make it surprisingly resonant.

Boy Culture: The Series
dir Q Allan Brocka; with Derek Magyar, Darryl Stephens 22/US ***
Filmmaker Q Allan Brocka catches up with the characters from his 2006 movie in this comical six-part series, both based on the book by cowriter Matthew Rettenmund. Once again, the central focus is on a couple that finds it difficult to stay together due to their different views of sex. The dialog and characters are sharp and engaging, and scenes are infused with lustiness, even if it's mainly talk.

Charli XCX: Alone Together
dir Bradley & Pablo; with Charli XCX, Huck Kwong 21/US ****
A knowing exploration of the impact of the pandemic, this documentary unfolds through the eyes of the 29-year-old British pop artist as she reveals details of her life, career, relationships and family. And the film also includes her extended fan family, called Angels, as she invites their participation to create a new collection of songs and videos. It's a colourful, fast-paced film packed with surprisingly powerful moments.

BEST OF YEAR
Great Freedom
dir Sebastian Meise; with Franz Rogowski, Georg Friedrich 21/Aut ****
Earthy and understated, this Austrian prison drama tells a story of resilience amid harsh treatment of gay men in post-war Germany. Filmmaker Sebastian Meise keeps the film tightly focused on its characters, which makes it sometimes startlingly warm as it explores deeper connections between men who are prohibited from being themselves. Starting with Nazi persecution of homosexuality, the film's narrative covers the extension of those laws into the late 1960s... REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked to Shadows' BFI Flare ANCHOR PAGE 
For tickets and information, visit BFI FLARE 

BFI Flare: Let it shine

Finally back in-person, BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival kicked off with a gala opening night on Wednesday,  as Finnish filmmaker Alli Haapasalo presented her Sundance-winner Girl Picture before a lively party at the May Fair Hotel. This is London's most festive film fest, where everyone mingles together without the usual segregation between talent and audiences. And it's great to see both the friends who make this an annual highlight and the filmmakers and actors who are here to show their work. Some highlights to start with...

Girl Picture
dir Alli Haapasalo; with Aamu Milonoff, Eleonoora Kauhanen 22/Fin ****
There's a refreshing authenticity to this Finnish coming-of-age drama that continually catches the viewer by surprise, as director Alli Haapasalo continually subverts the usual cinematic tropes in lieu of something that's engagingly honest. The story follows three girls as they face a range of pressures over three Fridays. This contained structure allows for a loosely observational style that feels improvisational and raw. And it also makes it surprisingly resonant.

Benediction
dir-scr Terence Davies; with Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi 21/UK *****
Master filmmaker Terence Davies takes a gorgeously poetic look at the life of poet Siegfried Sassoon, blending funny, sexy and wrenchingly emotional moments into a collage that continually catches us by surprise. As the film grapples with the nature of time and mortality, this swirl of punchy scenes and period newsreel footage isn't afraid to tackle hard truths about humanity. It's an elegantly devastating work of art... REVIEW >

Cop Secret
dir Hannes Thor Halldorsson; with Audunn Blondal, Egill Einarsson 21/Ice ****
Wild and loose, this punchy 1970s-style police thriller from Iceland starts with a bang and never lets up. Hilariously over the top, the film gleefully deploys the tough-guy genre cliches. The film is entertaining both for its gritty crime action and the way it makes the usual homoerotic subtext in a buddy movie much more central to the narrative. But can the nation's toughest cop admit that he's gay?... REVIEW >

F R O M   T H E   A R C H I V E S
Madame Satã
dir-scr Karim Ainouz; with Lazaro Ramos, Marcelia Cartaxo 02/Br ****
This gritty tale from 1930s Rio de Janeiro tells the real story of Madame Satã, Queen of Carnival from the '40s to until his death in 1976. Writer-director Ainouz creates a remarkable atmosphere--dark and sweaty, with a disarming style of cinematography and editing that makes it feel almost like a fantasy. It looks fantastic! There's a knowing, witty playfulness that keeps us gripped, even when we're not quite sure what's going on or who's whom... REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked to Shadows' BFI Flare PAGE 
For tickets and information, visit BFI FLARE 

~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~
C R I T I C A L   W E E K

 

The Batman was the only movie I saw during my three weeks in Los Angeles - I was there to spend time with family and friends after two strange years! Back in London, I dove straight into BFI Flare, and also began to catch up on other films that are coming out, including Pixar's superbly observed animated adventure Turning Red and the slickly insinuating mystery Deep Water, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. 

In the coming days, I'll be watching Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in the comedy The Lost City, Francois Ozon's Everything Went Fine, the horror comedy Followers and the shorts collection The French Boys 4.

On the road: Drop the mask

For my first trip out of Britain in two years, I returned to Southern California to visit family and friends. This is where I was when the first lockdown hit in March 2020, so it's been a bit surreal to be here as restrictions are finally lifting - and it's great to catch up with friends and family after such a long gap. Plus of course the fish tacos. 

I've caught up with just one movie here: Matt Reeves' new take on The Batman, starring Robert Pattison as the Dark Knight. It's a big film, bold in its emphasis on deeper emotions rather than the superficial action. But it's also overwhelmed by a cliched visual stylisation that stubbornly refuses to switch on a light or add much in the way of colour. Fans will love the earnestly whispered dialog, while serious filmgoers will roll their eyes.

On Saturday, I visited the Academy Museum with two university friends (an Instagram image set is below). We had a lot of fun with the extensive collection of clips and artefacts, but wondered why the curators so resolutely ignored the history of Hollywood and the studios. There are a variety of spaces that explore aspects of cinematic craft, and a fun space featuring clips and memorabilia from Oscar ceremonies, while sections dedicated to specific films and filmmakers felt more than a little random. I quite liked the Spike Lee exhibit, which centres around his influences. An enormous room dedicated to Almodóvar features lots of gorgeous posters and unidentified clips and nothing else. And it's fun to stand under the massive Moount Rushmore backdrop from North by Northwest. Other highlights include a large area exploring The Wizard of Oz, a collection of iconic movie creatures and a colourful special exhibition tracing the career of Hayao Miyazaki. Oddly, the small room celebrating Citizen Kane is the same size as the room celebrating Real Women Have Curves. And then there was the giftshop, which is completely lacking in souvenirs that feature Oscar, which seems like a seriously missed opportunity (the one Oscar photo op costs an extra $15). Another inexplicable error is omitting a snack bar on the vast open-air observation deck looking out over West Los Angeles. And lighting the exhibits in a way that makes selfies almost impossible. Let's hope they bring someone on board to make this museum something more properly amazing.

Because of The Batman, there are very few other films being released here these days. The only one in cinemas I'd kind of like to see is a guilty pleasure - the Foo Fighters' Studio 666 - but of course no one here wants to see that with me! So I'll probably wait until returning to London to see something new - plus the offerings at BFI Flare, a festival starting on March 16th.

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Stage: You should be dancing

Saturday Night Fever
dir Bill Kenwright
choreo Bill Deamer • design Gary McCann
stage adaptation Robert Stigwood, Bill Oakes
with Richard Windsor, Olivia Fines, Melody E Jones, Phillip Aiden, Marios Micolaides, Jasmin Colangelo, Kevin O'Dwyer, Paul French, Faizal Jaye, James Brice, Micharl Cortez, Tosca Fisher, Ashley Luke Lloyd, Celeste Zollino
Peacock Theatre, London • 4.Feb-26.Mar.22

A riot of lights, colour, great music and stretchy fabrics, this massively engaging stage show takes the audience back to the 1970s disco heyday with a lot of style. Even the story's darker turns can't stop the large ensemble cast's boundless energy as they strut their stuff on the Peacock's almost comically glammed-up stage.

Set in 1977 Brooklyn, the show centres on Tony Manero (Windsor), a gifted dancer from a working class background who lives for the chance to get up and boogie each weekend at a local nightclub, where all the girls know his name and his group of childhood buddies is never far away. Then he hears about an upcoming dance competition, and he dumps his current partner Annette (Colangelo) for mysterious pro-dancer Stephanie (Fines). But his focus on Stephanie strains his relationships with his family and friends.

The plot takes some darker turns along the way, both in slightly under-developed side-stories and a major gang clash that adds a violent dance-style streetfight. All of this is staged with hugely expressive choreography, sending characters in constant motion around the multi-levelled stage. And while the darker drama and a steady stream of sharp comedy add plenty of texture, it's the dancefloor sequences that bring the show to pulsating life. Frankly, the performers' stamina is astonishing.

Costumes are a wondrous sea of doubleknit trousers, polyester shirts and nylon chiffon skirts (no doubt rendered in kinder fabrics to protect the dancers from melting down). And the lighting is fabulously lurid, with lots of glitter balls and underfloor illumination reflected in a huge on-stage mirror. And with some 20 dancers on-stage, the group choreography is downright jaw-dropping: fast and complicated, mixing all of the favourite disco moves with moments of ballet and ballroom.

The audience can't help but applaud the Bee Gees (Luke Byrom, James Hudson and Oliver Thomson) when they first emerge to oversee everything from above. There are also songs from the group's earlier and later work woven into the show alongside the iconic Saturday Night Fever setlist. And key cast members get to belt out a number themselves (Fines steals the show with What Kind of Fool). So while the plot itself sometimes feels a little harsh, the point is that there's always the weekend coming to let off steam. When the dancers return to their formations, striking poses in rapid-paced gyrations, we can't help but wish we were up there sweating with them.

For more information, click HERE 

photos by Paul Coltas • 17.Feb.22

Critical Week: Somebody's watching

It's been a quiet week as far as press screenings go, but I've been keeping busy with various events, as well as the usual collection of movies to watch using online screening links. BFI Flare held an event to launch the programme for its 36th festival, and it was great to have an in-person event again - although without the usual festival afterparty. The festival runs 16-27 March as a mix of cinema and virtual screenings and events, and I'm looking forward to it as usual. Flare is easily London's most festive film festival.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Strawberry Mansion
Kimi • Uncharted
The Real Charlie Chaplin
ALL REVIEWS >

As for the movies, I watched Steven Soderbergh's superbly involving Hitchcockian thriller Kimi, which stars Zoe Kravitz (above) as a tech worker caught in a properly suspenseful mystery. Naomi Watts is terrific in The Desperate Hour, essentially a one-woman show about a mother panicking to get back to her children. It's emotive but a bit contrived.  From Australia, Streamline is an intriguing but far too gloomy drama about a swimmer (Levi Miller) who goes off the rails. From Greece, Echoes of the Past is a familiar WWII drama elevated by the great Max von Sydow, in his final film role. The surreal adventure Strawberry Mansion is a wonderfully inventive journey into dreamscapes starring Kenrucker Audley, who also cowrote and codirected. And from France, A Night in the Fields is an involving short feature about two teens working out their friendship and more.

I also revisited the sensitive, improv-style 2020 New York drama Cicada before hosting a Valentine's Day Q&A with writer-director-star Matthew Fifer, producer Jeremy Truong, producer Ramfis Myrthil and editor Kyle Sims. The film's UK release was delayed by the pandemic, and it was great to finally get to meet them, welcome them to London and chat to a very receptive audience.

In this coming week, films to see include Channing Tatum in Dog and the Palestinian thriller Huda's Salon. I'm also heading off on a break for a couple of weeks, so blog entries may be a bit sporadic. But I'm hoping to catch up with the Foo Fighters in Studio 666 and, yes, Robert Pattinson in The Batman along the way.

Critical Week: Go ahead jump

Oscar nominations this week threw the awards season into some chaos, and put some races into focus. There will be lots of conjecture before the ceremony at the end of March. Then after several weeks with a drip-feed of big releases, three come along all at once. All three had late press screenings this week in London just before they opened. The most fun was Uncharted, a lively adventure that just about gets away with its simplistic script because Tom Holland is so ludicrously charming. And Mark Wahlberg almost keeps up with him, which is pretty impressive. Kenneth Branagh is back with another lavish but underwhelming Agatha Christie adaptation, Death on the Nile, which has lovely (mainly digital) Egyptian settings and an all-star cast that includes Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, Russell Brand and an underused French and Saunders. And Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson find surprising chemistry in Marry Me, a romcom that never veers form the formula, but has some fun with it.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Flee • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
ALL REVIEWS >

More offbeat films included Johnny Depp in the biopic Minimata, about a noted photojournalist raising awareness of toxic waste in 1970s Japan. It's well-made but a bit dull. Give or Take is a charming little drama about two men who share a grief and little else. Watching them find friendship is nicely underplayed. Small Body is a bold fable from Italy about a woman on an epic quest from the sea to the mountains. It's packed with provocative themes, and is deeply haunting. And I also watched the six short films featured on The French Boys 3, another collection of terrific small dramas that grapple with masculinity.

This coming week I'll be watching Naomi Watts in The Desperate Hour, Zoe Kravitz in Kimi, Jason Isaacs in Streamline, Max von Sydow in Echoes of the Past, the French coming-of-age drama A Night in the Fields and the surreal drama Strawberry Mansion. I'll also be at the press night for the London stage musical production of Saturday Night Fever.