Guilty – LFF Review Nick Evan-Cook October 18, 2015 Reviews Overlong and dangerously reliant on cliché, Guilty wastes a solid performance from Khan as it never entirely escapes the feeling of a cheap-and-cheerful TV drama. The score is intrusive and overwrought,...
The End of the Tour – LFF Review Nick Evan-Cook October 18, 2015 Reviews With a pair of perfectly calibrated performances from Segel and Eisenberg, End of the Tour both entertains and inspires introspection as it combines a cerebral thoughtfulness with rich character chemistry and...
Jonás and Alfonso Cuarón talk Desierto, Immigration and Harry Potter Nick Evan-Cook October 18, 2015 Behind The Curtain, Features, Interview Jonás Cuarón's second feature, Desierto, produced by his father Alfonso, screened this week in Official Competition at the 2015 London Film Festival. We sat down for a roundtable chat with the pair to talk...
Dheepan – LFF Review Tom Bond October 16, 2015 Reviews Dheepan feels timely with its story of the immigrant experience, but Audiard is never one for simple morality tales, and complicates his immigrants’ pasts with violence and rebellion. Despite that we’re...
Necktie Youth – LFF Review Tom Bond October 16, 2015 Reviews With its Pulp Fiction-esque sprawl and community of Johannesburg teens, writer and director Mer’s Necktie Youth bears all the hallmarks of a precociously talented young filmmaker – for better or...
Jacked (Short) – LFF Review Nick Evan-Cook October 15, 2015 Reviews Featuring a pair of performances that wouldn't be out of place in a feature, Rene Pannevis' Jacked nicely showcases the continued growth of a promising director. The constant utilisation of narrow...
Closet Monster – LFF Review Tori Brazier October 15, 2015 Reviews Despite Closet Monster dealing with a ‘standard-fare’ topic – teenage angst and sexuality – it manages to prevent itself from seeming derivative. Unafraid to reveal the still-lurking nastier...
The Brand New Testament – LFF Review Nick Evan-Cook October 15, 2015 Reviews What if God were alive and living with his dysfunctional family in Brussels? The Brand New Testament answers this question and raises many more with its whip-smart and hilarious satire on religion, morality...
My Scientology Movie – LFF Review Tom Bond October 15, 2015 Reviews Hamstrung by the Church of Scientology’s understandable lack of cooperation, Louis Theroux borrows meta recreation techniques from the likes of The Act of Killing to ingenious effect. Actors’...
Light Years – LFF Review Rachel Brook October 15, 2015 Reviews Light Years has the kitchen-sink stylistic trappings of an Andrea Arnold film, yet the conflict that drives the narrative is far less apparent. As a result it is at times laboriously low-key, but there are...
The Lady in the Van – LFF Review Tori Brazier October 15, 2015 Reviews Maggie Smith dominates The Lady in the Van, revisiting a theatre role that earned her great accolades. The quieter Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett is a solid choice for her exasperated sparring partner, in...
Mr Gaga – LFF Review Rachel Brook October 15, 2015 Reviews Somewhat understandably, Mr Gaga is overly reliant on enchanting and hypnotic footage of Naharin’s shows, and the film is bolstered by frank interview input from its subject. Rather than answer the...
My Golden Days – LFF Review Rachel Brook October 15, 2015 Reviews In blending Jean-Pierre Jeunet-esque whimsical adventure with a sentimentalised recollection of past love Desplechin straddles and ultimately crosses the line between charm and irksomeness. Stylistically...
Sunset Song – LFF Review Tom Bond October 15, 2015 Reviews Sunset Song’s chronicling of rural wartime hardship is nothing we haven’t seen before. Abusive patriarchs, repressed women and traumatised soldiers are unoriginal ingredients, but Davies turns them into...
My Skinny Sister – LFF Review Rachel Brook October 15, 2015 Reviews This painfully intimate family drama depicts the intense bond between sisters with uncanny power. Together Josephson and Deasismont embody both the joy and rivalry of siblinghood so recognisably that it’s...