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6 Days – LFF 2017 Review

It’s surprising that it took so long for 6 Days’ subject matter to receive the onscreen treatment, as it depicts the famous 1980 Iranian Embassy siege and the SAS’s response, seen as “an almost...
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Funny Cow – LFF 2017 Review

Funny Cow is literally Maxine Peake’s show, as she narrates her tough life – and the film – from a later point of success through a televised monologue. Her no-nonsense honesty is reminiscent of a...
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Abracadabara – LFF 2017 Review

Pablo Berger’s latest is the playful madcap comedy Abracadabra. The director doesn’t stay still for long at all. His previous features include the 2012 hit black-and-white silent film Blancanieves which...
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Roller Dreams – LFF 2017 Review

Seriously, who doesn’t want to learn to dance on roller skates? Luckily for all you wannabe gliders, director Kate Hickey has put together this little number that follows some of the finest roller dancers in...
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Anchor and Hope – LFF 2017 Review

As the title of a film, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Anchor and Hope raises all sorts of bleak expectations of a film entering maudlin rom-com territory. Fortunately, it is just the name of the East London pub...
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Thelma – LFF 2017 Review

It seems that in horror or particularly dark dramas surrounding teenage girls, the visual metaphor of hunting (normally, with one’s father) is a particularly popular trope. Just look at Stoker and Split,...
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Song of Granite – LFF 2017 Review

Song of Granite is a difficult film to enjoy. Presented in a loose, arty structure of disordered scenes and stock footage, anything after the first 20 minutes or so is extremely hard to get a handle on. A...
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The Breadwinner – LFF 2017 Review

Although ostensibly a children’s animation, just as its source material was a children’s novel, The Breadwinner confronts the brutal reality of living in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as a female –...
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Grain – LFF 2017 Review

Navigating the "Dare" strand of the London Film Festival can bring the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Often there is absolutely no way of telling what lies ahead; it is as thrilling as it is...
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Good Manners – LFF 2017 Review

This review contains spoilers, if you don’t what to know what happens look away now! That said, if a film’s success rests on it’s one big reveal, can it be truly good? We’re not too sure. Included...
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A Ciambra – LFF 2017 Review

Nominated as Italy’s Oscar contender, Jonas Carpignano’s Scorsese-backed follow-up to his acclaimed Mediterrenea is a must-see. Set in the Calabrian coastal town of Gioia Tauro, A Ciambra turns its...