BFI London Film Festival 2018—Quick Read Reviews. Benjamin, El Angel, The Sisters Brothers, Utøya: July 22, Sticks and Stones, Duplicate, Capernaum, Sunset, Birds of Passage, Ray and Liz, Vox Lux, Burning, If Beale Street Could Talk, The White Crow and An Impossible Love.
WILDLIFE
Paul Dano’s directorial debut beautifully explores family breakdown through the eyes of teenage Joe. Wildlife captures the painful realisation that everything Joe believed as a child is slowly falling apart, as relationships fracture and the true nature of the family home is dragged into the light as the veil of his youth lifts.
Joe’s dad, Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal), works at a local golf course, while his mum, Jeanne (Carey Mulligan), dutifully stays home no matter the individual aspirations she holds. In truth, both Joe and Jeanne do what it takes to keep Jerry happy. However, as the world changes outside their door and ‘60s liberation comes knocking, family, gender roles, and equity are about to shake the foundations of their small home as Jerry loses his job and Jeanne becomes the breadwinner.
Dano’s exquisitely written, directed and performed story of family separation, social change and an unravelling love is both a coming-of-age journey and a sharp dissection of the oppression and hyper-masculinity behind the 50s and 60s vision of the American dream.
BENJAMIN
Simon Amstell is well known for cutting satirical comedy that weaves humour into a range of ordinary situations through full-bodied characters, and his debut feature film doesn’t disappoint. Benjamin (Colin Morgan) is desperate to relive the success of his first independent film, his head full of ideas, creative impulses and frustration. But Benjamin’s life is a deep ocean of anxiety and isolation as he strives to finish his second film while navigating his apprehension and insecurity. When his movie bombs spectacularly at Curzon Soho, everything seems lost until Benjamin meets the French musician Noah (Phénix Brossard).
Amstell is not afraid to hold a mirror up to the London art scene, providing a cutting and hilarious dissection of the diverse communities built around gallery openings, film premieres and art installations. However, Benjamin is not just a humorous exploration of London’s creative scene but a beautifully rich romantic comedy that places gay love and all its insecurities centre stage. This is a film that shines in its realistic and tender exploration of gay relationships, demonstrating the healing power of companionship and the hard decisions relationships bring.
Amstell explores the feelings of apprehension, fear, joy and awkwardness that come with early love. With delightful performances from Morgan and Brossard, Benjamin is an assured romantic comedy that leaves you with a massive smile thanks to its well-crafted script and loving direction.
EL ANGEL
Luis Ortega’s atmospheric and erotic tale of the infamous baby-faced armed robber and killer Carlos Robledo Puch carries the air of a Pedro Almodovar picture, which is no surprise given that he is sitting in the producer’s chair. Ortega offers us a disarmingly beautiful portrait of a sexually ambiguous killer whose motivations are never oblivious, his world a kaleidoscope of competing colours, his sexuality and gender identity just a part of this mesmeric kaleidoscope.
Lorenzo Ferro plays Puch in his youthful prime at the sweet or devilish age of 17 in 1971. He breaks into homes for the fun of it, enjoys attention, oozes sex appeal and lives in a comfortably middle-class home that bores him. At school, he is intrigued by the handsome Ramon (Chino Darin), picking a fight with him just to get his attention before teaming up with him through a haze of hormones and homoerotic undercurrents. However, as Bonnie and Clyde would testify, even the best partnerships eventually meet their match.
Full of ’70s pop bangers, beautifully designed costumes and a thrillingly erotic ride to nowhere but prison, El Angel is a fascinating exploration of a dangerous, multi-layered, sexually ambiguous killer teen.
BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2018
THE SISTERS BROTHERS
Director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) brings us his first English-language movie, focusing on the brotherly relationship between two hitmen (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly) in a western that breaks the rules. In turn, he delivers a tender and humorous exploration of masculinity, home, endings and new beginnings that defies simple labels.
Set during the height of the Oregon and California gold rush, Charlie and Eli Sisters (Phoenix and Reilly) are hired hit men, working for a powerful businessman, the ‘Commodore’ (Rutger Hauer). Sent on the trail of Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), the brothers’ mission is to take an invention for detecting gold developed by Hermann at any cost. However, their mission is complicated by a detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) hired by the Commodore to track down the brothers.
From the outset, Audiard incorporates the classic themes of the Western genre with a far more nuanced character study of brotherly bonds, masculinity and unspoken love. Visually, The Sisters Brothers is a beautiful film, using its vistas to portray the emerging communities of a developing country alongside a wild, hostile and untamed land. In the hands of a superb cast, the result is a movie rich in humour, emotional depth and brotherly warmth that never loses sight of the rough, brutal, sweat-drenched reality of America’s Wild West.
UTØYA: JULY 22
The horror of the events that took place on Utøya Island on July 22nd, 2011, will long haunt our society and act as a stark reminder that right-wing extremism sits in the shadows of our modern world. As young people enjoyed a summer camp organised by the Norwegian Labour Party on the picturesque Utøya Island, a lone gunman journeyed to the island intent on mass murder. He would murder sixty-nine people on the island and a further eight in Oslo, with hundreds injured.
Unlike the Netflix film released the same year, Utøya: July 22 has no interest in exploring the thoughts, ideas, beliefs or background of the right-wing terrorist at the heart of the devastation, opting instead to focus its lens on the abject terror and the fight for the survival of the young people trapped on the island.
Shot in a heart-pounding, challenging and deeply emotional single take, Poppe’s film carries the power of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) as it immerses you in the horror of Utøya. Many of the survivors of Utøya directly engaged in the writing and filming, and this lived experience is on display throughout as Erik Poppe’s film asks us to consider the deadly and horrific outcomes of the rising tide of right-wing hate whipped up by politicians who delight in sowing division.
STICKS AND STONES (BRAKLAND)
Sticks and Stones (Brakland) is a compelling and daring exploration of adolescent masculinity, sexual awakening and friendship that, at times, hits the mark and, at others, leaves you cold. Martin Skovbjerg’s Danish drama is packed to the brim with tension and intrigue, as we meet Simon (Jonas Bjerril), who has just moved from Copenhagen to the small town of Vesterby, and filmmaking student Bjarke (Vilmer Trier Brøgger).
Having just met, the boys plan to film a rough-and-ready documentary based on “Planet of the Apes” that explores the ongoing link between apes and humans in basic behaviours. But as Bjarke’s father falls from grace, the filmmaking project spirals out of control alongside the boy’s relationship.
Weaving together a meditation on adolescent rebellion, human depravity, and family collapse, Martin Skovbjerg keeps you on edge throughout. You remain unsure of the feelings, emotions, and simmering anger of the two male leads, and of the boundaries they set for exploring the animalistic actions of the people around them.
BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2018
DUPLICATE (AKA JONATHAN)
Slipping under the radar at this year’s BFI London Film Festival is Duplicate, also known as Jonathan. Bill Oliver’s sci-fi gem, written alongside Gregory Davis and Peter Nickowitz, explores a range of themes more commonly found in horror classics, from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to The Outer Limits. It is, in essence, a tale of two separate personalities inhabiting the same body, one studious, organised and controlled and the other energetic, free-thinking and rebellious. But life has a way of fucking things up when you live on such a fine and delicate balance, and Oliver asks us what would happen if one of these personalities became romantically involved without the other’s knowledge or permission.
Ansel Elgort beautifully encapsulates the trials and tribulations of both John and Jonathan, building audience empathy for the two unique personas on display. Unfortunately for John and Jonathan, sex and love will ultimately lead to separation and distrust, which is deeply problematic when you share the same body.
CAPERNAUM
A stand-out at this year’s festival, Nadine Lebaki’s sublime, challenging and emotional film weaves its way through the streets of Lebanon like a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Writhing with the city’s energy, emotion and heat, we follow young Zain through a fog of abuse, separation and longing.
Lebaki expertly offers us a powerful reflection of our damaged world from a child’s perspective. The performance of young Zain Al Rafeea is one of pure authenticity and beauty as we travel alongside him, longing for his happiness and security. In many ways, Zain’s journey echoes a Dickensian novel as he fights for his place, purpose and security in a city where the odds are stacked against him. Here, Lebaki’s razor-sharp film explores the no-man’s-land between childhood and adulthood in poor communities with stunning clarity.
SUNSET
Following his Oscar-winning Son of Saul, László Nemes’ dark and mysterious costume drama is set in pre-World War I Budapest. Here, the classic costume drama is infused with Gothic horror as the oncoming storm of war and division haunts 1913 Europe. Juli Jakab plays Irisz Leiter, a young woman who returns to her home city of Budapest, intent on gaining employment as a milliner at the city’s prestigious Leiter hat store. The store was founded by her late parents, who died in a fire when Irisz was just two years old.
However, her arrival is greeted with indifference and suspicion by the shop workers and the current owner, Oszkár Brill (Vlad Ivanov). The rumours swirling around her family history are still vivid and alive here. As Irisz rejoins a society built on wealth and secrets, she struggles to assimilate, the nagging need to discover the truth behind her family’s demise and the fate of her older brother surrounding her in a country on the verge of war.
Sunset is a bizarre mix of brilliance and gutwrenching disappointment. Visually, Nemes’ movie is a triumph; however, structurally, it is riddled with problems, with its multiple competing themes never merging into a rounded drama or thriller. Sunset’s narrative feels messy, bouncing the viewer between mystery, hat shop gothic horror, and pre-war drama. Unfortunately, this creates a confusing journey that never finds a hook, quickly losing the audience in a convoluted story that goes nowhere.
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
South American stories of drugs and crime have become a staple of modern cinema and television, often focusing on the crime lords and families that have fed the world’s hunger for illicit drugs. However, in Birds of Passage, Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego bring us an intimate family saga that reflects the complex interface between indigenous culture and Western desire in ’70s and ’80s Colombia. Split into five acts (or songs), Birds of Passage takes us on a sweeping family journey, exploring both the traditions of the past and the devastating impact of an emerging drug trade.
Birds of Passage never loses its focus on family, culture, and Wayúu traditions, even as it encapsulates a much larger journey in which money, wealth, and power slowly strip individuals and communities of their identity. Here, the focus is on the social and personal impact of a drug trade born from cultures of differing values and ideas and the eventual interface of two opposing worlds in creating a destruction of culture and community.
RAY AND LIZ
Richard Billingham’s photography is world-renowned, and in his debut feature film, he combines the power of still photography with the moving picture, ultimately creating a stark yet beautiful personal memoir of poverty and dysfunctional family life in 1980s Britain. From the outset, Ray and Liz focuses its lens on the poverty of opportunity and family breakdown inherent in Thatcher’s Britain. From the opening scenes, where we join Ray, a broken man living his life through isolation, alcohol, and sleep, to the first flashbacks of family life full of anger, poor parenting, and division, this is a film that has no intention of holding back in its view of families torn apart by poverty and the inability to cope.
Shot in 4:3 on 16mm film, Billingham creates a feeling of claustrophobia from the outset, coupled with a sense of documentary realism. Ray and Liz is a portal into the memories of its director, creating a compelling cinematic experience, not unlike Terence Davies’ Distant Voices, Still Lives.
VOX LUX
In an ever more polarised world of conflicting ideologies, violence and terror. What is the role of entertainment and fame in shaping public opinion and beliefs? This is just one of the questions raised in Brady Corbet’s second directorial feature, Vox Lux.
Vox Lux presents us with a modern-day parable about fame, social belonging, and segregation. It explores pre- and post-September 11 society through an entertainment industry built on fame and emotional manipulation, embedding itself under the viewer’s skin in a way few other films manage. Split into three acts, bookended by a prologue and finale, narrated by Willem Dafoe, Vox Lux follows Celeste (Cassidy/Portman), a young woman who survived a high school shooting in 1999 only to be thrown into a world of instant fame following her performance at a memorial concert for her lost classmates. Vox Lux takes us on a journey from the first whisperings of Celeste’s fame to her eventual idol status. Yet it also does this against the backdrop of an increasingly fragmented world, slicing and dicing the trappings of fame alongside contemporary political and social themes.
BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2018
BURNING
Some films forever burn a place in your memory; these rare cinematic treasures eat away at your thoughts long after the credits roll. They instil an instant need to revisit them as you attempt to find all the clues you missed in your search for closure. Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is one of those films. Based on the short story by Haruki Murakami, Chang-dong’s film ripples with tension as we are taken on a twisted journey that would make Hitchcock proud. Here, themes of consumerism, wealth, memory, and desire combine to create a sublime and intricate mystery that is haunting, confusing, dark and beautiful.
Jongsu (Yoo Ah-in) is a young graduate who lives an isolated life as he scrapes together a living as a delivery driver in Seoul. However, Jongsu’s life is about to change following a chance encounter with Haemi (Yun Jong-Seo). Haemi seems to know Jongsu, and her presence does, indeed, bring back some vague yet confused childhood memories. However, when Haemi becomes involved with a wealthy businessman, Jongsu finds his life consumed by a spiralling mystery with no escape. One which will test his moral compass as the past and present merge into a living, breathing nightmare.
Burning’s narrative never allows for complacency, weaving romance, tragedy, and mystery into an unsettling tapestry of terror. The result leaves us hanging with an unfinished yet climactic story as the secrets and lies built up over its runtime float in the air like the burning embers of a raging fire. With outstanding performances, direction and cinematography, Lee Chang-dong’s ability to slowly build a sense of fear and uncertainty is masterful as he weaves his slippery tale of human connection and memory. Burning is no carbon copy thriller; it’s a unique, haunting, and bold journey that further highlights the beauty and strength of South Korean filmmaking.
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Following ‘Fonny’ (Stephan James) and ‘Tish’ (KiKi Layne), Barry Jenkins’ utterly beautiful and quietly powerful adaptation of James Baldwin’s story takes us on a journey of love, racial discrimination, injustice, hope and strength through music, exquisite performances and poetic prowess. Cinematographer James Laxton (who also worked with Jenkins on Moonlight) delivers beauty and power through a colour palette that moves and flows with the core meaning of each scene and lighting that enhances the emotion of each performance. At the same time, the score by Nicholas Britell fits the film perfectly, rippling with emotion while connecting the audience to the location and time with its beautiful use of strings and Jazz.
Beale Street is a sweeping love story that challenges perceptions and stereotypes, offering a snapshot of American history that still feels far too relevant to the modern world. Beale Street reflects love in its many forms, from the romantic love of ‘Fonny’ and ‘Tish’ to the power of family love and the sense of belonging inherent in many minority neighbourhoods. This is a film that never neglects its core message of oppression, showing the lost aspirations and dreams caused by segregation and discrimination. While at the same time, it highlights the love, support, and hope inherent in individuals, families, and communities.
BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2018
THE WHITE CROW
The life and the sensational defection of Rudolf Nureyev had been covered several times before the arrival of Ralph Fiennes’ film, from 2015’s BBC docudrama Dance to Freedom to the 2018 documentary Nureyev, each offering us fresh perspectives on the man, his life and his art. Ralph Fiennes’ picture, The White Crow, primarily focuses on Nureyev’s escape to the West at the age of 23 during his first European tour while attempting to unpick the inner turmoil of his decision. In adapting Julie Kavanagh’s biography, screenwriter David Hare dovetails Nureyev’s defection with flashbacks of his childhood and teens in Leningrad, painting a portrait of a conflicted man who never felt he truly belonged anywhere.
However, in attempting to condense so much information into a feature-length picture, The White Crow often feels overly busy and occasionally lacks the space and time to dig into the complex character of a dancing genius. Of course, Ralph Fiennes is a safe pair of hands in the director’s chair, and the film debut of Ukrainian ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko is nothing short of mesmeric as he perfectly captures Nureyev’s inner turmoil, sexual uncertainty and artistic confidence.
The White Crow’s visual beauty, powerful performances and assured direction make this a must-see biopic. While it occasionally dances around the complexities and nuances of Nureyev’s character, it is a love letter to a man whose belief in artistic and personal freedom blazed a new trail in the East and the West.
AN IMPOSSIBLE LOVE
Based on Christine Angot’s semi-autobiographical bestseller, An Impossible Love explores the lives of a mother and daughter in Châteauroux, France, and of an absent father whose smile conceals a toxic secret. The year is 1958, and 25-year-old Rachel (Virginie Efira) is about to meet a handsome yet mysterious young man in the office canteen, Philippe (Niels Schneider). Before long, the pair embark on a passionate affair, and Rachel finds herself pregnant with his child. However, Philippe has no intention of marrying Rachel or, for that matter, allowing his daughter to bear his family name. But as their child becomes a teenager, Philippe takes an interest with devastating consequences. Corsini’s compelling drama wraps us in the secrets and lies of a family held hostage by an unspoken darkness built on narcissism, abuse and control.
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