Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 7

System Crasher (DE) (review)

An unassuming ten year old girl loves her mum and clings to her whenever she is near. But her mother rarely visits Benni in the Foster house where she currently stays.  Moved from home to home, Benni is a troubled child; some unknown but traumatic events have scarred her childhood and now seemingly random things trigger Benni's violent side - screaming fits and violent outbursts have sent her ricocheting around the Foster home circuit and the one assigned carer who she trusts has few options left. 

Enter Micha, a burly, rough block of a man assigned as her school escort, who suggests some time away in his cabin in the woods. Can an unconventional holiday of sorts break the cycle?

System Crasher is a better film than to give you such a convenient conclusion; Benni is just too far gone to simply turn twee and lovely after a few nights under the stars, but the film patiently nudges her state of mind slightly closer to a happy place with stumbles and falls along the way, giving the viewer some hope for her future.  The ending may not have a happy bow tied around it but I think that would have cheapened the resolution. 7.5/10

Genesis (CA) (wiki

Step brother and sister Guillaume and Charlotte are hitting the time of their lives when hormones go a little crazy and relationships start to change. Guillaume is in boarding school and is struggling to find love in the eyes of the girls he meets, their qualities always falling shy of those of his friend Nicolas, if only he could find someone like him. Charlotte, on the other hand has been going too steady with her dull boyfriend Maxime and when an argument erupts, she finds herself drawn to the arms of an older man whose aire of mystery and danger beguile her. 

Genesis didn't really know what era it was set in; on-screen technology and choice of soundtrack in the early scenes suggested the 80's but then suddenly modern mobile phones popped up, which was a bit jarring.  That and the standard philosophising in every fricking conversation you typically expect from French films.  Despite this, I kinda enjoyed the return to teenage years; the two lead parts were well played and their fragility came out of the screen at you, enough to make you care.  Alas, I had to leave early, just as the film ditched all its characters and seemingly started again. I may never know just what happened in those final minutes. 6/10

Jojo Rabbit (US) (review

Taika Waititi is making a bit of a name for himself at the moment.  Among others, he has had his hands in such works as What we do in the Shadows and its series spinoff, the excellent Flight of the Conchords, two Thor films, and of course a hand in the latest Star Wars series, The Mandalorian gives his resume some real kick. Here he is as well, directing and starring in a period comedy drama, as if he didn't have enough to do. 

Waititi plays a dim-witted Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend of young Jojo, a ten year old aspiring to be a good little Nazi in the dying days of World War II.  Brought up with the expected amount of conditioning to vilify and demonise those different to him, imagine his reaction when he finds a young Jewish girl living in his dead sisters' bedroom in a secret compartment.  Jojo must come to terms with who he actually is and question what those around him are telling him is the truth.

Jojo drips of Wes Anderson's thematic style - wide angle lenses and symmetrical scenes, small children as the protagonists, a clutch of well known names (Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant... and Waititi himself as Hitler) but somehow manages to have it's own feel as well, down largely to Waititi giving a fabulously stupid send-up in the period where the real-life dictator was being unmasked as the failure of the Aryan race rather than it's saviour.  The only one who looked out of place was Rebel Wilson, overplaying a strange youth camp assistant and office worker, where no amount of amusing face pulling could make her look like she fit into the part or the period.

That small problem aside, Jojo Rabbit will be well worth watching as it hits the cinemas early in the new year.  Some of the reviews have been less than kind towards it, but I thought it was well worth the time. 8/10

La Belle Epoque (FR) (wiki

There was one final film on the list before the end of LIFF 2019.  Just before Jojo started, long-time LIFF icon Chris Fell came on stage to show the top ten films as voted by the audience, and La Belle Epoque was - at that point - in first place, which gave me hope for a strong finish.

La Belle Époque is the name of the cafe that Viktor met his long-suffering wife Marianne back in 1974.  A luddite surrounded by technology, the old cartoonist grumbles and moans his way through any social gathering with his family if they dare bring up anything that isn't pulled by a horse.

One such day provides two things of note - Marianne finally snaps and kicks him out of their house, and his son gives him a voucher to spend at 'Time Travellers' - a business catering to the super-rich that can recreate any period in history down to the finest detail.  Reeling from the rejection, Viktor pines for the distant past where life was simple and he was young and in love, and asks them to recreate the moment when he met Marianne all those years ago.

Though not reaching the levels of shear beauty and joyeousness set by the now nearly 20-year old Amélie, La Belle Époque is a sumptious, dense, velvety romance about the beauty of first love, and a chance to wallow in a reality where ones most treasured memories can be played out just once more in front of you to live through once again. 8/10

And that was my lot.  It was nice to get out on the festival circuit proper once again, here's to more in the future.

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