In a future Brazil, a decision was taken that the elderly have finished being useful to society and can be packed off to 'the colony', an obscure synthetic afterlife to which the film tells little. Teresa, just hitting her late 70's and looking forward to a couple more years with her daughter is caught off guard as the qualifying age is dropped from 80 to 75. No longer allowed to buy anything of substance without providing papers and getting content from her daughter, her attempts to flee rely on those willing to risk prosecution in giving her safe passage.
Winning the Silver Bear grand jury prize at Berlin this year, and with similar themes to Calle Málaga, of the dehumanizing effect that the expectations of a younger generation on the elder; a disregarding of the possibility that the wrinkled exterior could hide a still beating heart full of expectation, anger and passion in the twilight years, The Blue Trail gives a voice to frustrations in the senior viewer, and a pause for thought in the rest of us. 7.5/10
And so to the final film. The Love that Remains was thought well enough of to have it playing simultaneously in three of the available screens. A family living in a remote part of Iceland was once happy, but something has split Maggi, who works on an industrial fishing boat, and Anna, an artist struggling to find someone to buy her work. What caused the rift is left as an exercise for the viewer, but sometimes these things just happen. Maggi is clearly not over it, and Anna just wants to move on. Not helping matters, is that Maggi regularly joins the family for meals and outdoor pursuits in the Icelandic countryside, so his heart, not to mention his groin, is constantly reminded of the life they used to have. Anna, however is more annoyed that he thinks of his own woes and not how much work it is to run a house with three unruly kids and one less adult.
The director favours using symbolism over narrative to tell the story, and while this is quite benign at first, it becomes increasingly erratic as the film goes on, and unfortunately, it suffers as a result. Characters seem dead, then living, on boats, then at home. I'm certain there is a cohesive structure to what the director is trying to get across, and sometimes as with Blue Heron, this can work really well, and other times the film fails to provide the signposts for the viewer to navigate their way to a satisfying understanding. For me at least, this film belongs in the latter camp.
This made the final third difficult to pick apart, and assuming you can manage that in your head, I suspect you won't feel like it was worth the effort. None of the characters particularly feel likeable, and things happen too randomly to allow the viewer to develop any sympathy towards them. As the credits went up, I felt an uncomfortable silence in the audience - a perceptible difference that demarcates a group of people processing witness to work of art, from one where people were asking themselves, 'why did I come all the way here to see this?'
I enjoyed some of it; the framing shots highlighted the beautiful Icelandic vistas, along with the family dog, Panda, who made every scene his own, and the genuinely laugh-out-loud fever dream experienced by Maggi after killing a rooster almost made it worth the trip, but unfortunately, not quite. 5/10
Getting an extra screening at LIFF usually means a film has been well received, and since I'd seen it advertised earlier in the festival but didn't manage to see it, I used up my Saturday morning spot.
Brendan Fraser, complete with a mawkish expression he can't seem to shift for the duration of the film, plays Phillip, a down on his luck actor scraping by in central Tokyo playing bit parts in advertisements and whatever else he can scavenge from his agent. Luck, of sorts, comes his way when he lands an unusual job as a 'Sad American', playing a distant relation at a seizensō - an actual funeral for a person not actually dead. Seeing potential, Shinji enlists Phillip in his company, Rental Family Inc, to play bit parts in the lives of those in need, often at the request of their nearest and dearest. So one daughter hires him as a journalist to interview her elderly actor father to make him feel better about his acting legacy, while at the same time he's moonlighting as a found father to help a mother get 'his' daughter into a fancy school.
Predictably, Phillip gets too attached to the parts, and the well-meaning relatives end up getting more than what they wished for. When Phillip is asked to back away and move onto the next job, he goes rogue.
Naturally, I was attracted to the film's location; the director clearly wanted to have the many sights and styles of Japanese culture to be one of the characters, and time was set aside to allow the viewer to appreciate the vibrant Tokyo landscape. As a love letter to the country, it did elevate the film, although it had little in the way of surprises, and one of the two main plot-lines felt disappointing in it's resolution.
It had some bits that skirted around something deep to say about the nature of relationships and the quirkiness of the Japanese way of dealing with mental health, but it didn't quite get to the point of actually having anything interesting to say on that subject. It did however have just enough emotional pull to stop it sliding into the level of mawkishness written on Brendan Frasiers face, 7/10
A Hungarian family with four children move house into a rural community in Vancouver Island, sometime in the nineties. Most of the children seem well adjusted, but there is a source of disquiet. Jeremy, the eldest and the child of a previous relationship, is beginning to show concerning behavioral problems. The other kids are spooked when he does a turn, and the parents are quietly going out of their minds. A lack of mental health support, apparently a feature of the time, means there is little hope for the family, and they clearly haven't acquired the skills from elsewhere.
Told with little exposition, requiring a little patience on the part of the viewer to get on the wavelength of the film. To say much more would spoil the ingenuity in the approach to this film, so I won't. Blue Heron tells a familiar story from two perspectives and time periods in a way I haven't seen before, surprising the audience with a satisfying narrative that expects the viewers attention, and rewards it. A surprisingly satisfactory film.8/10
Maria Angeles, an elderly woman living on her own in the evening of her life, still maintains an active lifestyle in a market town in Tanzania, the street on which she lives gives the film its name. Her daughter many years ago emigrated to Madrid, but suddenly returns after little in the way of contact. Maria's joy is soon turned to devastated fury when she finds out why - Clara is broke from relationship troubles and needs money, and the apartment that Maria has lived in for 40-plus years - which her late father trustingly placed in Clara's name - needs to go up for sale to get her out of the hole. A deep rift opens up between the two, but Maria has little say in the matter. Faced with the choice between a care home and living in Spain with her now-horrible daughter, she opts for the former, though its not long before the bargain basement service provided makes Maria pine for her sumptuous apartment.
Horrible though Maria's situation is, the film is told with warmth and humour, a high point of the film has Maria sharing her woes with an old friend at the local convent. Its message of finding perhaps something better when everything is seemingly lost is a positive one, although the film allows the viewer to decide for themselves what the resolution is, of which I was expecting one of a handful when the credits suddenly ran. This abrupt ending may be a little disappointing for some who would wish for the resolution to be handed to them, but otherwise, it was clear why this got the audience award at Cannes this year. 8/10
A new Werner Herzog documentary is almost a requirement to watch, although the last film of his I managed to catch (Cave of Forgotten Dreams from BIFF 2011) didn't set my hair as alight as I was hoping it would.
Ghost Elephants is a name used by the tribes-people of Angola to describe what may be a previously unrecorded species of Elephant, one which is significantly larger than the usual ones in Africa. Thought to survive in the higher altitudes of the Angolan water tower - which feeds a good chunk of Africa from it's runoff - Dr. Steve Boyes has dedicated his life to finding and recording proof of these animals existence. A single specimen, dubbed 'Henry' was shot in 1955 and brought to the Smithsonian institute where a model of him is on display to this day.
Herzog and crew accompany Boyes, along with a handful of others traveling into Africa, first to Namibia where they take on the talents of some of the last elephant trackers, and then a hundred or so miles into Angola; first with 4x4's, then when the tracks run out and it becomes too impassable, switching to bikes and finally on foot. Along the way they contend with impassable terrain, poisonous snakes and spiders, and prey animals stalking them down.
Whether they find the elephants is less the point than the journey and the subjects covered along the way. Content warning: This is not a film for the squeamish. Lots of animal carcases left from previous expeditions and hunts, and some of the stock footage from days when elephants and similar sized beasts were hunted for sport will not soon leave my mind. If you can stomach it, Ghost Elephants is equal parts entertaining and sobering. 7.5/10
To round out a busy day, here is an unusual one. Therapist Linda is in way over her head. Husband Charles (played randomly by Christian Slater who is for most of the film a disembodied voice on the phone) is not around, her daughter needs nightly care that involves pumping gunk into her stomach by drip tube, and a water leak from the apartment above has just broken through, leaving a massive, ominous hole and lots of damage. Her fellow therapist (played even more randomly by Conan O'Brien) is little use and more interested in his own stories than hers, and a steady stream of half-witted patients darken her door at regular intervals to tell them how bad their life is. At rock bottom, she moves into a motel room while she fights helplessly with the landlord to get things fixed.
A person at absolute rock bottom with the entire world seemingly against them is going to have their perception of reality warped; and we are along for the ride. The endless days melt into one another, the hole begins to take on a life of its own, and how Linda avoids a complete nervous breakdown is beyond me.
A study into the mind of a woman on the edge; getting little or no support from the people in her life, the perils of being a mother to a child in need, and the effect that mental slide into madness, seen from the eyes of a victim. It's an odd, disconcerting film with a dark streak of humour, but with powerful images and a lot to say. 7.5/10
Francois and Julie have been coasting for a while now. Sixteen pretty good years under their belt and two adorable daughters, but somewhere under the calm, day to day waters, dissatisfaction stirs.
The touch paper is lit during a conversation which can only be described as 'frank and liberated' during a dinner with Francoir's younger and less embaggaged friend and his partner. Stirring something within him, he makes a pitch for a more open relationship to try and get back the spark.
But choices are many and varied in this new world, and the rules carefully laid down at the start may end up biting him in the backside, safe word or not.
Follies is not for the faint hearted, sexytime-wise. A lot of bare flesh (and not just in pairs) is on show as these guys explore their kinks, and they're far from alone in what appears to be a super-liberal suburb somewhere in French Canadia. It would seem that North (North) America is quite the hot bed of people getting it on in all sorts of ways behind closed doors through into the small hours.
The film explores this and it's relation to polygamy, and asks the question, if you were to let it all go, to really see what there is out there, so see what it is that got your juices fizzing, would you go for it, and what happens to that which went before? Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go into a darkened room. 7.5/10
Oscar Restrepo is a child, stunted from without and within by his mother's willingness to do everything for him, and Oscar's own inability to do more than the absolute minimum otherwise needed to live. He drinks to a stupor, has no job, and his ex-wife and daughter want nothing to do with him.
Things were not always this way, as his two published poetry books attest, but they were a long time ago, and Oscar is a shadow of the man that wrote them. The rut he comfortably resides in while he perpetually promises the waiting world a third tome is deep, with cushioned edges.
But his sister who puts him up in the spare room has had enough. Use what little talent you have to teach poetry, or find somewhere else.
Reluctantly he accepts, but discovers amongst the disinterested faces a kindred spirit in Yurlady, a quiet young student with an aptitude for poetry. Fired by his discovery, Oscar makes it his goal to nurture the talent, but his immaturity and impulsiveness to skip doing things by the books is about to land him in hot water.
A Poet is a tragedy with a dark comic edge. Amateur actor Ubeimar Rios, seemingly plucked off the street and stuck in front of the camera, is a perfect fit as a man-child barely in control of his existence, bringing a lonely fragility to the part that felt written for him.
It is a bit heavy on subtitles, especially when Oscar is drunkenly arguing his point with anyone who will listen, so it's a good idea not to sit too close to the screen, but beyond that, it's a fascinating portrait of a good man limited by his own inadequacies. 7.5/10
Louis le Prince International Short Film Competition 3
Garan (Tur) - A farmer waits patiently at the border between two bickering states, waiting for his precious cows to be delivered to him, but as the border closes and the trucks depart, his delivery, on which his families livelihood depends, is still missing. Desperately, he scours the dangers of the border in search of answers. 7.5
Malicia (Gra/Col) - In rural Columbia, two youngsters take a bike ride to the scene of a previous shooting, where their friend, El Mono, perished. Death is around each corner and mourning is a luxury. 7
Crumb(Ru) - An orphaned teen with learning difficulties works at a bakery in the hopes of one day breaking into society, but for the moment, his meager wage is spent with friends, buying clothes and trading nudie pictures. A chance encounter with a female co-worker awakes something in him and his innocent attempts to try and woo her can't go unpunished in a cruel world where only crumbs come within reach 7
The End of the World (Peru/UK) - A strange, allegorical tale; the elderly Epifanio buries himself at the foot of the mountain whose avalanche killed so many of his village so many years ago. Suddenly a child and back in the time of his parents, he spends what little time he has been given to reconnect and remember. 6
Honey, My Love, So Sweet (Phi) - Two children begin to explore love, gender and the wider world in the shadow of their parents crumbling cinema. It was a bit too cryptic for me. 5
Louis le Prince International Short Film Competition 4
Blue Heart (Hair/Fra) - While their son chases the American Dream half a world away, his father struggles with the care of his frail wife, who is recovering from a stroke. They await a phone call to pep their spirits, but rarely do they get it. A little abstract, it swings wildly between absurd Avant Garde and the quiet contemplation of love enduring all hurdles. 6
Ali (Ban/Phi) - A singing contest comes to a remote Bangladeshi town, and Ali can sing beautifully, but not in the 'right' way for his mother, whose imposed societal limitations force a perpetuation of in-grained self-persecution. Ali wants to show the world who he is. 7
What if they Bomb Here Tonight? (Leb) - An unsettled night for a family in Lebanon; the father fixates on the glass in the windows above their bed, fearful of the planes overhead and the rolling news reports on the telly. In the midst of this horrible situation, a darkly comedic tale appears. 8
In Between Storms (PR) - Lost to a hurricane a year previous, Camplos lies in a coffin washed away by storms. On the night before a new hurricane is about to hit Puerto Rico, Cheita, makes a desperate bid to retrieve the coffin from the rubble and bring it home safe. A sobering tale of loss and resolution. 8
Cucumber (No/Jp) - A cute tale based upon a real Hikikomori - a term given to someone socially self-withdrawn - who on receiving a simple gift from a neighbour, spirals out of control thinking and overthinking about an appropriate response, armed with precisely zero social skills. 7.5
Dancing Pigeons (Swe/Fra) - Finally, a cautionary tale about a spiritualist, whose cocksure handling of a show at a local village goes out of control when a woman asks about a very specific person she lost. Used to seeding the audience with vague hints to get a match, suddenly he needs to actually connect with a real soul or lose it all. 8
Fanomenon Short Film Competition 3
Grandma is Thirsty (UK) - Clearly channeling that episode of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, a bullied boy is taken into a house by Bronte and Benny, two creepy kids who promise him they will stop the bullies. I mean, they do... But... Ugh. 8
Em & Selma go Griffin Hunting (US) - Em and her mother live in an alternate America where the Griffin is a real creature, and the women of the community sanctify their womanhood by slaying one. When Em has second thoughts at pulling the trigger, she is forced into a choice between tradition and ostracisation. It was a little heavy handed with its points but nonetheless powerful. 7.5
Night Whispers (UK) - A man gets more than he bargained for when the woman he beds suddenly starts acting posessed. A quick kip in the afterglow of a conquest starts to go horribly wrong. 7.5
Stomach Bug (UK) - A Cambodian father tries to stay connected to his distant daughter, whilst having to contend with a seriously distended stomach. The docs seem disinterested, and then things start moving inside. A bit of an icky one but very well done 7.5
Checkout (UK) - Agnes just wants a quiet life but her neighbour likes Martine McCutcheon just a bit too much for her thin walls to take. But his music tastes will soon be the least of her problems when a trip to the shops turns into a fight for her life. 7.5
Plastic Surgery (UK) - Heavily pregnant surgeon Dr. Terra is seeing out her last days in the hospital before maternity leave, but a series of increasingly bizarre 'foreign object' emergencies, each involving plastic embedded in the body, spirals out of control. A tense, uncomfortable thriller with a powerful message underneath. 8
Crowded Out (USA) - Stressed from work and trying to find a parking space remotely close to home, Owen ends up picking up a hitch-hiker who wastes no time picking apart his imperfections. More and more hitch-hikers appear and things just turn into the weirdest way to die. 7
Leeds Music Video Competition
Despite the name, it contained videos from across the globe. A quick rundown of the ones I managed to catch:
Check your Face - Okay Kaya - Smooth, sensual vocals overlay a very odd film depicting a body warped by film and cut in half. 7
A Little More Action - Yoann Roussin - A french version of the Elvis Presley classic, playing to an animated clash between rival police gangs, seeing who can abuse the most protesters, as the rest of us look the other way. 8
Heute Ist Mein Tag - Hanningbarna - A company mandated training course accompanied by some angry screaming metal went better than you might think. 7
Julie - Horsegirl - A really nice indie song using animated scenes of nature, let down a little by the repetitiveness of the visuals. 7.5
Avalanche - Monolink - Two revellers retrieve their clothing on their separate walks home after what was clearly a wild night. 6
Buddha Was a Rich Boy - That Handsome Devil - madness and anarchy await a pair of young children as they gatecrash a gig in a pub toilet helmed by a madman. Over the top but fun. 7
Lost in Space - Foster the People - My personal favourite, a very 80's feel with elements of The Human League and Bryan Ferry to it. Gonna find out more about these guys. 8
GOD SAVE THE PONY - BIG SPECIAL - The band members are ponies in an office space setting, which predictably descends into chaos. 7
At Dawn - Pit Pony - Irish rockers Pit Pony give us a fast-paced ballad about being the odd one out in a relationship. 7
Ruth - Nick Leng - A nice, slow ode to a love of a life with a nostalgic feel. I can find the tune, but not the video. 7.5
Panic Shack - Girl Band Starter Pack - The band swap with a quartet of drag queens for a romp around the city streets. 7
Invincibility - Alabaster DePlume - Bit of a weepie as a dog is fatally injured and both mum and distraught daughter take it to the vet for the last time. A melancholy tune accompanies the sad event. 7
ITS JUST LIFE - GANS - The humdrum of the daily work trudge. Wake, work, repeat, played as a trippy hallucination and a nod to the post-punk of the early 80's. 7
Company Culture - Lambrini Girls - As with GANS, the Labbrini Girls are channeling The Divine Comedy's Office Politics, but with more chaos and destruction. The girls let loose with anger at the abuse and perpetual glass ceilings all too familiar to women up and down the country. 7
The Deep Blue Okay - Self Esteem - Done in a single take, one woman describes passionately what it is to be a complicated, stressed, overworked woman in todays society, and how she manages to try again the next day. Powerful. 8
My only full-length film of the day. Blandine, a thirty-something has taken time out from her quiet, seaside setting in Normandy, to travel to bustling, noisy Paris. Bustlingier and noisier than usual, she is here to see the 2024 Olympics. The plan was to see it with her girlfriend, but they split up just before, and she didn't want to waste the ticket, so here she is, with an oversized backpack for company.
It wouldn't be a film about finding ones self if there wasn't a cluster of mishaps, and poor Blandine can't catch a break. Barred from using her swimming ticket due to her backpack, and kicked out of her 18-30 hostel for being a day too old, she finds herself at the doorstep of Julie, her half-sister. They haven't seen each other for a long time, before their father died in fact, but taking pity on Blandine, Julie allows her to kip on the sofa rather than leave home early.
The film tells a warm-hearted story of one person's personal discovery about themselves, but not in the ways you might expect from such a film, which I found refreshing. Blandine finds not companionship, but an understanding of herself and where she wants to be in the lives of others; an angle to this sort of film I haven't really seen before, and I found it satisfying that Blandine found what made her content. 7.5/10
The subject matter of Our Land is not something I had paid much attention to. There is a movement in the England called Right to Roam, and it concerns the rights, or lack thereof, in this country for people to basically walk anywhere in the countryside, with a focus on the massive country estates, the properties owned for generations by families whose ancestors paid for the land using the wealth generated by colonial acquisitions centuries prior. When the film began, this main argument I found a little weak - we have public footpaths, bridleways and rights of way criss-crossing the countryside; you can barely go five minutes down a road without seeing a public footpath sign - so why do we need to be able to tramp across bramble filled fields deep inside country estates risking being shot when we're 'mistaken' for a pheasant?
But the beauty of this film is that it has a slow, persuasive push towards a change of mind, or at least an openness to see the argument. A tiny fraction - 8% - of land is publicly accessible in England and Wales, and 1% of the population owns a staggering half of the land. This has been brewing for a thousand years or more, going back to William the Conqueror times, when the common land was carved up and attributed to the wealthier parts of society, giving us the patchwork quilt of walled property we have today. But why does property ownership mean a right to exclude people from that land? From experiencing the beauty and the calm, the nature and the restorative qualities therein that a single person owning many hectares has decided it is for his enjoyment alone?
I did not know for instance that in Scotland, the 2003 Land Reform Act among other things underlined the basic right for people to not be excluded from the land. This right goes hand in hand with the requirement that people do so responsibly - close gates, pick up litter, dogs on leads etc as you might expect, and Right to Roam has campaigned for the same in England and Wales.
Our Land provides both sides with the opportunity to make their points, and I found myself sympathising with aspects of both the right to roam movement, and the owners of the estates that commendably agreed to be part of the film. One in particular was almost comical in his caricature of an upper class twit looking down his nose at the prolls, coming onto his land and dropping litter, but even he was given the room to show a side for which I had some sympathy; indeed the landowners generally made a sensible enough point that some middle ground can be achieved. However you interpret the argument, Our Land leaves the camera on the subjects to make, or fail to make their point, and the audience is left largely to decide. If nothing else, it is a celebration of something this country still can be proud of - it's beauty. 8/10
Out on a lonely council estate somewhere in Yorkshire, widowed pensioner Elsie (played by Brenda Blethyn, gaining a BAFTA for her part) sits quietly as the nurses come and go to her bungalow. Next door, Colleen (a seriously chavved-up Andrea Riseborough) sits aimlessly watching the TV. Jobless and on benefits, her oversized dog brings her what little meaning her life has, as she scours the internet for images of a better life.
Spotting an in, Colleen sees an opening to get closer to Elsie, who is less than attached to the rolling carousel of faces that come to make her tea and give her a shower; Colleen, once only a noise next door becomes a much needed constant in Elsie's life, perhaps even a replacement for her distant son. But is Colleen purely there to lend a hand and be a good neighbour?
Dragonfly keeps things purposefully ambiguous, subverting the expectations we place on the character of Colleen and playing on the viewers' preconceptions of someone who 'looks like that'. Colleen is no angel for sure, but is her malevolent intention clear cut? The strength of the film is in this ambiguity which lasts in the mind long past the credits, leaving the viewer with questions of their own about how they see others. 8/10
As we join Dad, an unnamed father to two young boys, he has returned from the cremation of his wife, who died suddenly and without warning. It quickly becomes clear that while he was an artist and author, she was the mother and took care of the house. Predictably, this results in a deterioration of the family routine.
But Dad also starts experiencing strange, malevolent things; crows crashing into the window, ominous messages on his phone. Someone out there does not take pity on him, and wants him to know.
This film had me pretty much from the start. Having two sons of my own made me realize what I have and how much could be lost in an instant; and as a study in grief, despair and eventual acceptance, The Thing With Feathers takes you on an emotional hollowing out and reconstruction with some of the best film-making I've seen in a long time. Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays Dad) should be on for some awards here, as he embodies the part of the troubled father struggling with the breakdown of his own mind, the viewer never quite sure where the reality ends and the hallucinations begin.
Hands down the best film of the festival so far. 8.5/10
Lille, France is the location of an unassuming little building. Inside, a handful of volunteers from disparate backgrounds help with the asylum claims of LGBT people, fleeing persecution in any one of the many countries that still, explicitly or not, permit and even endorse the persecution and even execution of such people.
Gaining asylum isn't easy. First you need to apply to OFPRA (the Office for Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons), telling them via interview your experiences of persecution, the consequences you would face if you returned, and to prove to them, somehow, that your sexuality is what you claim it to be. Should they be unconvinced, a second chance appeal with the CNDA (National Court of Asylum) provides a lifeline. But all this is a challenge to someone who has just arrived often with minimal possessions and sometimes unable to speak French, which the application must be in. These volunteers help to coach the applicants to give them the best chance at passing these tests. As the film shows, they also provide a place of solace and safety, perhaps hitherto missing from their life.
Watching silently, this documentary follows several brave applicants who, after fleeing persecution and making it to France, agree to have their experiences laid out, not just for the OFPRA examiner, but for the film as well, many in the hope that they will help others by doing so. Not all are successful in their application.
In an ideal world, this sort of film should be accessible to show people on the fence about asylum seekers, or gay people, to watch, and see, and put a human face to the faceless numbers we see in the news. This film could do an awful lot of good if the right eyes saw it. 7.5/10
Dead Lover (CA/US) (wiki)
In a strange, dark nether-verse, a lonely gravedigger shovels the soil, and since she picks up the stink of every body she buries, she ain't so hot with the guys. That is until a poet with a bit of a kink for that sort of thing comes along, and they fall in love; one that is tragically cut short by his drowning at sea, leaving her with only a severed finger to remember him by. Cue a comedic variation on the Frankenstein story, where she uses her knowledge of plants and bodies to bring him back to life, of a sort.
By coincidence, the two main leads of this ultra low-budget film are Grace Glowicki and Ben Petri, who also starred in Honey Bunch, a much more enjoyable experience which benefits from the extra time and money clearly missing from this one. All parts are played by four actors, and everything is shot as if it were a Hammer knock-off from fifty years ago. Garth Meringhi did it 20 years ago, and better.
That feels cruel. The players put their all into the film, and it is clearly a passion project, albeit existing as it does on a shoestring that uses whatever props they could find (the moon is a piece of paper that retains the crease from where it was clearly folded to cut a semicircle for heavens sake). I wanted to like it, and I did chuckle in a couple of places - Glowicki stands out with a committed if not especially funny turn as the gravedigger - but it just seemed to run out of steam as the third act kicked off and it kind of stumbled with little sense towards an unsatisfying conclusion. Its a shame that the day that was full of cracking films, ended on one that was so fair-to-middling. 6/10
The first far-eastern film of the festival is from China. Though I enjoy films from the far east enormously, there are some pronounced differences in the way that a story is told in Chinese culture, compared to say, Japanese. Since most of my experience of such output is from the latter, Chinese films can have elements that are a little jarring, culturally or otherwise. This film is such an example.
The Girl Who Stole Time is, as the name would suggest, a time travel caper; Qian Xiao, a young girl gets mixed up in a search for the 'time dial', a macguffin that grants the wearer the ability to stop time. Gaining the upper hand against Seventeen, a young gang member tasked with retrieving it, she can keep him at bay simply by stopping time and getting out of the way. On agreement that she will give it back after a day, Seventeen plays along to help her have an unforgettable day in the city she's just rocked up on.
Though the core of the film sort of made sense, there were several instances where things were introduced, and then just abandoned. For example, when Qiax Xiao stops time and moves something, the physicality of pushing an object 'stuck in time' means that when time is set in motion once more, a massive force is suddenly applied all at once to the object, which is then either significantly damaged, or goes flying across the room - delete as the plot requires. But after the first altercation - a pretty cool double chase scene - this is pretty much forgotten about entirely.
The third act attempts to tie a lot of loose ends and explain some of the stranger goings on earlier, but its too saggy and gets bogged down in its own complexity, and trying desperately to suddenly change the dynamic between the leads from a germinating romance, to a full-on time-spanning romance. It feels like we lost about 10 minutes of exposition somewhere.
It was good; although not the animation marvel we were led to believe it was. Some goofy animation slip ups here and there, and while the character models were quite well detailed, they looked to inhabit a world of cookie-cutter low-detail buildings. It could have been worse, but there was a lot to improve on here. 6/10
From a refreshingly simple concept came a very enjoyable film with a sci-fi twist. In a universe where humanity has discovered multiverse travel, albeit manifesting in a black market trade, Irene travels between multiverse s in a seeming neverending search for one where her daughter wasn't kidnapped and brutally murdered. So far, she hasn't found one, and while she is there, murders, again and again, the bastard that did it, again and again.
In one universe, she encounters Mia, another kidnap victim who by chance hadn't yet been murdered. Mia is a vagrant child, her parents dead and now batted between adoption centres, she was picked up on the run. Distrusting and lashing out, she is initially a liability for an amateur assassin, but as Mia learns of the wider situation, it becomes clear they could both be each others saviour.
A tense and brooding film, shot on a shoestring budget, but able to hit well above its weight, Redux Redux was a satisfying watch and a nice take on the multiverse concept. 8/10
The title of this documentary from new filmmakers Helena Berndl and Francesco Maria Gallo has been 8 years in the making, initially the germ of an idea when someone asked Helena about Aspartame, the sugar substitute used in foods. As she looked further, Helena had more questions than answers about why such a substance ended up in our foods.
Food programs and films tend to be dizzying. No sooner so we try and cut one thing from our diet (red meat, palm oil, ultra processed foods...) than another view comes along vilifying some other staple of our diets. And In Symbiosis does this yet more, throwing its wide net around the practice of intensive farming, the way it does more harm than good, and the way it appears to be failing, due to a number of reasons, including the monocultures removing the diversity from the soil and environment, and removing the grounds ability to store nutrients and moisture, something that more organic farming methods are not suffering from.
In Symbiosis covers a lot of ground, and I mean, a lot. It will take at least 2 viewings to get a good digestion of the subjects at hand here, and its deep dive into the subject, plus touching on various adjacent ones, may work against it when it comes to bringing the film to a wider, less detail tolerant audience. But there is no doubt that this is one of the more urgent films to experience on the documentary circuit. 8/10
A girl wakes up in a moving trailer home, pulled through the night along bumpy, unfamiliar roads. A bandage on her arm points to a mysterious injury, and it seems to be spreading something around her body. The man at the wheel tells her via jerry rigged speaker to be calm; they will be at the hospital soon, he knows just who can treat her. So far, so typical creepy kidnap movie.
But hellcat has surprises in store and not everything is as it seems. Shot almost entirely in the claustrophobic, dirty interior of the trailer, the situation becomes darker and more obfuscated, as the horrors within its grimy walls are slowly discovered.
Hellcat is a grimy, uncomfortable thriller with great lead performances and a toe-curling third act, marred only slightly with an ending which lost credibility with me just a touch. However it wasn't enough to stop it being a strong recommendation, even if horror thrillers aren't your thing. 7.5/10
My third Day of the Dead screening for the day sees Daisy Ridley - not the first person you think of for this sort of thing - star in a variant on the Zombie apocalypse genre. Eva wed her beau Mitch just before he went to a conference in Tasmania, which by unfortunate coincidence fell victim to a fatal accident where a US military base just offshore let loose an experimental weapon, annihilating the residents of the eastern half of the island with an electromagnetic pulse, killing everything that breathed.
Trying in desperation to get to her husband she volunteers as part of the body identification and cleanup routine, but quite quickly it becomes clear that not everyone is dead, or at least, some have reanimated themselves. Breaking clear of the controlled zone border, she hitches a ride with Clay, a wayward fellow volunteer with few scruples who relishes the chance to give the bike he just liberated a test drive.
We Bury the Dead is gristly, nasty horror, if only for the zombies themselves who are largely in the shadows and dormant, but their tendency to grind their teeth until they crack give me serious ick, and if you come to a horror film to feel ick, then this is the one for you.
It did everything it should have done; creeped you out, kept you on edge and fearful of the next fright, but also with a grounding of humanity, the film careful not to stray away from the fact that days earlier, these were people, and families. I'm no fan of horror films generally, but this was cerebral enough to keep me both fearful and entertained, and I'm glad I put it on the list. 7.5/10
A young man makes his way across the Mexican border. Nearly perishing in a crowded container truck as it sits in the baking sun, he makes a break for it as the smugglers return to take their passengers on the next leg of their journey to the land of the free.
Somehow he makes it back to his lover; and older woman by the name of Jennifer. The heat of the relationship radiates from the screen and it becomes clear they are inseparable.
But complications creep in; Jennifer keeps Fernando hidden from her high flying friends and her brother and father, who between the three run a philanthropic foundation to help young people find themselves both sides of the border. Fernando, with a clear talent and passion for ballet, becomes frustrated at the situation and breaks contact, leaving a devastated Jennifer with an unquenchable fire still in her soul for him.
Dreams explores the nature of both male and female desire when things get out of hand, through the lens of the complications and the tinder box subject of both legal and illegal immigration in the US, although it stays well away from any recent political escalations in the area, this is nonetheless timely. 7.5/10
The title is a reference to the Bridge of Sirāt - a mythical bridge separating paradise from hell. And our protagonist - Luis - a middle-aged father desperately trying to find his daughter after months of searching, is about to cross it.
Acting on a lead suggesting that she may have gone to an illegal rave in the middle of the Moroccan desert, Luis - with young son Esteban in tow - takes his thoroughly unsuitable people carrier across the rough and rocky desert, trying his best to keep up with a group of ravers off to their next gig - and a possible new place to look for his daughter. Not wanting to spoil things, but the title very much hints at the events to come, as the group become closer, but also more imperiled.
Refreshingly, the portrayal of the rave community is much more positive than you would often see on film. Yes they are off their arses with drugs, a necessity it seems to fully lose yourself in the pounding beats some may call music, but they are also caring and good people, if a little on the rough side, who welcome Luis in and come to help him in his time of need.
Sirāt is a film to experience on the big screen, and is one that despite its trippy, hallucinatory shell, has a genuinely emotional roller coaster inside. It's not forgotten in a hurry and no surprise it won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes this year. 8/10
After a mysterious accident, Diana and her devoted beau Homer head to a retreat way into the sticks for a course of radical post-coma treatment to restore her memories. A fabled doctor dabbling with experimental procedures can bring a person back to their past selves for the right price. Sure enough after the first few days of pills and strobe lights, memories begin to return, but they're a bit off, and they're accompanied by some distressing hallucinations of a woman - looking suspiciously like one in a painting - receiving some unconventional treatments of her own. So descends Diana into the spiraling horror of this story.
The time period is the 70's, and there are a number of cinematic nods to the period as well, including shonky zooms in on distant window panels, which may or may not frame a ghostly apparition, which gives it an appeal as entertaining as it is authentic. And it's fun too. The twists and turns are as mystifying to the viewer as they are to poor Diana until the final few revelations, which is just how these things should be; you want to be a passenger to the mystery, but to leave satisfied that most of it made sense on your way out of the theatre, and Honey Bunch - complete with a title which makes sense at that point - does all of that. 8/10
Its a long time since we could scoff at Robert Pattinson for his part in inflicting the Twilight films on a world that had enough on it's plate already; these days he's considered much more and actor with chops, and after last year's distinctly off-kilter Mickey 17, Pattinson is here again in the indie quadrant, and he's brought Jennifer Lawrence with him.
They play Jackson and Grace, a young couple who clearly started out with a passionate and energetic relationship. Whatever piece of flat furniture happened to be within shagging distance, it was required to have a good wipe down shortly afterwards. But now abruptly and way too early it seems, a baby has appeared, Jackson works long hours away and sleeps when he returns, and now they have moved into Jacksons' late fathers' tired old house, containing little more than bad memories for one, and an out of place feeling for the other. The seeds of destruction have been sown.
The two main leads give their all, in particular Lawrence, who is the focus of the film as the woman struggling with the myriad stresses of new motherhood alone, sliding helplessly into a post natal depressive state. Parents of any persuasion will see elements of their own experience peppered throughout, and its not always easy viewing, with Grace sometimes almost revelling in her descent, such is her state of mind.
Though Die, My Love gives the viewer little genuine hope of a better tomorrow for these young parents it does leave the ending sufficiently open (though potentially devastating) for the audience to decide whether this particular family will make it through. 7.5/10
Another year of non-blogging, another film festival. This one will be a little different though. Why? Ive got a 30 film pass and by god am I gonna use it.
My very first 2025 festival film is taking a slight risk as it is a French film; Don't get me wrong, I have had some excellent experiences with French cinema, but they also have tendency to be a bit up themselves. While A Private Life cannot lay claim to hitting the pretentious highs of, say ... The Pandrogeny Manifesto, I did get a feeling a couple of times that things might be heading in that direction. The line however stayed uncrossed.
Jodie Foster, who we don't see so much these days, plays Lilian, a middle-aged psychoanalyst. American but fully naturalised in France, she is distant from her son Julien, and her estranged husband Gaby. She works robotically through her client list without joy or interest, recording her patients woes whilst recording them onto Mini-disc for her records, a technologically averse tic that belies deeper issues.
One day, Paula - a patient many sessions absent - is found dead, and at the funeral, Lilian finds herself accosted by both Paula's husband and daughter, both distraught for their own reasons at her inclusion on the guest list. Mystified by the incident. Lilian plays amateur sleuth following a chain of mysteries to learn the truth of Paula's disappearance.
Purposefully wrong-footing the viewer, A Private Life has a narrative that is pretty difficult to pin down, taking in the hallucinatory dreams whilst under hypnosis, seemingly revealing a past life of the main players, perhaps revealing the next link in the mystery, or perhaps not - the movie doesn't seem to care all that much, rather concentrating on the stream of experiences of varying levels of believability as we move to a conclusion. Thats not to say that A Private Life is unwatchable; both Foster and Daniel Auteuil, who plays her clumsy but amiable ex-husband Gaby have a strong chemistry, and Mathieu Amalric, the unhinged widower, burns a hole for himself into the celluloid. I enjoyed the film - not as much as I'd hoped, as it was easy to get lost in the sometimes haphazard logic and untied loose ends - and looking at that more positively, its the sort of film that would reward a second viewing, after which some of its mysteries would become clearer. 7/10
I didn't manage to see Yorgos Lanthimos' last film-but-one Poor Things when it was playing at Leeds last year, but I was very glad to see it in the cinemas a month or so later. A very divisive film for many; I found it to be an example of pure cinema; taking you places where you had genuinely never been before, full of unforgettable scenes and emotions. Ms Plants, however, after being persuaded to come along for a second viewing, was significantly less impressed. I think some of the best films are able to do this; to incite such strong emotion and it is either loved or hated. I loved it.
So to grab one of the last seats on opening night was a goal of this festival; one I can confidently say I will be able to enjoy more films than probably the last three festivals combined. Kids, eh?
Bugonia is a loose remake of Save the Green Planet, a Korean film from about 20 years ago. Repeat Lanthimos collaborators Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone play opposing sides in a battle of wills between Stone's corporate speaking, high flying business woman Michelle, and Plemons conspiracy addled maniac Teddy who is convinced - not unreasonably - that the unintended consequences of some of Michelle's business output is responsible for the coma state of her mother. But also that she is an alien, come to execute a plan to cleanse the world of humans, Aided by Don, a trusting and overly dependent friend who was probably dropped on his head a few too many times throughout his life, they pull off the improbable and land the kidnap. A battle of wits ensues, but how can Michelle win when chained to the floor, trying to reason someone out of their delirium, armed only with things she learned in diversity training?
Though I loved Poor Things a lot, even I could accept there were elements of filler that could have been trimmed, and the same is true here; there are some protracted scenes that could have lost a couple of pounds, but for every minute of that, there are five more pushing things along, with a couple memorable scenes in particular creating audible gasps around me. As for the ending, you can kind of guess what is gonna happen, but the ending might stick with you longer than you think. 8/10
Freddie is enjoying the good fortunes of youth, enabling her to travel where she will, meet people and see things. I remember those days with fondness. Korean born but put up for adoption at an early age and brought up in France, her plans for a trip to Japan are scuppered by the weather and she diverts to an impromptu visit to Seoul. Fortune finds her mingling with a crowd, including the quiet Tena, who fortunately speaks French and so helps her with the locals. As we join her in the film, Freddie is contemplating her suggestion to visit the Hammond Adoption center to trace her birth parents.
Impulsive and tangential, her heart isn't truly in the escapade; and when she learns her parents are separated and only dad wishes to make contact, her disappointment is lowered further when he turns out to be a needy drunkard.
Feeling the pull of both her biological and adoptive homelands, and the emotional thump of her mother's rejection amplifies Freddie's emotional decision making - leave the disappointment behind and return to the comfort of her old life, or derail her life and stay in the hopes her mother will reply to the request, and not turn out to be another bum.
Park Ji-min who plays Freddie seems to be just barely maintaining composure throughout, you expect her pursed lips to explode with an angry release of frustration at every predicament she finds herself in, and the ups and downs on her journey of self discovery keep the interest going through to the end, sometimes leading to particularly tender and heartfelt moments thanks to a cast underplaying their parts compared to a typical high energy Korean film. 7
Jeanne is fast approaching middle age, single and her life is falling apart. The culmination of a life's work project to find a solution to the oceans microplastics has ended up as a very expensive fish toy at the bottom of the sea. Her reputation in tatters and her frantic attempt to save the project reduced to mocking YouTube videos, she also has to deal with the death of her mother, who threw herself off a bridge in a fit of depression.
Fighting bankruptcy, the only option is to sell her mother's Lisbon apartment, but first Jeanne must get there and expose her already fragile emotions to the stress of a thousand family memories as she chucks her childhood in the skip.
The plane journey gets worse as Jean, a large and oafish petty thief happens to tag along like an unwanted shower curtain salesman, and just doesn't seem to want to go away.
Everybody loves Jeanne plays out unsurprisingly as a 'girl meets idiot who turns out to be actually quite nice actually but is still an idiot but at least he's not an arse' sort of film. There isn't any plot twists here, but it is very enjoyable. It's played as a romcom of sorts but finds time to meditate on Jeanne's journey of healing as she reconciles her mixed feelings for her mother, who regularly berated Jeanne and her brother at least as much as she loved them; memories of childhood handled tenderly mix with Jeanne's inner monologue, which, much like the excellent BoJack Horseman episode 'stupid piece of shit' - which could so easily have been a direct inspiration - shows her inner insecurities and suggestions that she too might suffer from the same depression that plagued the mind of her mother. It's a beautiful, tender and funny film and one I would really recommend - and given my relationship with pretentious French films in the past, who'd have predicted that with a French romcom? 8
I originally wanted to see the Korean thriller Confession, but it had sold out so I'm assuming it was as good as Jeanne, which I managed to wangle the last ticket for.
My backup choice had some parallels to Return to Seoul, in that it dealt with a young girl brought up in a country other than her birth one. In this case, the geography is reversed, with young Kurdish teen Sarya, fleeing the middle east with her family after her father is wanted for taking part in an illegal demonstration, and finding refuge in Japan. For a while they forge an existence with a similar group of Kurds in Saitama; Sarya has a promising school record, the beginnings of a romance with a work mate and her aims to become a teacher look on track. But it starts to fall apart with the news their refugee status has been rejected and their visas are taken away. With temporary status they can't work or travel, and with their meager savings, their landlord starts to run low on charity. As with Jeanne it didn't have any major twists and turns, and whereas the earlier film had a pleasing mix of humour and emotional clout, My Small Land only has the latter. That's not to say it was only half as enjoyable, but the heavy scenes had to work harder to keep up. Fortunately, the acting, especially by Lina Arashi playing the young lead with maturity beyond her years helps to carry this off. It did meander a little and may not reach the sort of satisfying conclusion some may wish for, but I left with a hopeful warmth for the family that all would be well. 7
Ukraine, unfortunately but understandably from a western point of view gets most of the airtime when it comes to news reports, but another conflict, predating those events by over a year, still continue apace further east. The military coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi from power at the start of February last year has seen the country's infant new democracy throttled in the cradle. For the inhabitants, it's a daily onslaught of thumping on the door in the middle of the night, snatched family members, and thousands of deaths. The civil disobedience movement, growing organically out of this, made of a ragtag of civilians brave enough to bang pots and pans, stand unarmed against groups of military police, or even join the guerillas hiding in the countryside and outright bring the war back to the military's door, give a fragile hope for the future
Myanmar diaries is a powerful window into this horrible world in which to exist. Created anonymously by Burmese filmmakers, it intersperses acted scenes in small rooms; small vignettes showing life's twisted and broken under occupation, and captured phone footage of protests, attacks, shootings and more. Though you know the former is acted out, the scenes gain additional weight because you know the situations they depict went on a thousand times, perhaps behind the curtain of that cramped flat you just saw as a mass beating of protesters took place.
Not for the faint of heart, but a much needed light shining on yet another atrocity as the pendulum continues to swing further to the right. 7.5
Climate crises (plural) is pretty undeniable now with half of Pakistan under water, regular and searing forest fires in the Americas, and of course the Arctic ice thawing at an unprecedented rate. It's depictions of these kinds of international incidents that precede the main meat of this film but somewhat surprisingly, and a little disappointingly, it settles on two relatively small and local fights, in the UK and Germany, connected by a common threat of open cast coal mining, and Clumsy, a beringed climate activist who lends his time to protesting both of them. For the UK, a small village in the Tyneside Pont Valley is under constant threat of reopening a once underground mine as open cast, a fight that has waged between the residents and banks, the coal mining company looking to get at a rich seam of black gold, for the past 30 years. Germany however has the largest open mine that has quickly spread across the site of the formerly huge Hambach forest, of which now only 10% remains. Even so, the company in charge eats ever further into it and unsatisfied with even that, uses draconian laws to evict residents in any village if they so much smell coal beneath.
Starting with an almost cozy tale of locals and activists coming together to sit and sing and make banners progresses to higher stakes and more dangerous situations; treetops and rabbit holes become the last outposts as armoured police increasingly lose control of the situation and lives of the activists themselves become chips on the table. As businesses leverage their best lawyer talent to push slowly forward skirting around the limits of the law we see just how much both sides are willing to go. What starts small becomes much bigger and a study on just two small examples of the worldwide move to a direct action approach. An inspirational film that I will be introducing to my kids. 8
The Solé family, spread across three generations spend countless summers happily picking fruit in their orchard home in the Alcarràs. Centuries old orchard trees produce bountiful harvests that provide a livable income for them, at least until now. The market trading value pushed downwards by the big buyers is compounded by news that the current head of the nearby Pinyol family - whose grandfather rewarded the Solés for hiding them in the war with a verbal agreement that the land was theirs to farm - is not much of a fan of traditional farming - or traditional handshake agreements - and likes the look of what is legally if not rightfully his land after all, covered in solar panels.
Alcarràs is a moment in time where a family must adjust, and it's told deftly with room to study the effect of change on the three generations; the youngest children play happily around the stressed parents with little understanding of the politics at work, only to gaze in confusion at the outcomes that affect them; the teens are torn between the need to have a familiar baseline in their life and the opportunity to rip it up and find something new. In the middle, father Quimet is stuck in his own ways, too young for retirement but too old for reinvention, watching helpless as his life shakes and crumbles around him and no-one seems to be entirely on his wavelength. Rogelio, grand father to the flock seems to be able to have the calm to see the coming changes and not have the will to fight them. Still worse, their friendly auntie and uncle who come over for meals and get togethers, see advantage in a deal, and seem to be taking matters into their own hands.
It's a beautifully shot, bittersweet film of the loss of a way of life, it's situation recalling themes from both the earlier climate film and my own personal situation with the politics of neighbourly land ownership. But it did feel overly long, and the use of nonprofessional actors, though providing a sense of authenticity, did mean it went a little unfocused here and there. 7
The Leeds Palestinian Film Festival is not something I was familiar with but it's been going on quietly in the shadows of LIFF for nearly a decade now. As a joint collaboration, this feature about strange and unlikely friendships was also the launch film of the LPFF.
Waleed is depressed, and we don't know why. He has been suffering clinically for.. maybe ever and is just existing. Therapy is no help and his days just revolve around sleeping, feeding the kids, and not writing his book. Variety comes in the form of Jalal, a brash, arrogant man with loud dogs and louder music tastes, but who at least gives Waleed something to take his mind off the emptiness. Jalal becomes more interesting still when it becomes clear he's mixed up with some unsavoury types who want their loan money paid back with interest, but is Waleed just after a creative writing inspiration, or something darker..
Though billed as a comedy, the laughs are sparingly applied in favour of a dark undertone that rises to the surface in the final act as things come to a head. Amer Hlehel is capable as Waleed, his ability to stare the pants off his subject matter tells of the dark thoughts within, eventually eclipsing Ashraf Farah, who plays Jalal with an initial arrogance that softens in aghast as the two parts swap places. A good, solid film that explores some of the darkest reaches of the mind. 7
For this week, that's all I can manage but with a following wind and an understanding partner, maybe I can fit a few more in next week.
Well, its been a long three years since I did much of this, and work/family commitments mean that another 2013 is a long way off. The last posts were in 2019 (apologies) but as you can appreciate, the 2020's have been a bit crap so far, and this is the first time Ive been back to a festival since. Here's hoping we're through it and we only have global recession, climate demise and an idiot government to deal with now.
The films I post are just a smattering of the films at LIFF this year; theyre chosen more because they fit my schedule than what I would prefer to watch, unfortunately. However, experience has taught me this can be where the best films can be found - the ones you happen to see because the stars align, ones you may wrinkle your nose at and scrawl a '3' next to on your initial scan of the brochure.
What nicer experience to ease me back into the festival spirit than this quiet, gentle study of the locally famous but unassuming 'the bookstore', nestled in the quiet but environmentally dynamic US town of Lenox, Massachusetts. Inside, dwells the quiet, cuddly figure of Matt Tannenbaum, proprietor since my birth year (which yes, is a long time ago, since you ask), who runs the store with occasional help from his two daughters. Learned yet characteristically set in his ways, he watches as the oft present threat of Amazon tag-teams with the in-out-in-out of the COVID lockdowns to squeeze the already modest income passing through his tills. The film introduces us to Matt as he greets potential buyers behind the door in the entranceway, doing his best to work around the restrictions of the first lockdown by getting them to shout their credit card details through the glass, and charts the ups and downs - barely registered by the man too busy enjoying his passion while he still can - until the present day. If it were just a record of the slow death of yet another bookstore, it would have not been nearly so enjoyable, but fortunately it is warmed through by his warmth and friendliness to his patrons, cushioned by readings and excerpts of choice chapters from the many shelves, or from his own life; perhaps a mix of the two sometimes, it's quite possible his memory has been sprinkled with the storylines of a thousand novels. A lovely, affectionate look into the life of a person, an building and a tonne of books that together means much more to the residents of the town. 7.5
What appears to be LIFF22's only anime offering, if you discount Unicorn Wars (which you should), GDG is a sweet coming of age tale about the "Don Glees", a duo of teens sidelined from the popular groups and habitually doing their own thing. For this year's summer break celebrations, they're joined by mysterious newcomer Drop, who convinces them their alternate and private fireworks show will be much better preserved with aerial footage from an expensive drone. With all Roma's money spent, the drone AWOL and the fireworks coming to nothing in a deluge of rain, they managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, when the village has to cope with the aftermath of a huge forest fire the following morning. So begins a road trip of sorts to recover the drone and maybe some footage to prove their innocence.
With Studio Madhouse at the helm, the animation is serviceable but unspectacular, save for a few scenes where the traditional cell animation process is augmented by computer, delivering some grand scenery where it counts. Throughout, the dialogue between the three leads is engaging, though sometimes goes off in odd directions, (perhaps this may be down to my ability to parse the anime style getting somewhat rusty in recent years) but bounces along nicely fleshing the three characters out and keeping things going. A somewhat contrived ending twist takes a little swallowing but doesn't ruin the film and there's still plenty to enjoy. 7
Who will be the next Sohee, and the next, and the next...
Sohee is young, spunky and hard to faze. On her final year of school she is told how lucky she is to land an extern job at a major telecom company, somewhere that - she is assured - if she keeps her head down and works hard, could give her struggling school a much needed boost in the all important Korean rankings system. She might even get a few gold stars herself to add to her prospects. But quickly any idea of a fulfilling job post evaporates, and Sohee finds herself in the middle of a busy call centre with grueling hours, impossible bonuses, and downright horrendous customers, who seem to want to terminate their contracts with alarming regularity. When Sohees' boss is found dead in his car, she begins to spiral dangerously downwards, caught between her suspicions around the death, the unfeeling grind of the company, and her increasing isolation and reliance on a stiff drink to make it stop for a few hours.
Based on real life events, Next Sohee tries to convey the reality of both the exploitative working conditions found in some high pressure Korean workplaces, and the frustrating feeling of helplessness from anyone who sticks their head above the parapet and tries to make a change. No one is to blame, everyone is a victim, and lives will continue to be ruined.
Though a tad long, the film is split into two halves with a very different pacing for each, and this helps to keep the attention from flagging. Ultimately though, if you are wanting a film to leave you satisfied that justice has been served, I'm afraid the conclusion it reaches remains true to the real life events it emulates, and this may find you wanting. 7.5
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
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
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
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.
