London Film Festival
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘I, Anna’ review
★★☆☆☆ I, Anna (2012) director Barnaby Southcombe, son of actress Charlotte Rampling (who takes the lead role as a femme fatale in this, his feature debut), attempts to adapt Elsa Lewin’s novel of the same name in what is a disappointing thriller set in London’s Barbican. After a man is brutally murdered in his apartment,…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘Keep the Lights On’ review
★★★☆☆ From American director Ira Sachs (best known for previous efforts Married Life and Forty Shades of Blue) comes Keep the Lights On (2012), a sensitive, meandering drama set amongst the bohemian cafés and art galleries of New York City. Brought together through a hedonistic cocktail of sex and drugs, Danish filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhart)…
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BF London Film Festival 2012: ‘The Wall’ review
★★★★☆ Well-known in her native Germany, Martina Gedeck is perhaps best recalled for her role in Oscar-winning Stasi drama The Lives of Others (2006). However, with a sprinkling of luck this may soon change, as recent New Wave Films acquisition The Wall (Die Wand, 2012) gears up for a 2013 theatrical release thanks to a…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘The Interval’ review
★★★☆☆ One of eight Italian films to screen at this year’s London Film Festival, director Leonardo di Costanzo’s The Interval (L’intervallo, 2012) boasts Gomorrah (2008) screenwriter Maurizio Braucci as one of its co-writers – predictably presenting an exceedingly unfavourable depiction of Naples. Salvatore (Alessio Gallo), 17, is ripped away from the Lemon Ice stand he…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ review
★★☆☆☆ Desperately clinging to the fading memory of last year’s Academy Award-sweeping The King’s Speech (2010), Roger Michel’s Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) tells the story of an important weekend in the summer of 1939, when president Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) played host to King George VI (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Coleman),…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘Gimme the Loot’ review
★★★☆☆ Adam Leon’s Gimme the Loot (2012) is a brisk and refreshingly jolly look at life on the streets of New York from the perspective of two young graffiti artists, Sofia (Tashiana Washington) and Malcolm (Ty Hickson) aka Shakes. We are introduced to the characters as they shoplift paint canisters from a DIY shop, aided…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘Like Someone in Love’ review
★★☆☆☆ Following up on the Cannes success of his previous film – the award-winning, Juliette Binoche-starring Certified Copy (2010) – Iranian writer and director Abbas Kiarostami returns to the festival fray this year with Like Someone in Love (2012), his first film made in the sprawling Japanese capital of Tokyo. Featuring a largely unknown all-Japanese…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘Mekong Hotel’ review
★★★☆☆ When it comes to impenetrable arthouse fare, Thai indie auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul is widely regarded as something of a master. Two years ago, he arrived in London triumphantly with his Palme d’Or for the majestic Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) and has returned this year with the not-quite-feature-length oddity, Mekong Hotel…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘The Sapphires’ review
★★★☆☆ Wayne Blair’s musical comedy The Sapphires (2012), one of the Gala screenings at this year’s London Film Festival, tells the (apparently true) story of a group of four Australian Aboriginal girls (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell) from a rural community who aspire to musical greatness. They sing together as a…
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BFI London Film Festival 2012: ‘In Another Country’ review
★★☆☆☆ In competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, South Korean director Hong Sang-soo returns with In Another Country (2012), a carefully crafted, slight whimsical comedy that isn’t particularly funny and has nothing new to say. A young girl is stuck with her mother at a seaside town as they have stood guarantor for an…
