Festivals
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Dragonslayer’
★★★☆☆ Director Tristan Patterson’s award-winning documentary Dragonslayer (2011) (SXSW Grand Jury Prize for best documentary feature) documents the life of Josh ‘Skreech’ Sandoval, a jaded skateboarding veteran living in the sun-drenched, extreme sports-loving town of Fullerton, California.Skreech’s skateboarding career has almost grounded to a complete halt and despite his local fame his sponsorship deals have…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Headhunters’
★★☆☆☆ Adapted from Jo Nesbø’s international bestselling novel Headhunters (2011), director Morten Tyldum’s third full length feature is a taut Norwegian thriller, full of Scandinavian humour that’s already lined up for an invertible Hollywood remake.Despite his diminutive stature, Roger (Aksel Hennie) is a corporate recruiter who seems to have it all. He dresses in the…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘The Ides of March’
★★★☆☆ One of the big-hitters of the 55th BFI London Film Festival and starring and directed by George Clooney, The Ides of March (2011) is a political drama with actor of the moment Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Evan Rachel Wood. Clooney’s latest is adapted from the play Farragut North by Beau…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Return’
★★☆☆☆ Following the recent influx of anti-war films with a more inwardly-looking perspective, Liza Johnson’s debut feature Return (2011) – which screens at this year’s 55th BFI London Film Festival – stars Linda Cardellini as a female officer unable to reintegrate into society after the horrors she witnessed in Afghanistan, alongside Michael Shannon and John…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘The Artist’
★★★★★ A categorical success at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist is a gloriously executed love letter to the silent era of Hollywood, featuring an award-winning performance by Jean Dujardin (Best Actor at Cannes). A thoroughly enjoyable romp, The Artist looks set to be a crowd favourite at this year’s BFI London…
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LFF 2011: ‘Carnage’
★★★★☆ The cinematic adaptation of a stage play can offer a filmmaker many creative challenges. Either the film can largely ignore its theatrical origins (Casablanca [1942] was based on a pretty unsuccessful production called Everybody comes to Ricks), or then can be preserved in the form of a chamber piece – see Sidney Lumet’s 12…
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LFF 2011: ‘Elena’ review
★★★★☆ Director Andrei Zvyagintsev broke onto the scene with his remarkably assured 2003 debut The Return, a visually alluring and emotionally engrossing story of two young boys who embark on a road trip with their long lost father. His third feature, Elena (2011), also deals with fraught domestic relationships and is a welcome confirmation that…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Nobody Else But You’
★★☆☆☆ Rumours are currently swirling around the internet as to the identity of the ‘Surprise Film’ at this year’s 55th BFI London Film Festival, with Simon Curtis’ My Weekend with Marilyn currently a strong contender alongside Bruce Robinson’s The Rum Diary and Brad Pitt’s Moneyball. However, one film has already screened at this year’s LFF…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Las Acacias’
★★★☆☆ You know those long awkward car journeys you use to have as a kid in a foreigner’s car, crossing the border from Paraguay to Argentina? Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias (2011) – which receives its UK premiere tonight at the 55th BFI London Film Festival – is one of those. At 90 minutes, it’s a…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’
★★★★★ Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been a Cannes favourite since his debut film Koza won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in 1995, so it came as little surprise when his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), walked away with Grand Jury Prize earlier this year. However, Ceylan’s win…