Festivals
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Venice 2017: Lean on Pete review
★★☆☆☆ British director Andrew Haigh gallops onto the Venice Lido with Lean on Pete, an equine coming-of-ager about a young boy and his horse. An adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel, Haigh shifts from his arthouse roots of Weekend and 45 Years to full-blown Americana. Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) is a 15-year-old boy living in Portland,…
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Venice 2017: Endangered Species review
★★★★☆ Premiering at Venice, Gilles Bourdos’ Endangered Species plays like a French Riviera version of Robert Altman’s Shortcuts. It’s a deliciously shot vivisection of family life via three intertwining tales based on the short stories of American writer Richard Bausch.We open with a thrilling ride through the night as a group of young people on…
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Venice 2017: West of Sunshine review
★★☆☆☆ Showing in the Horizons sidebar at Venice, Jason Raftopoulos’ debut film West of Sunshine is a day in the life of Jim (Damien Hill), an inveterate gambler who somehow has to come up with the money to see off his bookie while at the same time looking after his son.Gamblers, like alcoholics, are a…
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Venice 2017: Human Flow review
★★★★☆ Receiving its world premiere at Venice, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei crosses borders with his wide-ranging documentary Human Flow, an angry and compassionate witnessing of what looks like being the greatest man-made tragedy of our times.“No one leaves home lightly,” says a female refugee from Iraq. “You suffer hardship just to get to safety.”…
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Venice 2017: The Insult review
★★★☆☆ In Lebanese-born director Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult, an apparently minor argument on a Beirut street escalates into a full-blown legal battle, which itself threatens to erupt into civil violence as it rips open the festering wounds of historic religious and national resentment. Tony Hana (Adel Karam) is a mechanic living in an apartment with…
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Venice 2017: Nico, 1988 review
★★★☆☆ Opening the Horizons sidebar, Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988 is a biopic of the German songstress who found fame with The Velvet Underground. Danish singer and actress Trine Dyrholm plays the diva with verve and energy, in a portrait which is also something of a reevaluation.“Don’t call me Nico,” Christa Päffgen (Dyrholm) tells her manager…
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FrightFest 2017: Tragedy Girls review
★★★☆☆ You know the slasher-movie drill. Two high-school students are parked on a country lane at night. The windows have steamed up. Busy necking, the boy and girl suddenly hear a noise outside. The boy gets out of the car, goaded by the girl, who questions his masculinity.Soon enough, his young face meets a masked…
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FrightFest 2017: Jackals review
★★☆☆☆ Kevin Greutert’s latest thriller sees a family up against a deranged cult. Set over the course of a few hours on a dark night, Jackals is an atmospheric horror movie from the director of the best Saw series (XI) and the criminally underrated Jessabelle.Set in the 1980s and supposedly based on a true story,…
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FrightFest 2017: Attack of the Adult Babies review
★★★☆☆ Dominic Brunt’s third directorial feature is a political satire intent on causing a stink. A tale of human greed and demented obsession with money, Attack of the Adult Babies has a lot to get off its chest and it’s abundantly clear which political parties it’s targeting.Somewhere in Yorkshire, a cabal of white middle-aged, porcine…
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FrightFest 2017: Victor Crowley review
★★★★☆ Kept under wraps for two years as a top-secret production, Adam Green’s Hatchet series redux Victor Crowley is a splatter movie joy. Both reboot and sequel directly connected to events in Hatchet III, Victor Crowley hits the horror movie sweet spot like an axe to the face. There’s something beautiful in the simplicity of…