John Bleasdale
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Locarno 2017: Freedom review
★★☆☆☆ Jan Speckenbach’s second film Freedom feels as trapped by its portentous one-word title – there’s a quote about the River Lethe at the beginning as well – as its protagonist Nora (Johanna Wokalek) is trapped by the paradox of feeling compelled to be free.We first see Nora wandering about an art gallery, then sitting…
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Venice 2017: Our festival highlights
Celebrated American director Alexander Payne’s high concept sci-fi comedy Downsizing will open the 74th Venice International Film Festival (30 August-9 September) in a spot that has become a great launchpad for Oscars success (see Gravity, Birdman and La La Land). Downsizing stars Matt Damon who also turns up in George Clooney’s Suburbicon, co-penned by the…
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Film Review: The Beguiled
★★★★☆ “We need chloroform and water” orders boarding school headmistress Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman), like Mary Poppins getting her charges in order. It’s a surprise she doesn’t say “spit-spot”. It’s this sense of female imperturbability which makes The Beguiled so subversive.Sofia Coppola ditches the wayward sexual politics of Don Siegel’s 1971 version with Clint Eastwood,…
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Film Review: Okja
★★★★☆ The latest high profile Netflix feature, Bong Joon-ho’s Okja is lumbering, clumsy but ultimately as loveable as its eponymous star: it’s Babe on steroids. And it’s possible that as with George Miller’s classic many a future vegetarian will trace their decision back to this movie.The Monsanto-sounding Mirando Corporation led by Tilda Swinton’s sharply pencilled…
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Film Review: The Seasons in Quincy
★★★☆☆ The late art critic and writer John Berger and actress Tilda Swinton share the same birthday: 5 November. They also share the experience of growing up with fathers wounded in war: Berger’s psychologically and Swinton’s with the loss of a leg.The opening film of this quartet of shorts which make up The Seasons in…
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Film Review: Slack Bay
★★☆☆☆ Having wowed audiences with his last work Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont’s much-anticipated seaside comedy Slack Bay arrived with high expectations. Though the farce is occasionally funny, it’s as bloated and windy as its comedy policeman Inspector Machin.Dressed like the Thompson Twins, Machin (Didier Després) and his assistant Malfoy (Cyril Rigaux) are investigating a series…
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Film Review: Berlin Syndrome
★★★☆☆ A young Australian backpacker Clare (Teresa Palmer) emerges from a subway station in Berlin. Seen from a distance, she already looks vulnerable as she moves away from the warm yellow of the tunnel and into the obscurity of the city’s blue dusk.Feeling a mixture of the giddy delight and the wariness that comes from…
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Film Review: After the Storm
★★★★☆ From Still Walking to his latest offering After the Storm, Hirokazu Kore-eda has proven himself a master at delineating the changing dynamics of Japanese family life. Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) is something of a failure. But it hasn’t always been so. Ryota had high hopes, a young family and even wrote a prize-winning novel called…
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DVD Review: George Best: All By Himself
★★★★☆ It’s hard to be objective about George Best. Growing up in the 1970s, Best came to us less as a footballer and more as a cautionary tale. He was a tragi-comic hero of Faustian proportions played out through the tabloids, drunken TV interviews and clip-reel nostalgia.Director Daniel Gordon’s new documentary Best (George Best: All…
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Cannes 2017: The Square, Palme d’Or winner
★★★☆☆ Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund first achieved international acclaim with his withering wintry take on middle-class masculinity in Force Majeure, causing quite a stir when it showed three years ago here in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.Now competing in the main competition, his new film The Square is a grander and more ambitious project, moving…