The BFI London Film Festival has closed its doors for another year and brought London together in a sea of film premieres and screenings, sprinkling movie fairy dust all over the Kingdom.
While there were 185 films that were shown, it’s impossible that one can see them all. This is our annual wrap-up of some of the films that we saw:
She Said
The most timely and important film of the festival, ‘She Said’ is the telling of the two New York Times reporters (Jodi Kantor and Megan Thohey) who broke the story about the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal. Even though we know how it ends, it’s a timeline of the breaking of one of the most important movements of our generation (and which kicked of the Me Too conversation). Both Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are very good in the lead roles, expect film awards bestowed on this film in the upcoming awards season.
The Good Nurse
Another excellently acted and well told story is about a male nurse (Eddie Redmayne) who kills patients and it’s up to fellow nurse Jessica Chastain to help in the investigation. While Redmayne is in overacting mode, Chastain wins us over as the mother of two young daughters has struggles with health issues of her own.
The Whale
This is the film that was most talked about. It was originally a play, and looks like a play on film, about an extremely obese professor who is literally trapped in his own home and is slowly dying. He has little time to re-connect with his adult daughter while at them same time is still mourning the death of his male partner. Brendan Fraser is very good in the lead role but it’s a film that has a few things wrong with it, including visits by a religious fanatic who keeps on paying a visit to the recluse, plus obvious plot twists that don’t ring true.
Empire of Light
Director Sam Mendes brings us an inter-racial romance via Margate in the early 1980’s.
The film is lushly shot and acted, with the time period captured perfectly, however the love story is not quite believable. Why would a young black man (soon to be star Michael Ward) fall in love with co-worker and older lonely white woman (Olivia Coleman – who is fantastic) who work together in an art deco cinema. Colin Firth is great as the cinema owner.
Passengers of the Night
One of the best of the festival, this French film has Charlotte Gainsbourg as a divorced mother of two teenagers trying to earn a living in order to keep her flat in a high rise building (which is another character in the film) who gets a job at a local talk show radio station in 1981 Paris. This film is simple, one that we can connect with, and memorable and heart warming.
Causeway
Jennifer Lawrence is known for starring in blockbuster and award winning films but in Causeway she plays an ex-soldier fighting PTSD while trying to find a place after back home to recover. Lawrence gives a simple yet outstanding performance.
Winter Boy
Young gay French teenager Lucas deals with the sudden death of his father while navigating his sexuality and discovering Paris. Paul Kircher is very good as Lucas while Juliette Binoche plays his grieving mother. The film is beautiful but the plot takes Lucas in another direction that sort of erases everything you’ve just watched.
The Son
Hugh Jackman is the struggling but loving father who tries everything he can to pull his son out of depression and anxiety. Laura Dern plays his ex-wife while Vanessa Kirby is Jackmans’ younger new wife who has just given birth to their new baby. Zen McGrath plays the son, and it’s his acting that is the weakest link in the film. Directed by Florian Zeller, who did The Father in which Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar (Hopkins is in this film as Jackmans’ father). We’re not too sure if Jackmans’ breakdown scene at the end is a cry for an Oscar or overacting gone mad.
Sick of Myself
In this pitch black comedy, Signe has what appears to be a perfect life. She enjoys her job in a coffee shop, and her artist boyfriend is on the cusp of becoming famous.
She makes a desperate and crazy attempt to redirect attention back to herself in the most extreme way. Sick of Myself is funny yet tragic and a social commentary on what anyone would do to have 15 minutes of fame.
Director Kristoffer Borgli serves up one of this year’s most deliciously horrid comedies.
My Policeman
Harry Styles proved in ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ that he can act and now ups his game in the role of a closeted policeman, married (to Emma Corin) who has a torrid (and illegal in the 1950’s when this film takes place) affair with art dealer Patrick Hazlewood (David Dawson).
Flipping back and forth between 1950 and the late 1990’s (with Rupert Everett and Linus Roache playing the characters as older men), we’re left scratching our heads a bit as to why their older selves come together, and that Everett looks nothing like his younger self. Beautifully shot, and a poignant tale of love and regret, it’s worth a watch, if not for the semi-graphic love scenes between Styles and Dawson.
By Tim Baros