The BFI London Film Festival has come to a close, and while there were 254 features and short films, it was impossible to watch everything. Here is our reviews of a few that we caught – some very good and some not so much:
Flow
A major flood has swept over the land which leaves several animals adrift on a boat in the beautifully made ‘Flow’.
We see the story through the eyes of a black cat. Meandering through the countryside, such is a cat’s life avoiding dogs and looking for food. But when a wall of water envelopes the land, animals cling to life in whatever they can find, and cat, struggling to find dry land, ends up on a boat with several other animals including a dog, a bird, a lemur, a chimp, a rodent and others who hop onto to the boat at various times. Together they try to survive on the boat as the water continues to rise. ‘Flow’ is basically Noah’s Ark with the use of breathtaking animation to great effect in telling the story of the multi coloured and multi personalitied animals who all band together to survive. And there are no words spoken, only the animals’ respective sounds. ‘Flow’ is simply breathtaking and stunning on so many levels.
Highly recommended
Queer
Daniel Craig bares all in the new film adaptation of William S. Burroughs novel of the same name – ‘Queer.’
Craig is Daniel Lee, an expat living in Mexico who lives amongst a coterie of gay men – they laze around all day at local watering holes fancying each other while not getting up to much. But when a dashing young man appears on the scene (Drew Starkey) Lee becomes infatuated with him and devotes all his time and energy to woo him, and eventually to sustain him, including a road trip that goes bad. Kudos to Craig for taking on such a daring role, while Starkey almost steals the film from him. But with direction by Luca Guadagnino (who did the creepy ‘Call Me By Your Name’) ‘Queer’ is misguided, gets dull at times, and is too long (135 minutes). In Burroughs fashion there is lots of drug taking and hallucinations. But when it’s done I asked myself – What was the point of this film?
Recommended with reservations
My Everything
Director and writer Anne-Sophie Bailly gives us a touching story of a mother dealing with her adult son with learning difficulties in a French town in ‘My Everything’.
Laura Calamy is brilliant as the mother – Mona – who has devoted her life to taking care of her son on her own. He (Charles Peccia Galletto) works at a factory and has his eye on a local girl who is also mentally challenged. The girl gets pregnant and it’s a situation that puts Mona’s relationship with her son and the girl’s parents to a test. Mona loves her son and does her best to deal with this situation, even when the girl’s parents put the blame on her son. ‘My Everything’ is touching on many levels, and it’s a film many people can relate to as it’s realistic and real, and emotional throughout.
Highly recommended
Skincare
Elizabeth Banks is fantastic as a self made woman with her own skincare line and shop who suddenly faces competition from a neighbour.
Banks is Hope Goldman, who is on the cusp of major success and a media blitz with her new skincare line, that is until another skincare shop opens up near her shop and all of a sudden Hope’s emails are hacked and strange things start to happen – including being bumped on a television segment by her competitor!! Is Hope and her business being sabotaged? Could it be the man who opened up the shop next door? And why are some of her customers going to him?
Directed by Austin Peters, ‘Skincare’ is a fun whodunit with many twists and turns, and while it ends up a bit ridiculous and far fetched at the end, ‘Skincare’ gives Banks one of her best roles in a long time, and it’s a fun watch.
Recommended with reservations
The Balconettes
A trio of women in Montpellier get more than they’ve bargained for after their flirting with a neighbour gets out of hand in the French film ‘The Balconettes’.
The women – a writer, an online pornstar, and an actress – all live in a beautiful and lively neighborhood where they can all see into each others flats. When Ruby (Souheila Yacoub) starts to flirt across the way with the goodlooking man across the street (Lucas Bravo), all three women get invited over to his flat in a night, without giving too much away, that turns into a nightmare where the trio spend the rest of the film trying to get rid of their misdeed.
‘The Balconettes’ champions female empowerment (and gives a finger to male abusers) in a film that’s funny but a bit too farfetched.
Recommended with reservations
Baby
Baby (João Pedro Mariano) has just been released from juvenile detention in Sao Paolo – yet he literally has no where to go in this eloquent and well done film by Marcelo Caetano.
Baby’s parents have since left town so that leaves Baby to hang around in parks with his gang of queer friends. But he then meets Ronaldo (a very good Ricardo Teodoro), an escort, drug runner and hustler, who is about 20 years older than Baby, and soon enough he has Baby turning tricks to earn money to pay his share of the bills. But their connection is enduring, it’s more than just convenience. Eventually Baby gets an opportunity to improve his life with another man, who is wealthy, and their relationship may never be the same again.
‘Baby’ puts a spotlight on São Paulo and the metropolis that it is, with a good storyline and very good acting.
Recommended
Sebastian
Ruaridh Mollica is very good as Sebastian, a writer who writes about male sex workers, stories that he gleams from his real life.
Sebastian works as a freelance writer for Wall Magazine, tasked with an interview with Bret Easton Ellis (of ‘Less Than Zero’ fame). Yet in his spare time, he advertises on a gay male website where older men take him up on his services. Incorporating these dalliances into his book becomes more than just writing, it consumes his life, mixing fiction with real life. ‘Sebastian’ is a hard hitting look at the life of a male escort, written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä. ‘Sebastian’ may not be a film that will appeal to mainstream audiences but it should do well on the LGBT+ circuit.
Recommended with reservations
The Piano Lesson
There’s an old family heirloom in the living room of the Charles household – and it’s worth a lot of money – yet two siblings are in a constant battle to keep it or sell it in the film ‘The Piano Lesson’.
Based on the book/stage play of the same name by August Wilson, Malcolm Washington (son of Denzel Washington, a producer on this film) directs a story of family drama mixed with a touch of witchcraft and family angst in this dramatic film that might have a hard time finding an audience due to its dark nature and lack of any real unique selling point
Not recommended
Four Mothers
Gay Irish writer Edward is stuck in a bind. Not only is he the fulltime carer for his elderly mother (Fionnula Flanagan), but his three gay friends decide to leave their mothers behind with him to go to Maspalomas Gay Pride literally leaving Edward to the care for four mothers.
James McArdle is wonderful as Edward, who is on the cusp of his first novel getting released to acclaim yet he’s feeling constant guilt over his duties to his mom, neglecting the duties to himself. But throw in three additional mothers and total mayhem, and stress, ensue. A road trip they all decide to take makes things even more crazy!
A cute and funny script by Darren and Colin Thornton, and an engaging turn by McArdle makes ‘Four Mothers’ a surprise and an unexpected hit at the film festival, and a fun film to watch.
Highly recommended
Endurance
In 1914 a group of explorers, led by Ernest Shackleton, took off on a boat called Endurance to be the first ship to reach the South Pole.
In 2022 a group of scientists and engineers, with the best technology and equipment, went out to look for the remains of the Endurance. Now these journeys are told in parallel in the stunning and riveting documentary titled simply ‘Endurance.’
Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit have pieced together a documentary of the will to live, as well as the will to discover.
The original journey is told via recreations that look very real, enough so that people at the film festival screenings thought video cameras went along on the original journey. While there is footage included in the documentary from the original journey, the recreations are stunning as is the heartbreak when the original explorers have to abandon ship as the Endurance gets stuck in the ice and the men try to survive on the ice and treks that take days through ice and cold..
‘Endurance’ is a must see and one of the best documentaries of the last ten years.
Highly recommended
Other good films we saw included:
‘When the Light Breaks’ – a film about love and loss where a group of friends in Iceland cope with the loss of their best friend, and especially how the death affects a young female friend.
Highly recommended
‘Elton John: Never Too Late’ – Follows John on his final U.S. live shows and highlights what’s most important in his life – his family.
Recommended