The Birth of a Nation, 2016. Directed by Nate Parker. Starring Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Penelope Ann Miller and Jackie Earle Haley. SYNOPSIS: Set against the antebellum South, The Birth of a Nation follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Bleed for This (2016)
Bleed for This, 2016. Directed by Ben Younger. Starring: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Ciaran Hinds, Katey Sagal and Ted Levine. SYNOPSIS: Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) has achieved enormous success as a lightweight boxer but his career is threatened when he fails in the Junior Welterweight title fight against Floyd Mayweather. When a devastating car accident […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016)
I Am Not A Serial Killer, 2016. Directed by Billy O’Brien. Starring Max Records, Christopher Lloyd and Laura Fraser. SYNOPSIS: Sixteen-year-old John Wayne Cleaver (Max Records, Where the Wild Things Are) is not a serial killer—but he has all the makings of one. Keeping his homicidal tendencies and morbid obsessions with death and murder in […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – American Honey (2016)
American Honey, 2016 Directed by Andrea Arnold Starring Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough. SYNOPSIS: Disaffected, blue-collar American teen Star (Sasha Lane), a self-described ‘American Honey’, leaves her unhappy home life behind to hit the road with a gang of misfit stragglers who travel across the USA scamming people out of their money. On the way […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight, 2016. Directed by Barry Jenkins. Starring Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali. SYNOPSIS: A timeless story of human connection and self-discovery, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing […]
59th BFI London Film Festival announces 2015 award winners
Yesterday evening, the BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express announced the 2015 award winners at a high profile ceremony in London’s Banqueting House in Whitehall. OFFICIAL COMPETITION WINNER – BEST FILM: CHEVALIER – Athina Rachel Tsangari Pawel Pawlikowski said “Chevalier is a study of male antagonism seen though the eyes of a […]
59th BFI London Film Festival Review – Black Mass (2015)
Black Mass, 2015 Directed by Scott Cooper Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Corey Stoll, Peter Sarsgaard and Dakota Johnson. SYNOPSIS: Based on a true story, Black Mass charts the rise in power of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, beginning in Boston in 1975. His relationship with his Mother and Brother, his murderous Winter Hill gang and his connection to […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Elle (2016)
Elle, 2016. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Laffite, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Christian Berkel and Jonas Bloquet. SYNOPSIS: Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. However her life takes a dramatic turn when she is raped in […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Personal Shopper (2016)
Personal Shopper, 2016. Directed by Olivier Assayas. Starring Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie and Ty Olwin. SYNOPSIS: Maureen serves as a personal shopper for the rich and famous. Residing in Paris, she also practices as a medium with the hope of contacting her recently deceased twin brother. Channelling two greatly conflicting lifestyles, soon […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Manchester by the Sea, 2016. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges and Tate Donovan. SYNOPSIS: An uncle is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies. Densely absorbing and richly enveloping, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s third feature is a melancholic but undeniably human portrait of grief, […]
