Beasts of No Nation, 2015 Directed by Cary Fukunaga Starring Idris Elba, Ama K. Abebrese, Abraham Attah, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe SYNOPSIS: Agu, a boy in an unnamed West African country, falls into the clutch of a murderous child soldier army led by a passionate and influential leader. Beasts are fearsome. Creatures of […]
59th BFI London Film Festival Opening Gala Review: Suffragette (2015)
Suffragette, 2015. Directed by Sarah Gavron. Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and Meryl Streep. SYNOPSIS: In 1913 London, a young laundress (Mulligan) is swept into the Women’s Vote movement just as it begins to boil into militant activism. Deliberately not a biopic of Emmeline Pankhurst or indeed of any of […]
61st BFI London Film Festival Review – Veronica (2017)
Veronica, 2017. Directed by Paco Plaza. Starring Sandra Escacena, Bruna Gonzalez, and Claudia Pacer. SYNOPSIS: Madrid, 1991. A teen girl finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she played Ouija with two classmates. In 2007 Spanish director Paco Plaza obliterated audiences’ nerves with found-footage zombie horror REC. Co-directed by Jaume Balaguero the movie […]
61st BFI London Film Festival Review – The Florida Project (2017)
The Florida Project 2017 Directed by Sean Baker Starring Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto, Willem Dafoe, Caleb Landry Jones and Macon Blair. SYNOPSIS: In the shadow of Disney World is a motel called The Magic Castle. Among the residents is six year old Moonee, who spends the summer months getting into mischief with her […]
61st London Film Festival Review – The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, 2017. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Bob Camp, and Alicia Silverstone. SYNOPSIS: A highly successful surgeon takes a teenage boy under his wing. But the boy’s behaviour turns sinister and the surgeon’s life starts to fall apart. Beware, as […]
61st BFI London Film Festival Review – Blade of the Immortal (2017)
Blade of the Immortal, 2017. Directed by Takashi Miike. Starring Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sôta Fukushi, and Kazuki Kitamura. SYNOPSIS: In ancient Japan, a young girl watches as her entire family are butchered by a master swordsman and his gang. Swearing vengeance, she seeks the help of an immortal samurai to train her for battle. When we talk […]
61st London Film Festival Review – The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) (2017)
The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected), 2017. Directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Marvel, Grace Van Patten, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Adam Driver, Judd Hirsch, Candice Bergen, Rebecca Miller, Danny Flaherty, Adam David Thompson, Ronald Peet, Matthew Shear, Michael Chernus, and Sigourney Weaver. SYNOPSIS: A dysfunctional family comes together when the […]
61st BFI London Film Festival Review – Last Flag Flying (2017)
Last Flag Flying, 2017. Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and J. Quinton Johnson. SYNOPSIS: Thirty years after they served together in Vietnam, a former Navy Corpsman Larry “Doc” Shepherd re-unites with his old buddies, former Marines Sal Nealon and Reverend Richard Mueller, to bury his son, a young Marine […]
61st London Film Festival Review – Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Call Me By Your Name, 2017. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Starring Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg and Esther Garrel. SYNOPSIS: An American professor and his family are spending the summer at their Italian villa. His teenage son is captivated by the graduate student who arrives to work for his father. It’s a fascination that […]
61st BFI London Film Festival Review – Good Time (2017)
Good Time, 2017. Directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie. Starring Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Taliah Webster, Buddy Duress and Barkhad Abdie. SYNOPSIS: Brothers Connie and Nik pull off a bank heist which, while it appears to go smoothly, ends up with the vulnerable Nik being caught and sent to Rikers. While […]
