Der Nachtmahr Directed by Akiz Written by Achim Bornhak Germany, 2015 German nu-techno artist Akiz opens his debut film with a meek disclaimer to ‘play this film loud’, a rare moment of quiet trepidation before all sorts of sonic and symbiotic hell breaks loose. Tina (Carolyn Genzkow) and her teenage friends are veterans of the …
Suffragette Written by Abi Morgan Directed by Sarah Gavron UK, 2015 As the high-profile spearhead of UK film culture, the London Film Festival thrives on promoting the heritage films that its indigenous industry clings to so dearly: the historical and period dramas which keep the production designers, wardrobe wranglers and most of the Royal Shakespeare Company solvent throughout another procurement drive of Elizabethan ruffs, …
Parabellum Written by Ana Godoy, Esteban Prado and Lukas Valenta Rinner Directed by Lukas Valenta Rinner Argentina/Austria/Uruguay, 2015 Cinema is certainly no stranger to Armageddon scenarios. Whether it’s environmental collapse, zombie uprising, or alien infestation, these CGI-stuffed extravaganzas aren’t exactly known for their subtle charms. Parabellum, the debut film from Austrian director Lukas Valenta Rinner, proves that …
When it comes to geeking out, nothing comes close to Star Wars and an opportunity to immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away, is one that cannot be missed. UK events company Future Cinema specialises in secret, interactive film screenings, the majority of which take place in Londo. With experiences ranging from recreating 1920s Beaumont …
Asian Dub Foundation: THX 1138 Nationwide tour to 10 UK cities Musical innovators Asian Dub Foundation will perform their latest live soundtrack to George Lucas’ 1971 visionary cult sci-fi classic THX 1138 at ten venues nationwide in October 2015, following its UK premiere at the Barbican on 19th June. Retaining much of Lalo Schiffrin’s distinctive score …
Still Written and Directed by Simon Blake UK, 2014 The subject of adolescent criminality is a hot button issue in Britain, playing on the fears generated by rampant urbanization and the generation gap. Cinema has addressed these fears in different ways; Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg riffed on the idea with Hot Fuzz and their …
Life is Sacred Directed by Andreas M. Dalsgaard Columbia, 2015 Chances are when one conjures Colombia to mind a less than salubrious image springs to mind – staggeringly wealthy drug kingpins, endemic kidnapping plots, paramilitary foisted crime and corruption. Andreas M. Dalsgaard challenges these preconceptions with his instructive documentary Life is Sacred, a welcome opportunity to learn and see the quiet and hard-fought …
Burden Of Peace Written & Directed by Joey Boink & Sander Wirken Netherlands/Guatemala/Spain, 2015 One of the centerpieces of this years London Human Rights Film Festival is the domestic premiere of Burden Of Peace – a behind the scenes, four years in the making biography of activist turned Guatemala Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz. Following the first …
Poor Llewyn Davis is not at a good point in his life. In February of 1961, he is a struggling, bearded bohemian shivering through a frosty Greenwich Village, a folk musician seeking the next gig just to keep the wolf from the door. With few possessions other than the fraying clothes on his back and his trusty guitar, he relies on the charity of others to keep a temporary roof over his head, oscillating from staying with two wedded musical companions in the tight-knit folk scene, Jean (Carey Mulligan, deliciously spiteful) and Jim Berkey (Justin Timberlake, polished) and the middle-class Gorfiens , the wealthy, perky parents of Llewyn’s musical partner, revealed to have committed suicide a few months earlier. Davis is a man scorned, sneering at others and certain of his superior musical skills. He’s not the most likable sort, as his futile attempts to escape the confines of his self-imposed cage make for a colourfully arranged period crooner.
The Oscar-nominated director and writer of last year’s potent Wall Steet drama Margin Call has circumnavigated the perils of sophomore filmmaking with All Is Lost. This is J.C. Chandor’s remarkable nautical thriller, plunging its audience into a whirlpool nightmare scenario. In a solo role, Robert Redford is a nameless figure, a stoic seaman sailing through the Pacific roughly 1,700 miles from civilisation before being jolted awake after an abandoned cargo container ruptures a yawning gape in his modest single-berth schooner.
Venerable Woody Grant (a grizzled Bruce Dern) has a singular purpose in mind, to get from his adopted Montana home to neighbouring Nebraska to collect a million-dollar cheque that a suspiciously speculative postal disclaimer has promised to honour. Elderly and suffering with decaying mental functions, Woody clearly can’t see through the marketing scam, and his wife Kate (June Squibb) and son David (Will Forte) grow increasingly exasperated at his dangerous footbound expeditions before arriving at a mutual solution:
“The rich man may fall for a stock exchange ruse, but the poor man’s got nothing to lose.” In case you hadn’t gathered the sentiment of Soldate Jeanette around two-thirds of the way into its brisk 80-minute runtime, the man strumming his guitar at the dinner table says what everyone’s thinking, through his musical praise of a slender existence. The meal takes place at a farm, where former financial high-flyer Fanni (Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg) has escaped to start a new life, away from the hollow boardrooms and into the tangled textures of the forest, surrounded by beings with a detectable pulse, from humans to barnyard critters. Her last remaining wads of cash can be found in the nearby thicket, burnt to a crisp atop a bonfire.
Trois Exercises d’Interpretation Directed by Cristi Puiu France, 2013 Fans of Cristi Puiu will be disappointed to find that the director’s latest film is not, in fact, the third part of his Six Stories from the Outskirts of Bucharest series. Trois Exercises d’Interpretation is a brief (albeit lengthy) cinematic diversion based on Russian writer Vladimir …
Halley Directed by Sebastian Hofmann Mexico, 2012 Flies in a jar, basking in filth: grimy, unclean, and uncaring for the dirt – clamouring for it, even. The scurrying bugs constitute natural life at its base level, most negligent and sickly. Their movements form the opening and closing shots of Halley, forming an opening statement that …
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin Russia/UK, 2013 During the infamous trial proceedings for their apparent ‘hooliganism’, the Pussy Riot girls make it abundantly clear that the entire world is watching; furthermore, the world is not stupid, and is aware of the extent to which the Russian judicial system …
Leones Directed by Jazmín López Argentina/France/Netherlands, 2012 An assured debut feature from Argentinian director Jazmin Lopez, Leones free-floats between complementary realms of the natural and supernatural. The entire movement, comprised of very few long, tracking shots within 80 minutes, chugs through the barely navigable forest of an unknown location, as six teenagers make their way …
The Outer Edges Directed by Kieran Evans UK, 2013 “I’ve been known to be down here in a vest that looks like a woman’s dress,” says the first sign of human life in Kieran Evans’ documentary The Outer Edges, a hazy meditation on life beyond the busied density of Central London, focused on a parade …
Baby Blues Directed by Kasia Roslaniec Poland, 2013 Polish filmmaker Kasia Roslaniec returns to the East End Film Festival with another cynical tale of a youth spoiled by capitalist consumerism, following her turn at the event with 2010’s similarly themed Mall Girls. It’s probably disingenuous to make the blanket assumption that all Polish teenagers are …
Based on James Duthie’s “I Cycled into the Arctic Circle”, a first-person literary account by a man who accomplished a brave feat in spite of his disability – yet sadly ended his days in an unmarked grave – the quasi-adaptation Dummy Jim pays tribute to not just this mortal man, but also the natural world exalted by his words. The film tells the story of a deaf-mute cyclist with the same name, who travels along the Continent while a group of schoolchildren stage a retelling of his journey for a village fete.
The lyric repeated with unintended irony over the end credits of The Heart of Bruno Wizard has the eponymous rock star sing, “What does it matter in the scheme of things?” The question is applicable to this debut feature by filmmaker Elisabeth Rasmussen; conceivably a learned fan of the 70s underground punk movement that fostered such acts as Mr. Wizard’s subversive The Homosexuals, Rasmussen has turned in an admiring tribute to an admittedly charismatic though hardly royal musical figure, without explicitly detailing any sound reason as to how his documenting is truly warranted.
To anyone well aged and jaded, or fresh out of a Sundance screening, the term ‘coming-of-age’ drama is likely to engender a nervy shudder. There’s only so many varying ways to present a child’s realisation of who he/she is, or what he/she wants to be – at least, this belief has been instilled in us by many films within the genre; Jordan Vogt-Robert’s recent Kings of Summer is a prime example of a film that’s content to play things by the book, relying on a youthful humour to distract us from its thin, cautionary tale of humility. Other films, like the Palme D’or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour, apparently adopt a bolder approach in confronting true desires at the heart of a flowering emergence into adulthood (not that I’ve seen it yet, mind you).
In 2009, filmmakers Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell presented Until the Light Takes Us, an enlightening – excuse the pun – exploration of Norway’s black metal movement, a scene that picked up steam in the 90s and became inundated with controversy surrounding church burnings, murders and satanic posturing.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic Directed by Marina Zenovich Written by Marina Zenovich and Chris A. Peterson 2013, USA For fans of legendary comedian Richard Pryor, eight years removed from his death in 2005 is as ripe a time as any for a thorough cinematic retrospective. The task falls to Marina Zenovich, following up documentary Roman Polanski: …