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London Film Festival · 2017

London Film Festival 2017

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Programme

12 films · 11 reviews

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Battle Of The Sexes

Review preview for Battle Of The Sexes

Everything feels alive and the production design by Judy Becker is impeccable.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
True story of the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2017; Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris; Writer: Simon Beaufoy; Stars: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Pullman, Andrea Riseborough, Alan Cumming, Chris Parnell, Martha MacIsaac, Sarah Silverman, Eric Christian Olsen, Jessica McNamee, Natalie Morales, Austin Stowell, Wallace Langham, Mark Harelik)

Full review

Breathe

Review preview for Breathe

The film reeks of privilege, which should not matter, but it does

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2.5 out of 5
The true story of courage under profound difficulties faced by Robin and Diana Cavendish.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Andy Serkis; Writer: William Nicholson; Stars: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Tom Hollander, Hugh Bonneville, Diana Rigg, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Amit Shah, Mary Dawney, Camilla Rutherford, Ed Speleers)

Full review

Call Me By Your Name

Review preview for Call Me By Your Name

It is fundamentally a film about the workings of infatuation with a charmed fever that contaminates its characters.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
First love blooms over a long, hot summer for a teenager in Italy.

(Country: Italy, France, US, Brazil; Year: 2017; Director: Luca Guadagnino; Writer: James Ivory, based on the book by André Aciman; Stars: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois)

Full review See: Luca Guadagnino in conversation on the costumes for Call Me By Your Name

Downsizing

Review preview for Downsizing

Alexander Payne's latest, unclassifiable film gallivants with us through a number of different worlds that all seem familiar, yet perplexing.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
Satire about a man who starts to think he would have a better life if only he could shrink himself.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Alexander Payne; Writer: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor; Stars: Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Udo Kier, Rolf Lassgård, Ingjerd Egeberg, Soren Pilmark Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, Niecy Nash, Joaquim de Almeida, Maribeth Monroe, Margo Martindale)

Full review See: Venice 2017: Downsizing, Suburbicon and The Shape Of Water

Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool

Review preview for Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool

Annette Bening plays a different character, raging against the truth, a bitch angel feeding her emotions.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3 out of 5
A faded romance between a young British actor and an aging Hollywood star is rekindled as her terminal illness draws a veil over the sunset finale

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Paul McGuigan; Writer: Matt Greenhalgh, based on the book by Peter Turner; Stars: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Graham, Vanessa Redgrave, Frances Barber, James Bloor, Leanne Best, Tom Brittney, Isabella Laughland, Suzanne Bertish, Jay Villiers, Bentley Kalu)

Full review

Journey's End

Story of a group of First World War British soldiers being led by a man whose mental health is failing.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Saul Dibb; Writer: Simon Reade, based on the play by RC Sherriff; Stars: Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Asa Butterfield, Tom Sturridge, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham, Robert Glenister, Oliver Dimsdale, Miles Jupp, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Jake Curran, Nicholas Agnew, Andy Gathergood, Tom Ward-Thomas, Rupert Wickham)

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

Review preview for The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

Lanthimos confirms his reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most original and unsettling directors

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A teenage boy tries to integrate a surgeon into his broken family but his motives become increasingly sinister.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2017; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Writer: Efthymis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos; Stars: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Alicia Silverstone, Raffey Cassidy, Bill Camp, Barry Keoghan, Anita Farmer Bergman, Sunny Suljic, Denise Dal Vera, Megan Chelf Fisher, Lea Hutton Beasmore, Rachael Mcadams, Michelle Poole, Nathaniel Sizemore, Jerry Pope)

Full review See: Nicole Kidman on The Killing Of The Sacred Deer in Cannes

Last Flag Flying

Review preview for Last Flag Flying

Carell is extremely impressive here.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A Vietnam veteran goes to collect the body of his son, who has been killed in war in Iraq.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Richard Linklater and Darryl Ponicsan, based on the book by Darryl Ponicsan; Stars: Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Yul Vazquez, J. Quinton Johnson, Kate Easton, Tammy Tsai, Samuel Davis, Brian Wolfman Black Bowman, Chris Drexel, Lee Harrington, Mark Falvo, Richard Robichaux, Adam Hicks, Dontez James)

Full review

Mudbound

Review preview for Mudbound

Both Hedlund and Mitchell deliver strong performances and balance well against one another.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Two families clash when Mississippi youths return from the Second World War with new perspectives on race relations.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Dee Rees; Writer: Hillary Jordan, Dee Rees, Dee Rees, Virgil Williams; Stars: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jonathan Banks, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige, Kerry Cahill, David Jensen, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Lucy Faust, Rebecca Chulew, Joshua J. Williams, Henry Frost, Jason Kirkpatrick)

Full review

The Shape Of Water (La forma del agua)

Review preview for The Shape Of Water

Hawkins has waited decades for a role like this, in which she can fully exercise her talents.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A woman who works in a secret government lab discovers a classified experiment.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Guillermo del Toro; Writer: Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor; Stars: Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Lauren Lee Smith, Richard Jenkins, David Hewlett, John Kapelos, Nick Searcy, Morgan Kelly, Cyndy Day, Dru Viergever, Madison Ferguson, Amanda Smith)

Full review See: Venice 2017: Downsizing, Suburbicon and The Shape Of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Review preview for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Fortunately, McDormand never lets Mildred's hold on us slip, balancing the conundrum of a woman who is simultaneously a mum, who likes a beer and a game of pool, and a Rambo-style avenging angel.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A grieving mother takes on a town's police chief after the murder of her daughter goes unsolved.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2017; Director: Martin McDonagh; Writer: Martin McDonagh; Stars: Frances McDormand, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Kerry Condon, Kathryn Newton, Zeljko Ivanek, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, Nick Searcy, Sandy Martin)

Full review See: Venice 2017: Three Billboards, Victoria And Abdul, Lean On Pete and The Third Murder

You Were Never Really Here

Review preview for You Were Never Really Here

Nothing plays out as you expect, with Ramsay maintaining an unsettling staccato that keeps both the action and the viewer on edge.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A tormented assassin tries to rescue a girl but trouble lies ahead.

(Country: US, France; Year: 2017; Director: Lynne Ramsay; Writer: Lynne Ramsay, based on the novel by Jonathan Ames; Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Manette, John Doman, Judith Roberts, Jason Babinsky, Kate Easton, Frank Pando, Leigh Dunham, Madison Arnold, Dante Pereira-Olson, Jonathan Wilde, Scott Price, Silvia Pena)

Full review