London Film Festival · 2021
16 films · 12 reviews
As a whole, it appears way too kinetically ostentatious for its own sake, sadly making it less than the sum of its parts, but there are things to appreciate here.
(Country: France, Israel; Year: 2021; Director: Nadav Lapid; Writer: Nadav Lapid; Stars: Nur Fibak, Avshalom Pollak)
The problems with gun violence in Chicago are well documented, so the directors don't have to do much to set the scene here, which means they can immediately shift the focus to the men at the projects' heart.
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Joshua Altman, Bing Liu)
Binoche gives her all, stripping away any vestiges of actressy pretence to assimilate herself in the community while at the same time investing her performance with an authentic conviction.
(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Emmanuel Carrère; Writer: Florence Aubenas, Emmanuel Carrère, Hélène Devynck; Stars: Juliette Binoche)
(Country: US, UK; Year: 2021; Director: Celia Aniskovich, Tim Travers Hawkins)
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Barry Levinson; Writer: Beth Macy, Danny Strong, Danny Strong; Stars: Michael Keaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Will Poulter, John Hoogenakker, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Chase, Jake McDorman, Phillipa Soo, Arischa Conner, Brendan Patrick Connor, Andrea Frankle, Ian Unterman, Lawrence Arancio)
The beat and rhythm are often deliberately relentless, pushing onwards even when sometimes going around in circles - as circular as arguments that the characters find themselves having to make over and over again.
(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Debbie Tucker Green; Stars: Lashana Lynch, Carmen Munroe, Tosin Cole)
Heineman is careful not to bludgeon viewers with the horror of it all.
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Matthew Heineman)
Beautifully photographed as always, with a colour palette whose soft, shifting hues reflect its moral and narrative ambiguity, A Hero is one of Farhadi’s finest works.
(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Asghar Farhadi; Writer: Asghar Farhadi; Stars: Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Sarina Farhadi)
Despite being rather on the nose in terms of his plot beats, del Paso has an eye for a strong image and a psychological feel for the insidious viewpoint of the adults, washing over the children like a bad benediction.
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2021; Director: Joaquin del Paso; Writer: Lucy Pawlak, Joaquin del Paso; Stars: Valeria Lamm Williams, Yubah Ortega, Lucciano Kurti, Eric Walker, Santiago Barajas, Enrique Lascurain, Jacek Poniedzialek, Raul Vasconcelos)
Invincible Demons is a film that understands the aesthetic appeal of environmental abuse, but it doesn’t titillate with images of eco-collapse or sensationalise interviews with long-suffering Delhi citizens.
(Country: India, Finland, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Rahul Jain; Writer: Yaël Bitton, Rahul Jain, Iikka Vehkalahti)
If Matuszyński’s film tends towards soap opera in places and could definitely do with a trim here and there, its long running time does allow the grind of what happens to play out in ways that emphasise the sheer slog of it.
(Country: Poland, Czech Republic, France; Year: 2021; Director: Jan P Matuszynski; Writer: Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk, Cezary Lazarewicz; Stars: Agnieszka Grochowska, Tomasz Kot, Robert Wieckiewicz, Tomasz Zietek, Aleksandra Konieczna, Jacek Braciak, Adam Bobik, Sebastian Pawlak, Sandra Korzeniak, Lukasz Gawronski, Mateusz Górski, Aidan Hoyle, Maksym Kogua, Jacek Grygorowicz, Dominik Wald)
Despite its bleakness, Al-Khatib also captures the spirit of the older Palestinians - already exiled once and refusing to simply move on again - and the resourcefulness of the children.
(Country: Lebanon, Qatar, France; Year: 2021; Director: Abdallah Al-Khatib; Writer: Abdallah Al-Khatib)
Kranz, best known for his acting career, certainly didn’t pick an easy project for his debut behind the camera, but his work proves exceptional.
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Fran Kranz; Writer: Fran Kranz; Stars: Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Breeda Wool, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Kagen Albright, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Breeda Wool, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Kagen Albright)
Though some aspects of the film will mean more to you if you have a New Orleans connection, Hunt strives to ensure that it's accessible to everyone.
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: CJ Hunt; Writer: Jane Geisler, James Hamilton, CJ Hunt; Stars: CJ Hunt)
(Country: Bangladesh, Singapore, Qatar; Year: 2021; Director: Abdullah Mohammad Saad; Stars: Azmeri Haque Badhon, Saberi Alam, Afia Zahin, Kazi Sami Hasan, Afia Tabassum, Yasir Al Haque)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2021; Director: Juan Antonio Moreno Amador; Writer: Juan Antonio Moreno Amador)
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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