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London Film Festival · 2021

London Film Festival 2021

Galas

Programme

13 films · 12 reviews

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Belfast

Review preview for Belfast

Branagh has an easy way with a camera and isn't afraid of sentiment, but he offsets this with a good line in comedy that cuts through the softer stuff like an astringent.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The tale of a young boy living in Belfast in the late 1960s.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Kenneth Branagh; Writer: Kenneth Branagh; Stars: Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Judi Dench, Colin Morgan, Lara McDonnell, Michael Maloney, Turlough Convery, Gerard Horan, Jude Hill, Olive Tennant, Conor MacNeill, Gerard McCarthy, Sid Sagar, Lewis McAskie)

Full review

Benedetta

Review preview for Benedetta

The interplay of the spiritual and the sensual is vital here.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.

(Country: France, Netherlands; Year: 2021; Director: Paul Verhoeven; Writer: David Birke and Paul Verhoeven, based on he book by Judoth C Brown; Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Virginie Efira, Daphne Patakia, Olivier Rabourdin)

Full review See: Benedetta director Paul Verhoeven on religion, nudity and sexuality in Benedetta

The French Dispatch

Review preview for The French Dispatch

It all has a very particular flavour. Even a new one.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th Century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in the French Dispatch magazine.

(Country: Germany, US; Year: 2021; Director: Wes Anderson; Writer: Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, Hugh Guinness; Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss, Frances McDormand, Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro, Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray)

Full review

The Harder They Fall

Review preview for The Harder They Fall

Everything is elevated to an almost cartoonish level, but the performances are big enough to carry it, with Elba maintaining a calm presence at the centre.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
When an outlaw discovers his enemy is being freed from jail he rounds up his gang to seek revenge.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Jeymes Samuel; Writer: Jeymes Samuel, Boaz Yakin; Stars: Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors, Edi Gathegi, Delroy Lindo, Tait Fletcher, RJ Cyler, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Danielle Deadwyler, Deon Cole, Woody McClain, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Dylan Kenin)

Full review

King Richard

Review preview for King Richard

This unexpected emphasis on the entire clan and, particularly, its eccentric patriarch offers an interesting change from more straightforward biopics.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Story of the Williams sisters rise to tennis fame under the tutelage of their father.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green; Writer: Zach Baylin; Stars: Jon Bernthal, Will Smith, Tony Goldwyn, Dylan McDermott, Erin Cummings, Susie Abromeit, Aunjanue Ellis, Andy Bean, Hannah Barefoot, Noah Bean, Judith Chapman, Saniyya Sidney, Katrina Begin, Demi Singleton, Chet Grissom)

Full review

Last Night In Soho

Review preview for Last Night In Soho

It’s a film which some viewers will find exhausting to watch, hammering home its emotive points rather than letting us explore on our own. Within this, however, there are some surprisingly delicate performances.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Edgar Wright; Writer: Edgar Wright, Edgar Wright, Krysty Wilson-Cairns; Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, Jessie Mei Li, Diana Rigg, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Lisa McGrillis, Margaret Nolan, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Rita Tushingham, Synnove Karlsen, Michael Jibson, Katrina Vasilieva, Andrew Bicknell)

Full review

The Lost Daughter

Review preview for The Lost Daughter

The film comes into its own because of Gyllenhaal's non-judgemental perspective, even sympathy, for the small suffocations of motherhood.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A holidaying professor finds an encounter with another family triggers memories of motherhood from her past

(Country: US, Greece; Year: 2021; Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal; Writer: Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the novel by Elena Ferrante; Stars: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ed Harris, Dagmara Dominczyk, Panos Koronis, Jack Farthing, Alba Rohrwacher, Ellie James, Abe Cohen, Vassilis Koukalani, Nikos Poursanidis)

Full review

Mothering Sunday

Review preview for Mothering Sunday

The façade of a happy picnic shows all the cracks, despite the lovely geese flying overhead.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A maid living in post-World War I England secretly plans to meet with the man she loves before he leaves to marry another woman.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Eva Husson; Writer: Alice Birch, based on the book by Graham Swift; Stars: Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Josh O'Connor, Odessa Young, Glenda Jackson, Sopé Dìrísù, Patsy Ferran, Emma D'Arcy, Simon Shepherd, Caroline Harke, Emily Woof, Craig Crosbie)

Full review See: Eva Husson and Odessa Young in conversation on Mothering Sunday

The Power Of The Dog

Review preview for The Power Of The Dog

Campion treats the material with such well-mannered reverence that you begin to wish that not just the characters, but she too, would loosen up a bit.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A widow and her son are tormented by her new husband’s sullen and bullying brother.

(Country: UK, Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand; Year: 2021; Director: Jane Campion; Writer: Jane Campion, Thomas Savage; Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy,)

Full review

Ron's Gone Wrong

Review preview for Ron's Gone Wrong

This is an animated kids' movie in a furrow well ploughed.

Andrew Robertson · 2.5 out of 5
Ron, a Bubble Bot damaged in transit, is wreaking havoc and only young Barney can make things right.

(Country: US, UK, Canada; Year: 2021; Director: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, Octavio Ev Rodriguez; Writer: Peter Baynham, Chad Gomez Creasey, Trevor DeVooght; Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Olivia Colman, Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, Marcus Scribner, Thomas Barbusca, Pierre Bouvier, Barns Courtney, Mike Herrera, Lucas Kalechstein, Brianna Denski)

Full review

The Souvenir: Part II

Review preview for The Souvenir: Part II

Hogg has always had an eye for architectural as well as emotional spaces and we see it here, as she floods the large rooms of Julie's parents' home with light, so that she almost seems to be paling out of them, which, coupled with her often silent reactions as others babble around her makes it seem as though she is the one who might be the ghost.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Harris Dickinson, Jack McMullen, Richard Ayoade, Joe Alwyn, Charlie Heaton, Ariane Labed, Alice McMillan, Amber Anderson, Tosin Cole, Frankie Wilson, Jaygann Ayeh, Gala Botero, Grace Hancock)

Full review See: Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne make a splash in Cannes with The Souvenir: Part II

Spencer

Review preview for Spencer

There are strong supporting performances from a relatively small cast, but they pale in comparison to Stewart.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumours of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities, across which handful of days, the film is set.

(Country: Germany, Chile, UK, US; Year: 2021; Director: Pablo Larraín; Writer: Steven Knight; Stars: Kristen Stewart, Sean Harris, Amy Manson, Sally Hawkins, Jack Farthing, Timothy Spall, Richard Sammel, Olga Hellsing, Ryan Wichert, Jack Nielen, Michael Epp, Niklas Kohrt, John Keogh, Ben Plunkett-Reynolds, Wendy Patterson)

Full review

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

Shakespearean tragedy of a man and his wife who are undone by ambition.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Joel Coen; Writer: Joel Coen, William Shakespeare; Stars: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Brian Thompson, Ralph Ineson)