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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2017

San Sebastian Film Festival 2017

Pearls

Programme

17 films · 15 reviews

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120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (120 Battements Par Minute, 120 Beats Per Minute)

Review preview for 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)

Campillo has a weakness in not knowing when to trim all the talking.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Portrait of the ACT UP activist group, a direct action collective aiming to impact the lives of people with AIDS.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Robin Campillo; Writer: Robin Campillo; Stars: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adèle Haenel, Yves Heck, Emmanuel Ménard, Rahim-Silvioli Mehdi, Antoine Reinartz, Caroline Piette, Marco Horanieh, Pascal Tantot, François Rabette, Naelle Dariya, Ariel Borenstein, Coralie Russier, Saadia Bentaïeb)

Full review See: 120 Beats Per Minute award-winner Nahuel Biscayart on sexuality, activism and the pink condom , Robin Campillo on AIDS drama 120 BPM, writing from the heart and collaboration

Borg vs McEnroe

Review preview for Borg vs McEnroe

Why make a movie about this match? Why now? Is it the danger factor with Superbrat or nostalgia for IceBorg or the ingenuity of the stunt guys to make the players look genuine?

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
The story of the tennis rivalry between the Swede Björn Borg and the American John McEnroe.

(Country: Sweden, Denmark, Finland; Year: 2017; Director: Janus Metz; Writer: Ronnie Sandahl; Stars: Sverrir Gudnason, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård,Tuva Novotny, David Bamber, Björn Granath, Robert Emms, Jane Perry, Linnea Tagesson, Ronnie Sandahl, Scott Arthur, Janis Ahern, Claes Ljungmark, Tom Datnow, Leo Borg)

Full review

The Big Sick

Review preview for The Big Sick

Each of the characters here, presumably because they are rooted in truth, is given room to breathe and shows an ability to be changed by circumstance.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A couple struggle to maintain their culture-clash relationship... and then one of them falls ill.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Michael Showalter; Writer: Emily V Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani; Stars: Holly Hunter, Zoe Kazan, Kumail Nanjiani, Ray Romano, Celeste Arias, Vella Lovell, Matty Cardarople, Bo Burnham, Adeel Akhtar, Linda Emond, Shenaz Treasurywala, Anupam Kher, Aidy Bryant, Kurt Braunohler, Rebecca Naomi Jones) , Trailer

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

Custody (Jusqu'à la garde)

Review preview for Custody

Though a short film, even one of half-an-hour as Legrand’s was, can be carried almost solely on this sort of tension, a feature needs something more.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A couple embark on a bitter custody battle for their son.

(Year: 2017; Director: Xavier Legrand; Writer: Xavier Legrand; Stars: Léa Drucker, Denis Ménochet, Thomas Gioria, Mathilde Auneveux, Mathieu Saikaly, Florence Janas, Saadia Bentaïeb, Coralie Russier, Sophie Pincemaille, Emilie Incerti-Formentini, Jérome Care-Aulanier, Jenny Bellay, Martine Vandeville, Jean-Marie Winling, Martine Schambacher)

Full review See: Interview with Xavier Legrand about Custody (Jusqu’à La Garde)

The Florida Project

Review preview for The Florida Project

The script doesn't patronise its characters, showing they're just as capable of the best of actions and the worst as anybody else, but makes sure we understand the additional pressures they face.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
The story of a precocious six-year-old and her rag-tag group of close friends whose carefree lives contrast with those of their struggling parents.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Sean Baker; Writer: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto, Bria Vinaite, Christopher Rivera, Caleb Landry Jones, Macon Blair, Karren Karagulian, Sandy Kane, Cecilia Quinan, Betty Jeune, Lauren O'Quinn, Giovanni Rodriguez, Carl Bradfield, Gary B. Gross)

Full review

Happy End

Review preview for Happy End

Haneke is a master of his material, revealing just enough to keep the viewer on tenterhooks but not enough to give an easy explanations.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Story of a bourgeois family, set against the backdrop of the Calais refugee crisis.

(Country: France, Germany, Austria; Year: 2017; Director: Michael Haneke; Writer: Michael Haneke; Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Toby Jones, Mathieu Kassovitz, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fantine Harduin, Loubna Abidar, Dominique Besnehard, Jack Claudany, Hassam Ghancy, Nabiha Akkari, Franck Andrieux, Jackee Toto)

Full review

The House By The Sea (La Villa)

When three adult children of a dying man gather at his villa, they are forced to reflect on who they are.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Robert Guédiguian; Writer: Robert Guédiguian, Serge Valletti; Stars: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan, Jacques Boudet, Anaïs Demoustier, Robinson Stévenin, Yann Trégouët, Geneviève Mnich, Fred Ulysse, Diouc Koma, Haylana Bechir, Ayoub Oaued, Giani Roux, Esther Seignon)

The Leisure Seeker

Review preview for The Leisure Seeker

The plot can sink without trace, which it does, because this is all about the stars

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2 out of 5
An old couple take a road trip despite his Alzheimer's and her inability to stop talking

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2017; Director: Paolo Virzì; Writer: Stephen Amidon, Francesca Archibugi, Paolo Virzì, Francesco Piccolo, based on the novel by Michael Zadoorian,; Stars: Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Christian McKay, Janel Moloney, Dana Ivey, Dick Gregory)

Full review See: Paolo Virzì in conversation on jealousy, Hemingway's cats, the soundtrack and adapting the novel of The Leisure Seeker , Paolo Virzì in conversation on The Leisure Seeker

Loveless

Review preview for Loveless

Though the filmmaking is good, the bleakness of the message is unremitting.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A couple go looking for their young son after he disappears during one of their bitter rows.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev; Writer: Oleg Negin; Stars: Maryana Spivak, Alexei Rozin)

Full review

Loving Pablo

A journalist embarks on a romance with the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

(Country: Spain, Bulgaria; Year: 2017; Director: Fernando León de Aranoa; Writer: Fernando León de Aranoa, Virginia Vallejo; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Peter Sarsgaard, David Ojalvo, David Valencia, Julieth Restrepo, Lillian Blankenship, Nathan Cooper, Mark Basnight, Joavany Alvarez, Matthew Moreno, Diego Landaeta, Ricardo Niño)

Closing night

Mother!

Review preview for Mother!

In the realm of the insane reason has no place. Anything is possible. Even the impossible

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
Uninvited guests threaten a couple's relationship.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Darren Aronofsky; Writer: Darren Aronofsky; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, Stephen McHattie, Kristen Wiig, Stefan Simchowitz, Jovan Adepo, Robert Higden, Amanda Warren, Eric Davis, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Mizinga Mwinga)

Full review

On Body And Soul (Teströl és lélekröl)

Review preview for On Body And Soul

There is a fragility and brittleness to this but also an underlying warm sweetness that might just melt your heart.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A slaughterhouse becomes an unlikely setting for romance.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2017; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi; Stars: Morcsányi Géza, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider, Ervin Nagy, Tamás Jordán, Zsuzsa Járó, Réka Tenki, Júlia Nyakó, Itala Békés, Pál Mácsai, Annamária Fodor, Márton Patkós, Gusztáv Molnár, István Dankó, Vivien Rujder)

Full review

The Third Murder (Sando-me no satsujin)

Review preview for The Third Murder

The lightness of touch so evident in his family films is no less deft here, as he woos us with the promise of cast iron fact.... only to spend the rest of the film oiling the ground beneath our beliefs until they can't stop sliding this way and that

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Leading attorney Shigemori takes on the defence of murder-robbery suspect Misumi - a crime he admits - but as he digs into the case, he begins to wonder if his client is guilty after all.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Stars: Masaharu Fukuyama, Kôji Yakusho, Suzu Hirose, Mikako Ichikawa, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Yuki Saitô, Isao Hashizume, Kôtarô Yoshida, Izumi Matsuoka)

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

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

Wonderstruck

Review preview for Wonderstruck

This creative and visually arresting adaptation of Brian Selznick’s critically acclaimed novel marks a filmmaker at the top of his game.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Ben and Rose are children from two different eras who secretly wish their lives were different. Both set out on quests.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Todd Haynes; Writer: Brian Selznick, based on his novel; Stars: Amy Hargreaves, Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Oakes Fegley, Tom Noonan, Cory Michael Smith, James Urbaniak, Marko Caka, Damian Young, Hays Wellford, Morgan Turner, Ekaterina Samsonov, Brian Berrebbi, Michael Wren Gucciardo, Jaden Michael)

Full review

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