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Venice Film Festival · 2018

Venice Film Festival 2018

Competition

Programme

21 films · 15 reviews

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22 July

Consideration of right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik's murder spree at a Labour Party Youth Camp on an island near Oslo.

(Country: Norway, Iceland, United States; Year: 2018; Director: Paul Greengrass; Writer: Paul Greengrass, Åsne Seierstad; Stars: Thorbjørn Harr, Anders Danielsen Lie, Hang Tran, Caroline Glomnes, Lars Arentz-Hansen, Jon Øigarden, Tommy Hyving, Anneke von der Lippe, Charlotte Bottolfsen Iversen, Joakim Skarli, Marita Fjeldheim Wierdal, Jonas Strand Gravli, Kenan Ibrahimefendic, Øystein Martinsen, Trim Balaj)

The Accused (Acusada)

A woman's best friend is brutally killed and two years later, she is the only person accused of the crime. As the trial approaches, she must face her own doubts.

(Country: Argentina, Mexico; Year: 2018; Director: Gonzalo Tobal; Writer: Ulises Porra, Gonzalo Tobal; Stars: Gael García Bernal, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Lali Espósito, Daniel Fanego, Gerardo Romano, Lautaro Rodríguez, Inés Estévez, Ana Garibaldi, Emilio Vodanovich, Martina Campos, Gael García Bernal, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Lali Espósito, Daniel Fanego, Gerardo Romano)

At Eternity's Gate

Review preview for At Eternity's Gate

For those who know and love Van Gogh's work, the effect is hypnotic, a translation of his vision into a new medium.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
The last days of Vincent van Gogh.

(Country: UK, France, US; Year: 2018; Director: Julian Schnabel; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Julian Schnabel; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup, Stella Schnabel, Patrick Chesnais, Victor Pontecorvo, Frank Molinaro, Alan Aubert, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac)

Full review See: Jean-Claude Carrière and Julian Schnabel‪ on‬ paintings, movement and the emotions in At Eternity's Gate

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Review preview for The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Scruggs still suffers from the problem that afflicts too many other anthologies - not all the tales come up to the same level in telling the essentially Coen-esque truth over and over.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
An anthology of short films based on a fictional book of “western tales”.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; Writer: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; Stars: Bill Heck, Aesop Aquarian, Charles Ash, E.E. Bell, Katy Bodenhamer, Brian Brown, Richard Bucher, Jackamoe Buzzell, Tyne Daly, Tim DeZarn, Sam Dillon, Ethan Dubin, Stephen R Estler, Bill Foster, James Franco)

Full review See: Interview with Joel Coen and Ethan Coen about the animals in The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs , Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Capri-Revolution

Period drama unfolding on the brink of the First World War.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2018; Director: Mario Martone; Writer: Mario Martone, Ippolita Di Majo; Stars: Marianna Fontana, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Antonio Folletto, Jenna Thiam, Lola Klamroth, Ludovico Girardello, Gianluca Di Gennaro, Maximilian Dirr, Donatella Finocchiaro, Eduardo Scarpetta, Rinat Khismatouline, Yannick Noomen, Marianna Fontana, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Antonio Folletto)

Close Enemies (Freres Ennemis)

Two brothers inseparable in childhood find themselves on either side of the law as adults - and on a collision course.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2018; Director: David Oelhoffen; Writer: Jeanne Aptekman, David Oelhoffen; Stars: Matthias Schoenaerts, Sabrina Ouazani, Reda Kateb, Nicolas Giraud, Gwendolyn Gourvenec, Adel Bencherif, Marc Barbé, Astrid Whettnall, Yann Goven, Omar Salim, Djamel Lazaar, Ahmed Benaissa, Fianso, Raphaël Magnabosco, John Sehil)

The Favourite

Review preview for The Favourite

The dialogue is irreverent and sharp like a raven's claw.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Two of Queen Anne's acolytes jockey for position.

(Country: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States; Year: 2018; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Writer: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara; Stars: Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Colman, Joe Alwyn, Mark Gatiss, Timothy Innes, John Locke, Isaura Barbé-Brown, Jenny Rainsford, James Smith, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte, Basil Eidenbenz, James Melville, Jack Veal)

Full review See: Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Colman, Joe Alwyn, and Tony McNamara in conversation on The Favourite , Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

First Man

Review preview for First Man

This is a story about grief and loneliness here masquerading as one about rockets.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Biopic of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Damien Chazelle; Writer: Josh Singer, based on the book by James R Hansen; Stars: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Ethan Embry, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll, Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas, Brian d'Arcy James, Cory Michael Smith, Brady Smith)

Full review See: Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Killing (Zan)

Period drama about a masterless Samurai.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Shin'ya Tsukamoto; Writer: Shin'ya Tsukamoto; Stars: Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Yû Aoi, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Tatsuya Nakamura, Ryûsei Maeda, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Yû Aoi, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Tatsuya Nakamura, Ryûsei Maeda)

The Mountain

Review preview for The Mountain

Kier, Goldblum, and Lavant are never less than fantastic in their portrayal of modes of crazed, unreliably self-assured masculinity.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A young man who was raised by his emotional stunted father goes to work with his mentor, a doctor who performs lobotomies and shock therapy.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Rick Alverson; Writer: Rick Alverson, Dustin Guy Defa, Colm O'Leary; Stars: Tye Sheridan, Jeff Goldblum, Hannah Gross, Denis Lavant, Udo Kier, Annemarie Lawless, Eleonore Hendricks, Margot Klein, Amy Stiller, Adam Daveline, James A. Besha, Paul Eenhoorn, Larry Fessenden, Daniela Malave, Lollie Jensen)

Full review See: Rick Alverson in conversation on Denis Lavant's threshold move, Disney, interrupting the trigger, and music in The Mountain , Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor)

Review preview for Never Look Away

The blurring of fictionalisation is just one of the layers that encourages contemplation almost deep enough to justify the film's expansive canvas.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A tormented young German artist who has fled to the west becomes convinced he has met the love of his life.

(Country: Germany, Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Writer: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Stars: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Oliver Masucci, Cai Cohrs, Ina Weisse, Evgeniy Sidikhin, Mark Zak, Ulrike C. Tscharre, Bastian Trost, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Hanno Koffler, David Schütter, Franz Pätzold)

Full review See: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck ‪in conversation on‬ his editor Patricia Rommel, the use of Händel in Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor), his family, and a Milan Kundera essay , Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck ‪in conversation on‬ Germany's Oscar submission Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor)

The Nightingale

Review preview for The Nightingale

A film that looks back, that gazes also into you.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A young convict in a penal colony seeks revenge.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2018; Director: Jennifer Kent; Writer: Jennifer Kent; Stars: Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Aisling Franciosi, Ewen Leslie, Charlie Shotwell, Matthew Sunderland, Harry Greenwood, Sam Smith, Michael Sheasby, Ben McIvor, Baykali Ganambarr, Luke Carroll, Claire Jones, Magnolia Maymuru, Dallas Mugarra)

Full review

Non-Fiction (Doubles vies)

Review preview for Non-Fiction

In Assayas's smashingly sad comedy of manners, shoes drop left and right.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A drama about the hopelessly intertwined world of publishing.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche, Vincent Macaigne, Christa Théret, Nora Hamzawi, Pascal Greggory, Laurent Poitrenaux, Sigrid Bouaziz, Lionel Dray, Nicolas Bouchaud, Antoine Reinartz, Aurélia Petit, Thierry de Peretti, Violaine Gillibert, Jean-Luc Vincent)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Our Time (Nuestro Tiempo)

A husband faces problems when the open relationship he shares with his wife is thrown off balance when she falls for another man.

(Country: Mexico, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2018; Director: Carlos Reygadas; Stars: Carlos Reygadas, Natalia López, Phil Burgers, Rut Reygadas, Eleazar Reygadas, Carlos Reygadas, Natalia López, Phil Burgers, Rut Reygadas, Eleazar Reygadas)

Peterloo

Review preview for Peterloo

In his desire to inform our heads, Leigh often forgets that he needs to engage our hearts us as well.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
Dramatisation of events surrounding hte 1819 Peterloo Massacre when a pro-democracy rally turn bloody as forces stormed the crowd.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Mike Leigh; Writer: Mike Leigh; Stars: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley, David Moorst, Rachel Finnegan, Tom Meredith, Simona Bitmate, Robert Wilfort, Karl Johnson, Sam Troughton, Roger Sloman, Kenneth Hadley, Tom Edward-Kane, Lizzy McInnerny, Alastair Mackenzie)

Full review See: Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Roma

Review preview for Roma

We are at a point where the wonders of earth and an awe in regards to nature cannot be shown often enough.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Chronicle of a middle-class family in the 1970s.

(Country: Mexico, United States; Year: 2018; Director: Alfonso Cuarón; Writer: Alfonso Cuarón; Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Marco Graf, Daniela Demesa, Nancy García García, Verónica García, Andy Cortés, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza, Latin Lover, Zarela Lizbeth Chinolla Arellano, José Luis López Gómez)

Full review See: Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

The Sisters Brothers

Review preview for The Sisters Brothers

Phoenix gives his character more depth than such men are usually afforded but deliberately takes a back seat, allowing Reilly the dramatic lead role he has long deserved.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Two assassins set out into the wilderness on the trail of a man with a secret.

(Country: France, Spain, Romania, US; Year: 2018; Director: Jacques Audiard; Writer: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Patrick Dewitt; Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Rutger Hauer, Riz Ahmed, Carol Kane, Creed Bratton, Duncan Lacroix, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Niels Arestrup, Rebecca Root, Aldo Maland, Ian Reddington, Philip Rosch, Lexie Benbow-Hart)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Sunset (Napszállta)

Review preview for Sunset

Sunset while resisting the digital, flings us into a dreamworld where nostalgia for the past is twin to premonition of our future.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A young wannabe milliner in Budapest meets a man connected to her past and begins to uncover family secrets.

(Country: Hungary, France; Year: 2018; Director: László Nemes; Writer: László Nemes, Clara Royer, Matthieu Taponier; Stars: Vlad Ivanov, Susanne Wuest, Juli Jakab, Judit Bárdos, Levente Molnár, Evelin Dobos, Urs Rechn, Mónika Balsai, Björn Freiberg, Uwe Lauer, János Kulka, Sándor Zsótér, Mihály Kormos, Dusán Vitanovics, Laurent Winkler)

Full review See: ‪László Nemes in conversation on fairy tales, Murnau's Sunrise, archaic imagery, and resonances beyond Sunset (Napszállta) , László Nemes in conversation on TS Eliot, caves of darkness, the innocent and ominous in Sunset (Napszállta) , Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

Suspiria

Review preview for Suspiria

If we compared the original to a Mark Rothko canvas - a distillation of raw emotion - this version is more akin to a colossal, baffling kinetic sculpture, one that seems to exist in more dimensions than it ought to.

Max Crawford · 4.5 out of 5
A nightmare brews in a dance company.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2018; Director: Luca Guadagnino; Writer: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, David Kajganich; Stars: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Lutz Ebersdorf, Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Elena Fokina, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk, Christine Leboutte, Fabrizia Sacchi, Malgorzata Bela, Jessica Harper, Chloë Grace Moretz, Vanda Capriolo)

Full review See: Venice 2018: First Man, Peterloo, The Favourite, Roma, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs and Suspiria

Vox Lux

Review preview for Vox Lux

Even its vapidity fails to contribute anything new to the subject matter it's dealing with.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A survivor of a school shooting goes on to become a pop star.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Brady Corbet; Writer: Brady Corbet; Stars: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Fred Hechinger, Matt Servitto, Natasha Romanova, Daniel London, Candace Smith, Micheál Richardson, Sophie Lane Curtis, Chris Banks, Allison Winn, Nastasha Strang)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux , Brady Corbet on making audiences think, Christianity and Robert Pattinson and the culture of celebrity

What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire?

Review preview for What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire?

While content is important, it is context that is king in a documentary, and this film could do with a lot more of it to orient viewers, especially those who don't have a full working knowledge of the American South.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The story of a community of black people in the American South during the summer 2017, when a string of brutal killings of black men sent shockwaves throughout the country.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2018; Director: Roberto Minervini; Writer: Roberto Minervini; Stars: Dorothy Hill, Kevin Goodman, Judy Hill, Ronaldo King, Michael Nelson, Ashlei King, Titus Turner)

Full review