Maria Filmotomy London Film Festival
Posted in Festival Review

London Film Festival Review: Maria (Pablo Larraín)

A whole life in just a few days, and what a life! Pablo Larraín’s trilogy-of-sorts about iconic women of the 20th Century concludes with his…

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Hard Truths Filmotomy London Film Festival
Posted in Festival Review

London Film Festival Review: Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)

We’re all downsizing these days. Forget the Roaring ‘20s – these are the Receding ‘20s. Costs are going up, people are staying in, and the…

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Grand Tour Cannes Filmotomy London Film Festival
Posted in Festival Review

London Film Festival Review: Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes) 

For all the lush scenery and exotic vistas with which it meets the eye, Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour is a movie defined as much by…

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London Film Festival Review Blitz Filmotomy
Posted in Festival Review

London Film Festival Review: Blitz (Steve McQueen)

The cinema of suffering need not necessarily be a traumatic experience. In the 16 years since his first feature, Hunger, Steve McQueen has proved himself…

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London Film Festival Review Nickel Boys Filmotomy
Posted in Festival Review Uncategorized

London Film Festival Review: Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)

Subjectivity can be a hard thing to depict in cinema. Even in the most immersive, captivating movies, there exists the perpetual sense that we, the…

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London Film Festival Review Memoir of a Snail Filmotomy
Posted in Festival Review Uncategorized

London Film Festival Review: Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot)

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” A Kierkegaard quote may strike one as an unusual jumping-off point for an…

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If It Were Love
Posted in Festival Review

LFF Review: If It Were Love (Patric Chiha)

If It Were Love is filmed theater, and by filmed theater that does not mean the stage, but the process, the transitions, and the trying…

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LFF Review: Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)

Unlike his previous Golden Bear recipient Fire at Sea, supposed Italian master Gianfranco Rosi’s follow-up Notturno feels like a shallow adventure through a war-torn world….

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Posted in Festival Review

‘Treasures’ Section of the London Film Festival

In addition to the number of exciting new screenings at the BFI London Film Festival this year, are three ‘Treasures’. Meticulous restorations of older works…

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Wolfwalkers
Posted in Festival Review

LFF Review: Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)

One can easily imagine the turning heads of Disney and Pixar, for instance, as the batwing doors swing open and a new pretender to the…

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After Love
Posted in Festival Review

LFF Review: After Love (Aleem Khan)

It took me a while to place the faces of actresses Joanna Scanlan and Nathalie Richard as I was immersed in After Love. One of…

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Posted in Festival Interview

LFF Interview: Arie and Chuko Esiri talk about their startling emigration story Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)

Arie and Chuko Esiri’s debut feature Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) is a bold, superbly directed diptych of two Nigerians planning to emigrate from Lagos….

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Posted in Festival Review

LFF Review: Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg)

In a world where the sordid inhumanity of corporate dealings has become literalised in transactions of murder and blood, Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a…

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Posted in Festival Review

LFF Review: Zanka Contact (Ismaël El Iraki)

Zanka Contact is a film deliberately built upon clichés. Its protagonists, Rajaes (Khansa Batma) and Larsen (Ahmed Hammoud) are a prostitute and a faded, drug-addicted guitarist…

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