Lff

News, Reviews & Features

#LFFtovers: The Sessions

Movie Review | Ali | 22nd October 2012

No sooner than it had begun (okay, 12 days after it had begun), the London Film Festival closes for another year. Shit. Even though I managed to break my own record by seeing a whopping SEVEN films in competition, I've still managed to emerge into the cold light of day with loads of poorly-written notes for films I've not yet had time to review. Hence these 'LFFtovers': a rather delicious pun that hopefully distracts you from how sloppy I've been in adding my reviews. Shut up. Here's my take on The Sessions.

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#LFF2012: Sightseers

Movie Review | Ali | 21st October 2012

"If I'm not back in 20 minutes... come and rescue me," says Kill List's protagonist Jay to his hitman partner Gal, as he enters a warehouse housing the unsuspecting pervert behind unimaginably sick snuff films, preparing for a bloodbath. We wait with Gal in the car as 20 excruciating minutes pass. Shit. Eventually, fearing for his friend, Gal reluctantly takes his gun and sidles slowly into the building, anticipating death around every corner. We hear horrible sounds interrupt excruciating periods of silence as Gal gets closer to seeing his worst fears realised. Finally, Gal swoops around the corner ready to confront whatever horrors await, only to find Jay â€“ hammer in hand, covered in blood from his still- twitching victim, happy as a pig in shit â€“ staring back at him. Beat. "Was that 20 minutes?"

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#LFF2012: Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Movie Review | Matt | 19th October 2012

Beasts Of The Southern Wild is this year's wreath-laden indie movie of choice: an incredibly slight independent film from a first-time director, with no real plot to speak of, a cast of unknowns â€“ including a tiny yet infinitesimally wise child as its lead â€“ and a GREAT BIG POLITICAL METAPHOR at its heart. Naturally, I felt inclined to hate it upon first sight, but 'Beasts Of The SoWi' (as some horrible hipster shit in my screening called it) defrosted my cold, dead heart like one of those polar ice-caps it pretends to care about. It's actually pretty lovely if you can park the cynicism bus round the back for a bit.

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#LFF2012: Seven Psychopaths

Movie Review | Matt | 18th October 2012

For a film about the perils of screenwriting, Seven Psychopaths sure could have used a few extra drafts. Far from the dognapping caper the trailers would have you believe, writer/director Martin McDonagh's follow-up to In Bruges is actually a far darker, way more ambitious meta comedy about a man trying to write a genuinely heartfelt movie in spite of the various ridiculous incidents that seem determined to inform it. That it immediately invokes unfavourable comparisons to Adaptation does not necessarily make Seven Psychopaths a failure, but you do find yourself wishing that McDonagh had the foresight to intentionally ruin his own movie with as much precision as Charlie Kaufman had.

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#LFF2012: Argo

Movie Review | Ali | 17th October 2012

How could it be that Ben Affleck â€“ he of being the bomb in Phantoms, yo â€“ has become the most exciting American director working today? The former himbo and male half of Bennifer made one of the all-time greatest career turnarounds when he ditched the smug action hero roles and gave honest to goodness filmmaking a shot; first with sensational kidnapping drama Gone Baby Gone, then with palm-sweatingly tense heist thriller The Town. Affleck has gone one better with his third film as director, moving from the frying pan of Boston into the fire of Iran for his most ambitious â€“ and awards-worthy â€“ movie yet.

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#LFF2012: End Of Watch

Movie Review | Matt | 4th October 2012

As we welcome the BFI London Film Festival into our lives once again, get ready for a spate of reviews of worthy, awardsy type films that illicit an emotional response different to our usual "fuck yeah, that roundhouse kick was awesome!". And End Of Watch is as good a film as any to kick off proceedings, being a GRITTY, REALISTIC cop drama that reminds us that crime on the streets of LA is GRITTY and REALISTIC and OFTEN QUITE HARROWING REALLY.

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#LFF: Headhunters

Movie Review | Ali | 22nd October 2011

Arriving at the London Film Festival without so much as a fanfare or even a comical parp on a tuba, Headhunters is a thriller from the same production house as the Millennium trilogy, which naturally led me to begin prepping me 'The Film With The [Blankety] [Blank]' puns.

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#LFF: Shame

Movie Review | Ali | 20th October 2011

My uptake of films from the London Film Festival has been pretty slow so far â€“ curse you, day job! â€“ but with Shame marking another notch on my metaphorical bedpost, I'm three for three for excellent movies so far. If I were a Radio 1 DJ, I might describe it as "a non-stop hit parade of massive club bangers", but I'm not, so I'll just say I've seen three cracking films in a row, and hooray for that.

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#LFF: The Artist

Movie Review | Ali | 19th October 2011

The dog doesn't die. What a relief. After the relentless misery of films like Tyrannosaur and Snowtown, and with We Need To Talk About Kevin still to come, I'm just grateful a film as joyous as The Artist even exists. A lovingly shot black and white homage to silent film, Michel Hazanavicius's evocative picture echoes the classics of the genre and stretches wide over the cinematic horizon like a double rainbow (so intense, all the way across), blasting away the black clouds hanging over the London Film Festival. If it doesn't leave you with a smile plastered all over your stupid face, then you don't have a mouth, in which case, I'm sorry I said your face was stupid.

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#LFF: Snowtown

Movie Review | Ali | 18th October 2011

If you'd have told me in February that Aussie drama Animal Kingdom would be the second best anything of the year, I'd have called you a drongo and a flaming galah. Nevertheless, Snowtown â€“ a true-to-life serial killer drama from first-time director Justin Kurzel â€“ effortlessly topples it as the best Australian crime thriller of 2011. In fact, it's pretty close to being the film of the year, period. If you can make it through to the end, you'll make yourself a promise that you'll never watch it again. It's so depressing, you may need to ride the Nyan Cat home just to shake yourself out of your slump.

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