London Film Festival 2023

Big post incoming, apologies in advance. Also, it's pretty poor form on my part that I have so much to say about film when I almost never give detailed reviews for the theatre I see on this theatre forum!

So the surprise film turned out to be Ferrari which I was initially a little disappointed to hear as it's had a fairly muted reception elsewhere and the subject matter isn't something I would be immediately drawn to. However, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. In terms of craft the film is exceptional. The cinematography, blocking, framing, sound design and mixing are all so carefully considered and deliberate that makes this much more engaging to watch than most standard bio-pic fare. Every frame is gorgeous and there's always something of interest. The racing scenes in particular are utterly thrilling as one would expect.

The acting is fantastic across the board as well. Though as I've mentioned elsewhere it's a big pet-peeve of mine to do films in English with an accent when they're set in other countries - just do it in the country's language or, if you must do it in English because you want big actors, just let people use their natural accent. Half the time they may as well have been anyway, especially Shailene Woodley who barely seemed to make an effort to sound anything other than American (she was good otherwise though).

I was not as enthralled by the film's story as I was its visuals unfortunately. There's a lot that feels like it's been done before and the more original ideas that the film has aren't given as much attention as the pretty typical protagonist is cold and calculating genius but has a troubled personal life. The history is interesting though and there's some moments of real emotional heft but pretty infrequently. The score was also not my favourite. It gets forgotten about a lot because so much of the soundscape is dedicated to the cars so I feel like you could have almost done without it. Or maybe since it already takes inspiration from opera and there's a pivotal scene involving the opera they should have just used existing music.

Despite these qualms those racing scenes make it all worth it. And although I'd say this is probably my least favourite of the films I've seen at the fest so far, that is no serious mark against it as I've seen some truly fantastic films. My ranking of the first week is as follows for anyone interested:

1. May December - considering its sensitive subject matter, the tone this films strikes should not work and yet somehow it's so wrong that it's right. You have two bravura performances at the centre from Moore and Portman, and their conflict is played as camp, juicy melodrama, full of bitchy exchanges and jet black comedy. But then from Charles Melton you have an achingly truthful and human portrayal of a victim of child sexual abuse and grooming finally reckoning with that experience with the storm blown in by Portman's arrival. It's the contrast between these two tones that really emphasises the human cost of those two main characters' selfish and destructive influences. As with many Todd Haynes films, I left unsettled and I haven't been able to shake its influence since I saw it Saturday morning.

2. Monster - another hugely empathetic film from the master of that kind of thing, Hirokazu Kore-eda. An always welcome reminder to be conscious of other people's perspectives and recognise that you don't have the full story for why someone may be behaving the way they are. It's easy to assume the worst in people living in what feels like an increasingly divisive society, but this film manages to convince you that some of the characters in this film are truly despicable and irredeemable and then completely upend that assumption.

3. The Royal Hotel - the follow-up to Kitty Green's The Assistant is another thriller about the struggles women face in male-dominated spaces and the cultures of apathy towards sexism and violence against women that they breed. As with The Assistant, this was one of the most frustrating cinematic experiences I've ever had, but that's all of course by design. Thankfully, unlike the highly effective but depressingly realistic ending to The Assistant, there is some catharsis to be found here. I'm not sure why certain things about the protagonist's friend were left ambiguous, as she was the one character that I had trouble fully understanding, but outside of that I thought this was a really effective immersion into the micro- and macro-aggressions many women have to suffer through to navigate the world.

4. Hit Man - kind of a glorified romcom but there's no shame in that, it's a really fantastic romcom, elevated by a dark edge and philosophical musings on identity and our ability to change. The camera work here never wowed me but Glen Powell is so incredibly charming as an unassuming college professor who finds himself working undercover masquerading as a hit man. The various characters he comes up with are all hilarious and this was probably the most I've laughed at a film so far this LFF. The chemistry between him and Adria Arjona is also off the charts.

5. Ferrari - as I said above, while this film is my least favourite of what I've seen, it is by no means bad. I've just been very lucky to have seen some truly great films this week! Hopefully I have similar success with snagging some more return tickets.

I was gutted to hear the Suprise film was Ferrari as I really want to see it asap (and the screening was a direct clash with an F1 race, which seemed a pretty facepalm moment of scheduling to me).

Sorry you didn't get into All of Us Strangers. If it helps, I saw it earlier and didn't love it as much as everyone else has seemed to.

For those that are interested, I saw on Edgar Wrights Instagram today that you can see the Scorcese q&a through his bio, BFI have said you can see it on their YouTube as well.

Saw The End We Start From at RFH earlier today. Nice in-person intro from both the Director and Festival Director. A slow burner overall and I was expecting a bit more of a climax but it didn’t quite get there. Another stellar performance from Jodie Comer though. I’ve only got teary eyed three times this year after all the films and theatre shows I’ve seen and two of those were due to JC. A long round of applause at the end and seemed to be well received from the audience.

That brings an end to my London Film Festival experience this year. I only missed out on 2 films I was earnestly trying to see - All of Us Strangers and Poor Things. There were a few others I would have liked to catch but none I made any concerted effort for. So all in all it was a very successful year. Since my last post I've seen a few more films so I'll post my overall ranking with relatively brief reviews for the ones I hadn't before:

1. May December
2. The Zone of Interest - chilling, sobering and haunting. I left the theatre shellshocked. I've never seen anything like it. The multi-camera setup lends an almost security footage-like quality to the images which creates a remove from the characters but equally enhances the feeling that you are watching something real - it feels objective, like it's not trying to manipulate your reaction. The way the film makes you reflect on your own complicity in evils taking place around the world is very effective. Also, despite only appearing in earnest at the beginning and end of the film, the score leaves a real lasting impression. It's the sound, though, that is the key ingredient for why this films works so well.
3. Monster
4. Evil Does Not Exist - I shamefully still haven't seen Drive My Car despite all the raves so this was actually my first foray into Ryūsuke Hamaguchi's filmography. From the reviews I've read it sounds like this might be slightly lesser amongst his works which makes me very excited because I really loved it. It's very meditative and deliberately paced with long shots of nature or mundane activities like chopping wood but somehow he makes it enthralling. It was also surprisingly funny. And like the film above and below this, the frustrations of feeling helpless against a system bigger than you were strongly evoked. I did see some people complaining about the ending in a few reviews but, and maybe it helped that before seeing it I had read the ending would be a change of pace, I thought the film foreshadowed everything that happened perfectly well and it was kind of the only way I could see it ending - maybe not exactly the same events but what those events represented.
5. The Royal Hotel
6. Hit Man
7. Our Body - a French documentary set in a gynecology ward which follows patients through consultations and procedures from fertility to gender-affirming care to cancer. It's very sensitively handled, matter of fact, and really insightful. It's almost a comforting watch despite some very tough subject matter because it shows the effort and care these health professionals put into each and every one of their patients (though it also acknowledges that this is unfortunately not always the case with the inclusion of testimony from women at a protest who experienced misconduct by a doctor at the hospital - the director said in a Q&A afterwards that while she only had a positive experience throughout the making of the film, she felt it was important to include this scene as their perspectives were just as valid and in fact one of the protesters was a nurse herself which supported the claims). There were times that I did feel a little bit like I was watching an upmarket version of 24 hours in A&E, and never more so than when the score would occasionally kick in (it was so rare and unnecessary that I wish there was none at all - it was totally at odds with the otherwise neutral view I felt the film was trying to portray of the hospital experience), but the choice to put us in the patients' perspectives really made the film work better than your average TV documentary about similar stuff.
8. The Pot au Feu - this was my final film of the fest and it was a really pleasant one to go out on. It stars Juliette Binoche as a talented, 19th century French cook who has worked with an accomplished chef, played by Benoît Magimel, for the past 20 years. They are romantically involved but she refuses his many attempts to marry her as she is satisfied with their current arrangement. Most of the film is made up of scenes of decadent meals being made and the camera is almost constantly, restlessly (but not frantically - it glides around the place smoothly) moving through the kitchen to capture every stage of preparation. Although I'm vegan, so most of the scenes of cooking were not all that appetizing to me, I could appreciate what they represented - which is basically the love these characters have for one another and how ephemeral that can sadly sometimes be. It's quite a slight film - since so much time is dedicated to cooking, you don't get to know much about these characters' inner lives which made it a little hard to be fully invested in the central romance. But the chemistry there is strong, there were many laughs throughout the film and the final moment ties things together really nicely. I spent most of it smiling and it just kind of felt like a warm hug - a warm, hearty, comfort meal of a film.
9. Ferrari
10. The Holdovers - now maybe because I was pretty drained and my legs were killing me after being sat for 3 hours watching a French documentary about people's hospital treatment, and I'd rushed from one cinema to the Royal Festival Hall in 20 minutes to make it to the screening in time, but I was not as taken by this film as a lot of people seem to be. The evocation of the 70s period and filmmaking techniques is impressive and convincing and I laughed a fair amount but the emotional moments didn't really land with me - it all felt overly sentimental and obvious and manipulative and took up a good chunk of the screentime, especially in the second half. It was just a very predictable and safe movie. I also found it a good 20, maybe even 30, minutes too long though that could again be because of how cramped my legs were by that point. Overall, I still enjoyed it but I think this kind of easy watch will be best enjoyed on TV at Christmas (oh yeah, it's a Christmas movie btw) where you don't have to give it your full attention.

Glad you enjoyed it. I think a lot of what stopped me loving it was confusion as to how Claire Foy and Jamie Bell could be playing Andrew Scott's parents, which really took me out of a lot of the emotional moments. By the time I understood why the film was nearly over.

Is Poor Things as good as everyone is making out?  I didn't manage to get tickets to this but heard a lot of Oscar buzz for Emma Stone.  

I read the novel recently and I'm curious to see how it's been translated to the screen, though don't want to spoil the very vivid 'book in my head'. Tbh I'd have preferred to see a female director taking this on .

A heads up to those of you wanting to see All of Us Strangers: there will be a preview screening followed by a Q&A with the director Paul Haigh at BFI Southbank on 17th January.