Review - London Film Festival 2018
The London Film Festival just wrapped up and I went to it (kind of, for one weekend) so hey, I'm gonna talk about the stuff I saw. For the two films I saw, it'll be a full review like you'd usually expect but I also saw two episodes of a TV show so I won't give that a full review, just a quick rundown of what I saw. It's going to be organised in the order I saw them all, not how much I liked them and also bear in mind that the festival atmosphere makes everything a bit more exciting so I could be more positive on what I saw than you would be. With all the housekeeping done, let's review some films that aren't out yet!
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (formerly called Colin You Anus) is the new film from Brit auteur Ben Wheatley, director of films like Sightseers, High Rise and most recently, Free Fire. This film goes away from the genre fare of those to instead capture a family New Years Eve party and the misery, tension and comedy that comes from that. I guess that's why I am struggling with how to fill this paragraph because the plot is simplistic and deliberately so. Some family members turn up after years away. Others let tensions rise to the surface. Things are revealed and occur, sure but those are largely in the second half of the film or are left implicit. So don't go see this for the plot exactly because that's not what the film is trying to do.
The ensemble is what makes this film really fly because it's a huge cast of wonderful British talent that all bounce off each other with ease. Neil Maskell plays the titular Colin and I suppose in a way, he's the heart of the film which is great because he does a wonderful job. Watching him attempting to do the right thing but slowly and sadly unravelling instead is why the film works so well. Other than that, pretty much everyone is supporting cast. Hayley Squires from I, Daniel Blake proves that she can do comedy as well as miserable tragedy, Asim Chaudhry of People Just Do Nothing fame (I'm told) delivers a huge deal of the laughs and Charles Dance gets to do something bizarre I've never seen him do before. I'm not going to spoil what that is because it is so out of left field but it's a joy and so is Dance. I won't talk about the rest of the cast because a lot of why I enjoyed the film is going "oh cool, they're in this?" but just be reassured, there's plenty of people you'll recognise and plenty you won't but all do a great job at playing despicable yet lovable characters.
One of the things that had me most excited going into Happy New Year was that the score was being done by Clint Mansell, my favourite composer. What I wasn't expecting was the style it was going to go for, even knowing how versatile Mansell is. All of the music sounds like something that was played in Arthurian times (or would be, none of us were alive then) and it completely caught me off at first. Eventually though, what it does is creates this slightly fatalistic edge to the conflict of the family, in that families fighting each other is something that has happened forever through all of British history and now seems unlikely to cease. That, and there's a beautiful piece that plays over the credits that gives me goosebumps whenever I think about it, creating this melancholic poignancy. Ben Wheatley's long time cinematographer Laurie Rose returns here as well and while I didn't quite dig the shaky, documentary-esque style he was going for at first, it's the kind of style that you're not really meant to notice much and it eventually has its affect without becoming noticeable.
I haven't seen all of Ben Wheatley's films, in fact, I think I've only seen about half of them but with that said, this is up there for me. It is often really really funny but there is this constant tension that keeps everyone on edge the whole time. A great start to the festival for me and I happily give Happy New Year, Colin Burstead an
Out of Blue
Onto film two and this was a complete shot in the dark for me. I hadn't heard of it whatsoever before I got the programme for LFF but the plot synopsis intrigued me, I like Patricia Clarkson and I figured I should finally try and see a film by a female director at a film festival, so here is Out of Blue! Said synopsis is of a detective living in New Orleans who investigates the murder of a black hole researcher. Everything we see is pretty much literal but there's this weird background that's much more metaphysical and you can choose to follow the story on either plane of existence. Like most good detective noirs, we eventually get the intricacies of why what happened happened but here, I don't think it matters as much. I'll get more into it later but kind of like Happy New Year, it's not a film to watch for plot. A plot is there, it will unravel but you shouldn't be focusing on it.
With Out of Blue, it's much more centred around a singular character than an ensemble but there is still an interesting cast around Patricia Clarkson. Most notable is Toby Jones who can never put a foot wrong in the eyes of basically everyone and... Well, he doesn't do anything wrong here, he's just not around as much as I'd like. James Cann (famously of The Godfather) is in it as well and doesn't do a huge amount but I guess he did a good job because I didn't recognise it was him until right at the end? I dunno, maybe he's just old. At the complete other end of the spectrum is Mamie Gummer, playing the dead scientist in multiple flashbacks. I haven't seen her in anything before but she's Meryl Streep's daughter and manages to transcend that by just being a really great actress. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the whole "Meryl Streep's daughter" thing because now you'll be thinking about that instead but oops, oh well. All these performances orbit around Patricia Clarkson though. She plays her character oddly and I wasn't sure how I felt about it often. The strength of it dipped in and out for me, though in these moments where there are big philosophical realisations being handed out she started to become kind of brilliant. It's not quite Sharp Objects level of brilliant but it's certainly interesting and kept me engrossed throughout.
After that, what we''re largely left with the philosophical musings of the film but I'll talk about cinematography and score before we get there. Funnily enough, the score here is also done by Clint Mansell and while I remember enjoying it a lot, it hasn't stuck with me as much as the Happy New Year one has. The cinematography is quite enchanting through, allowing shots to linger and wander freely, ruminating on what we see so we can ruminate on what we're thinking. I guess what I most want to talk about though is the tone. As I've touched on, it's slow and thoughtful and deeply philosophical and I think that all can all be boiled down to a Nic Roeg comparison. For those who don't know, Roeg is a British director who made films like Performance, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Don't Look Now, all of which are completely bizarre. Director of Out of Blue Carol Morley actually credits Roeg in the credits and I think that says a lot about the film. If you know and enjoy the work of Roeg, Out of Blue is going to be up your street with a meandering plot yet thoughtful themes but if you have no idea who he is and this sounds like rubbish, you are going to hate this film.
So no, this film isn't for everyone. Some will (and already do) hate it. Those attuned to the slightly off kilter vibe of the film will enjoy it however, at least to some degree. I don't think it's a masterpiece, neither would I say it's one of the best things I've seen at a festival. I really did find it fascinating though and I think I want to give the film a
The Little Drummer Girl (Episodes 1 and 2)
Finally, I got to see two episodes of new TV show The Little Drummer Girl. It's directed by Park Chan-Wook (of Oldboy and The Handmaiden infamy, the sick bastard) and based on a John Le Carre novel, therefore garnering many similarities to The Night Manager from two years ago. Also, I only realised once I got there but I was actually at the world premiere of it so hey, that's fun and seeing the cast and crew talk about a project always brings a smile to my face. Moving back to the actual show though, the plot is as wonderfully intricate as you're expecting, even from just the first two episodes. Bearing that in mind, I have no idea how to talk about the plot because I had no idea what was going to happen from halfway through the first episode onward, whereas the recent trailer went quite a bit further than that. Loosely, I suppose the story is about an actress who is dragged into a world of mystery. Sexy mystery of course. Meanwhile, there's also a lot of stuff about the Israel-Palestine conflict and we are given the point of view of the Israel side. Even in the space of two episodes, I was amazed where the show went and it being a spy thriller from the Oldboy guy.
All of this would mean nothing if not for a cast to bring it all to life. There's a huge amount of character actors bringing the side characters to life and they've all done a great job here but unfortunately I don't know any of their names so I can't call them out. You guys do great work though! Getting to actors whose names I do know, Alexander Skarsgard is one of the three leads and that was interesting to me because I don't think I've ever seen him be particularly great in anything but here, he's pretty much perfect. If you need an actor to look sexy and be quietly mysterious, this is your dude right here. Another dude in this who I instead love is Michael Shannon. He can do no wrong in my eyes and while his accent takes a little while to get used to, he has a power on screen that is beautifully intimidating but he could shit into the camera and I'd still probably clap. Queen of the bunch though is Florence Pugh. Dedicated British film fans may recognise her from Lady Macbeth but she's starting a hell of a run now and I think this will be her huge breakout. She's the titular Drummer Girl and is absolutely brilliant. Being an audience surrogate is easy because we will react appropriately to anything she does but it really does take something to flip on a dime from confident to confused, sexy to powerless. Only two episodes in and she's a dream to watch. The thought of four more hours with her and her character fills me with anticipation.
But I need to talk about the tension and the production design and the OHMYGOD EVERY THING ABOUT THIS SHOW IS PERFECT. I know I keep saying this but seriously, two episodes in and I'm in complete and utter love. The combination of Le Carre's source material and Chan-Wook's adaptation of it work to give the show both a relentless momentum and this continual intrigue, making it absolutely perfect for binge watching. Each episode felt about half the length it actually was and I felt pretty much cheated when the second episode ended because I need to know what happens next. Chan-Wook is also willing to let scenes and shots go long, having them dwell on events and lines at the perfect moments, to a level almost beyond comprehension, creating a TV show that differentiates itself both from The Night Manager but also anything else on TV right now. Something that I picked up a little but Chan-Wook spoke about a lot about after was the production design and how he got the person responsible for Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy for the show. Hearing him getting giddy and talk about it was really sweet until you remember that this is the guy who brought us the last fifteen minutes of Oldboy and then I felt a little creeped out. What I'm trying to get at overall is that this is a TV show which has been produced and designed intricately to the level that the very best feature films are and that's astounding, even in today's landscape.
Even at this point, I feel confident saying The Little Drummer Girl is going to be one of my favourite shows of the year. It's stylish, sometimes sexy, but always gripping and a technical delight to boot, making it must see TV already. Best of all, this is the thing you can see soonest from the stuff I saw (great news because it's my favourite thing I saw) as it's on TV this Sunday. I can't give it a review score yet because I have only seen part of it but I cannot wait to see where the series soars to from here and I think absolutely everyone should watch it once it starts airing.
So there's LFF 2018. More of a mixed bag than previous years but still with jewels to be found. Next year I probably won't be doing one of these because I'm hopefully off on a year abroad but maybe there'll be a film festival wherever I go to talk about. Regardless, festivals like this, no matter how mixed, remind me why I love film like I do.
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (formerly called Colin You Anus) is the new film from Brit auteur Ben Wheatley, director of films like Sightseers, High Rise and most recently, Free Fire. This film goes away from the genre fare of those to instead capture a family New Years Eve party and the misery, tension and comedy that comes from that. I guess that's why I am struggling with how to fill this paragraph because the plot is simplistic and deliberately so. Some family members turn up after years away. Others let tensions rise to the surface. Things are revealed and occur, sure but those are largely in the second half of the film or are left implicit. So don't go see this for the plot exactly because that's not what the film is trying to do.
The ensemble is what makes this film really fly because it's a huge cast of wonderful British talent that all bounce off each other with ease. Neil Maskell plays the titular Colin and I suppose in a way, he's the heart of the film which is great because he does a wonderful job. Watching him attempting to do the right thing but slowly and sadly unravelling instead is why the film works so well. Other than that, pretty much everyone is supporting cast. Hayley Squires from I, Daniel Blake proves that she can do comedy as well as miserable tragedy, Asim Chaudhry of People Just Do Nothing fame (I'm told) delivers a huge deal of the laughs and Charles Dance gets to do something bizarre I've never seen him do before. I'm not going to spoil what that is because it is so out of left field but it's a joy and so is Dance. I won't talk about the rest of the cast because a lot of why I enjoyed the film is going "oh cool, they're in this?" but just be reassured, there's plenty of people you'll recognise and plenty you won't but all do a great job at playing despicable yet lovable characters.
One of the things that had me most excited going into Happy New Year was that the score was being done by Clint Mansell, my favourite composer. What I wasn't expecting was the style it was going to go for, even knowing how versatile Mansell is. All of the music sounds like something that was played in Arthurian times (or would be, none of us were alive then) and it completely caught me off at first. Eventually though, what it does is creates this slightly fatalistic edge to the conflict of the family, in that families fighting each other is something that has happened forever through all of British history and now seems unlikely to cease. That, and there's a beautiful piece that plays over the credits that gives me goosebumps whenever I think about it, creating this melancholic poignancy. Ben Wheatley's long time cinematographer Laurie Rose returns here as well and while I didn't quite dig the shaky, documentary-esque style he was going for at first, it's the kind of style that you're not really meant to notice much and it eventually has its affect without becoming noticeable.
I haven't seen all of Ben Wheatley's films, in fact, I think I've only seen about half of them but with that said, this is up there for me. It is often really really funny but there is this constant tension that keeps everyone on edge the whole time. A great start to the festival for me and I happily give Happy New Year, Colin Burstead an
Out of Blue
Onto film two and this was a complete shot in the dark for me. I hadn't heard of it whatsoever before I got the programme for LFF but the plot synopsis intrigued me, I like Patricia Clarkson and I figured I should finally try and see a film by a female director at a film festival, so here is Out of Blue! Said synopsis is of a detective living in New Orleans who investigates the murder of a black hole researcher. Everything we see is pretty much literal but there's this weird background that's much more metaphysical and you can choose to follow the story on either plane of existence. Like most good detective noirs, we eventually get the intricacies of why what happened happened but here, I don't think it matters as much. I'll get more into it later but kind of like Happy New Year, it's not a film to watch for plot. A plot is there, it will unravel but you shouldn't be focusing on it.
With Out of Blue, it's much more centred around a singular character than an ensemble but there is still an interesting cast around Patricia Clarkson. Most notable is Toby Jones who can never put a foot wrong in the eyes of basically everyone and... Well, he doesn't do anything wrong here, he's just not around as much as I'd like. James Cann (famously of The Godfather) is in it as well and doesn't do a huge amount but I guess he did a good job because I didn't recognise it was him until right at the end? I dunno, maybe he's just old. At the complete other end of the spectrum is Mamie Gummer, playing the dead scientist in multiple flashbacks. I haven't seen her in anything before but she's Meryl Streep's daughter and manages to transcend that by just being a really great actress. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the whole "Meryl Streep's daughter" thing because now you'll be thinking about that instead but oops, oh well. All these performances orbit around Patricia Clarkson though. She plays her character oddly and I wasn't sure how I felt about it often. The strength of it dipped in and out for me, though in these moments where there are big philosophical realisations being handed out she started to become kind of brilliant. It's not quite Sharp Objects level of brilliant but it's certainly interesting and kept me engrossed throughout.
After that, what we''re largely left with the philosophical musings of the film but I'll talk about cinematography and score before we get there. Funnily enough, the score here is also done by Clint Mansell and while I remember enjoying it a lot, it hasn't stuck with me as much as the Happy New Year one has. The cinematography is quite enchanting through, allowing shots to linger and wander freely, ruminating on what we see so we can ruminate on what we're thinking. I guess what I most want to talk about though is the tone. As I've touched on, it's slow and thoughtful and deeply philosophical and I think that all can all be boiled down to a Nic Roeg comparison. For those who don't know, Roeg is a British director who made films like Performance, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Don't Look Now, all of which are completely bizarre. Director of Out of Blue Carol Morley actually credits Roeg in the credits and I think that says a lot about the film. If you know and enjoy the work of Roeg, Out of Blue is going to be up your street with a meandering plot yet thoughtful themes but if you have no idea who he is and this sounds like rubbish, you are going to hate this film.
So no, this film isn't for everyone. Some will (and already do) hate it. Those attuned to the slightly off kilter vibe of the film will enjoy it however, at least to some degree. I don't think it's a masterpiece, neither would I say it's one of the best things I've seen at a festival. I really did find it fascinating though and I think I want to give the film a
The Little Drummer Girl (Episodes 1 and 2)
Finally, I got to see two episodes of new TV show The Little Drummer Girl. It's directed by Park Chan-Wook (of Oldboy and The Handmaiden infamy, the sick bastard) and based on a John Le Carre novel, therefore garnering many similarities to The Night Manager from two years ago. Also, I only realised once I got there but I was actually at the world premiere of it so hey, that's fun and seeing the cast and crew talk about a project always brings a smile to my face. Moving back to the actual show though, the plot is as wonderfully intricate as you're expecting, even from just the first two episodes. Bearing that in mind, I have no idea how to talk about the plot because I had no idea what was going to happen from halfway through the first episode onward, whereas the recent trailer went quite a bit further than that. Loosely, I suppose the story is about an actress who is dragged into a world of mystery. Sexy mystery of course. Meanwhile, there's also a lot of stuff about the Israel-Palestine conflict and we are given the point of view of the Israel side. Even in the space of two episodes, I was amazed where the show went and it being a spy thriller from the Oldboy guy.
All of this would mean nothing if not for a cast to bring it all to life. There's a huge amount of character actors bringing the side characters to life and they've all done a great job here but unfortunately I don't know any of their names so I can't call them out. You guys do great work though! Getting to actors whose names I do know, Alexander Skarsgard is one of the three leads and that was interesting to me because I don't think I've ever seen him be particularly great in anything but here, he's pretty much perfect. If you need an actor to look sexy and be quietly mysterious, this is your dude right here. Another dude in this who I instead love is Michael Shannon. He can do no wrong in my eyes and while his accent takes a little while to get used to, he has a power on screen that is beautifully intimidating but he could shit into the camera and I'd still probably clap. Queen of the bunch though is Florence Pugh. Dedicated British film fans may recognise her from Lady Macbeth but she's starting a hell of a run now and I think this will be her huge breakout. She's the titular Drummer Girl and is absolutely brilliant. Being an audience surrogate is easy because we will react appropriately to anything she does but it really does take something to flip on a dime from confident to confused, sexy to powerless. Only two episodes in and she's a dream to watch. The thought of four more hours with her and her character fills me with anticipation.
But I need to talk about the tension and the production design and the OHMYGOD EVERY THING ABOUT THIS SHOW IS PERFECT. I know I keep saying this but seriously, two episodes in and I'm in complete and utter love. The combination of Le Carre's source material and Chan-Wook's adaptation of it work to give the show both a relentless momentum and this continual intrigue, making it absolutely perfect for binge watching. Each episode felt about half the length it actually was and I felt pretty much cheated when the second episode ended because I need to know what happens next. Chan-Wook is also willing to let scenes and shots go long, having them dwell on events and lines at the perfect moments, to a level almost beyond comprehension, creating a TV show that differentiates itself both from The Night Manager but also anything else on TV right now. Something that I picked up a little but Chan-Wook spoke about a lot about after was the production design and how he got the person responsible for Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy for the show. Hearing him getting giddy and talk about it was really sweet until you remember that this is the guy who brought us the last fifteen minutes of Oldboy and then I felt a little creeped out. What I'm trying to get at overall is that this is a TV show which has been produced and designed intricately to the level that the very best feature films are and that's astounding, even in today's landscape.
Even at this point, I feel confident saying The Little Drummer Girl is going to be one of my favourite shows of the year. It's stylish, sometimes sexy, but always gripping and a technical delight to boot, making it must see TV already. Best of all, this is the thing you can see soonest from the stuff I saw (great news because it's my favourite thing I saw) as it's on TV this Sunday. I can't give it a review score yet because I have only seen part of it but I cannot wait to see where the series soars to from here and I think absolutely everyone should watch it once it starts airing.
So there's LFF 2018. More of a mixed bag than previous years but still with jewels to be found. Next year I probably won't be doing one of these because I'm hopefully off on a year abroad but maybe there'll be a film festival wherever I go to talk about. Regardless, festivals like this, no matter how mixed, remind me why I love film like I do.
Comments
Post a Comment