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London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day three

21/9/2017

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL

INGRID GOES WEST

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL
D: Takashi Miike (Yakuza Apocalypse, Over Your Dead Body, Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai, 13 Assassins, Yatterman; Big Bang Love, Juvenile A; The Happiness of the Katakuris, Ichi the Killer.)
S: Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sôta Fukushi.

[embargoed]

INGRID GOES WEST ★★★½☆
D: Matt Spicer.
S: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Pom Klementieff.

Amusingly awkward social commentary. Aubrey Plaza owns it. Not completely convinced by the ending.

London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day two

20/9/2017

GEMINI

MUTAFUKAZ

GEMINI ★★★½☆
D: Aaron Katz (Cold Weather).
S: Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, John Cho, Greta Lee, Michelle Forbes, Ricki Lake, James Ransome.

A nifty indie murder mystery. ENTOURAGE meets MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

MUTAFUKAZ ★★★½☆
Ds: Shoujirou Nishimi, Guillaume Renard.

An animated THEY LIVE. Action sequences are well staged and kinetic. Humour hilarious. Ending uneven.

LOVELESS (Nelyubov) ★★★★½
D: Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Elena, The Banishment, The Return).
S: Maryana Spivak, Yanina Hope, Aleksey Rozin, Daria Pisareva.

Atmospheric. Gripping. Charged. Deeply despondent. Five for five from Zvyagintsev.

LOVELESS

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

20/9/2017

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE ★★☆☆☆
D: Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Classs, Kick-Ass, Stardust, Layer Cake).
S: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Pedro Pascal, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges.

An unnecessary and uninspired sequel. A pale experience in comparison to the exhilarating original.

London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day one

19/9/2017

LET THE CORPSES TAN (Laissez bronzer les cadavres) ★★★☆☆
Ds: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani (The Strange Colous of Your Body’s Tears, Amer).
S: Marc Barbé, Bernie Bonvoisin, Dorylia Calmel, Elina Löwensohn.

Exploitation and experimentation in a sometimes gratingly overly-stylised modern crime-Western.

Out to own today: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

18/9/2017

Out to own today:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

“I saw something last night I can’t explain,” Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss)

Forty years on, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (a.k.a. CE3K) still astounds. Computer generated imagery dates so quickly. Weirdly, techniques of a bygone era, optical effects, when done with this level of ingenuity do not appear to. Bravo to special effects maestro Douglas Trumbull. His work on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and BLADE RUNNER share a similar timelessness. Is it any coincidence that all three films continually compete for the title of greatest sci-fi? Of course, it is not just landmark tech on display making CE3K so beloved.
[To read more, click here.]

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Top Five

18/9/2017

I’m back in London from the Toronto Film Festival 2017. I saw 36 films. My top 5 favourites:

DISOBEDIENCE ★★★★½
D: Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria).
S: Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Alessandro Nivola.

More emotionally satisfying and complex than CAROL. Bravo to director Lelio's second quality project of 2017.

I, TONYA ★★★★½
D: Craig Gillespie (The Finest Hours, Million Dollar Arm, Fright Night, Lars and the Real Girl).
S: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Mckenna Grace, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale.

Funny and tragic. Fourth wall breaking and energetic. Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are on fire.

THE CAPTAIN (Der Hauptmann) ★★★★★
D: Robert Schwentke (Insurgent, R.I.P.D., Red, The Time Traveller’s Wife, Flightplan).
S: Max Hubacher, Milan Peschel, Frederick Lau.

A Nazi deserter kills dozens of other Nazis to survive. Visceral, brutal, allegorical. Expertly crafted.

THE CURRENT WAR ★★★★★
D: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Town That Dreaded Sundown).
S: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Nicholas Hoult, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen.

My favourite film of 2017 so far. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY meets THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Dynamic presentation of genius.

THE MOTIVE (El Autor) ★★★★½
D: Manuel Martín Cuenca.
S: Javier Gutiérrez, María León, Adelfa Calvo, Adriana Paz, Tenoch Huerta, Rafael Tellez, Antonio de la Torre.

Segues seamlessly from comedy to dark drama to comedy. A blocked writer causes havoc searching for his story.

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Ten

16/9/2017

OUTSIDE IN

DARKEST HOUR

OUTSIDE IN ★★★½☆
D: Lynn Shelton (Laggies, Touchy Feely, Your Sister’s Sister, Humpday).
S: Jay Duplass, Edie Falco, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben Schwartz.

Lynn Shelton upped her comedy game with LAGGIES, and now ups her drama game here.

DARKEST HOUR ★★★☆☆
D: Joe Wright (Pan, Anna Karenina, Hanna, The Soloist, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice).
S: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn, Stephen Dillane, Kristin Scott Thomas.

Overblown. Some annoying cliché narrative choices. A shame, as so much of the film has compelling politicking.

I KILL GIANTS ★★★☆☆
D: Anders Walter.
S: Zoe Saldana, Madison Wolfe, Noel Clarke, Imogen Poots.

Closer to BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA than A MONSTER CALLS. More family films should have such a bolshy lead.

I, TONYA ★★★★☆
D: Craig Gillespie (The Finest Hours, Million Dollar Arm, Fright Night, Lars and the Real Girl).
S: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Mckenna Grace, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale.

Funny and tragic. Fourth wall breaking and energetic. Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are on fire.

I KILL GIANTS

I, TONYA

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Nine

15/9/2017

HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS

MANHUNT

HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS (Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes) ★★★★☆
D: François Girard (Silk).
S: Samian, Tanaya Beatty, Naiade Aoun.

Majestically shot. Experimentally told. Within eight minutes, three different time periods unfold. And that grows.

MANHUNT ★★★☆☆
D: John Woo (Red Cliff, Paycheck, Windtalkers, Mission: Impossible II, Face/Off, Broken Arrow, Hard Target, Hard Boiled, Bullet in the Head, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow).
S: Zhang Hanyu, Masaharu Fukuyama, Qi Wei, Ha Jiwon.

Intentional cheese is still cheese. Not a return to form for John Woo, but not dire either.

MARROWBONE ★★★☆☆
D: Sergio G. Sánchez.
S: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, Kyle Soller.

Directorial debut of the writer of THE ORPHANAGE. Such an effective horror, but the ending is a hackneyed let down.

ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. ★★★☆☆
D: Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler).
S: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Lynda Gravatt, Amanda Warren, Hugo Armstrong, Sam Gilroy, Tony Plana, DeRon Horton, Amari Cheatom.

Bizarre, but not in a good way. Muddled, but ambitiously so. Rotten justice system analysis and character exigency.

MARROWBONE

ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ.

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Eight

14/9/2017

THE UPSIDE

DISOBEDIENCE

THE UPSIDE ★★½☆☆
D: Neil Burger (Divergent, Limitless, The Illusionist).
S: Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, Nicole Kidman, Golshifteh Farahani, Amara Karan, Julianna Margulies.

A predictable bromance remake of a predictable bromance French film. Somehow it still made me enjoy it (to a certain degree).

DISOBEDIENCE ★★★★½
D: Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria).
S: Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Alessandro Nivola.

More emotionally satisfying and complex than CAROL. Bravo to director Lelio's second quality project of 2017.

I LOVE YOU, DADDY ★★☆☆☆
D: Louis C.K.
S: Pamela Adlon, Rose Byrne, Louis C.K., Charlie Day, Edie Falco, Helent Hunt, Chloë Grace Moretz, John Malkovich.

Why did Louis C.K. have to use the n-word?! It derails an otherwise funny and well crafted film.

BODIED ★★★★☆
D: Joseph Kahn (Detention, Torque).
S: Calum Worthy, Jackie Long, Rory Uphold, Anthony Michael Hall.

Am not sure there is a movie with speedier rapid fire dialogue. Jokes upon jokes. What an ending!

I LOVE YOU, DADDY

BODIED

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Seven

13/9/2017

THE CAPTAIN

LADY BIRD

THE CAPTAIN (Der Hauptmann) ★★★★★
D: Robert Schwentke (Insurgent, R.I.P.D., Red, The Time Traveller’s Wife, Flightplan).
S: Max Hubacher, Milan Peschel, Frederick Lau.

A Nazi deserter kills dozens of other Nazis to survive. Visceral, brutal, allegorical. Expertly crafted.

LADY BIRD ★★★½☆
D: Greta Gerwig (Nights and Weekends).
S: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein.

Doesn't reinvent the growing pains dramedy, but acting from Ronan and Metcalf is excellent. Witty and awkward.

WHO WE ARE NOW ★★★★☆
D: Matthew Newton.
S: Julianne Nicholson, Emma Roberts, Zachary Quinto, Jimmy Smits, Lea Thompson, Jason Biggs, Jess Weixler.

In the same league as anguished-filled I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG. Is both bleak and hopeful.

KINGS ★★★☆☆
D: Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang).
S: Daniel Craig, Halle Berry, Lamar Johnson, Rachel Hilson.

Disappointing. Feels slight. The 1992 Los Angeles riots from the perspective of a sweet family.

WHO WE ARE NOW

KINGS

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Filmaluation is an online magazine dedicated to arts culture, with a particular focus on film.

I care about intelligence, quality and entertainment.

Going to the cinema today? See the recommendations page of what is currently out. Click here.

The vital ambitions of art and entertainment:
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- Illumination
- The unexpected
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Brains and soul are key; but adrenaline junkies do not fret, there is also much love for an experience that delivers a sucker-punch to the guts via stunningly delivered thrills.

Noun, “filmaluation”:
The evaluation of a film
Verb, "to filmaluate”:
To evaluate a film

I am well aware how difficult it is to make a film, put on a stage play, create a television show, write a novel, let alone make something of note. (That appreciation doesn’t stop me from having high standards though.)

The site is edited and written by Hemanth Kissoon.

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London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day three

London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day two

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

London Film Festival 2017 - press screenings - day one

Out to own today: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Top Five

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Ten

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Nine

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Eight

Toronto Film Festival 2017 - Day Seven

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