​Idris Elba’s directorial debut:

I got back to London last night. I slept for 12 hours! My top 5 favourites from the Berlin Film Festival 2018: 

​Out to own today: 

​GRASS ★★★☆☆
D: Hong Sang-soo (The Day After, Hill of Freedom).
S: Kim Minhee, Jung Jinyoung, Ki Joobong, Seo Younghwa, Kim Saebyuk.

Even just a slice of Hong Sang-soo is always welcome. Time concertinaed. Firstly, 12 hours into 65 minutes. Secondly, courtships and rapprochements avoiding conventional arcs. Kim Minhee is observer and disrupter (and inventor?).
 

MADELINE’S MADELINE ★★★☆☆
D: Josephine Decker (Thou Wast Mild and Lovely).
S: Miranda July, Molly Parker, Helena Howard, Sunita Mani, Sophie Traub, Dana Eskelson.

Equally attention-holding and annoying. If Helena Howard is Charlie Sheen in PLATOON, then Miranda July is Willem Dafoe, and Molly Parker is Tom Berenger. The first casualty of pretentious performance art is innocence.


303 ★★☆☆☆
D: Hans Weingartner (The Edukators).
S: Mala Emde, Anton Spieker, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Caroline Erikson, Martin Neuhaus, Sophie Tschannett.

In a similar vein to BEFORE SUNRISE and IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS, but not in the same league. The philosophical and political discussions work. Shame about the rest.

​At the press conference for IN THE AISLES:

- Sandra Hüller
- Franz Rogowski
- Peter Kurth
- director Thomas Stuber

FOREBODING (Yocho) ★☆☆☆☆
D: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Creepy, Journey to the Shore, Real, Tokyo Sonata).
S: Kaho, Shota Sometani, Masahiro Higashide, Ren Osugi.

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa keeps churning out padded inadequacy. 'Creepy' wasn't creepy, 'Foreboding' isn't foreboding. A naff spin on the alien invasion/body snatchers flick.

​MUG (Twarz) ★★★½☆
D: Małgorzata Szumowska (Body, In the Name of, Elles, 33 Scenes from Life).
S: Mateusz Kościukiewicz, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Małgorzata Gorol, Roman Gancarczyk, Dariusz Chojnacki, Robert Talarczyk, Anna Tomaszewska, Martyna Krzysztofik.

Understandably misanthropic. Cutting towards organised religion. Combines droll humour with a deep ache. (Shame about the grating focus gimmick.)


IN THE AISLES (In den Gängen) ★★★★½
D: Thomas Stuber (A Heavy Heart).
S: Franz Rogowski, Sandra Hüller, Peter Kurth.
  
The opposite of reality TV. A celebration of the dignity of ordinary lives. Told with flair about understated camaraderie. 
 
  
ÁGA ★★★★☆
D: Milko Lazarov.
S: Mikhail Aprosimov, Feodosia Ivanova, Galina Tikhonova, Sergey Egorov, Afanasiy Kylaev.

Transitions glacially from the claustrophobic to the grandiose. The last remnants of a cultural existence. A lump in the throat conclusion, which is both intimate and epic.

​Team MUSEUM, for its Berlin Film Festival press conference:

MUSEUM (Museo) ★★★★½
D: Alonso Ruizpalacios.
S: Gael García Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro, Simon Russell Beale, Bernardo Velasco, Leticia Brédice, Ilse Salas, Lisa Owen.

A different kind of heist movie. Whizz-bang energy. Filled with panache, and anger at colonial theft. Has a ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL meta knowingness.


TOUCH ME NOT ★½☆☆☆
D: Adina Pintilie.
S: Laura Benson, Tómas Lemarquis, Christian Bayerlein, Grit Uhlemann, Hanna Hofmann, Seani Love, Irmena Chichikova.

Pompous and self-congratulatory. Lacks real insight. Is a deeply annoying cinema experience. Examining intimacy quandaries deserved better than this waste of time.

​The press conference for the ace UNSANE:

- director Steven Soderbergh
- actor Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project, Humpday)

Soderbergh gave a filmmaking masterclass.