London Film Festival
LFF Review: Sid & Judy
There can be few, if any, more famous child stars than Judy Garland. Her performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz captivated several generations of children. She went on to have a career which spanned 45 years, but nothing ever quite reached the same heights. However, despite many setbacks she went on to star …
LFF Film Review: Hope Frozen
I can’t imagine what it must be like for parents to lose a child. Especially at a young age. Childhood diseases can be debilitating for young bodies but the stress and torment it must places on a family must be almost overwhelming. It must be incredibly hard to move on with your life. Hope Frozen, …
LFF Review: Premature
In spite of recent improvements, American cinema largely remains the domain of privileged white men. Therefore, the stories we’re told usually reflect this disparity. Whilst female voices are finally being heard and given financial support, the same can’t really be said for Black, Hispanic or Asian film-makers. Their histories are often co-opted by someone else. …
LFF Review: Lucky Grandma
We live in a materialistic society. On a daily basis we’re constantly reminded how little we have and how much better our lives would be if we had more. Hard work and effort will get the average person somewhere but it’s vastly unlikely to make them well-off. Let alone rich. Given the disparity between the …
LFF Review: Cold Case Hammarskjöld
In 1961, the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld died when his plane crashed on the way to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis. Described as the “greatest statesman of our century” by John F. Kennedy, the Swede was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘strengthening the organisation’ and was considered to the template his …
LFF Review: Bacurau
Brazilian cinema is in rude health at the moment. The South American country, which has given the world such great films as City of God, House of Sand, Central Station and Pixote, has a strong pedigree in delivering vibrant and challenging film-making. In the last decade, Araby, Neighbouring Sounds, A Wolf at The Door and …
LFF Review: The Antenna
The Western world has long been suspicious of Muslim countries and their often-fanatical leaders. Radical Islam and liberal democratic values do not sit hand in hand. Turkey has long been seen as a friendly nation, particularly by the US and UK. One which has been regularly called upon to support ‘the war on terror’ in …
LFF Review: The Peanut Butter Falcon
There’s probably no actor more derided in modern cinema than Shia LaBeouf. After getting his big break in Transformers, there were a few signs that he might be a future star. However, LaBeouf’s career quickly went downhill and he became somewhat of a sad parody of himself. This included rampant plagiarism, public disorder offences and …
LFF Review: Transnistra
Whether it’s because of the collapse of the USSR and the communism of the Eastern Bloc, or a hangover from World War II, much of the internal and local politics of Eastern Europe is a mystery to many. Whilst many nations have regained independence, other claims have been suppressed, ignored or put on hold. Old …
LFF Review: The Unknown Saint
Nothing does dark and sardonic quite like the human imagination. We, as a species, are fatally flawed. We build societies and communities which are inherently unfair, then complain about it. We make bureaucratic processes so complex that they become virtually impossible to navigate. Almost Kafkaesque, you could say. Indeed, there’s something so delightfully fun about …