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BFI 62nd London Film Festival Preview: Five weeks before it even kicks off, this already has the feeling of a vintage year for the BFI London Film Festival. There wasn’t a seat to be had for the launch event in Leicester Square’s Cineworld in London’s West End, and such a buzz as the mouth-watering line-up was unveiled, boasting titles from some 77 countries, with 39 movies from the UK.
About time too, I hear you say when I tell you that half the films in the official competition are made by female filmmakers – with 60 per cent of those in the first film category from women. And across the entire roster, there’s 38 per cent either with female directors or co-directors. Yay!
But cutting to the chase, you want to know what the big blockbuster titles are that’ll knock your socks off at this year’s festival? And what are our tips for those under-the-radar movies that might be worth taking a punt on? Here goes…
Headline Grabbers
Widows (above) looks a slam-dunk, based on the old hit TV series (of the same name) from Lynda La Plante, transplanted to the States, with a script from Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), and directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave). What’s more it stars Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez, plus Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson and Daniel Kaluuya. With pedigree and casting this strong, it looks like critical and box-office catnip – and opens the festival.
Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as silent comedy geniuses Laurel and Hardy in Stan and Ollie sounds like a coup, and when you add in support from one of my favourite Broadway comic actresses, Nina Arianda, alongside our own Shirley Henderson, plus a script from Jeff Pope of Cradle to Grave and Cilla fame) it promises to hit the heart and the funny bone – and has the honour of closing the festival.
Anyone who loved The Lobster is in for a treat with The Favourite (top pic), from director Yorgos Lanthimos. There are big juicy roles here for Lanthimos favourites Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman, along with Emma Stone, in an 18th Century romp based around Queen Anne’s court and friendships. Guaranteed to be visually arresting and very, very odd.
There are a few movies on offer that will also be available in other places. Like Netflix’s series of Western tales by The Coen Brothers, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (above), starring Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, plus Liam Neeson again. Alfonso Cuaron comes back down to earth after Gravity, with Roma, his love letter to his Mexico City upbringing and the women who made him, also on Netflix, along with a documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead about Orson Welles’ unfinished, lost classic, The Other Side of The Wind (which you can also catch on Netflix). Then there’s the world premiere of the highly-anticipated BBC thriller series, The Little Drummer Girl, directed by the stylish Park Chan-Wook of The Handmaiden fame, and starring another of my personal Broadway favourites, Michael Shannon. And in a festival first, Mike Leigh’s epic Peterloo, starring the riveting duo of Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear in the true story of the 1819 people’s uprising and inevitable crushing, will actually premiere in its hometown of Manchester, swiftly followed by London.
An attention-grabbing film from Peter Jackson, They Shall Not Grow Old, hand-colourising original black and white footage, is released to mark the end of the First World War with 2D and 3D screenings. Carol Morley follows up The Falling with her thriller Out Of The Blue, starring the always-riveting Patricia Clarkson, which looks unmissable. Finally, after decades of trying to make the Cervantes’ classic novel, Terry Gilliam completes The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, with leading men Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver tackling a version of the comic tome. And if you loved Moonlight, you’ll definitely have Barry Jenkins’ own, eagerly awaited follow-up, If Beale Street Could Talk, on your must-see list, which is an adaptation of James Baldwin’s account of his experience of love and racism. Gonna give Luca Guadaguinino’s definitely-not-just-a-remake of Suspiria a wide berth though…
Looks like you’ll need a good-sized hankie for a couple of powerful, emotional movies: Life Itself, from the creator of This Is Us, Dan Fogelman, and Beautiful Boy, starring Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) and Steve Carell. Also worth a look is Border, an unconventional, provocative Swedish love story based on a novel from the writer of Let The Right One In.
For Real
There’s rich pickings for those who love in-depth portraits of real people. Doc director Matthew Heineman moves into drama with A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as war correspondent Marie Colvin. And Jason Reitman tackles the story of the rise and fall of charismatic US presidential hopeful Gary Hart in The Front Runner (above), set during the pivotal 1968 campaign.
Ralph Fiennes again shows himself to be a fine filmmaker with The White Crow, his biopic of the young, hungry dancer, Rudolph Nureyev. Jumping further back in time, Chris Pine plays Robert the Bruce in historical epic Outlaw King, and Keira Knightley is literary legend Colette. Another literary ‘legend’, Lee Israel, who forged plausible correspondence from all manner of writers to boost her bank balance and profile, is played by Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? – which looks a hoot.
Just For Laughs
One comedy that really jumped out in the festival preview reel was Kiwi movie, The Breaker Upperers, from the people behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople – and the director and writer combo of Madeline Sami and Jackie van Beek also star as the two women who start their own agency to break up couples.
I’ll definitely line up to see a new Scandi-com, Denmark’s That Time Of Year, starring The Killing’s Sofie Grabol; plus Ana Katz’s Argentine comedy Florianopolis Beach. Oh, and the promising, semi-autobiographical film from stand-up comedian Simon Amstell, Benjamin (above), getting its World Premiere, and focusing on the story of a young filmmaker under emotional and professional pressure.
Go to page 2 for more films in my BFI 62nd London Film Festival Preview!
For Music Lovers
One film I’ve already seen – and full disclosure, it was produced by friends of mine – is Been So Long (above), starring the magnetic duo Michaela Coel (Black Earth Rising) and Arinze Kene, and based on Che Walker’s original musical play. Directed by Tinge Krishnan, with songs from Arthur Darvill, and featuring a mainly black British cast, plus the likes of George Mackay and Luke Norris, this is an utterly beguiling North London tale of star-crossed lovers with elements of La La Land. And I highly recommend you catch it!
Jessie Buckley, who was our hotly-tipped Breakthrough Star from last year’s amazing film Beast, stars as a budding country music singer in gala film Wild Rose, directed by Tom Harper (War And Peace), co-starring Julie Walters, and written by Nicole Taylor, who won a BAFTA for Three Girls. Remarkably, Buckley sings all the songs herself and tells me she’s determined to forge a new career in music.
Celebrating 50 years of the legendary label’s existence, and feeling so much more relevant in this Windrush fall-out era, Rudeboy: The Story Of Trojan Records looks like a cracking documentary with an ace soundtrack. I’ll try to catch Ethan Hawke’s passion project, Blaze, a biopic about folk singer Blaze Foley, which Hawke produced, co-wrote and directs; plus Bad Reputation, a documentary on rock icon, Joan Jett. Then there’s the confessional doc, I Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, from Jessica Leski, and Dublin Oldschool, featuring Emmet Kirwan, and directed by Dave Tynan from the sold-out theatre production last seen at the National Theatre.
Korea Information
Anyone with a passion for a particular nation’s cinematic output will find much to love – just click through from the first link at the bottom of this preview to “Search countries (A-Z)”.
I, for one, will hunt down the five Korean movies at the festival, including Lee Chang-Dong’s thriller Burning, based on a Haruki Murakami story. Another thriller, Lee Hae-young’s Believer, remakes Johnnie To’s Drug War and looks great. Then there’s Little Forest, starring Kim Tae-ri of The Handmaiden, and directed by Yim Soon-rye; plus family drama Last Child, the debut from Shin Dong-seok, and true story, The Spy Gone North (above) about a South Korean spy, who got tight with the movers and shakers in the DPRK, right up to Kim Jong-il himself.
Main Competition
Which film will take home the big prize? Will it be the dark thriller Destroyer, starring Nicole Kidman, or The Old Man And The Gun (above) starring Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck? Or our own Ben Wheatley (Sightseers), with Happy New Year, Colin Burstead… maybe Zhang ‘Hero’ Yimou with Shadow? If you loved Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy, you’ll be relishing the prospect of his new film in contention, IN FABRIC, which has another strong female duo, this time Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Gwendoline Christie. And having already won an Academy Award for Son of Saul, you’d put László Nemes down as a strong contender with Sunset.
Others up for the main award are Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s Birds Of Passage; Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy As Lazzaro; Sudabeh Mortezai’s Joy about European sex trafficking; and Dominga Sotomayor’s Too Late To Die Young, set in post-Pinochet Chile. On pedigree, I’m tipping either Nemes or Strickland… (but haven’t seen either yet!)
First Feature Competition
This is the place to see the next-gen movie-makers as they make their start. Just getting nominated here is kudos enough. But imagine your first feature actually getting the top award… Let’s look at them alphabetically:
- The Chambermaid from Lila Avilés focuses on a Mexico City hotel-worker who dreams of something better.
The Day I Lost My Shadow from Syria’s Soudade Kaadan confronts the realities of war for ordinary people.
Dead Pigs from Cathy Yan has already won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.
Girl from Lukas Dhont picked up the Golden Camera and Queer Palm Awards from Cannes and is a highly topical tale of a transgender, would-be ballet dancer.
Holiday from Isabella Eklöf is a gangster thriller set in Bodrum on the Turkish Riviera.
Journey To A Mother’s Room from Celia Rico Clavellino tackles the time when a daughter readies herself to leave home – and her mother – behind.
Only You from Brit Harry Wootliff is lucky with his stars, Josh O’Connor of God’s Own Country and Laia Costa from Victoria, who unexpectedly fall in love after their one-night stand.
Ray & Liz from award-winning UK artist Richard Billingham aims to follow in the footsteps of other artist-turned-filmmakers like Steve McQueen and Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Soni from Ivan Ayr takes on the minefield of class, feminism and policing in India.
Wildlife from actor Paul Dano has some pedigree: based on Richard Ford’s novel, and starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Doc Heaven
There’s plenty of documentary big-hitters in the main programme, including Michael Moore’s Trump doc, Fahrenheit 11/9, and of course, Frederick Wiseman’s latest doc Monrovia, Indiana focusing on a small town at the Crossroads of America. And the comic doc, Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From A Mythical Man from director Tommy Avalone takes a closer look at the reclusive Groundhog Day/Ghostbusters star.
Then there are many treats in the documentary competition (here they are alphabetically):
- Bisbee ’17 from Robert Greene looks at an old mining town on the Arizona-Mexico border which deported 1200 immigrant miners 100 years ago and recreates its past.
Dream Away from co-directors Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke examines Sharm El Sheikh, three years after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution in the now-deserted holiday resort.
Evelyn from Virunga director Orlando von Einsiedel looks at grief in his own family.
John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection from Julien Farau is about the mercurial tennis icon, and is narrated by Mathieu Amalric. I’m in!
The Plan That Came From The Bottom Up from Steve Sprung takes a 1976 job loss plan as its starting point to link to today.
Putin’s Witnesses from exiled Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky features his own footage of Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin himself.
The Raft from Marcus Lindeen looks at a 1973 experiment now known as ‘Big Brother at sea’, and reunites the original participants.
Theatre Of War from Lola Arias is based on the multi-media theatrical performance that looked at Falklands vets from both sides 35 years on – which I saw at the Royal Court last year.
What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire? from Robert Minervini follows a Louisiana community after a devastating police shooting in the summer of 2017.
Young And Alive by Matthieu Bareyre looks at Paris youths changed by 2015’s terror attacks.
The BFI 62nd London Film Festival runs from October 10-21 2018.
Work your way around the festival here and download the complete festival programme here.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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