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Richard Ayoade’s crisply funny debut film, Submarine, certainly raised expectations for whatever he chose to do next. And few would have predicted him tackling a Dostoevsky short story, as he does in THE DOUBLE. It’s brave, certainly, and the casting of Jesse Eisenberg as a lowly clerk and his doppelganger (both lusting after their colleague Mia Wasikowska) is inspired. There’s a constant atmosphere of fear and paranoia, he includes sly references to genre classics like Rear Window, 1984 and even The Apartment, while the cameos come thick and fast from Chris Morris, Paddy Considine, James Fox, plus Ayoade’s fellow-IT Crowd star Chris O’Dowd. Tonally, however, it strides a bit of a no-man’s land between psychological drama and black comedy, and it’s hard to really care about Eisenberg’s powerless clerk, his bad suit, bad hair and endless bad luck. But Ayoade certainly has his directing chops now.
LOCKE is another film I thought looked unpromising, starring Tom Hardy and no-one else for almost an hour and a half. How wrong I was. Hardy, like Sandra Bullock in Gravity, shows he is a bona fide actor, and you simply cannot take your eyes off him. He plays a Welsh building site manager, Ivan Locke, trying to delegate all his duties for the next day on his mobile phone, while he drives down the motorway to be with a woman having his baby after a one-night stand. Meanwhile, he is mustering the courage to tell his wife why he’s not coming home that evening. It’s all framed around Hardy endlessly, patiently trying to manage all these life-changing, impossible conversations, seemingly in real time, as the lights flicker down on him on the dark route towards London and the tension ramps up with every call. All the other characters are disembodied voices down the other end of the line (including Olivia Colman as the nervous, expectant woman, and Ruth Wilson as his wife), so Hardy has to hold the whole thing together. Which he does rather magnificently. With a lovely Welsh accent.
Debut director Rob Brown’s SIXTEEN is also shot on a limited budget, and feels genuinely claustrophobic, despite being shot on location, in and around a gritty London estate. Fans of Top Boy should check this out; fans of acting should watch it for the central performances of newcomer Roger Jean Nsengiyumva as Jumah and the riveting Rachael Stirling as his adoptive mum. As he approaches his 16th birthday, Jumah is escaping his previous life as a child soldier in the Congo, and just when he’s considering a career as a barber, he’s dragged back into a life of violence. It’s not yet the finished article, but a very promising start.
Not exactly a film, but a brand new comedy series about their real relationship, DOLL & EM is a very personal passion project for actress Emily Mortimer. ‘Em’ is a glamorous, successful Hollywood actress (which Mortimer is) while her lifelong friend, Dolly Wells is struggling with an unfulfilling love-life and job back in London. Em’s solution is to fly Doll over to be her personal assistant, even though she quickly proves to be the worst PA imaginable, hindering more than assisting, flirting with Em’s co-stars, moaning at every opportunity, and making Em feel guilty all the time. This is a grower, with its comedy of embarrassment echoing Curb Your Enthusiasm, and guest stars from Andy Garcia to Susan Sarandon clearly relishing playing larger-than-life versions of themselves.
Two comedies that certainly have their moments, but don’t quite come off, are HELLO CARTER and AFTERNOON DELIGHT, despite each featuring one of our most promising young actresses, respectively Jodie Whittaker and Juno Temple. Anthony Wilcox’ London-based debut, Hello Carter, revolves around a couple of sweet singletons (Whittaker and Charlie Cox) seemingly destined never to get together – but they’re not sufficiently engaging to pull you through.
Jill Solway’s first feature, Afternoon Delight, is an offbeat romcom of opposites, with Kathryn Hahn as a bored housewife who befriends a stripper (Temple) amidst scenes of raunchy dance lessons, tender voyeuristic moments, and a slowly disintegrating marriage. Though Jane (Glee) Lynch does her customary scene-stealing as Hahn’s needy and judgemental shrink, the film perhaps chickens out on delivering what it seems to promise.
Let’s end on a high though, with Nicole Holofcener’s warm comedy of manners and middle-age, ENOUGH SAID. This is dedicated “For Jim”, and is the last film from the late James Gandolfini, who looks like he’s having a ball as Albert, opposite smart and sassy Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She plays LA masseuse, Eva, who caters to countless spoiled and overly talkative customers, and at a party not only finds a new client, Catherine Keener’s pretentious poet, Marianne, but is also drawn to easy-going Albert.
Someway down the line, when she’s become Marianne’s bosom buddy and Albert’s lover, Eva suddenly realises that these opposites were once husband and wife. Can she keep this to herself? What will her old chum (Toni Colette) make of this? Holofcener claims the story isn’t autobiographical, though it is based on friends and family. And she gives credit to Jim and Julia for adding their own bits to the script, which feel entirely organic and true as you savour their obvious enjoyment. Recommended.
Coming next: part two of the festival review includes all the best from the rest of the world – including The Best Film Of The Year – and we’ll update you on the documentaries too…