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Gayby Baby is a charming, matter-of-fact doc on four Australian children who all have gay parents – just like the director, Maya Newell. There’s no angle, no spin here, just the navigation of childhood for three lively lads and one would-be music star girl, and each same-sex couple.
Not quite in the same league as last year’s National Gallery, Fred Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights nevertheless explores its subject in similar depth and runs to just over three hours. In this one part of New York City some 170 languages are spoken, and diversity pulses through it, like its people with their never-ending graft and gripes, grasping every opportunity and trying to get along with neighbours of other creeds. We see the minute detail of bureaucracy as residents struggle just to get by, from town hall meetings to conference calls and citizenship lessons. Classic Wiseman, yet again.
Bao Nguyen’s Live From New York boasts a galaxy of comedy stars from the last four decades of Saturday Night Live (Poehler, Ferrell, Fey, Chase), embracing political satire and quirky characters, and propelled by energy and desire to stay ahead of the curve. Shaped by its host city, but also shaping its culture, this feels like an A to Z of alt.comedy transforming into the mainstream, documenting our times.
Much like Terence Davies’ Of Time And The City, his tribute to his home city, Liverpool, I Am Belfast is Mark Cousins’ lyrical love letter to his roots. Shot by Christopher Doyle, with music from David Arnold, it looks and sounds stunning, and is structured as a dialogue between Belfast (as played by an actress) and Cousins himself. Full of wonder, with an eye for detail and history, it doesn’t shy away from the Troubles, and feels like a wistful lament for times past.
The Hard Stop is an unfussy documentary about what’s happened since Mark Duggan was killed after a police ‘hard stop’. How have his friends fared in the four years since the resulting London riots of 2011 ended? Director George Amponsah gets amazing access, shows their fates, but draws no conclusions, letting the viewers make up their own minds.
There were some exceptional music documentaries at the festival this year, from the intimate and personal to the national and political. On the surface, Elephant Days, from James Caddick is about the latest album from The Maccabees. But it’s really a sweet film about their postcode, their base in Elephant and Castle in South London, and the characters who give it life, vigour and humour, all with a throbbing soundtrack.
Amy Berg’s film, Janis: Little Girl Blue is a warts-and-all doc about the late, great singer Janis Joplin, showing that it wasn’t her demons but her addictions that dragged her down. Kicked out of the choir and underachieving at school, she didn’t look how she wanted to and was determined to rock the boat as often as she could, or as one childhood friend explains: “She liked to start fights”. We inevitably witness her rise and fall and endless struggles, but the film really comes to life when the music is allowed to breathe and we hear her voice at full throttle.
Something of a lost gem, A Poem Is A Naked Person, was actually made 40 years ago, with singer-songwriter Leon Russell as its subject. Now this unearthed treasure has been restored and we get to see his sweat-drenched performances before rapturous audiences. There are other pleasures too, the feeling of being immersed in hippy culture, glimpsing George Jones and Willie Nelson, and seeing huge, packed arenas, which give an idea of Russell’s fame.
On a much bigger scale, we can see the importance of music in Johanna Schwartz’s debut They Will Have To Kill Us First, which shows the recent suppression of artistic expression in Mali by Islamist extremists, and gauges the reaction to this.
Similarly, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten revisits the rock and roll that burst onto the scene in 1960s Cambodia, only to be quashed during conflict and the Khmer Rouge’s rule. Both essential viewing.
DVDfever Awards 2015
BEST FILM, FULL STOP
- Carol
Dheepan
Son Of Saul
BEST COMEDY
- Virgin Mountain
runners up – Burn Burn Burn, Men And Chicken
BEST DOCUMENTARY
- The Fear Of 13
runners up He Named Me Malala, My Love Don’t Cross That River
BEST ADAPTATION FROM PLAY OR BOOK:
- Room
Brooklyn
The Lady In The Van
BEST ACTRESS
- Cate Blanchett (Carol) – Oscar-winner, guaranteed.
runners-up: Maggie Smith (The Lady In The Van)
Kirin Kiki (An)
Juliette Binoche (The Wait)
BEST ACTOR
- Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)
Jacob Tremblay (he’s 7-years-old!!) (Room)
Geza Rohrig (Son Of Saul)
Jesuthasan Antonythasan in (Dheepan)
Vincent Lindon in (Measure Of A Man)
RISING TALENT (MOST PROMISING DIRECTORS)
- Chanya Button for Burn Burn Burn
Jonas Carpignano for Mediterranea
RISING TALENT (MOST PROMISING STARS)
- Gunnar Jonsson in Virgin Mountain
Abraham Attar in Beasts Of No Nation (right)
Quentin Dolmaire and Lou Roy-Lecollinet in My Golden Days
BEST SCENE STEALERS
- Julie Walters in Brooklyn
John Goodman in Trumbo
Alice Lowe in Burn Burn Burn
Helen Mirren’s millinery as Hedda Hopper in Trumbo
Johnny Depp’s hair in Black Mass
Marcia Gay Harden in Grandma
CAREER BESTS
- Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn
Rooney Mara in Carol
THE FIRST ANNUAL “I TOLD YOU SO” Award
- Chloe Pirrie (right), excellent in Shell, now a lead in Burn Burn Burn. Told you so!
(And also wonderful in BBC’s The Game, sadly cancelled after one series! – DVDfever Dom)
THE FOURTH KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS/GEORGE CLOONEY AWARD FOR FESTIVAL UBIQUITY ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
- No Cloonster or Kristin this year. But apart from Cate Blanchett heading up Carol and Truth, Fargo‘s Jesse Plemons probably shades it in pivotal roles in Black Mass and The Program. Then there’s our own Jim Broadbent in Brooklyn and The Lady in the Van; Ben Whishaw in Suffragette and The Lobster; Chloe Pirrie in Youth and Burn Burn Burn, not forgetting Elizabeth Moss in High Rise and Truth, Dakota Johnson in A Bigger Splash and Black Mass, and Wei Tang in Office and Tale of Three Cities.
The NOT QUITE AS GOOD AS THEY THINK THEY ARE Award:
- Sunset Song supporting actors far outshining the star
High Rise not irredeemably awful, but not a patch on Sightseers
Evolution fishy fantasy defeats plot 1-0
A Bigger Splash despite Tilda being fab and Ralph Fiennes getting his kit off at every opportunity, this is no I Am Love
Fifty a big let-down after Biyi Bandele’s previous, Half of a Yellow Sun
AND FINALLY… THE 15 SOLID GOLD MUST-SEES:
- Carol
Room
The Lady In The Van
Youth
Trumbo
Beasts Of No Nation
The Lobster
Brooklyn
Son Of Saul
Dheephan
An
The Fear Of 13
Virgin Mountain
Men And Chicken
Burn Burn Burn