Reviews in a nutshell
There is an instant vitality and endearing quality to Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson’s new coming-of-age drama Vi är bäst! (We Are The Best!) that gradually warms from within. It’s not just the experimental buzz of youth and the promise of reliving your memories through the voice of punk music, but being placed in a privileged …
French Screenwriter-director François Ozon returns to BFI LFF 2013 with another coming-of-age film, this time with subjective comedic value. Palme d’Or nominated Jeune et Jolie is one of sexual discovery of a young seventeen-year-old girl, Isabelle (Marine Vacth), who deals with her newfound womanhood in a rather extreme fashion. This is perhaps no surprise to …
It’s the perfect time of year for a scary movie about killer flu wiping out a population. Simply named Flu, this is a typical disaster movie, South Korean style, from The Warrior writer-director Sung-su Kim. However, it contains the drama within the boundaries of the district of Bundang, the suburb of Seoul – supposedly one …
Having not necessarily seen the poster, the film title automatically assumes a plane takeover at several thousand feet, like so many films before. However, this is a story of ‘terrorists at sea’ with writer-director Tobias Lindholm of recent The Hunt fame putting to bed the romantic notion of swashbuckling pirates with a frank and tension-pounding …
The dynamic trio of filmmakers, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy who gave us the delightfully enrapturing Rumba in 2008 have brought their dance/mime format back for another outing, The Fairy (La fée). Theirs is an old-fashioned, visual performance art that translates brilliantly on screen and is simply delightful to watch and totally unique …
There is a heady and rousing whiff of corruption, scandal, passion and Enlightenment to delight the avid period drama fan in Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair. The fact that it is based on the true story of 15-year-old English princess Caroline Mathilde who was married off to unhinged King Christian in the 18th …
Audrey Tautou has come a long way since her touching, doe-eyed international debut in Amelie. The actress is typecast in such feisty, cutesy roles that it’s hard to determine whether she’s good or just a natural charmer – a bit of both perhaps. In debut directors David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos’ new romance, Delicacy, we …
La Grande Illusion is Jean Renoir’s poetic 1937 anti-war masterpiece that triumphs international unity while poignantly and good-heartedly mocks man’s egotistical obsession with gaining power. It has some genre-defining performances from Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay that surely influenced later, like-minded films, such as those of The Great Escape, Catch 22 etc. It also quirkily …
Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie is the ultimate, contemporary cinematic scoundrel in director Morten Tyldum’s electric crime thriller Headhunters as Roger, the country’s most accomplished corporate headhunter. Like a young Christopher Walken in looks, temperament and acting prowess, Hennie is a truly exciting revelation to discover and took 2011’s London Film Festival by storm. Roger has …
