As the 15th anniversary re-release of Donnie Darko approaches, Spank The Monkey is starting to doubt his commitment to Sparkle Motion.
All posts by Susan Patterson
Magnus Carlsen
I often make decisions based on intuition, a sense that something is there.
London Film Festival 2016 Days 8 to 9
Tickling Giants (dir-scr Sara Taksler)
During the Egyptian revolution 2011 Bassem Youseff, cardiologist by day, satirist by night, starting making five minute shows for his Youtube channel. Within three months they had had five million views. Youseff finds himself the golden boy of Egyptian comedy, and has a networked TV show, Al Bernameg (The Show) by the end of that year. Continue reading London Film Festival 2016 Days 8 to 9
Whose Story Is It Anyway? London Film Festival Days 5 to 7
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised (dir Rama Thiaw)
An Insignificant Man (dir Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla)
Layla M (dir Mijke de Jong, scr Jan Eilander, Mijke de Jong)
Contains spoilers for Layla M.
The stand out point about The Revolution Won’t Be Televised and An Insignificant Man is that they were made by a Senegalese woman and a pair of young Indian filmmakers in their own countries about things that they know about. The stand out point about Layla M is that it was not directed nor written by Dutch Moroccans, and it shows. Continue reading Whose Story Is It Anyway? London Film Festival Days 5 to 7
London Film Festival 2016 Days 3 to 4
A Moving Image ( dir-scr Shola Amoo)
Director Shola Amoo grew up in the Elephant and Castle, so he is no stranger to what gentrification can do to a community. A graduate of the National Film and Television School, this is Amoo’s first feature. It is a documentary film within a drama, which allows him to use interviews with Brixtonians, scripted drama and the photographs of Neil Kenlock to explore a changing Brixton through what happens to Nina (Tanya Fear) when she returns there. Continue reading London Film Festival 2016 Days 3 to 4
London Film Festival 2016 Days 1 to 2
A United Kingdom (dir. Amma Asante, scr. Gus Hibbert)
The 60th BFI London Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday evening with a gala performance of A United Kingdom, the story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), king-in-waiting of Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), an underwriter’s clerk. They marry, and incur the wrath of her family, his uncle, and the British and South African governments, who all conspire to separate them. Continue reading London Film Festival 2016 Days 1 to 2
Dare to Be Wild
The problem with a film based on a real story is that you always know how it is going to end.
Mary Reynolds (Emma Greenwell) wants to enter the Chelsea Flower Show with her wild Celtic garden and win the gold medal. To do this she needs the help of reluctant botanist Christy Collard (Tom Hughes), £250,000 in sponsorship, and to convince the show to accept her entry. Continue reading Dare to Be Wild
El Sur (The South)
Susan Patterson watches Victor Erice’s Spanish classic
“Can it be that an unfinished film is one of the best in Spanish cinema history? Yes it can… 95 minutes of emotions so intense that you’re left breathless. I cry every time I watch it.” Pedro Almodóvar
Estrella (Icíar Bollaín), is close to her doctor father, Agustin (Omero Antonutti) but mystified by his past, and how it has made him the slightly distant man he has become.
8½
More Fellini for you today, as Susan Patterson enjoys about three-and-two-thirds of 8½.
Nashville
Susan Patterson watches the new Blu-ray edition of Robert Altman’s Nashville.
MostlyFilm 