BFI London Film Festival: Review Round-Up

The BFI London Film Festival, founded in 1957, hosted its 65th year at cinemas in London’s West End with the hub of the festival having taken place at BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Around 160 films were showcased as part of the festival, either in-person or online along with industry events and panels included in the programme.

I have watched every year, through social media, as the reviews poured in and photos of directors, actors and actresses on the red carpet clogged up my timeline. This year, however, was very different. This year, I was able to attend the festival with a press pass on behalf of The Everyday!

I was so grateful to have been accepted by BFI to attend the film festival in a press capacity, meaning that I had access to exclusive screenings of films that won’t be widely released for several months, I got to attend discussions with filmmakers, networking drinks with other people in the film industry and I got to end the festival at a press conference with the cast and crew of The Tragedy of Macbeth (this was definitely a highlight!).

The festival ran from 6th – 17th October however I was only able to attend from 12th – 17th due to having pre-arranged plans in Bristol the week before. I had a lot of anxiety the night before since this was my first ever in-person film festival however I really had no reason to worry! The events were really well organised, particularly as the screenings were on a first-come, first-served basis and it was recommended we arrive at least half hour before to ensure we got a seat.

However, enough about the festival, it’s time for the reviews…

Belfast

Set in Belfast in 1969, Kenneth Branagh’s semi-biographical film gives us an insight into religious tensions, family issues and young love during this time. We follow the narrative through the eyes of Buddy, played by 10 year old newcomer Jude Hill, while his extended family includes Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds. You expect a lot from a cast of that calibre and they certainly deliver. The whole cast deliver exceptional performances, from Caitriona Balfe’s heart-breaking performance of a mother who raises her two sons while her husband works away in England to Ciaran Hinds’ performance of a sickly grandfather who has worked hard all his life.

The story is set behind the backdrop of the August riots which kick-started the Troubles. Outside of the house, Buddy’s community has to deal with a nasty riot that results in their street getting barricaded and men with guns becoming a prominent sight. Inside of the house, Buddy’s family has to deal with crippling debt problems and a poorly family member. The film does not lack drama or tense moments but it’s the scenes in-between that are the most captivating.

The scenes of joy and laughter are sprinkled throughout, it is not simply the dialogue that offers a slight reprieve from the internal and external struggles of this Irish community. Pure moments of happiness are seen when the children are playing in the street with their neighbours, when Ma and Pa are singing and dancing in the street, when Auntie Violet is drunk and singing (very badly!). These moments are so full of love and warmth that sometimes I wondered if I was crying happy tears or sad tears.

Branagh’s at his best throughout, with many scenes set up in a way that is reminiscent of stage plays, giving us an up-close and personal insight to the story as it unfolds. His love of cinema is peppered throughout with scenes of the family going to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, One Million Years BC and scenes of the boys watching Star Trek and Thunderbirds on their small television.

Going into this film, I wondered how I could relate to a black and white film set in 1969 about an Irish family and community both divided and united by religion however, simply put, the story follows a loving family who have to weather many hardships and make several difficult decisions based on their family and that is a story we can all relate to.

Belfast is released in the UK on the 25th February 2022

Hit the Road

My next screening was the Iranian film Hit the Road, from first-time director and writer Panah Panahi, the film follows a family and their sick dog on a road trip to a destination undisclosed to the audience.

With the film following a family of four for the majority of the film, we become accustomed to the ways of them: the youngest son is incessant with his constant questions and chatting but he’s the one who delivers most of the humorous dialogue; the father suffers with a broken leg and has a very dry sense of humour and lack of compassion which is highly comical; the mother dearly loves her sons and their dog and she holds them altogether throughout their road trip; finally, the eldest son is disconcerting in his quietness but rude when he lashes out at his family. However, it’s when you look a little closer you can see the cracks begin to show, his rudeness covering up his guilt and sadness at where this road trip leads them. For a cast of mostly newcomers, their performances are authentic and the best part of the film.

There is a sense of foreboding throughout with subtle hints of the danger they may find themselves in; in one scene, the mother believes someone is following them and in one of the final scenes, the person they have gone to meet is wearing a burlap sack fashioned into a mask, finally conceding to the audience that the typical, family road trip was not all it seemed.  Despite this, the moments of joy and humour, such as youngest son and father discussing how much the Batmobile costs or when the mother sings and dances to an Iranian song in the car, offer a reprieve from the heavier scenes.

It is Panahi’s script that keeps you engaged, desperate to find out more about this family that are all bundled together in such a tight space and it is Amin Jafari’s camerawork that gives us a stark look at the ever-changing landscape; from dry and desert-like to rolling green hills and fog. While his unobtrusive lens and close-up shots of singular family members tells us more than any dialogue ever could.

On the surface the film is following a single object (a rental car) and a family of four whilst underneath that, a darker narrative is embedded there and it is only seen through hints of dialogue and then also at the very end, thus leaving the audience crying out for more.

(It also won Best Film at the London Film Festival awards – one more reason to watch it!) 

Hit the Road is scheduled for UK release on 15th April 2022

The Lost Daughter

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut sports an incredible cast, including Olivia Coleman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. A true mix of actors of different backgrounds who all coalesce (with the exception of Jessie Buckley) on a small Greek island. Based on a novel of the same name, the story follows Olivia Coleman – Leda – a professor at a university in Cambridge, Massachusetts who has the summer off to work on some translation pieces and enjoy some peace at a nearby beach. However, this is soon interrupted by Dakota Johnson’s (Nina) large, American family from Queens and we soon learn that there is a darkness to Leda and her story.

The present day scenes of Leda enjoying a holiday in Greece are sliced with a young Leda (portrayed by Jessie Buckley) juggling a career and two young girls. The film is heavy handed with its portrayal of motherhood, as we see both a young Leda and Nina struggle with the responsibility of having children and who both seem to be way out of their depth.

Olivia Coleman’s Leda is unapologetic in her self-assuredness as she refuses to move sun-lounger so a family can sit together or as she offers sarcastic retorts to Ed Harris’ Lyle about his family. In some ways she can be seen as unlikeable as she is complex and in many ways selfish and mean but that is to judge her too quickly – she is a simply a woman. She stands up for herself, against other women and against men; one of my favourite lines of Leda’s is “I’m going to cut up your little dicks and feed them to the birds!” which she yells to a disruptive group of teenage boys in the cinema.

Every scene is nuanced and meaningful, and while the supporting cast is excellent, it is Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley – playing two different but similar Leda’s – you cannot take your eyes off of. The flashback scenes of Jessie Buckley struggling to juggle both a career and two girls is relatable and, at times, heart-wrenching because throughout the struggles there are moments of pure bliss. In present day, there are chinks in Leda’s armour which keeps the audience guessing as to what she is keeping so close to her chest and when we do find out, it is not such a huge surprise but it does add to our understanding of why her emotions are so tangled and complex.

Gyllenhaal never falters, throughout she shows us how commercial savvy and sure of herself she is and we can only thank her for taking this particular novel and moulding it into her own creation.

The Lost Daughter is due to be released in the UK on the 7th January 2022

Wild Indian

Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr’s debut feature premiered at LFF and I got to watch it on their online platform. For a 90 minute film, it packs certainly packs a punch. We watch two young friends, connected by abusive childhoods, grow up and struggle with their life at home and at school before a deadly twist that leaves us feeling slightly confused.

It is hard to go in-depth with the characters during such a short film and this is the film’s undoing – as an audience, we lack empathy for many of the characters, particularly the lead (Michael Greyeyes’ Makwa) as the film doesn’t allow us to understand what his motivations are; this makes Wild Indian hard to enjoy.

Wild Indian is available to rent or buy on several streaming platforms

Benediction

A biopic based on the life of poet soldier Siegfried Sassoon, Benediction is definitely not another war film. The story charts the life of Siegfried and his many encounters; beginning with his objections to the war, the film takes us through his time in rehabilitation, his life as a poet and the enigmatic friends, and more-than-friends, he meets (including Jeremy Irvine’s inscrutable portrayal of Ivor Novello) and intertwining it with an older Sassoon (Peter Capaldi) whose married with a grown-up son.

Director Terence Davies splices the narrative with documentary footage of the war along with a narrative voiceover from Sassoon (Jack Lowden) reading his poetry aloud. Davies allows very little reprieve for the audience; just when we indulge in some humour, he cuts to harsh footage of the war or just when we think Sassoon might be experiencing some semblance of happiness, he cuts to an older version of the character in which he has diminished into obscurity.

Despite an incredible cast and an outstanding narrative, Benediction can, at times, be too over-indulgent with scenes that come across as elitist. The whole film is also undermined by Peter Capaldi’s scenes, scenes that weren’t necessary and only made the film that much more melancholy.

A UK wide release date is yet to be announced for Benediction

Mothering Sunday

Based on a book of the same, Mothering Sunday tells the story of a young maid, Jane, whose life intertwines with an upper-class son of a wealthy family. Split into three timelines, the film is a tense watch from the beginning with the family Jane works for (Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth) sat in silence, trying not to discuss the death of their sons in the First World War.

The film only builds on that tension as it flits between an older Jane trying to write a novel back to a younger Jane who is off work for the day for Mother’s Day and goes to visit Paul (a very attractive and very naked, Josh O’Connor) for a secret rendezvous while his family are out.

French director Eva Husson utilises her skills from her previous Palme d’Or nominated film, Girls of the Sun, as her languid camera shots add to the beautifulness of the English landscape and location. She is in no rush to push the story along and instead allows us time to explore and discover along with Jane, particularly as she wonders around Paul’s idyllic house naked, stopping to eat some pie and explore some books in the library. Similarly, Husson’s stunning shots of the English countryside is juxtaposed greatly with such a tense atmosphere of the day, a reminder that no matter how pretty or happy the day should be, something larger looms.

For those who haven’t read the book (such as myself), the story was still all too predictable as we could sense the impending doom during both the timeline with Jane as a maid and the later in which Jane is a novelist with her fiancée.

Mothering Sunday is gorgeously shot and a beautifully looking film however in trying to get the stylised shots, Husson sacrifices substance for style and, in doing so, she doesn’t utilise her most valuable tool – the cast.

Mothering Sunday is due to be released on the 12th November 2021

King Richard

Another biographical film, King Richard charts the life of Richard Williams, the father of tennis legends, Venus and Serena. Will Smith takes on the task of Richard, a well-meaning but down-trodden father who works long nights as a security guard while trying to train his two daughters in the day, all the while trying to support a family of seven.

Richard works hard to overcome racial stereotypes and people who think they know better, in order to give his daughters a step-up in life. There is an awareness and an acknowledgment that as a Black family from Compton, they need to work twice as hard just to be heard. Will Smith’s portrayal as Richard is complex and multi-faceted; Richard can be stubborn and obstinate but the love he has for his family and the faith he has in Serena and Venus is what makes him such a likeable protagonist.

Despite coming in at over two hours, the film is always moving, the story never lacking as director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin have a lot to squeeze in. For those who are a fan of tennis (like myself), Green allows us to indulge in the scenes with big tennis names mentioned and seen and several tennis tournaments taking place in which we want to scream, shout and applaud at the screen before remembering this is a film – not a live event.

King Richard is an absolute joy to watch, an inspirational story of how a family overcome social and racial injustices in such an elitist, white sport with Will Smith’s performance being one of the bests I have ever seen.

King Richard is scheduled for UK release 19th November 2021

I couldn’t have wished for better films to watch at my first London Film Festival; a real diverse range of stories that were all so impressive in different ways.

I am so grateful to have attended the festival and I cannot wait for what 2022 will bring!


Written by Issy Packer

Hi, I’m Issy, the Music and Film Editor at The Everyday! I’m an English Literature graduate and have been passionate about all things to do with writing and journalism from a young age. I am interested in a number of things, including politics, feminism and music. You can find me either at the cinema watching all sorts of films or trying to work my way through the long list of books I’m desperate to read.

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