BFI LFF 2019: Moffie (2019)
★★★★☆
Oliver Hermanus evokes fear and loathing for a brutally homophobic, Apartheid-era South Africa among young conscripts in Moffie.
★★★★☆
Oliver Hermanus evokes fear and loathing for a brutally homophobic, Apartheid-era South Africa among young conscripts in Moffie.
★★★★★
The Two Popes by Fernando Mereilles is a sparklingly written, joyfully acted, behind-the-scenes imagining of historic events made personal that has its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
★★★★☆
La Llorona by Jayro Bustamente is a dark, powerful political and psychological horror, grounded in Guatemala’s history and folklore.
★★★☆☆
The Perfect Candidate by Haifaa Al-Mansour is a fascinating glimpse of women’s changing status in the patriarchal kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
★★★★☆
Oliver Hermanus evokes fear and loathing for a brutally homophobic, Apartheid-era South Africa among young LGBT conscripts in Moffie.
★★★★☆
Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho is an exhilarating mixture of genres – political satire, western, science fiction – underpinned by savage political and social comment. It’s a blast.
★★★★☆
Atlantics (Atlantiques) is Mati Diop’s dreamlike feature debut focusing on the women left behind when Senegalese migrant workers take to the seas.
★★★☆☆
The Peanut Butter Falcon transcends initial discomfort to become a wish fulfilment, odd-couple odyssey with a soft centre.
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2019: 8-13 October. The Whistlers, Deerskin, Algo-Rhythm and So Long, My Son.
★★★☆☆
The Personal History of David Copperfield is Armando Iannucci’s brilliantly imaginative transformation of Dickens’ novel to bring out its contemporary resonances.
★★★★★
Monos by Alejandro Landes (Porfirio), set among volatile, trainee teenage guerillas in Latin America, is quite simply one of this year’s best and most disturbing films.
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2019: Previews 3-7 October. Beanpole, Lucky Grandma, Nimic, White Girl, Zombi Child and Bad Education.
★★★★☆
BFI London Film Festival previews 2-5 October: Recorder, Axone, Öndög, Clemency, The Warden, A Pleasure, Comrades! and The Antenna.