BFI LFF 2020: Kajillionaire (2020)
★★★★☆
Kajillionaire by visionary filmmaker Miranda July is an absurd, dead-pan coming-of-age satire on the American dream.
festivals
BFI LFF 2020: Mangrove (2020)
★★★★☆
Mangrove, part of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe canon, is a grippingly acted reconstruction of police racism in 1970 Notting Hill, the iconic café and the courtroom sensation of the prosecution of the Mangrove Nine.
BFF LFF 2020: Cicada (2020)
★★★☆☆
In Cicada by Matt Fifer and Kieran Mulcare, a twenty-something in New York finds love but his life is clouded by the memories of childhood abuse and the pain of not knowing how to deal with it.
Nocturnal (2019)
★★★☆☆
Nocturnal, by director/writer Nathalie Biancheri, has a suspenseful surprise that turns creepy horror into emotional drama.
Rocks (2019) and Q&A
★★★★☆
Rocks by Sarah Gavron is a sad and joyous film about the resilience and spirit of girlhood – sisterhood at its most powerful.
BFI London Film Festival 2020
★★★★☆
The 2020 BFI London Film Festival 2020 from 7 to 18 October is the first edition to be widely accessible wherever you are in the UK, with over 50 virtual premieres, free online events and cinema screenings.
Waiting for the Barbarians (2019) – Digital download
★★★☆☆
Waiting for the Barbarians by acclaimed director Ciro Guerra is a beautiful, well-acted, slow-moving allegory of imperialism.
Koko-di Koko-da (2019) – on demand
★★★★☆
Psychological horror Koko-di Koko-da is a genre-bending, adult riff on a Swedish nursery rhyme, directed by Johannes Nyholm.
Les Misérables (2019)
★★★★☆
Les Misérables is an explosive first feature about simmering racial tensions in a Paris banlieu from Malian-French actor and director Ladj Ly.
Hope Gap (2019) – Streaming
★★★☆☆
William Nicholson’s Hope Gap benefits from a starry cast in the stagey story of the death of love in a middle-aged, middle-class marriage on the South Coast.
The Brink (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Alison Klayman’s The Brink is a must-see documentary following dangerous eminence grise Steve Bannon over the crucial period of the US midterms and the EU elections.
Babyteeth (2019)
★★★★☆
Babyteeth is a vivid new take on coming-of-age directed by Shannon Murphy from a script that Rita Kalnejais adapted from her play of the same title.
Papicha (2019) ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
Papicha is a stunning female-centred drama freely inspired, its director Mounia Meddour says, by real events in Algeria in the 1990s.
Make Up (2019) – in cinemas and on demand. Online Q&A 3 August
Make Up is an original coming-of-age horror/drama by first-time director Claire Oakley.
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