BFI LFF 2016: LA LA LAND (2016)
★★★★☆
Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is a bittersweet musical love letter to Hollywood and Los Angeles.
music
I Saw The Light (2016)
★★★☆☆
Despite a beautiful performance from Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams, Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light can’t quite lift the country music icon out of the dark.
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
★★★☆☆
A Hollywood companion piece to Marguerite, Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins finds a heart of gold beneath the tarnished voice.
Marguerite (2015)
★★★★☆
A delicious update of the Emperor’s new clothes parable, Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite exposes the well-meaning flattery of the have-nots.
Festival Review: Miles Ahead (2015)
★★★☆☆
Love and labour lost, Don Cheadle’s biopic Miles Ahead reveals the great jazz musician Miles Davis at his lowest ebb.
Festival Review: They Will Have To Kill Us First (2015)
★★★☆☆
Malian music in exile, Johanna Schwartz’s documentary They Will Have To Kill Us First is a celebration of music and its invincible power.
Eden (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Charting the hopes and dreams of her DJ brother Sven, Mia Hansen-Løve’s celebration of French house music Eden might be leading us up the garden path.
Love & Mercy (2014)
★★★★☆
With Paul Dano and John Cusack embodying the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy is a triumph of performance and the creative force.
The Choir / Boychoir (2014)
★★☆☆☆
Boasting a stellar cast of Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Izzard and Kathy Bates, François Girard’s The Choir belts out one disappointing cliché after another.
What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)
★★★★☆
Charting the rise, fall and rise again of Nina Simone, Liz Garbus’s What Happened, Miss Simone? creates an icon of the High Priestess of Soul.
Argerich Bloody Daughter (2012)
★★★☆☆
A family portrait and a fly-on-the-wall bio-doc of a great pianist, Stéphanie Argerich’s Argerich – Bloody Daughter wraps itself up in maternal knots.
Festival Review: What Happened, Miss Simone (2015)
★★★★☆
Pieced together out of archive footage, interviews and diaries, Liz Garbus’ What Happened, Miss Simone? makes a soul-stirring melody out of the blues.
Whiplash (2014)
★★★★★
Ferocious, electric and unrelenting, Simmons and Teller never miss a beat in Damien Chazelle’s phenomenal second feature Whiplash.
Frank (2014)
★★★★☆
What happens when a wannabe musician finds himself caught up in a band that’s a cross between a commune and a boot camp, led by an unstable avant-garde musical genius, Frank, who never takes off a giant papier-mâché head?