The Perfect Candidate (2019) – ON DEMAND
★★★★☆
The Perfect Candidate by Haifaa Al-Mansour is a fascinating glimpse of women’s changing status in the patriarchal kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
★★★
Calm With Horses (2019)
★★★★☆
Calm With Horses is a stunning first feature by director Nick Rowland, adapted by screenwriter Joe Murtagh from a short story by Colin Barrett in his Young Skins collection, executive produced by actor Michael Fassbender.
RUN (2019)
★★★☆☆
Scottish nouveau dreich, downbeat Run, expanded from a short by director Scott Graham, still has a way to go.
Villain (2020)
★★★☆☆
Villain, director Philip Barantini’s feature debut, is an ironically titled, violent slice of old and new crime in the East End, with a dominating performance by Craig Fairbrass.
Greed (2019)
★★★★☆
Nothing exceeds like excess in Michael Winterbottom’s broad satire Greed, starring Steve Coogan as a super-rich high-street-fashion mogul.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam is a confusingly intricate blend of past and present, fiction, reality and filmmaking.
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The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
The Personal History of David Copperfield is Armando Iannucci’s quirkily imaginative transformation of Dickens’ novel bringing out its contemporary resonances.
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Atlantics (2019)
★★★★☆
Atlantic (Atlantique) is Mati Diop’s dreamlike feature debut focusing on the women left behind when Senegalese migrant workers take to the seas.
Judy & Punch (2019)
★★★★☆
Judy & Punch by Mirrah Foulkes is a feminist reimagination and reversal of the traditional, violent seaside Punch and Judy puppet show that takes it back its 16th century origins.
Greener Grass (2019)
★★★☆☆
Satirical comedy Greener Grass by, and co-starring Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, is Stepford Wives on acid.
London Palestine Film Festival: It Must Be Heaven (2019)
★★★★☆
It Must Be Heaven continues Elia Suleiman’s deadpan global quest for recognition of Palestinian identity and homeland.
After the Wedding (2019)
★★★☆☆
In After the Wedding Bart Freundlich piles unlikely event on unlikely event on Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in a weepie melodrama that reaches emotional overload.
Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)
★★★☆☆
Brittany Runs a Marathon is a lovely little film, director Paul Colaizzo’s debut feature. It’s heartwarming, raw, crowd-pleasing and motivating in the nicest possible way.
BFI LFF 2019: Harriet (2019)
★★★☆☆
Harriet, directed by Kasi Lemmons, is a conventionally made biopic of a supremely unconventional and inspirational woman, Harriet Tubman, taking her life story from slave to fearless abolitionist and conductor on the underground railroad to freedom.