Canaries - ★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 40: Enjoyable horror comedy which hopefully serves as a calling card for a bigger better follow up film.

November 14, 2017 at 05:29PM

Stalker, 1979 - ★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 39: I thought I'd struggle with this but it's a film I've wanted to see for a while if only to see if it really is as influential as I'd hear (it is). Despite not fully understanding, I was going along with it on a superficial level until I checked the time (never a good sign). There was still the best part of an hour left and that time really seemed to drag. It's annoying because I feel that if I watched it again when it wasn't my 39th film in 13 days (what is up with that programming?) and knew more about it I'd appreciate it more but when it's nearly 3 hours long I know I'll never find the time to do that.

November 13, 2017 at 10:57PM

Brimstone & Glory, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 38: I've been disappointed by the lack of WTF films at this year's festival but wasn't expecting this to jump to the top of the list. I know I have little sense of adventure and a slight fear of fireworks but WTAF these people are just crazy. Many jaw dropping moments, and spectacular scenes and the answer to the age old question of what happens to fireworks in a lightning storm.

November 13, 2017 at 07:00PM

Loveless, 2017 - ★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 37: Horrible people do nothing. Slowly. For too long. Then something happens. Horrible people still act horribly and nothing really changes.

November 12, 2017 at 11:03PM

The Rider, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 36: This took me completely by surprise and not just because I hadn't planned on seeing it. For a lot of the time I was just admiring how beautiful everything looked but then it became apparent just how tender the portrayal of masculinity was on display. An emotional ending and further revelations in the credits just made this more remarkable.

November 12, 2017 at 10:57PM

Bad Genius, 2017 - ★★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 35: Stylish and enjoyable non-heist heist film. Only let down by down by some dodgy English (Australian) acting and unecessary final lines of dialogue.

November 12, 2017 at 05:23PM

Summer Time Machine Blues, 2005 - ★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 34: Lots of time travel fun that mostly works but one particular point nagged at me and was never resolved.

November 12, 2017 at 05:12PM

The Teacher, 2016 - ★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 33: 12 Angry Parents* - some nice non-linear storytelling and a great villain in this amusing (rather than funny) satire.

* I don't know how many there were, and I know they weren't all parents.

November 11, 2017 at 11:38PM

Under The Tree, 2017 - ★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 32: A dark comedy that's much darker than it is funny. The ending escalates quickly to a tone I was expecting much earlier in the film.

November 11, 2017 at 11:24PM

La Femme Nikita, 1990 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 31: This is how to do an action film but it's also much more than that. Unfortunately the messy third act doesn't work as well as it should.

November 11, 2017 at 05:05PM

The Mansion, 2017 - ★★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 30: This more than made up for the disappointment of the first film and it's a shame it's not part of the main festival programme. Juvenile but very funny, this time probably helped along by a keen audience. Like a drunk version of Clue with some horror elements but mostly just silly fun and seems destined to become a cult favourite.

November 11, 2017 at 12:46PM

mon mon mon MONSTERS, 2017 - ★★

#LIFF2017 Film 29: First dud of the festival and a bad start to NOTD. Playing bullying for laughs is never a great idea, and with everything that's happening in the real world it left a particularly sour taste. Worryingly the rest of the audience didn't seem to have a problem and laughed along with all the bullies. If the message was supposed to be "we're the real monsters" it didn't work. The rest of the film suffered from cliches, tonal jumps, a nonsensical plot and a general feeling that it thought it was something special which it most definitely wasn't.

November 11, 2017 at 12:30PM

Journeyman, 2017 - ★★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 28: This may have broken me a little. Fantastic performances, emotional and physical punches, 90 minutes. The ending maybe felt a little rushed but otherwise really amazing stuff.

November 10, 2017 at 08:08PM

Battle of the Sexes, 2017 - ★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 27: Perfectly fine but in a festival full of really great films it didn't do enough for me to stand out.

November 10, 2017 at 05:52PM

Oh Lucy!, 2017 - ★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 26: There's so much to like here but it either loses it's way a bit or I've reached the point in the festival when it's harder to stay fully engaged. Finding out it's based on a short film didn't surprise me.

November 09, 2017 at 11:14PM

My Friend Dahmer, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 25: Disturbingly brilliant.

November 09, 2017 at 11:09PM

The Bar, 2017 - ★★★½

#LIFF2017 Extra Film: Mostly really great but loses it's way towards the end.

This was shown at #LIFF2017 as part of Day Of The Dead and one of the films I would've seen but I couldn't fit it in so I watched it on Netflix on one of my mornings off.

November 09, 2017 at 01:23PM

Good Time, 2017 - ★★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 24: I've always been a fan of the 'night gone wrong' sub-genre and things go really wrong here. The coda seemed unnecessary but then a couple of lines as the credits were rolling nearly floored me. Fantastic soundtrack, amazing performances and much more than just a good time.

November 08, 2017 at 11:10PM

Dark River, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 23: Great performances means it's always engaging but it lacked something and the setup of the conclusion seemed a bit far fetched.

November 08, 2017 at 11:02PM

The Florida Project, 2017 - ★★★★½

#LIFF2017 Film 22: Full of hope and despair, adventures and danger, laugh out loud moments and heartbreak. All of the performances are amazing, especially Brooklynn Prince.

November 08, 2017 at 12:06AM

Jane, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 21: An excellent documentary both the subject matter and how well it is all put together.

November 07, 2017 at 11:47PM

The Wages of Fear, 1953 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 20: The tension is there before nitroglycerine is even mentioned and only builds once the trucks get going.

November 07, 2017 at 11:27PM

Tabu, 1931 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 19: The fantastic live multi instrument soundtrack from Christine Ott was completely mesmerising. The only problem with this was that I kept getting distracted from the film to watch her perform.

November 06, 2017 at 11:15PM

Takový je zivot, 1930 - ★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 18: A great live score (one of Jonathan Best's, erm, best) but the film seemed more academic than enjoyable. Amazing editing and snapshots of life which (like the Leeds On Film event last week) made me wonder how our own lives will look like in the decades to come.

November 06, 2017 at 11:11PM

Western, 2017 - ★★★★

#LIFF2017 Film 17: Every festival there seems to be a film that I know nothing about, end up really enjoying but can't really explain why. Western was this kind of film. Slow in a good way, unexciting but never dull and really just a pleasure to spend time in this community.

Would have benefited from using different subtitles for the different languages.

November 06, 2017 at 11:04PM