It may be full of clichés but it does them well and is genuinely quite creepy in places.
November 26, 2013 at 11:56PM
26 November 2013
The Day of the Doctor - ★★★★
77 minutes, a stand alone story, cinema screenings, 3rd highest weekend box office - I think it's fair to call The Day of the Doctor a film.
I've been a huge fan of Steven Moffat since Press Gang and Joking Apart, I adore his work on Doctor Who. There was a lot of hype and expectations to live up to but I certainly wasn't disappointed. There were flaws but also many moments of greatness and the whole thing was just a great deal of fun.
Now I'm wondering if I am classifying this as a film does that mean I need to position it in my Films of 2013 list...
November 26, 2013 at 11:42PM
Short Term 12, 2013 - ★★★★★
Had me from the start and just got better and better.
November 26, 2013 at 12:14AM
Blue Is the Warmest Color, 2013 - ★★★½
The original title "La vie d'Adèle – chapitres 1 & 2" is much more appropriate because Blue is definitely a film of two halves. Whilst watching Chapter 1 I could understand why the film is receiving so much love and praise. It's a great story, beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted.
Chapter 2 was a huge disappointment in terms of both the characters, who didn't appear to have grown at all, and the film making which was dull and predictable. I think I had a different interpretation of what happened but all the interesting things happened in the gap between the chapters and we're just left mopping up the mess. Things do improve and the encounters towards the end of the film start to work again but for me it was too late.
I'm still thinking about the film days later, perhaps not in the way the film makers intended, so perhaps that means it's a better film than I originally thought.
November 26, 2013 at 12:05AM
23 November 2013
An Adventure in Space and Time, 2013 - ★★★½
After seeing all the positive responses when this was aired I was very disappointed. The first half is dull and we've seen essentially the same story told many times before. Once the show gets going things improve considerably and is full of great touches, performances and emotions.
November 23, 2013 at 11:18AM
22 November 2013
21 November 2013
Filmage: The Story of The Descendents/ALL
Watched on Friday November 22, 2013.
November 21, 2013 at 11:32PM
20 November 2013
19 November 2013
Masterpiece: Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns
Watched on Tuesday November 19, 2013.
November 18, 2013 at 11:56PM
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2, 2013
Watched on Tuesday November 19, 2013.
November 18, 2013 at 11:55PM
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, 2012
Watched on Tuesday November 19, 2013.
November 18, 2013 at 11:53PM
Just Before Losing Everything, 2013
Watched on Tuesday November 19, 2013.
November 18, 2013 at 11:52PM
18 November 2013
Love eternal - ★★★★½
#LIFF27
Another favourite of the festival although perhaps considering the subject matter I should be worried that I liked it so much. Beautiful throughout and then has the most wonderful ending that elevates it to another level.
November 18, 2013 at 10:41AM
Antboy, 2013 - ★★★
#LIFF27
Uses every super hero cliche but it's all done with such charm that it's hard not to be taken in.
November 18, 2013 at 10:33AM
The Forest, 2012 - ★★
#LIFF27 Another huge disappointment. The LIFF programme said this was "similar in style to Guillermo Del Toro’s films" which is complete rubbish as the only similarities are they are in Spanish and Del Toro made some films set in the civil war.
This may have made a good short film but it's tediously long and only 90 minutes. I couldn't wait for it to end and when there was a knock on the door after what should have been a final fade to black I actually broke my cinema silence to mutter a ffs. What then follows is even more ridiculous and made me hate the film even more.
November 18, 2013 at 10:31AM
Ikarie XB-1, 1964 - ★★★★
#LIFF27
Never heard of this and it turns out to be the blueprint for just about every space set science fiction.
November 18, 2013 at 10:19AM
Big Bad Wolves, 2013 - ★★★
#LIFF27
A big disappointment considering how many good things I'd heard before the screening. The humour is fantastic but it sits uneasily against the brutality which servers no real purpose. The subject matter has been dealt with much better in other films and television shows recently.
November 18, 2013 at 10:17AM
Chimères, 2013 - ★★★½
#LIFF27
A really great realistic vampire love story until it's muddled ending. There's a point where I thought this is where the Hollywood version would end and launch a franchise and I was so pleased the film continued. But what followed feels like a completely different film and undoes a lot of the great earlier work. It sort of redeems itself (ironically setting itself up for a possible sequel) but only just.
November 18, 2013 at 10:07AM
17 November 2013
Death Of A Shadow, 2012 - ★★★★
Pleased this got a bigger audience in Day Of The Dead than the Belgian Short selection and even better that it won the audience vote.
November 17, 2013 at 03:04PM
The Body, 2013 - ★★★★
Seemed really good but there were sound sync problems at the screening which meant it was difficult to watch.
November 17, 2013 at 03:02PM
The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, 2013 - ★★½
#LIFF27
Stylishly bizarre but I had no idea what was going on. The comparisons to a perfume advert seemed entirely appropriate. Some of the sequences and ideas would have worked better as short films.
November 17, 2013 at 02:57PM
Cannibal Holocaust, 1980 - ★★★
#LIFF27
The most though provoking film of the festival but it's not a good film. The structure is all over the place and it's far too long and not really that interesting. But everything else surrounding the film is really fascinating. I completely understand why the film has previously been banned and finding myself agreeing with censorship is more disturbing than most of the brutality in the film.
What does it mean if the only reason you can think a film should exist is to question it's own existence?
November 17, 2013 at 02:54PM
16 November 2013
15 November 2013
Cold Eyes, 2013 - ★★★★
Slick thriller that is unfairly being labelled "Hollywood" - nothing this smart and stylish has come out of Hollywood since Inception. Loses some momentum in the final third (but what film doesn't these days) but engaging throughout.
November 15, 2013 at 02:06PM
Mistaken for Strangers, 2013 - ★★★★
This isn't a film about The National, it's a film about brothers and perhaps more specifically living in your brother's shadow. A really enjoyable experience that manages to be incredibly moving and laugh out loud hilarious.
My only problem is that I often felt guilty that I was laughing at Tom and not with him. Presumably as Tom is credited as the director (although it felt like other people were involved in the film making process) he's okay with the results.
November 15, 2013 at 01:53PM
Peeping Tom, 1960 - ★★★★
It's still easy to see how incredibly powerful and important Peeping Tom was when it was originally released. Sadly it hasn't aged too well and the stilted performances often distracted from the danger.
November 15, 2013 at 01:34PM
14 November 2013
Ghost graduation, 2012 - ★★★★★
It's hard to imagine seeing a more enjoyable film at the festival. Described as The Breakfast Club with ghosts this is more than just a homage to Hughes, it also takes in the style of Ghostbusters, other seminal films of the 80s and even Glee. The overall story elements may not stand up to scrutiny but the smaller moments that make up the script are perfectly structured. Hilariously funny in places the film knows exactly what it's doing and how much cheese it can get away with.
There's always a reluctance to not give high scores to "fun" films but this was a 5 star experience that I can't wait to relive.
November 14, 2013 at 07:54AM
Computer Chess, 2013 - ★★★
A strange mess of structure, style and story which has it's moments but is ultimately disappointing. It feels like there is a great film bursting to get out but it's lost even before things get weird.
November 14, 2013 at 07:38AM
Child's Pose, 2013 - ★★★½
Cornelia, the central character in Child's Pose is "not the nicest person in the world" and, from what's shown here, tries to manipulate her way through life to get exactly what she wants, although not necessarily succeeding. I don't think it was the unlikeable character that I failed to connect with because it's a great performance and fascinating to watch. I didn't feel fully engaged until the final scenes and even then I wasn't sure if there was meant to be an element of doubt surrounding her sincerity.
If I'd been less tired I think I may have appreciated the film a lot more.
November 13, 2013 at 11:57PM
13 November 2013
The Retrieval - ★★★★
The Retrieval is a fantastic piece of film making, even more so for being independent and presumably low budget. It feels like a much bigger film but never gets too big for it's boots and bows out in a satisfying climax although I can't help but think the director's original ending would have been more powerful.
November 13, 2013 at 11:21PM
11 November 2013
A Touch of Sin, 2013 - ★★
There usually comes a point during a film festival when festival fatigue kicks in and no matter how good the film is you just can't focus on it. I though this might have happened tonight as I struggled to connect in any way to A Touch Of Sin. On paper and screen everything theoretically should have just worked but it didn't and fortunately I wasn't alone in thinking this.
Any brief moments of caring about a character are diluted by the boredom that surrounds them. The spurts of revenge were occasionally satisfying but the violence served no real purpose (which I think may have been the point) and the whole thing dragged out for what seemed like an eternity.
November 11, 2013 at 11:35PM
The Expedition to the End of the World, 2013 - ★★★★
Informative and entertaining, the documentary wisely focuses on the slightly eccentric crew rather than the environment they are exploring. Despite being uncharted territory there would have been a familiar feeling if this had been documented in the traditional way. But instead of Sigur Ros, we get Metallica and meditations on the meaning of life, what it means to be an artist and why we should all just become pirates.
November 11, 2013 at 01:29PM
The German Doctor, 2013 - ★★★★
One of the many joys of seeing a film at a festival is that it's possible to enter a screening knowing absolutely nothing about a film. This was the case with Wakolda and I didn't even have the benefit of the English title. From the start The German Doctor is a mysterious character but so is everybody else surrounding the family he encounters. The mystery slowly builds throughout and it was never obvious where the film was heading. I didn't even know what strand of the festival it was screening in and at one point thought it could turn to science fiction and/or horror which may have been terrible but the fact it seemed plausible is a credit to the film makers.
November 11, 2013 at 12:31PM
10 November 2013
Rififi, 1955 - ★★★★
From the start of the heist this really is fantastic, thrilling and inspirational.
November 10, 2013 at 11:38PM
The Great Hip Hop Hoax, 2013 - ★★★
Really interesting story, perhaps lacking the heart of Sound It Out but a great documentary nonetheless.
November 10, 2013 at 11:56AM
Nebraska, 2013 - ★★★★★
I adored absolutely everything from start to finish and don't know what else to say.
I've been making a secret list of scenes of the year and there are at least three in this film that I want to add: the cemetery, the compressor and the final drive home.
November 10, 2013 at 11:46AM
The Third Man, 1949 - ★★★★
A few moments into The Third Man I remembered how I'd been disappointed with it other times that I'd seen it. It's a slow build up (and difficult to follow due to the terrible acoustics for dialogue in Leeds Town Hall) but full of classic well known moments. Basically any time Orson Welles is on screen, or in the shadows, the film is amazing. The rest of the time the cinematography is fantastic but not a lot is happening.
November 10, 2013 at 11:33AM
HK: Forbidden Super Hero, 2013 - ★★½
And the award for downright WTAF goes to...
Completely crazy but decreasingly entertaining as the joke wears very thin quite quickly.
November 10, 2013 at 11:25AM
Bushido Man, 2013 - ★★★
Slowly build to a wonderful over the top finale.
November 10, 2013 at 11:21AM
09 November 2013
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, 1974 - ★★★★
Watched on Saturday November 9, 2013.
November 09, 2013 at 02:09AM
07 November 2013
Sign Painters - ★★½
A really interesting, largely unknown subject matter, and really interesting characters but the same points are just raised over and over again without really revealing much. Pretty much everything in the film was covered by the trailer. Disappointing.
November 07, 2013 at 11:32PM
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