Jojo Rabbit, The Irishman, Marriage Story and more! LFF 2019 Wrap up review.

The first film I watched this year at the London Film Festival was The Peanut Butter Falcon directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. Firstly, I was about 5 minutes late to this screening because all busses going either way over a few different bridges in London where being suspended due to the extinction rebellion protests, which I wasn’t mad about because I agree with their stance, my dumbass just wasn’t expecting half the city to shut down at a moments notice, ANYWAY. Falcon has got a huge heart. The location for this film is so unique and fun looking, so Americana. I just wanted to build my own boat and sail down the bayous myself. Shia is a fab actor, everybody with taste knows this. He is perfectly cast in the role of Tyler, a rugged fisherman with a mysterious past. Zack Gottsagen as Zac is a superstar, he is so loveable, and the audience really roots for him to get his independence from social services. But Dakota Johnson as Eleanor, Zac’s caseworker is balancing the argument out, she wants Zac to experience life, friendship and love but she feels responsible for his safeguarding. I think this topic hasn’t been explored much in cinema and would love to see it have more screen time in the future. I also really like the creative decision to base the narrative around traditional fable and folk stories, it makes the film feel like an adaptation of a long-lost Mark Twain novel. Or something you would tell around a campfire, very good.

Next up was The Lighthouse directed by Robert Eggers, this was one of my most anticipated films of the year and whooooo boy did it deliver! I get to the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square and everyone is whispering to one another about Joker (read my review of Joker here) which was a trip. The lights dimmed and the screen shrunk to a 16mm ratio and a fog descended into the crowd and we where totally transported to an alternative dimension. This film would be a good companion piece with Loving Vincent, although Vincent was animated with actual paint and this film is live action it feels like a dark pastoral landscape scraped in charcoal, it is shockingly bleak. This film feels like I’ve just been punched in the face, the room is spinning, my ears are ringing and I’m blacking out. It also kinda feels like when you take a nap a little bit too late in the day and you wake up at 3am, you’re alone, its dark, where is everyone? What year is it? Patterson and Defoe are forces of nature in this film, both are terrifying and dominate the screen, eventually duking it out in a showdown that will never leave you. This film totally obliterated me. I was left shattered, eyes wide and trembled my way home.

Still coming down from the trauma that was The Lighthouse I watched Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. I hate to admit it, but I really went into this film expecting it to be one thing and being so happy it was another. I was concerned that my reaction was going to be ‘Yeah we get it, you got a divorce, your ex-wife is a bitch, love isn’t real, you’re broke, boo-hoo’. I was wrong, I was totally wrong! This film gives both Nicole (Johansson) and Charlie (Driver) equal screen time to plead their case. They are both in the wrong, they have both made mistakes that have driven them down this path but they both want the best for their son. This film is so naturalistic it almost feels voyeuristic, like a car crash, its painful but I couldn’t look away. Adam Driver in particular gives a well-developed performance here, he is soft and bold, charismatic and cringy. His argument with his soon to be ex-wife brought the house down and then kicked us while we were down. It is going to be the clip they play when his name is read out on Oscar night, mark my words. Also, Laura Dern as the sassy, intelligent and glam LA lawyer?! *Oprah voice* She is the mother I never had. she is the sister everybody would want. she is the friend everybody deserves. I don't know a better person.

Finally, it was time to watch Jojo Rabbit baby! This has become high up on a lot of people’s top Oscar pics lists after winning Toronto but honestly why wasn’t it there before? Taika Waititi is a godsend for comedy, you fool! A piece about the last days of the third Reich told by a little boy whose imaginary friend is Hitler? Ingenious! Citizen Kane who? This is maybe one of the most important films I’ve seen in a hot minute. I want to play this film in schools across the globe, I want to write the script in the wind, I want to scream the final lines from every rooftop in this town. In short, Waititi did: That. Its funny moments had me doubled over with a case of the giggles so bad I could barely breathe, but in its serious moments you could here a pin drop in the audience. Stunning, stunning stunning. This is surely Waititi’s biggest hit yet and I hope will open so many doors for him because he honestly deserves the world. This has been your daily appreciate Taika post.

Moving on, I watched Fire will come (O que arde) directed by Oliver Laxe as part of my film class (shout out LSBU) and it was soooooooo calming. This film isn’t on YouTube but if it was it would be marked as ASMR. Put this film on on a rainy and foggy evening and you will fall asleep (and I mean that with the highest of compliments!) The remote location, small cast and Spanish language only added to its mystique, go into it blind. Watch it please.

Speaking of foreign films, I later watched Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu). Which is such a special film. It follows Marianne (Noémie Merlant) a painter who is employed in secrecy to paint a portrait of the mysterious lady Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) who never lets anyone see her face. This film feels like love blooming so naturally and obsessively, the camera lingers on details like the back of the head, the side of the face, arms and back. Cinema of the gaze and cinema for the gays am I right ladies? The love burns (da dum tiss) slowly between the women until it bubbles over and bursts with overflowing, sizzling sexuality. May this film give the period film loving queer folk everything they deserve. Also, more queer period romance please? K thnks.

Knives out! Knives out! Knives out! The next film I watched was the stupidly good Knives Out written and directed by Rian Johnson. Just when I thought this film couldn’t get any funnier, or smarter the next scene would happen, and it just kept getting better and better. It was exaaaaaaaaactly what the doctor ordered. Relevant and zeitgeist-y yet still a traditional devilishly camp whodunnit mystery. The cast? Yes ma’am. Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Micheal Shannon, Christopher Plumber and Daniel Craig (with a Texan accent, no less!). I mean, how could you go wrong. It’s seriously excellent and entertaining stuff.

Nearly there now! I then watched A Beautiful day in the Neighbourhood and oh man, oh man oh man, oh man did this make me cry. A lot. I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to connect with the story because I had never seen an episode of Mr. Rodgers Neighbourhood in my life, to my knowledge it was never broadcast here in the UK. But the love, kindness and compassion that Fred Rodgers taught has no time limit, nor is it culturally bound to America. No one could play this role other than Tom Hanks. I literally have tears in my eyes writing this. This film is a much-needed hot bath, cup of tea, or catch up with a dear friend that the world is in dire need of. Watch this film if you have a pulse. Bring tissues, get ready to call all your friends and tell them how much they mean to you afterwards.

And FINALLY, the very last film of the festival that I watched was The Irishman by the legendary Martin Scorsese. This film is nothing short of perfection. When I love a film, I want to be totally enveloped by a film, I climb into the screen and live in the world with all the characters and go on adventures. This film is that trip, the run time is justifiable if the story, characters and direction bang and The Irishman does, indeed, bang. I don’t care if you watch this film on Netflix or in a cinema, I just want you to watch it okay? Okay. Badabing, badaboom.