Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 101: December/January 2024 i Little White Lies

Directed by DAVID FINCHER Starring MICHAEL FASSBENDER, ARLISS HOWARD, CHARLES PARNELL Released OUT NOW ANTICIPATION. 5 New Fincher! New Fincher! ENJOYMENT. 4 A simple but effective thriller with a sense of humour. IN RETROSPECT. 4 A mid-tier Fincher film is still miles ahead of most thrillers. The Killer marks David Fincher’s reunion with Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, loosely adapted from Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacamon’s graphic novel of the same name. Michael Fassbender plays a nameless hitman who prides himself on his success rate and professionalism; when we meet him in Paris, he’s camped out in an unoccupied WeWork office on a stake-out. In a detached voice, he reflects on his occupation, reminiscent of Patrick Bateman’s opening monologue from American Psycho (or perhaps The Narrator from Fight Club). “Popeye the Sailor…

Directed by MICHAEL MANN Starring ADAM DRIVER, PENÉLOPE CRUZ, SHAILENE WOODLEY Released 26 DECEMBER This philosophically rich and splenetically violent passion project from Michael Mann was never going to cleave to the rules of conventional Hollywood filmmaking. And Ferrari, about rakish industrialist, engineer and one-time racing driver, Enzo Ferrari, artfully conceals its complex engineering – and a potential for danger – underneath a sleek chassis. Although it appears like something a little different from a filmmaker who’s known primarily for making operatic crime stories, this one places a number of his abiding obsessions in a new framework. It has a hero of questionable moral virtue, an interest in the societal application of machines and technology, and it explores the notion of human sacrifice in the name of an abstract macho ideal. Things open…

Directed by JEYMES SAMUEL Starring LAKEITH STANFIELD, RJ CYLER, TEYANA TAYLOR Released 19 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 4 The return of an exciting filmmaker with another bold idea and star-filled ensemble. ENJOYMENT. 3 Hilarious highs and jumbled lows make for a tonally chaotic experience. IN RETROSPECT. 3 LaKeith Stanfield shines in a fun biblical comedy that doesn’t always come together. When Jeymes Samuel exploded onto the scene with 2021’s bombastic all-Black western The Harder They Fall, it heralded the arrival of a fresh, intriguing perspective. Doubling down on his yen for reviving retro genres, Samuel’s subsequent proclamation takes the form of the offbeat biblical comedy, The Book of Clarence. The opening shot cuts straight to the point with its eponymous character nailed to a cross. Music booms dramatically and Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) stares sombrely into…

The mysteries of the afterlife come to the foreground in Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño’s latest feature Samsara, in which a soul leaves behind its dying body in Laos and settles within a new host in Zanzibar. LWLies: Death and the afterlife were subjects of your previous feature Red Moon Tide as well as Samsara now, too. Is this a creatively rich topic for you? I think most filmmakers and artists maintain some threads from our previous work that we want to continue and I’m very interested in death and how different cultures respond to death or the afterlife, but I am always thinking about the language of cinema and how I can do something original in terms of the experience of the viewer. So in Red Moon Tide, I was reflecting…

Directed by THOMAS VON STEINAECKER Starring ROBERT PATTINSON, CHRISTIAN BALE, CARL WEATHERS Released 19 JANUARY Filmmaker. Dream-weaver. Footwear-epicure. Whatever your impression of Werner Herzog is, this affectionate docuprofile is unlikely to drastically alter it. And that’s no bad thing. Within the opening minutes of Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, impassioned tributes from such luminaries as Patti Smith, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Wim Wenders and, yes, Carl Weathers, paint a picture of an almost mythological figure – a rare and enigmatic creative spirit without parallel. This doesn’t necessarily tally with the image Herzog presents of himself, which lands somewhere between kindly uncle and glint-eyed loon. That, of course, is the paradox of Werner Herzog: somehow, all these things can be true at once. Clips of his acting gigs in The Simpsons and The Mandalorian are…

Directed by ANDREW HAIGH Starring ADAM SCOTT, PAUL MESCAL, CLAIRE FOY Released 26 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 4 Can that much star power really pay off? ENJOYMENT. 5 Delicate and devastating and delicate in the same breath. IN RETROSPECT. 5 A supernova of a film; Haigh is a modern master. A sleek but cold skyscraper in Croydon is the primary setting for Andrew Haigh’s queer adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel ‘Strangers’. Screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) is working on a script about his parents, who died in 1983 when he was 12, but despite mining the physical mementoes he keeps, the words just won’t come. A chance encounter with his mysterious, charming neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal), seemingly the only other resident in the building, invites the possibility of romance into Adam’s life after years of…

Directed by HAYAO MIYAZAKI Starring SOMA SANTOKI, MASAKI SUDA, TAKUYA KIMURA Released 26 DECEMBER The Boy and the Heron may or may not be Hayao Miyazaki’s last film. The 82-year-old Studio Ghibli head previously announced his retirement after completing Princess Mononoke in 1997, Spirited Away in 2001, and The Wind Rises in 2013. But at the Toronto International Film Festival, a colleague of the great man announced that he is at work on new projects. Yet it sure feels like the end of something. The Boy and the Heron is richly self-synthesising and achingly sentimental, collating artistic motifs from across the Miyazaki filmography and nakedly articulating the hopes it places in the next generation. The story begins with a World War Two bombing raid over Tokyo, in which young Mahito witnesses the death…

Honor Among Lovers Directed by DOROTHY ARZNER Starring CLAUDETTE COLBERT, FREDRIC MARCH, MONROE OWSLEY Blu-ray/DVD Released 11 DECEMBER “With a girl like her by their side, no man would care what the market did,” says Jerry (Fredric March) of his secretary Julia (Claudette Colbert), introducing the two entangled forces – love and capitalism – that power Honor Among Lovers, a lightweight but enjoyable romantic drama about a love triangle unfolding against the backdrop of 1920s Wall Street. Jerry, charming and cocksure, has fallen for Julia, and makes no attempt to conceal his inappropriate workplace advances. Unconvinced, she dismisses him, marrying the somewhat weaselly Philip (Monroe Owsley) instead. Julia wants stability, but no man seems to be able to offer it to her, and while the plot advances over a series of mishaps and…

Directed by SOFIA COPPOLA Starring CAILEE SPAENY, JACOB ELORDI, DAGMARA DOMIŃCZYK Released 5 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 3 An uphill battle, coming so soon after Elvis, and following the lacklustre On the Rocks. ENJOYMENT. 4 Coppola, as always, goes her own way – subtle and sensational. IN RETROSPECT. 5 A lilting love story, dark and deep and clear-eyed. In a 2016 interview with Vanity Fair, Jennifer Garner was asked about her marriage to Ben Affleck, which ended the previous year. “He’s just a complicated guy,” Garner said. “I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it. But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold.’ He can cast quite a shadow.” This could be equally applied to the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley, as depicted in Sofia Coppola’s biographical drama. A…

Directed by AKI KAURISMÄKI Starring ALMA PÖYSTI, JUSSI VATANEN, JANNE HYYTIÄINEN Released 1 DECEMBER ANTICIPATION. 4 Aki’s back. And if it’s with more of the inimitable same, then we’ll be happy. ENJOYMENT. 5 Another small but perfectly-shaped jewel for the collection. IN RETROSPECT. 4 It’s like if Ken Loach had a really, really honed sense of irony. When you see guys with droopy jaws, immaculate greased side-partings, slightly ill-fitting leather jackets, and a flask of unidentified hooch in their breast pocket, there’s only one place you could be: the wonderful world of Aki Kaurismäki. The Finnish legend returns, his deadpan instincts enhanced more than undimmed, with a(nother) sweeping, Hollywood-inspired romance set among the disenchanted and the destitute, where the possibility of love becomes the only respite from an arduous day sweeping up metal…

Directed by ALEXANDER PAYNE Starring PAUL GIAMATTI, DOMINIC SESSA, DA’VINE JOY RANDOLPH Released 19 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 3 Downsizing was a rare misstep for Alexander Payne, hopefully he’s returned to full height. ENJOYMENT. 4 A wonderous Xmas lock-in with Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. IN RETROSPECT. 4 The most scintillating festive movie in years. For the last decade, it seemed that Alexander Payne had lost his touch. After the critical success of Nebraska in 2013, the American director fell short with 2017’s Downsizing, a messy film featuring a thumb-sized Matt Damon unrecognisable from Payne’s early comedic masterpieces. His highpoint came with the effervescent Sideways from 2004, a gentle and delicious comedy about a wine-soaked road trip. The essential ingredient for that film was Paul Giamatti, who takes on his first leading…

Directed by TAIKA WAITITI Starring MICHAEL FASSBENDER, OSCAR KIGHTLEY, KAIMANA Released 26 DECEMBER ANTICIPATION. 2 The MCU big dog and maker of anti-hate satires is back. Eep! ENJOYMENT. 2 The original doc is a delight, but Waititi makes a film that’s chillingly eager to please. IN RETROSPECT. 2 It’s not quite a 31-0 defeat, but it’s akin to a decent thumping. In Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi depicts Samoans the same way he depicted Hitler in Jojo Rabbit: as absolutely adorable. It’s based on Mike Brett and Steve Jamison’s 2014 documentary of the same name, about minnow football team American Samoa and their Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen’s quixotic quest to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup a decade after their infamous 31-0 defeat against Australia. The Samoans Rongen (Michael Fassbender) meets when…

Directed by PARIS ZARCILLA Starring MAX EIGENMANN, LEANNE BEST JAEDEN PAIGE BOADILLA Released 29 DECEMBER Joy (Max Eigenmann) is well aware of the fact that she has to suffer in order to keep her head above water as an undocumented migrant in the UK. Luckily for her, there are plenty of upper-middle class families happy to do some cash-in-hand deals for cleaning service in order to avoid taxes or supplemental agency fees. What appeals to the manipulative and domineering Katherine (Leanne Best) is the ability to make up the rules as she goes along. With a pay packet that’s a little higher than the norm, Joy gladly accepts Katherine’s sometimes-eccentric requests for tasks that are a little bit more involved than dusting, hoovering and cooking. There are plenty of films which adopt the…

Directed by ALI CATTERALL, JANE GILES Starring ADAM BUXTON, STEWART LEE, JAH WOBBLE Released 5 JANUARY Kings Cross’ long-defunct Scala has been etched into legend by a tattooed and body-pierced coterie of cinephiles of a certain age. This is due to its innovative grindhouse programming, the in-house cats who would wander the aisles during screenings and, err, its “colourful” locale. Co-directors Ali Catterall and Jane Giles have made a film packed with anecdotes by the people who were there on the filthy ground, and despite the fact that this is a celebratory, aggressively romantic document of a shit-flecked idyll, as an objective observer it’s not so easy to see the appeal. Screenings were often interrupted by the sound of passing Tube trains, and interviewees such as Adam Buxton attempt to reframe this irritant…

Directed by LAURA CITARELLA Starring LAURA PAREDES, EZEQUIEL PIERR I, RAFAEL SPREGELBURD Released 8 DECEMBER ANTICIPATION. 4 Plaudits a-plenty on the festival circuit, and great that it’s being released int he UK. ENJOYMENT. 5 An extraordinary achievement in both narrative storytelling and thematic originality. IN RETROSPECT. 5 In a year of VLF (very long films), Trenque Lauquen is quite possibly the finest of them all. Cinema, by its design, is obsessed with intimate, present tense emotion. What is happening to a person now, and how are they reacting to it? The cosseted, conventional shape of films doesn’t tend to allow the exploration of slow change over time, or grand arcs which have been catalysed by something unforeseen or unfathomable. Laura Citarella’s extraordinary, novelistic new feature, Trenque Lauquen, stretches its narrative luxuriantly, yet economically,…

In Agniia Galdanova’s new documentary Queendom (out in the UK in December) we’re introduced to an otherworldly entity whose handmade, sculptural, alien-like costumes demand our full attention. Galdanova adopts a candid, fly-on-the-wall approach that peeks through the seams and stitches of these elaborately costumed apparatuses to reveal the ethereal vessel within. Gena Marvin is a 22-year-old non-binary drag artist with a soft demeanour, whose pure existence acts as a shining beacon of non-conformity against the frigid backdrop of Magadan, a small fishing town in Northern Russia, where they live with their grandparents. Where drag performance meets political activism, Gena’s audacious work manifests as a radical call to arms, whether through “queering” national symbolism by attending protests against Putin with the colours of the Russian flag painted on tape across their…

Directed by WIM WENDERS Released 8 DECEMBER When it comes to profile documentaries, it’s always nice when a filmmaker opts to talk about their subject in terms that they would not only respect, but welcome. Wim Wenders dusts down his 3D cameras – the ones that served him so well for 2010’s Pina – and heads to Barjac in southern France to embed himself with German conceptual artist, Anselm Kiefer. With a bottom-spanking paddle caked with paint in one hand and a flame-thrower in the other (and a fat stogie between his teeth), Keifer is our unsmiling (albeit it playful) host on a a multi-dimensional behind-the-scenes tour of his own private Xanadu – the sprawling studio complex, storage facility and all-terrain gallery space, La Ribaute. The 3D aspect is often used to…

Directed by LOIS PATIÑO Starring AMID KEOMANY, TOUMOR XIONG, SIMONE MILAVANH Released 26 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 4 The director’s shorts bedazzle, but his two previous features didn’t quite reach such heights. ENJOYMENT. 5 It’s a knockout: transcendent and transformative. IN RETROSPECT. 5 A quiet, radical masterwork, surely destined for high rank in many year-end top tens. For years a fixture in the film-festival circuit’s more rarefied corners thanks to visually striking, entrancingly enigmatic shorts such as 2012’s Mountain in Shadow and 2022’s The Sower of Stars, 40-year-old Lois Patiño breaks out to significantly wider renown with his third feature-length picture Samsara – the first to obtain UK release. A tripartite docufictional reverie that begins in Laos and ends in Zanzibar, the film’s USP is a 15-minute bridging mid-section whose nature will not be divulged…

Directed by DANIEL KALUUYA, KIBWE TAVARES Starring KANE ROBINSON, JEDAIAH BANNERMAN, HOPE IKPOKU JR Released 12 JANUARY “They can only stop We, if We see We as I,” is the mantra that rings out over The Kitchen, the last standing social housing estate in a dystopian near-future London. The voice belongs to pirate radio host and beating heart of the block, Lord Kitchener, played with gravitas by football legend Ian Wright. In their feature directorial debut, Daniel Kaluuya and Tavares Kibwe deliver a parable on the strength of community and the violence of gentrification, thinly veiled in a father/son drama. Our anti-hero, Izi, is a cold character to get in bed with. Played by the always-understated Kane Robinson, he embodies an archetype of Black masculinity that has been sculpted into callous stoicism, catering…

Directed by LEO LEIGH Starring MAGGIE O’NEILL, TONY PITTS, HARRY TREVALDWYN Released 22 DECEMBER The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree in Leo – son of Mike – Leigh’s feature debut as director and writer, as the gently ambling, seriocomic Sweet Sue plays like one of his pop’s early, funny ones. Yet there’s something that doesn’t quite scan with this story of a thrill-seeking middle-aged woman who runs a dismal party goods store and her misadventures on the dating scene. Maggie O’Neill plays Sue as practically-minded and without any airs or graces. She is on the prowl for personal happiness, and if you’re not with her on this mission, you’re against her. Following a contextual prologue which captures her romantic and familial frustrations, she’s whisked away by surly, stacked biker Ron (Tony…

Directed by JAMES HAWES Starring ANTHONY HOPKINS, JOHNNY FLYNN, LINA OLIN Released 5 JANUARY ANTICIPATION. 3 The true story behind a feelgood viral clip. ENJOYMENT. 3 Genuinely uplifting Sunday teatime fare with some solid performances. IN RETROSPECT. 4 Protect Anthony Hopkins at all costs. British readers of a certain age will no doubt fondly recall the topical light entertainment programme That’s Life!, which was a permanent fixture of the BBC1 schedule from the early 1970s to the mid ’90s. If you’re not old enough to remember, you may yet be familiar with a clip from one of the show’s most famous episodes, which occasionally does the rounds on social media – in it, a smartly dressed elderly gentleman receives the shock of a lifetime courtesy of host Esther Rantzen and the live studio…

Directed by WILLIAM OLDROYD Starring THOMASIN MCKENZIE, SHEA WHIGHAM, ANNE HATHAWAY Released 1 DECEMBER ANTICIPATION. 4 Excited to see what Thomasin McKenzie will do with this weirdo character. ENJOYMENT. 4 The dark sense of humour from the novel is wonderfully translated. IN RETROSPECT. 4 An impressively crafted noir that skilfully captures isolation, dread and yearning. Christmastime is often filled with grand expectations and fraught with unrealised desires which makes it the perfect setting for a film about inescapable, twisted family relationships. Based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s first novel of the same name, which she adapts with husband and writer Luke Goebel, this is a sinister and darkly funny exploration of repression where every character is imprisoned by secrets and circumstance. Collaborating with director William Oldroyd, the pair have crafted a 1960s-set boozy psychological thriller…

The UK’s first taste of experimental Argentinean film collective, El Cine Pampero, came in 2018 with the 14-hour epic, La Flor. Now, one of its number, Laura Citarella, takes her turn behind the camera to make the extraordinary two-part feature, Trenque Lauquen, about a radio broadcaster who goes down the deepest research rabbit hole ever when finding a series of love letters tucked into the pages of books from the local library. LWLies: Does El Cine Pampero have any link to corporate money? Or any companies that might exert influences on the creative choices that you make? Not really. When we get money we try to get… in Spanish you call it “dinero libre”, which is like free money. You just get support because you have a script or a…

Considering its important role in the magic of cinema, it’s surprising to learn that film music and the composers who create it are only honoured in a major way at three festivals in Europe: the Tenerife International Film Music Festival, the Krakow Film Music Festival in Poland, and the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium. Perhaps this explains why, when I attended the latter event in October of this year, the people I meet there are so enthusiastic and open to discussing their work. But beyond the usual excitement of the event, the composers have good reason to feel extra special. The World Soundtrack Awards are organised each year in partnership with Film Fest Gent, the largest film festival in Belgium, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year by commissioning…