With the third and final week of this year’s LFF underway, it’s time to recap our favourite flicks from the second half of week two.
Dragonslayer
Having received several plaudits at SXSW earlier this year, including Best Documentary, Tristan Patterson’s meandering film follows Josh ‘Skreech’ Sandoval, a jaded skating veteran fast approaching his thirties whose life appears to have little fruitful purpose. Skreech spends much of his time entering local skate competitions, the days of sponsorship deals long behind him due to a life blighted by casual drug use and a lack of focus.
Its simplicity is perhaps its biggest selling point, with ineffably cool punk aesthetics and plenty of great footage that skateboard aficionados are sure to lap up. But while Patterson’s vérité doc shares its DNA with the likes of Stacy Peralta’s Dogtown and the Z-Boys, Dragonslayer’s sole focus – two affable no-hopers – starts to lose its spark after the hour mark.
The Ides of March
George Clooney tackles the seedy world of American politics in this gripping drama based on Beau Willimon’s award-winning play ‘Farragut North’. Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) is a highly respected press spokesman working for Democratic hopeful Governor Morris (Clooney). Enviably successful in his work, it isn’t long before the opposition come calling, but when a meeting with his opposite number (Paul Giamatti) results in his loyalty being questioned, Myers is spun in to a dangerous game of deceit and betrayal that threatens to destroy his career.
Powered by outstanding performances, Clooney’s fourth outing as director is a hugely accomplished work that seamlessly blends biting wit with edge-of-your-seat thrills. The Ides of March is also a timely tale of dangerous ambition that comes as a welcome reminder of Clooney’s directorial flair and serves as a fitting recompense for the disappointment of Leatherheads. Welcome back, George. All is forgiven.
Wild Bill
Characterised by its looming council estate towerblocks and low-level drug dealers running amok, Dexter Fletcher’s directorial debut is a typically British affair. At first glance you could be forgiven for jumping to negative conclusions based on the content alone but Wild Bill shirks any notions of familiarity in its decision to challenge our expectations of the gritty urban thriller.
Admirably refraining from the usual temptations of genre typecasting, Charlie Creed-Miles plays Bill, a volatile man recently released after and eight-year jail term who seeks reconciliation with his young boys who have been abandoned by their mother. What unfolds is an unexpectedly poignant and often subtly amusing tale of redemption, set to a familiar backdrop often exposed to a less than favourable depiction by a tired British subgenre.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
One of the breakout successes at Sundance this year, Sean Durkin’s unsettling tale of mental instability, sees Elizabeth Olsen give a phenomenal performance as Martha, a young woman who rejects society to live among an isolated commune in the Catskill Mountains. What at first seems like an idyllic retreat gradually reveals itself as an abusive cult and she eventually wants out. going on to take refuge with her older sister (Sarah Paulson) where Martha is plagued by paranoia, convinced that the group are coming for her.
What follows is a gripping and utterly unexpected thriller, told through a fractured timeline that continually leaves the audience questioning its reality. Durkin continually blurs memories and reality to great effect, creating a convincing portrait of a helpless young woman pushed to the very brink of sanity.
The 55th BFI London Film Festival runs until October 27. For more details head over to bfi.org.uk/lff
BFI London Film Festival 2011 – Diary: Part III (text) by Paul Weedon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
