Yep, that was a hoot. I'll just summarise the ten films I saw, but unlike last year, I thought I'd list them in order of least to most liked. So here we go:
The Killing of Two Lovers ★★
Nimby ★★½
This is a Finnish comedy/drama about couple who don't really fancy telling their respective parents that they're lesbians. Neo-Nazis and refugees are seamlessly (!) stitched into the plot and all manner of shenanigans occur. The biggest issue with Nimby is that it can't seem to settle on a tone. It wants to be a farce about political equanimity - a contrived speech given by one of the protags near the end underlines this - but it loses it's way quite early on. Is it a free speech romp? Is it a statement about intolerance? Is it a Finnish Carry On movie? It might be all of the above.
I couldn't really split the last three in this list - they're all fine films but it felt right to give The Last Horns the headline spot. It's a great doco about the fight against the rhino horn poaching 'industry' in South Africa. Broadly, it's set out in two parts - the practical and the emotional. One section follows the police and Kruger Park rangers in their attempts to halt the killings, and the other looks at the work being done at Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, which rehabilitates orphan rhinos. There are moments of tension - the crew get some amazing access to a police operation against some of the poaching kingpins - and, of course, there are moments that provoke anger and sadness. A crucial, immensely watchable film.
Oh It Hertz! ★★½
A documentary about sound and how it affects people. People like Stig, who collects sound systems; Yoko, who works on cleaning up hospital noise; and Professor Toby Heys, who talks about the weaponisation of sound. It's a bit up and down this, it tries to spread itself a bit thin and follows a Nazi conspiracy thread a little too far but I enjoyed parts of it. An admirable effort. See my extended Film Ink review for more...
Here we have a doco about Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino, a partnership that created seminal designs of furniture and buildings in the first half of the last century. The film uses Aalto's most famous works as stepping stones through his career while documenting the love story that ran alongside. Some of his (their) creations are pretty amazing, from the Paimio Sanatorium, to the Viipuri Library, to Finlandia Hall, and the visuals are spectacular. My main issue with the film is that, sadly, I almost drifted off to the land of nod on occasions. Maybe it was too long, maybe I was just sleepy. Or maybe I would have preferred to be walking around one of his actual buildings.
Well, this was the film I highlighted when I first got the Rev schedule and it very nearly fulfilled my expectations. In saying that, it's a fine film about outsiders and how other people deal with them. The wrinkle is that all this is couched in a love story between a young woman, Noémie Merlant, and a....ummm....a fairground ride she calls Jumbo. Apparently, this is an actual phenomenon - Objectum Sexuality - and the film takes its idea from a documentary called Married to the Eiffel Tower, about, well, the clue's in the title. Anyway, I quite enjoyed Jumbo, not least for Merlant's performance and the sheer noodle-ness of the conceit. You don't see films like this every day.
Here's a very French examination on the use of violence by the state to put down the Gilets Jaunes protests in France from late 2018 to early 2021. It rolls out various individuals to comment, sometimes watching themselves on the smart phone or police footage of the melees. A neat angle is that the participants aren't named or given titles, so the viewer isn't sure which side they represent (though some are perfectly clear). Another successful method of illustrating the action is the matching shots of streets - first calm and clean, with folk going about their shopping or work, then cut to the same street but with all manner of mayhem occurring. It's like a dirty negative has been plopped onto the screen. Some of the conversations get a bit ponderous but this film is top documentation.
Music docos have always been festival faves and here's another. This is in a similar vein to the recent Edgar Wright film, The Sparks Brothers, in that it zeroes in on a relatively unknown muso (Robert Lloyd of The Prefects and The Nightingales) and documents his career, and lack of success. The framing device here is the long-bow comparison between Lloyd and a statue of King Kong that the people of Birmingham didn't want. Quality comedy bastard, Stewart Lee fronts this doco and his moody, disdainful style works wonders for this format. There are some fun interviews with famous and not-so famous folk, who line up to contradict most of what Lloyd remembers. And it's directed by Michael Cumming, who did Brass Eye, Snuff Box and Toast of London. Superb pedigree, that.
Now this could have gone either way, but fortunately, it mostly hit its marks. It's the story of an awkward, near middle-aged fella who lives with his old mum and really wants to make it big on an internet talent show. When he's prevented from getting to the audition by a number of feckless twats, he sets out to wreak his revenge. Tom Meeten as Paul is exceptional but the rest of the cast - including Katherine Parkinson, Steve Oram, Alice Lowe, Pippa Haywood and June Watson - hold their own too. Top drawer 80s tunes (Together in Electric Dreams feels bang on for this film), some comic gore and a fair chunk of heart, make Paul Dood a satisfying serve of silly. There's a bit more on this over on Film Ink.
Aalto ★★½
Here we have a doco about Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino, a partnership that created seminal designs of furniture and buildings in the first half of the last century. The film uses Aalto's most famous works as stepping stones through his career while documenting the love story that ran alongside. Some of his (their) creations are pretty amazing, from the Paimio Sanatorium, to the Viipuri Library, to Finlandia Hall, and the visuals are spectacular. My main issue with the film is that, sadly, I almost drifted off to the land of nod on occasions. Maybe it was too long, maybe I was just sleepy. Or maybe I would have preferred to be walking around one of his actual buildings.
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World ★★★
This is a doco about Björn Andrésen, the Swedish lad who was 'discovered' by Luchino Visconti for his film Death in Venice in 1971. It's a fascinating peek at how this 15 year old boy became a commodity (see every pretty young girl in the industry before and since) for the adulation, and possibly worse, of too many adults. The footage of Andrésen's screen test for Visconti is gob-smacking and the juxtaposition of the boy to the man he became is equally hard to square. The guy's been through some heinous shit and it's a fairly hard watch at times, but it's a compelling film about a stoic, yet clearly troubled character.
Jumbo ★★★½
Well, this was the film I highlighted when I first got the Rev schedule and it very nearly fulfilled my expectations. In saying that, it's a fine film about outsiders and how other people deal with them. The wrinkle is that all this is couched in a love story between a young woman, Noémie Merlant, and a....ummm....a fairground ride she calls Jumbo. Apparently, this is an actual phenomenon - Objectum Sexuality - and the film takes its idea from a documentary called Married to the Eiffel Tower, about, well, the clue's in the title. Anyway, I quite enjoyed Jumbo, not least for Merlant's performance and the sheer noodle-ness of the conceit. You don't see films like this every day.
The Monopoly of Violence ★★★½
King Rocker ★★★½
Music docos have always been festival faves and here's another. This is in a similar vein to the recent Edgar Wright film, The Sparks Brothers, in that it zeroes in on a relatively unknown muso (Robert Lloyd of The Prefects and The Nightingales) and documents his career, and lack of success. The framing device here is the long-bow comparison between Lloyd and a statue of King Kong that the people of Birmingham didn't want. Quality comedy bastard, Stewart Lee fronts this doco and his moody, disdainful style works wonders for this format. There are some fun interviews with famous and not-so famous folk, who line up to contradict most of what Lloyd remembers. And it's directed by Michael Cumming, who did Brass Eye, Snuff Box and Toast of London. Superb pedigree, that.
Paul Dood's Deadly Lunch Break ★★★½
Now this could have gone either way, but fortunately, it mostly hit its marks. It's the story of an awkward, near middle-aged fella who lives with his old mum and really wants to make it big on an internet talent show. When he's prevented from getting to the audition by a number of feckless twats, he sets out to wreak his revenge. Tom Meeten as Paul is exceptional but the rest of the cast - including Katherine Parkinson, Steve Oram, Alice Lowe, Pippa Haywood and June Watson - hold their own too. Top drawer 80s tunes (Together in Electric Dreams feels bang on for this film), some comic gore and a fair chunk of heart, make Paul Dood a satisfying serve of silly. There's a bit more on this over on Film Ink.
The Last Horns of Africa ★★★½
I couldn't really split the last three in this list - they're all fine films but it felt right to give The Last Horns the headline spot. It's a great doco about the fight against the rhino horn poaching 'industry' in South Africa. Broadly, it's set out in two parts - the practical and the emotional. One section follows the police and Kruger Park rangers in their attempts to halt the killings, and the other looks at the work being done at Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, which rehabilitates orphan rhinos. There are moments of tension - the crew get some amazing access to a police operation against some of the poaching kingpins - and, of course, there are moments that provoke anger and sadness. A crucial, immensely watchable film.
SPOILERS IN POD!!
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