What to Watch From the I just got back from an excellent run of films at the London Film Festival. Festivals are great in that you can see many films that you wouldn’t have the chance to see, or wouldn’t have heard about otherwise. They’re one of the few cinematic venues where you are still able to see short films on the big screen. Here are my recommendations, along with their current Irish release dates: Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Céline Sciamma): won big with the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay awards at Cannes, and deservedly so. Exquisitely shot, this lesbian love story is tender, sexy, sensitive, and devastatingly human. Wednesday 13 November at the IFI for the IFI French Film Festival. Knives Out (Rian Johnson): an utter delight to watch the excellent performances of this all-star cast. Johnson’s follow-up to The Last Jedi (2018) does not disappoint. 27 November. I Lost My Body/J’ai perdu mon corps (Jérémy Clapin): utterly bizarre, but brilliant animation (looks like anime, but it’s French) about a severed hand trying to return to its body. As with another film at LFF, Relativity, it plays with non-linear narrative in a very engaging way. 29 November on Netflix. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach): Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson star in this funny and heart-breaking film that premiered at Venice. Very likely it’ll receive a Best Picture nomination. 6 December on Netflix. Calm with Horses (Nick Rowland): gangsters rule the West Cork setting of this thriller, capturing the cruel beauty of the rugged landscape and the intense isolation of its community. 6 March, 2020. Vivarium (Lorcan Finnegan): this bizarre Irish co-production is a real treat, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots as a young couple stuck in the suburbs. Unannounced. The Painted Bird (Václav Marhoul): a young boy roams the cruel landscape of eastern Europe during Nazi occupation and the Holocaust. A completely unforgiving, unrelenting watch that led to mass walkouts from critics at its premiere in Venice. However, its portrayal of the wider trauma of the Holocaust beyond the barbed boundaries of the concentration camp is something I’ve never seen onscreen before, and never want to again. Unannounced. Adoration (Fabrice du Welz): a twist on the teen-romance-on-the-run narrative. A very disturbing portrayal of the dangers of teenage infatuation that often comes with first love. One of my favourites from the festival. Unannounced. Relativity/Mein Ende. Dein Anfang (Mariko Minoguchi): ugh, Saskia Rosendahl is a dream. A very captivating look at grief, but also features a very moving portrait of falling in love. Unannounced.
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Films I didn’t get to see, but generated a lot of buzz in the press and industry queues Official Secrets (Gavin Hood): Out Now Peanut Butter Falcon (Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson): Out Now The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot): Out Now JoJo Rabbit (Taika Waititi): 1 January, 2020. The Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci): 24 January, 2020. The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers): 31 January, 2020. Rocks (Sarah Gavron): 24 April, 2020. Colour Out of Space (Richard Stanley): unannounced. Synchronic (Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson): unannounced. And one to miss: Earthquake Bird (Wash Westmoreland): Alicia Vikander speaks Japanese for half the movie, which is very impressive. That’s the only reason you’d watch this tedious, predictable thriller. Ignore it from 15 November on Netflix.
Words By Connor Howlett
