London Film Festival Roundup
I managed to catch 10 movies at the London Film Festival. That’s a grand total of 5% of the films on offer. So don’t take this as the most comprehensive coverage of the festival.
The highlights were Micmacs, which needs at least one more viewing to really let it sink in, and Ajami, a powerful, wonderfully structured film about hardship and small-time crime in an Israeli neighbourhood. The lows, both awkwardly slotted in to the “Experimenta” category, were Castro, an unfortunately (given the premise) dull Argentinian indie, and The Portuguese Nun.
The rest range from the very good (The Last Days of Emma Blank) to the good (Gigante, The Informant and Up In The Air) to the decent (Metropia and Don’t Worry About Me). I only wish there was more time to see more films from the tantalising line-up.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s festival but, for now, it will be interesting to see how the higher profile, usually American, films, fare when they go on general release and even more intriguing to find out which of the more independent, foreign language, films make an impression.
2nd Nov 2009
